Kurt Johnson wins his second NHRA POWERade event of the season when he drives the ACDelco-sponsored Chevy Colbalt to a win over a very swift Pro Stock field. Johnson’s 3rd career win at Seattle’s Pacific Raceways comes on a single however after his scheduled opponent Ron Krisher was unable to make the call following a devastating crash after his semi-final round win.

Krisher received relatively surprisingly minor injuries in his incident after he lost control of his Valvoline-sponsored Chevy Colbalt shortly after defeating Jeg Coughlin Jr. 6.727 secs to 6.724 secs. Krisher made very hard contact with both guard walls and his car burst into flames.

Winner Johnson, after qualifying #2 with a 6.665 secs run, beat out David Connolly, Greg Stanfield and Bob Panella to advance to the final round.

Pro Stock racers took full advantage of the good conditions and swift surface as they served up numerous 6.6 secs runs during the event. The program was paced by Mike Thomas, who while substituting as driver for Kenny Koretsky’s Nitro Fish Dodge Stratus, unloaded low ET of the meet at 6.661 secs.

Greg Anderson set top speed in PS riding his all new Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GTO to a terrific 207.24 mph. The PS class also featured a spectacular semi-final round finish by Chevy pilot Bob Panella Jr. In his very first race driving his all new Colbalt, Pannell Jr qualified #11 and beat Richie Stevens and V. Gaines during eliminations.

Eric Medlen reset the Pacific Raceway’s track ET record for Funny Cars while winning his 2nd career NHRA national event title. Medlen drove John Force’s Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang past his teammate Robert Hight in the championship final round. Medlen ran a super quick 4.733 secs to pace the field. Hight’s R/UP helped to further increase his overall lead on the NHRA FC season points grid.

Medlen’s victory also included round wins over Gary Densham, Phil Burkart Jr and Tommy Johnson Jr.

The first round of FC featured yet another early exit for John Force who has now lost out in round one at 3 straight events. Gary Scelzi, driving for Oakley and Mopar gathered top speed of the meet at 325.85 mph – which was another track record.

A suddenly hot Brandon Bernstein scored in Top Fuel winning his 2nd race in the last 3 NHRA events. Bernstein powered by the points leading U.S. Army sponsored dragster of Tony Schumacher in the final round carding a winning 4.527 secs at 329.99 mph.

Tony Schumacher overcame a frightening incident during Saturday’s qualifying when his dragster had a chassis failure right at the finish line. Luckily Schumacher was able to bring the machine to a safe stop in a shower of sparks.

Larry Dixon reset both ends of the Pacific Raceway’s track record when he powered the Dick LaHaie-tuned Miller Lite dragster to a spectacular 4.490 secs at 331.36 mph to pace the field. That was the first ever sub 4.5 secs and first ever 330+ mph run at the facility. Dixon lost out however to Bernstein in round two of competition.

Top Alcohol racing featured a big win for Oregon’s Clint Thompson who drove his machine past Dennis Taylor in an all Chevy Camaro final round. Thompson’s event win included low ET of the meet at a career best 5.592 secs.

The TAD title went to another Oregon-based driver as Steve Federlin wheeled his B/AD past the A/FD of Duane Shields in the final round. Federlin combined a better RT (.060) with a run of 5.461 secs 259.91 mph to beat out Shields who ran 5.500 secs at 255.92 mph.

Rising star lady racer Hillary Will, who won earlier this year at NHRA Las Vegas, set both low ET and top speed at the event in TAD at 5.302 secs and 270.97 mph.