NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

In addition to the thunderous Camping World Drag Racing Series action taking place at Summit Motorsports Parks, nine champions were also crowned in Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competition at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

Matt Cummings, who scored his breakthrough win at this event last year, successfully defended his Top Alcohol Dragster title with another strong raceday performance in the McPhillips Racing A/Fuel Dragster, rebounding from a trouble-plagued qualifying effort to collect career win No. 4 by defeating 2003 world champ Alan Bradshaw, 5.31 to 5.38. [video]

2020 Top Alcohol Funny Car world champ Doug Gordon scored his third national event win of the season and his fifth overall victory this year when he drove his Beta Motorcycles Camaro to a final-round victory over defending event champ D.J. Cox Jr. Cox jumped out to a slight holeshot lead but Gordon’s red rocket raced past for the victory, the 19th of his career, 10 of which have come over the last three seasons. [video]

Scott Chamness remained untouchable at Summit Motorsports Park in his B/Dragster. Three weeks after winning the Comp title at the track’s Division 3 Lucas Oil Series event, he struck again, collecting his first national event win in his first big show final-round appearance, soling to victory after Frank Aragona Jr. was unable to make the run. [video]

In his third national event final, Tyler Bohannon claimed his second win and, in the process, denied Joe Santangelo his shot at a double. Bohannon, a successful racing promoter, was nearly flawless in the Super Stock final with a .013 light and a 9.619 on his 9.61 prediction. [video]

Although he lost the Super Stock final, Joe Santangelo enjoyed a great weekend in Norwalk when he drove Anthony Bertozzi’s Camaro to the Stock title over Brett McFarland in a double-breakout final. Santangelo has now won four Norwalk titles including back-to-back wins in Stock. [video]

Patrick Debottis made good in his first career national event final-round appearance, winning an epic Super Comp final-round battle with Bob Prose. Debottis drilled the Christmas Tree with a near-perfect .001 reaction time only to be outdone by Prose’s perfect .000 reaction, but Debottis was better the remaining 1,319 feet to turn on the win light, 8.933 to 8.927. [video]

A mere three-thousandths of a second separated the Super Gas finalists at the finish line where Duane LaFleur turned on his first career final-round win light in his Lucas Oil Camaro just ahead of Dave Coapstick’s River Pools Cutlass. LaFleur had a marginally better reaction time, but Coapstick fought back with a better e.t., yet fell just short of what would have been his third career victory. [video]

Former world champ Al Kenny is still going strong a half century into his career. The Canadian native scored his tenth national event title on a single run in the Top Dragster presented by Vortech Superchargers final after Karma Hopper wounded an engine and was not able to return for the final of Top Dragster presented by Vortech Superchargers. [video]

Less than a year after racing in his first final round in Brainerd, Steve Jaeger claimed his first national event title following a final round win over Glenn Butcher in Top Sportsman presented by Vortech Superchargers. Jaeger finished the job with a 6.74 on his 6.73 dial after Butcher’s quick 6.1-second Camaro slowed. [video]