Greg Anderson accomplishes something that no one else has ever done in the Pro Stock class when he wins at Sonoma. Driving in his 3rd race for newly acquired sponsor Summit Racing Equipment, Anderson wins for the third week in a row to sweep NHRA’s infamous mid-summer “Western Swing”. The win is Anderson’s 12th of the season so far and includes low ET of the meet at 6.693 secs.

Anderson’s win comes over the quickest Pro Stock assembly of the season with the bump spot dipping to a wild 6.758 secs which was held down by Jim Yates. That bump is second only to E-Town 2003 (6.741 secs) on the all time NHRA Pro Stock list.

Doug Kalitta wins his third title of the season in Top Fuel to close the gap behind points leader Tony Schumacher to only 54 points. Driving the Mac Tools Dragster Kalitta denies once again his racing team-mate David Grubnic his first career NHRA win. Grubnic, who has now lost in 3 NHRA final rounds this season, gets away first driving his special edition Red Line Oil-sponsored car but then goes up in tire smoke. Kalitta records a winning 4.678 secs at 315.05 mph.

David Grubnic was the quickest car at the event with a 4.567 secs clocking. Kalitta win was the fourth time he has won at Sonoma in his career.

John Force appeared primed to further extend his points NHRA POWERade points lead in FC as he entered the final round as the favourite and with lane choice over opponent Tim Wilkerson. But in a surprise development Force had a rare foul start to hand the victory to Wilkerson and his L.R.S. Chevy Monte Carlo team.

Force’s team did dominate the event performance wise with Force himself collecting top speed of the meet at 322.42 mph and his team-mate Gary Densham clocking low ET at 4.821 secs. Force had entered Sunday’s final eliminations for the pole position.

The Pro Stock Bike final round was all U.S. Army with teammates Angelle Savoie and Antron Brown facing one another. The decision came early however as Brown had a heart-wrenching -.001 red-light foul start to give Angelle her 33 career NHRA event victory. Angelle won with a 7.066 secs at 184.57 mph, after earlier hitting a super quick 7.048 secs to claim low ET.

Pro Stock Bike qualifying opened with a bang on Friday with Andrew Hines running the fastest speed in class history at 196.13 mph riding the Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod. Hines was however not able to back up that fast speed for an official new NHRA record. Andrew lost out in the semi final round when he had a foul start racing Antron Brown.

Pro Stock Bike racing was the weakest attended affair in recent NHRA national event history with only 17 machines showing for competition.

TAFC class racing produced some big performances. Eventual winner Bucky Austin reset the NHRA national ET record while racing his Pontiac Firebird when he recorded the quickest run ever in the category at 5.530 secs. Austin went on to defeat Doug Gordon in the championship final round, 5.617 secs 255.24 mph to 5.736 secs 247.57 mph.

Austin’s quick run came during round two of TAFC elimination in what was in fact the quickest and fastest side-by-side pairing ever in the category. Austin won over Jay Payne, 5.530 secs 261.42 mph to Payne’s 5.556 secs at 261.47 mph (top speed). Payne was also credited with the 2nd quickest run in TAFC history, with a previous 5.537 secs ET.

The TAD final round was a dandy with Morgan Lucas edging out recent Seattle winner Duane Shields in a final round battle of injected nitro cars. Lucas, who has been announced as the replacement driver to Darrell Russell for Joe Amato’s team, ran a final round 5.275 secs at 266.37 mph to defeat Shields who went 5.294 secs at 266.27 mph.

The Nevada-based Shields had qualified on the pole with a 5.235 secs, which held up for low ET of the event. Ashley Force went for the fastest ride of her career so far at 275 mph flat to claim top speed for the category.

Washington’s Brad Plourd, who won Super Stock the previous weekend at Seattle almost doubled up at the Sonoma race. Plourd won in Stock eliminator driving a ’96 Corvette, but lost the Super Stock final round to Joe Kohorst’s GT/CA Camaro.

The FC program at the Fram Autolite Nationals included a return to the category for legendary and skilled class driver Dale Pulde, behind the wheel of an independent Pontiac Firebird. Pulde made qualifying laps but NHRA officials did not count them because they did not meet the minimum performance criteria (280 mph) to re-validate his competition license.