NHRA’s event at Bruton Smith’s fabulous Bristol Dragway is unfortunately severely weather affected. Except for very limited Sportsman action, rainstorms wipe out all of Friday’s schedule and Saturday sees only one Pro qualifying session completed. NHRA sets the Pro field utilizing a rarely enforced rule – the current top 10 points sitters are seeded – then ET status completes the field.

The lack of qualifying laps + the weather affected racing surface does however deliver lots of excitement on race day. Professional racing sees frequent upsets including the first round exits of points leaders Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) and Whit Bazemore (Funny Car).

Doug Kalitta, driving from Mac Tools and Connie Kalitta, wins in Top Fuel and with that leaps over Tony Schumacher into a first place standing in POWERade points. Kalitta edges out surprise TF finalist “Hot Rod” Fuller in a super exciting finale – winning a 4.593 secs 322.50 mph to 4.588 secs 327.35 mph thriller. Fuller’s final round is his first driving the David Powers-owned Valvoline-sponsored machine. The event effort includes a career quick 4.548 secs, for the rookie racer, which came in round one.

Fuller is not the only surprise performer in Top Fuel as Scott Palmer also has a strong showing at the event. Palmer goes to the semi-final round after he upsets both Morgan Lucas and Larry Dixon on Sunday.

Brandon Bernstein qualifies on the pole in Top Fuel (4.539 secs) and sets both low ET and top speed when he runs a superb 4.512 secs at 331.04 mph in round one. Bernstein slips to a 4.993 secs in round two and is eliminated by Scott Weis’s machine.

Funny Car racing saw Gary Scelzi win his first race of the season with some steady runs driving the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Stratus. Scelzi rips a final round 4.815 secs at a track speed record 329.26 mph to topple the event bid of determined Canadian driver Jeff Arend. Arend’s final round appearance driving the CMKX-treme Chevy Monte Carlo is his first on the NHRA tour since he won at Reading, PA in 1996. Jeff’s runner-up finish included his second 320+ mph run -- a career best 320.58 mph which came in round two.

Gary Scelzi’s event win also includes low ET of the meet, a 4.791 secs, which comes up during a decisive round one win over Gary Densham. Scelzi also beat Tommy Johnson Jr. and surprise semi-finalist Jack Wyatt on Sunday.

Warren Johnson padded his overall points lead in Pro Stock by collecting his 2nd win of the 2005 season. Johnson’s powerful GM Performance Parts Pontiac is the event’s performance star in the class including a track record 6.751 secs during eliminations. Johnson turns back the Mopar-sponsored Dodge Stratus driven by Richie Stevens in the championship final. “WJ” cards a winning 6.756 secs when Stevens goes -.049 red. With the victory Warren Johnson recorded his 800th career round win in NHRA Pro Stock.

The Bristol event marked the debut of the first Chevy Colbalt Pro Stock cars for NHRA racing. Kurt Johnson, Bob Benza, David Howard and Erica Endres all unveil the highly anticipated new machines. Johnson’s ACDelco Cobalt is the only one to qualify (3rd) and Kurt lasts until the “final four” during eliminations, narrowly losing out to his father Warren: 6.757 secs 6.759 secs.

Top speed in Pro Stock was set by David Connolly who was also scheduled to debut a new Cobalt at the event -- but did not. Connolly took the “Bullet Motorsports” Chevy Cavalier to a best of 204.45 mph.

Mike Ashley won his third straight NHRA AMS Staff Leasing/TLR Pro Mod Challenge event. Driving his Torco-sponsored supercharged Ford Mustang, Ashley turned back the ’37 Chevy driven by Zack Barklage in the final round. Ashley ripped a 6.136 secs at 230.57 mph to beat Barklage’s strong 6.223 secs at 226.28 mph.

Ashley had beaten Joey Martin, Thomas Patterson and Ed Hoover in earlier competition with a wicked string of quick consistency. The New York-based driver hit three straight 6.11 secs elapsed times while winning those matches.

Due to the weather the Pro Mod field at Bristol was also set based on a single qualifier. 22 drivers made qualifying attempts. Quain Stott set both low ET (6.110 secs) and top speed (232.91 mph) driving the Lee-Boy-sponsored ’63 Corvette.

The O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals also included the second of three season stops for the 2005 Screamin’ Eagle Top Fuel Harley exhibition series. Mike Romine won that feature when he beat Larry Brancaccio in a trouble-plagued final round as both riders coasted to the finish line. Romine did set top speed at 210.87 mph in earlier competition. Mike Lehman set low ET during qualifying at 6.583 secs.

Sportsman racing at the event was also curtailed. In fact racers in Competition eliminator and Super Gas did not get any time trials and they had a single qualifying round early on Sunday just prior to the start of Professional eliminations.