Defending NHRA POWERade World Champion Larry Dixon Jr. scores his first win of the 2004-racing season. Driving the Miller Lite Dragster, Dixon uses the savvy of crew chief Dick LaHaie whose propensity to win on tricky track surfaces, shines through once again. Dixon outruns Cory McClenathan in the final round, 4.657 secs 318.92 mph to 4.703 secs 304.39 mph.

Top Fuel round one features some “mongo” upsets. New York’s own Bobby Lagana Jr., who made only one qualifying run to get in on the bump, pulls a major league upset when he beats tire-smoking pole sitter Brandon Bernstein. Lagana Jr. cards a winning 5.303 secs at 270.97 mph. Brandon had during qualifying set both low ET (4.565 secs) and top speed (325.85-mph) driving the Budweiser Dragster. Also falling in round is overall points leader Tony Schumacher whose U.S. Army car also smokes his tires and he loses out to Rit Pustari; 4.845 secs to 4.944 secs. Both Lagana and Pustari however are eliminated in round #2.

John Force’s team dominates Funny Car eliminator. Force himself goes to the final round but loses out to his racing team mate Gary Densham in a championship battle of Ford Mustangs. Densham’s car has a parachute malfunction in the final, and he runs into the top end catch net before getting stopped but is not injured. Force’s third team car, the Castrol Syntec car driven by Eric Medlen, sets both low ET and top speed while earning the pole for the class at 4.830 secs and 317.72 mph. The pole is the first for the Rookie driver Medlen.

Phil Burkhart Jr. has a rather weird incident in FC round one. He blows his motor while racing Cruz Pedregon and the CSK Chevy Monte Carlo lights up pretty good. Burkhart exits the smoking car at low speed but while it is still moving, and is pinned for a short time by his own race car (!) against the guardwall. Burkhart Jr ultimately scrambles away and is not injured.

Canada’s Al Billes wins big in AMS Pro Mod class action again. Billes, the overall points leader in AMS, wins his third title of the ’04 season driving his Ontario-based ’53 Corvette sponsored by Stratford Motor Products. Billes is fast and consistent throughout eliminations and beats California’s Danny Rowe in a terrific final round pairing: 6.253 secs to 6.258 secs.

Pro Mod class racing at E-Town is a very swift affair featuring a bump spot of 6.279 secs. Of the 8-qualified cars, three are nitrous-injected and 5 are supercharged. Missouri’s Zach Barklage runs to top speed for the breed again at 232.27 mph while runner-up Danny Rowe nabs low ET driving the Infinet Corvette to a quick 6.184 secs.

Pro Stock round one features a real oddity with runaway points leader Greg Anderson falling to the side. Anderson’s normally otherwise all conquering Vegas General Construction Pontiac runs a off pace 6.930 secs which is easily pounced on by the Mopar-sponsored Dodge Stratus, driven by Darrell Alderman.

Anderson’s team mate Jason Line however then steps to the plate and wins the event for his team. Line earned his second career NHRA national event title when he outran the ACDelco Chevy of Kurt Johnson in the final round -6.761 secs to 6.771 secs.

Legendary Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins continued to make his mark in the Pro Stock class. At E-Town, the Jenkins-powered cars driven by Steve Johns and Dave Connolly set low ET (6.726 secs) and top speed (206.67 mph) during Sunday’s final eliminations.

Pro Stock Bike racing sees Andrew Hines win his third race of the year for the Vance & Hines Screamin Eagle Harley Davidson team. Hines runs the quickest run ever by a Pro Stock Bike at 7.016 secs in the final round to win over Craig Treble. Hines had earlier run a pair of 7.02 secs runs to back up the 7.016 secs as a new NHRA national ET record. Hines’ win came from the pole and also included top speed of the meet -- 192.28-mph.

The Top Alcohol programs features wins by Randy Meyer in TAD and by Paul Lee in TAFC. For former team owner Meyer, the win was his first as a driver. He took his injected-nitro car past Jason Cannon in the final. Lee’s victory was his third of the season driving his swift Pontiac Firebird.

A major announcement during the Englishtown event came from dynamic team owner Don Schumacher, who bought out and assumed control of Larry Morgan’s Dodge Pro Stock team. Morgan will continue to drive under the Schumacher camp. Don also announced he will eventually field 2 entries in each of NHRA’s 4 Pro classes; adding a second Pro Stock car and a second Top Fuel car -- likely later this season.