Defending NHRA POWERade World Champion Tony Schumacher makes a huge statement and wins large in Top Fuel at Columbus. Schumacher squares off with overall points leader Doug Kalitta in a marquee final round match-up with Schumacher winning it at a national speed record setting pace. Tony clocks not only low ET of the meet (4.489 secs) but also the fastest speed ever recorded – 336.15 mph! Schumacher had run the U.S. Army-backed dragster to a 334.57 mph in round two which he used to back up the mark officially. The event win, which was Tony’s third of the ’05 season, moved him to within 43 points of Kalitta overall.

The 2nd round of Top Fuel qualifying scheduled for Friday evening at National Trail Raceway featured a true oddity as not a single Top Fuel dragster was able to negotiate the track successfully. In a very rare occurrence for NHRA, no Top Fuel driver pulled their parachutes. Every attempt featured chattered tires and almost immediately aborted runs. A number of Top Fuel teams elected not to run due to the track conditions which had deteriorated, due primarily to dew, severely. NHRA crews worked hard over night to recover the surface to excellent status for the remaining of the weekend.

Morgan Lucas does his best to try to defend the Pontiac Performance Nationals title for car owner Joe Amato and for the memory of Darrell Russell. Fans will recall that it was at Columbus 2004 that Darrell won his last event just a few days before being fatally injured at St. Louis. Amato’s team runs well and Lucas makes it to the semi-final round only to have the supercharger explode almost at the hit while racing Doug Kalitta.

Top Fuel racing included the 2005 season debut for Tim Cullinan from Illinois. Driving his all new dragster tuned by Mike Smith, Cullinan qualified #11 with a 4.751 secs at 307.58 mph on his first shot down the track. Cullinan ran a similar 4.765 secs in round one however that was easily topped by Scott Kalitta who ran 4.576 secs at 323.50 mph.

Much like Top Fuel, FC racing also featured a truly exciting final round confrontation between its top two points contenders, John Force and Gary Scelzi. Force wins for the second week in a row driving the Castrol GTX Start-Up Mustang when he uses a holeshot to edge out Scelzi’s Oakley/Mopar Stratus. Force runs 4.776 secs at 324.51 mph compared to Scelzi’s quicker 4.764 secs at 326.79 mph.

Force’s record setting 117th career win did not come easily however. He had run his car past infamous Refugee Road and into the top end sand trap when the parachutes did not deploy properly following his semi-final round win. Force’s camp was however aided by a rather timely rain delay which gave his team adequate time to clean the car up and make some repairs.

FC racing was paced by Whit Bazemore who looked well primed driving the Matco Tools Dodge Stratus following a stout 4.762 secs (track record) during qualifying. Bazemore was however relegated to “goner status” following a huge round one upset at the hands of #16 qualifier Dale Creasy Jr. Creasy, driving his new Torco-sponsored Chevy Monte Carlo, won a highly unexpected 4.904 secs 311.99 mph to 4.924 secs 315.34 mph decision.

Nitro Funny Car class racing also featured a very impressive effort from Cruz Pedregon. The Advance Auto Parts Chevy team had the car running well at Columbus and Pedregon qualified #7 before going to the semi-final round. There Cruz lost out to Gary Scelzi in another truly sensational and ultra thin drag race: 4.811 to 4.812 secs.

In Pro Stock it was Greg Anderson, who won his first event of the season 7 days prior at Atlanta, who scored again driving the Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac. Anderson was well down in the pack after qualifying was completed (8th) but then delivered some terrific RTs and improved performances on Sunday to win the prestigious event. Anderson beat the awesome new ACDelco Chevy Cobalt of Kurt Johnson in the final round winning a wire-to-wire 6.737 secs to 6.787 secs tussle.

The victory moved Greg up to second place in NHRA POWERade Pro Stock points behind Warren Johnson. Anderson and Johnson in fact faced off in round two of eliminations with Greg winning that crucial match, 6.758 secs to 6.774 secs. “WJ” had set both low ET and top speed of the meet during qualifying running his GM Performance Parts Pontiac to a 6.723 secs at 205.13 mph, both of which were new track records for National Trail.

Pro Stock Motorcycle produced a first time circuit winner as Ryan Schnitz came away with the victory riding his ’05 Buell. Schnitz, a 3-time former AMA Prostar circuit champion, got a big break in the final round when his opponent Andrew Hines had a red-light foul start.

Schnitz’s win was however well earned. He had qualified #2 with a 7.101 secs and then delivered consecutive runs of 7.106, 7.099 and 7.106 secs aboard Rob Muzzy’s machine leading up to the final round.

Pro Stock Motorcycle was dominated at Columbus by the Buells and V-Rods as they captured the first 3 qualifying positions and 5 of the top 6 overall. G.T. Tonglet, who had won at Atlanta the week before, paced the field with a 7.090 secs, however it was his teammate Hines that set low ET (7.060 secs) and top speed (194.52 mph). All of that had the traditional Suzuki racers in the class in another uproar and will likely result in further balancing action from NHRA rules makers.

For the first time in many years of running there was no Top Alcohol racing at the Columbus event. Sportsman drag racing action was highlighted by a popular win by one of the worlds quickest A/ED machines driven by Indiana’s Robert Bailey. Bailey, who qualified 4th (with a 6.663 secs) ran down the A/SR of Vinny Barone in the final round. Barone had been the event’s pole qualifier.

Prolific Sportsman racer Dan Fletcher (from New York) added yet another NHRA “Wally” to his massive collection as he prevailed in Stock eliminator driving his B/SA ’69 Camaro. Fletcher qualified #17 in the 67-car field and took the title when he passed the ’89 Mustang of Mark Bishop in the final round.