Top Fuel racing at San Antonio marks the first event for IHRA since their semi controversial decision to allow injected-nitro cars in the class. In total the event draws 20 Top Fuel teams -- four of which were of the injected nitro variety. None of the injected cars make much of an impact this time with the best run recorded being a 5.425 secs by Mike Bowers, which is well off the 5.027 secs bump. In fairness none of the injected machines had combinations yet which conformed to the IHRA’s new more liberal standards.

Clay Millican wins in Top Fuel for the 31st time in his career. Millican’s event title is however an odd one because it comes on a single at 4.596 secs 311.49 mph. Clay’s scheduled opponent Bruce Litton could not compete after a major crash in his car during the semi final round. Litton’s Lucas Oil dragster appears to have blown a tire, which cut down the rear wing and sent him hard into both guardwalls. Litton was flown by air ambulance to a nearby hospital but was thankfully soon there after released.

Millican, who qualified on the pole, reset both ends of the track record driving the Werner Enterprises car at 4.583 secs and 320.35 mph in round one.

Pro Mod features an upset winner with Canada’s Glen Kerunsky coming away victorious for the first time in his career. Kerunsky, the 2003 WCPMA series champion, mows down the field after qualifying his supercharged ’57 Chevy on the bump. Kerunsky beats Zack Barklage, defending IHRA World Champion Mitch Stott, Steve Vick and ultimately Harold Martin to take the title.

19-year old Zack Barklage earns his first career pole position in Pro Mod running his supercharged ‘04 Pontiac to a 6.208 secs (low ET). Barklage also sets top speed of the meet for Pro Mod at 229.16 mph.

Harold Martin’s runner-up effort in Pro Mod is also a gutsy performance. His Detroit-based team is forced to work hard to rebuilt the front end of his ACDelco Pontiac Grand-Am after the car slams the guardwall during qualifying a result of a fluke driveline failure.

5X IHRA World Champion Mark Thomas turns back defending IHRA World Champion Robbie Atchison (from London, ON) in an exciting Alcohol Funny Car final round. Thomas wins on a holeshot taking a narrow 5.897 secs to 5.870 secs decision.

Alcohol Funny Car racing was paced by Robbie Atchison who runs a quick 5.814 secs to set the field driving his Erickson Manufacturing Firebird.

Alcohol Funny Car racing at San Antonio is surprisingly a very weak affair with only 7 cars entered for competition.

The Pro Stock final features arguably a head-to-head match up between the two strongest cars of the weekend. New York’s John Montecalvo, who qualified on the pole at 6.533 secs, driving his Citgo Chevy, uses a quicker RT to hold back #3 qualifier John Nobile behind the wheel of his all new Nobile Trucking Ford Escort. Montecalvo runs 6.566 secs at 213.40 mph to win over Nobile’s 6.542 secs at 213.13 mph. Both Montecalvo and Nobile are truly impressive throughout eliminations. Each driver runs nothing but 6.5 secs 213+-mph runs during every round on Sunday. Montecalvo sets both low ET and top speed of the event at 6.533 secs and 213.57 mph during qualifying.

Virginia’s Robert Patrick who has been active mostly on the 500 CID NHRA Pro Stock trail in recent seasons returns to his IHRA roots at the event. Driving the Purvis-sponsored Ford Escort Patrick runs a best of 6.605 secs to qualify 13th but loses out to Rick Jones’s new Quarter-Max Dodge Stratus in round one.

Canada’s Todd Paton comes very close to his first ever IHRA Top Fuel final round. After qualifying 5th with a 4.88 secs, Paton loses out to eventual winner Clay Millican in a strange semi-final round which saw both drivers have trouble. Clay is very vulnerable running a tire spinning 5.799 secs at 247.93 mph compared to Paton’s 5.977 at 205.51 mph. Technically the winner of the match was the event champion because Bruce Litton had crashed only minutes before.

Scotty Cannon attends his first IHRA national event since 1998 returning to the Pro Mod class he previously dominated. Scotty wheels his Oakley-sponsored ’53 Studebaker to the number five qualifying position at 6.224 secs at 228.15 mph and then beats Dennis Radford in round one. Cannon’s car then falls off in round two however and Steve Vick sends him packing.

IHRA’s Top Stock class racing is included at the San Antonio event. 10 cars run the Saturday night feature which ultimately won by Vance Cummins and his Rod Shop ‘68. Vance gets an easy final round win when Danny Byrd red lights in his ’67 Nova. Cummins qualified on the pole at 9.876 secs and beat Kevin Helms and William Paris in earlier action.