Sunday's Scenes From Seattle
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Washington race fans were greeted with a warm, exciting day of racing to conclude the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Northwest Nationals presented by Super Start Batteries. |
The Matco Tools Top Fuel crew, from left, Brad Mason, Tony Derhammer, Wayne Waite, John Benshoof, Mike O’Guin, Jason Thomas, and Cameron Moore are aiming for a sweep and a shave of their beards that they began growing before the start of the Western Swing. |
Top Alcohol Funny Car young guns Shane Westerfield, near, and Sean Bellemeur joked around as they packed their respective parachutes before the second round of eliminations.
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Khalid alBalooshi scored his second of two round-wins on the Western Swing when the Top Fuel rookie ran 3.88 against Bob Vandergriff Jr. in the first round. |
After being forced to adapt to a new pressure plate at this event due to a broken input shaft in the first round in Sonoma, Bob Tasca III struggled during qualifying but managed to defeat Mike Neff in the first round of Funny Car. |
Warren Johnson produced his first round-win in national event eliminations since the 2010 Reading event by overcoming Shane Gray’s .024 to .063 holeshot for a 6.65 to 6.88 victory in round one of Pro Stock. |
| Tony Schumacher red-lighted for just the fourth time in his Pro career and this first time since this event 12 years ago when he left too soon against Doug Kalitta in Top Fuel's round two. |
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Ron Capps went low for the round for the second straight round when his 4.16 was good enough to defeat Tim Wilkerson in round two of Funny Car. |
Matt Hagan advanced to his second consecutive Funny Car final round in the Tommy DeLago-tuned Aaron’s Dodge Charger when he defeated teammate Ron Capps in a semifinal pedalfest. |
Allen Johnson’s incredible string of 10 consecutive round-wins in Pro Stock during the Western Swing came to an end in the semi’s when he was defeated by Erica Enders, 6.62 to a 6.74. A.J. had lane choice for the contest, but untimely tire shake cost the Denver and Sonoma winner his chance of sweeping the Western Swing. |
Vincent Nobile overcame the challenge of having to make two engine changes after the first two rounds of Pro Stock to reach the semi’s, but tire shake cost him; Jason Line’s Summit Racing Camaro, 6.65 to 6.70, beat him. |
A special cacklefest took place prior to the final round of eliminations. |
Brad Plourd became the 12th driver in NHRA history to double-up at an NHRA national event, an occurrence that took place for the 22nd time. The Washington state native won in Stock and Super Comp. |
After scoring her historic first Pro Stock victory in Chicago in early July, Erica Enders wasted no time in reaching the winner’s circle again; she drove the GK Motorsports Chevy Cobalt, near lane, to a 6.61 to 6.63 final-round win over Jason Line and his Summit Racing Camaro. |
Courtney Force, near lane, scored the first win of her career in her third Funny Car final by defeating Matt Hagan in a 4.23 to 4.32 contest. |
Force, right, and Enders were part of a historic day in which there were two female Pro winners for the first time in NHRA history. On top of that, Super Street winner Megan Ellingson made it the first time that three women have won a national event on the same day. |
Steve Torrence, far lane, won a pedaling contest to close the day when he scored his third win of the season in Top Fuel, 4.16 to 4.32, over Shawn Langdon. (Below) Torrence celebrated the third win of his career and gave the silver anniversary Wally to crew chief Richard Hogan, who celebrated his 53rd birthday today. |
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