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Lucas Oil Nationals Friday photo gallery

Friday, August 17, 2012

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Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals

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Minnesota race fans returned to Brainerd Int’l Raceway for the 31st annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, the 16th stop on the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Series and the penultimate race of the regular season before the playoffs.

From left, Top Fuel drivers Morgan Lucas and Brandon Bernstein worked out before the event at Minnesota Hockey Camps with Philadelphia Flyers left winger Scott Hartnell, second from right, and St. Louis Blues center T. J. Oshie. (Gary Nastase photo)

Fans were treated to a showcase of vintage race cars located along Nitro Alley.

Mark Martino, who has the support of many Canadian fans at BIR, put himself solidly in the Pro Stock field with an opening run of 6.60 in his Charter Pontiac, which is now using engines from Victor Cagnazzi.

After sitting out the Western Swing, Bob Bode returned to the series at the venue where he earned a surprise Funny Car victory in 2010.

Alexis DeJoria opened qualifying with a 4.12 in her Tequila Patron Toyota Camry Funny Car that held as the top time of the session and earned her three bonus points.

The recently approved enclosed canopy on the U.S. Army dragster made its competition debut during the first Top Fuel qualifying session. Tony Schumacher steered it down track at 3.84 seconds, which was the quickest run at the time and the third quickest at the end of the session.

(Above) Making his first appearance at Brainerd Int’l Raceway, Scotty Pollacheck in currently seeded seventh in the Pro Stock Motorcycle field with a 6.952 best in the Sovereign/Star Buell. A total of 13 bikes ran in the sixes on a cool and clear Friday.

(Right) Andrew Hines, a finalist in six of the first eight events of 2012, posted a 6.887 best on Friday to take the second spot, just three-thousandths behind Hector Arana Sr. Hines won the Brainerd event in 2007 and 2010.

(Below) Hector Arana Sr. is on pace for his 21st career Pro Stock Motorcycle pole after riding his Lucas Oil Buell to a 6.884 in the second session.

After two sessions, Mike Edwards is currently the No. 3 seed in Pro Stock with a 6.573 best. Edwards has 34 wins and 23-runner-up finishes in Pro Stock but has never been to the final in Brainerd.

Fresh off her win at the most recent NHRA Full Throttle series event in Seattle, Erica Enders is the provisional low qualifier in Brainerd with a 6.550 best in Pro Stock. Enders snapped Allen Johnson’s streak of setting low e.t. of consecutive qualifying sessions at 13.

In the opening pair of the second Funny Car session, Tim Wilkerson laid down a thundering 4.04 at 307 mph that held on to the provisional top spot. Wilkerson described his newfound aggressive mentality with the analogy, “Mark McGwire doesn’t go up there and say, ‘I’m going to hit a single today.’ ”

Morgan Lucas is poised to break a six-race slump after the GEICO team recently resolved clutch and fuel system issues and blasted down the track at 3.80 seconds to grab the No. 3 spot in Top Fuel heading into Saturday qualifying.

After leading Top Fuel's first qualifying session with a 3.82, Antron Brown’s second attempt of 3.79 at 323 mph kept the Matco driver out of the No. 1 position occupied by teammate Tony Schumacher by just more than two-tenths of a mile-per-hour after equaling his elapsed time.

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