The highly formidable new Pro Mod team combination of Canadian Al Billes and New York racing legend Jim Oddy made a big statement at Rockingham as they won the eliminator – their first title racing together. Billes got into the Pro Mod show on a single qualifier during Saturday’s final session but then ran strong on Sunday driving the Summit Racing equipment ‘53 Corvette. The team turns up with wick for the final round and their 6.162 secs overcomes both a lane choice disadvantage and also opponent, pole qualifier Quain Stott. The win is the 11th career IHRA title for Billes and his second straight win at Rockingham -- he had also won here as last year’s season finale. Billes’s event win included a rather crucial round one win over Ed Hoover who had won the IHRA’s season-opening event at San Antonio.

Pro Mod racing included an inspiring effort from Oregon’s Dennis Radford who made his debut driving the awesome new nitrous-injected Corvette owned by Ohio’s Ed Steffey. Radford qualified #7 with a 6.245 secs effort and went to the “final four” before losing out to eventual winner Al Billes.

A true Pro Mod class oddity was a second consecutive DNQ effort from defending 2004 IHRA World Champion Mike Janis. Mike’s problems continued driving the supercharged Eaton-sponsored Dodge Stratus as his best effort of 6.675 secs fell well short of the 6.336 secs bump spot.

PM class racing at the IHRA’s second event of 2005 attracted a total of 30 entries. Of the 16 qualifiers, 11 were nitrous-injected and 5 supercharged on alcohol.

Drag racing at Rockingham is run off under wildly varied racing conditions. Hot and humid conditions on Friday and thru Saturday afternoon give way to much cooler and windy conditions demanding the very best from team tuners.

Top Fuel racing sees Clay Millican win for the 39th time in his career. The talented driver of Peter Lehman’s Werner Enterprises dragster won his 8th straight TF title at Rockingham and ran his consecutive round winning streak at the facility to 24 when he singled in the championship final round. Millican sped to a winning 4.667 secs at 307.02 mph when his scheduled opponent Rick Cooper broke a blower belt on his burnout. Clay had beaten out Paul Athey and Bobby Lagana Jr in earlier competition.

The new 2-car Foley & Lewis Top Fuel team is the talk of the pits at the event. In addition to his new team driver Rick Cooper making the final round, Foley himself rudely grabs away the performance spotlight from Clay Millican. Foley runs an impressive 4.657 secs at 307.79 mph (top speed) during qualifying to take the event pole. The primary Foley & Lewis team dragster however falters in round two and he loses out to his teammate Cooper.

Mark Thomas scored in Alcohol Funny Car class racing. The Ohio-based 5X IHRA World Champ beat lady driver Melinda Green-King in a final round battle of Dodge Avengers. Thomas won that clash easily when his 5.859 secs at 240.38 mph dominated Melinda’s tire-shaking shut off effort. Mark’s 23rd career win included top speed of the meet at 241.37 mph. The win at Rockingham was Mark Thomas’s 3rd straight Spring Nationals event title.

AFC class racing was paced by Canada’s Robbie Atchison who carded a track record 5.751 secs during qualifying driving the 2X World Championship winning Erickson Manufacturing Pontiac. Atchison was however upset by Tony Bogolo in round one when the car shakes hard. The 8-car AFC class featured strong participation with a total of 17 cars battling it out for one of the elite qualifying slots and producing a swift bump spot of 5.886 secs.

Pro Stock produced a rather rare, for IHRA class racing, all Chevrolet-brand final round as Steve Spiess faced off against Jerry Haas. Spiess, driving his Illinois-based Chevy Cavalier, clocked a final round 6.433 secs at 214.83 mph to beat Haas’s 6.521 secs at 214.14 mph. Spiess’s victory included a new national ET record for IHRA at 6.426 secs and upset decisions over the traditionally very fast Fords driven by John Nobile, Tony Gillig and Elijah Morton.

Ford Escort pilot Frank Gugliotta ran the quickest time ever seen in IHRA Pro Stock racing with a numbing 6.412 secs during qualifying. Gugliotta was not however able to back that performance up within the required 1% to affirm it as a new IHRA national record. Another Ford Escort, driven by Daniel Seamon set top speed for the breed at 215.86 mph.

Joe "Pepi" Urban made his IHRA debut at the event with is awesome jet-powered semi-truck. The "World's Fastest Freightliner", which features a sleeper cab, fairings for the exhaust stacks is also equipped with a set air horns. On Sunday "Pepi" recorded a run of 207.72 miles-per-hour while blowing out the glass mounting gaskets in the tower's media center windows.