NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Coming off a typically unpredictable four-wide event in Charlotte, it might have been tempting to expect a bit of a letdown when teams headed west to the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway, but that was hardly the case. Track records in the nitro classes were crushed by the end of Friday’s nighttime qualifying runs, and Sunday’s final rounds provided even more unexpected results.

Doug Kalitta and Courtney Force picked up their first victories of the season in Top Fuel and Funny Car, respectively, and Greg Anderson continued the KB team’s domination of the Pro Stock class when he defeated Jason Line in another all-Summit final. And then there was the Pro Mod class. From Sidnei Frigo’s frightening accident in qualifying to the crazy final round between Jim Whiteley and two-time series champ Rickie Smith, there was nothing boring about the 250-mph doorslammer class.

As the qualifying leader, Steve Torrence emerged as the pre-race favorite in Top Fuel, and the popular Texan made his way through eliminations with relative ease. Just when it appeared that Torrence might get a long-awaited nitro win in his home state, Kalitta intervened and won the final on a holeshot. It was Kalitta’s second straight win in Houston and a rematch of the 2016 season opener, which went to Torrence. Terry McMillen, the runner-up in Gainesville, got a lot of unwanted attention in round one when he exploded an engine in his loss to Tony Schumacher and hit the guardwall. McMillen was not injured, but his car was severely damaged.

Much like Torrence, Tim Wilkerson was the class of his field early in the event. Coming off a Funny Car win at last weekend’s four-wide race, Wilkerson lowered the boom in qualifying with a 3.899, the only 3.8-second Funny Car run of the event. Wilkerson appeared to be a shoo-in for his third win of the season after race-day wins against Jim Campbell, Matt Hagan, and Jack Beckman, but he was caught off-guard in the final by Force, who made her best run of the weekend with a 3.913 to top Wilkerson’s 3.943. Though Force and Wilkerson made up the final, the Houston race was good medicine for the DSR team, which had all four of its Funny Cars win the first round for the first time this season.

Six events into the 2016 season and the new fuel-injected Pro Stock era, KB drivers Anderson and Line and teammate Bo Butner are a combined 49-12 in eliminations rounds, and they have won all six events. Line has raced in every eliminations round this season, but he’ll probably want to forget the Houston final, where he fell to Anderson for the third time this season. All three losses have come via a holeshot, with Anderson taking the latest title on a 6.630 to 6.597 count. The KB drivers dominated, but there were bright spots for others, including Allen Johnson, who went to the semifinals, and Chris McGaha, who came from the bottom side of the ladder to defeat reigning champ Erica Enders.

Sportsman champions included David Rampy, who backed up his Charlotte win with victory No. 91 in Comp. Sportsman veterans Tommy Phillips (Super Stock) and Kevin Helms (Stock) also scored victories. In the alcohol classes, Lee Callaway claimed his first Top Alcohol Dragster title with a pair of 5.28-second runs, and Californian Steve Gasparrelli won the Top Alcohol Funny Car title in the most bizarre way possible after scheduled final-round opponent Brian Hough was unable to stage for his semifinal bye run.