At the Texas Motorplex, the plot thickens even more within NHRA’s absolutely ferocious chase for the 2005 POWERade FC title. Defending and 13X World Champion John Force made a big move when he notched a truly timely 5th win of the season driving the Castrol GTX Start Up Mustang. Force takes full advantage of the 1st and 2nd round exits of top points rivals Gary Scelzi and Ron Capps to reclaim the overall podium by 36 points with two events remaining. After qualifying #7, Force runs very steady on Sunday with 3-straight 4.83 secs elapsed times to advance to the championship final. Once there, he unleashes the quickest time of all eliminations at 4.797 secs at 324.05 mph to win easily after scheduled opponent Frank Pedregon could not fire the Toyo Tires Dodge Stratus.

FC qualifying is paced by recent Chicago winner Ron Capps who flies to a career best time driving the Brut Racing Dodge Stratus. Capps resets the Texas Motorplex FC track ET record at 4.694 secs which holds up for low ET of the meet. Top speed in FC went to Robert Hight who ran 330.31 mph (also a track record) during qualifying.

The Pro Stock world is set abuzz at Dallas following a truly unreal incident during the 2nd round of qualifying Friday evening. In what was arguably the most spectacular crash of all time in Pro Stock drag racing, Bruce Allen and Kenny Koretsky collide at very high speed – completely destroying their machines. Allen loses control of his Pontiac Grand Am, flips on its right side and crosses over immediately in front of Koretsky’s “Nitro Fish” Dodge Stratus. Koretsky t-bones Allen’s machine in a huge fireball. Both Allen and Koretsky are taken to hospital. Miraculously Allen is released later that night however Koretsky does suffer a broken arm and chest injuries that include a bruised heart requiring a longer stay in the hospital. In retrospect, everyone agrees that given the violence of the incident the end result could have been much-much worse.

Pro Stock continues on with Greg Anderson winning for the 8th time this season driving the all-conquering Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac GTO. Anderson outgunned his racing stable mate Jason Line in the final round (6.690 secs to 6.713 secs) and with that all but mathematically wrapped up his 3rd straight NHRA POWERade PS championship.

Anderson’s event victory came from the pole and included two more new track records, an amazing 6.647 secs ET and 207.40 mph terminal speed.

Pro Stock racing did include another spirited effort from lady driver Erica Enders, who is from Texas. Enders, who placed runner-up the weekend before at Joliet backed up that effort with a strong “final four” finish driving the Slammers Milk Chevy Cobalt. Erica carded a strong 6.683 secs to qualify 5th, and then beat Rickie Smith and Ron Krisher before falling to the “wrath of Greg” in the semi-final round.

In Top Fuel Tony Schumacher appeared in his 5th consecutive NHRA final round and won his third straight event driving the US Army-sponsored dragster. Schumacher beat the suddenly very formidable Snap-On Tools dragster of Doug Herbert in the final round winning a 4.523 secs to 4.629 secs dash. The win moved Schumacher to the very cusp of a successful POWERade Championship defense. Schumacher will clinch the title as long as the car passes tech at Las Vegas in two weeks.

Schumacher’s victory (the 28th of his career) did include top speed of the meet – 332.02 mph – and round wins over Mitch King, Morgan Lucas and his racing teammate Melanie Troxel. Troxel, driving the Skull Gear sponsored-dragster, re-affirmed drag racing history when she flew to a spectacular 4.458 secs to qualify #2 – resetting her own standard as the sports’ fastest female driver of all time.

Herbert’s runner-up finish continued his streak of recent strong event performances. The North Carolina-based driver went for the quickest ride of his career at 4.441 secs (track record) to take the pole. Herbert’s event finish pushed him up to #5 in NHRA POWERade points.

NHRA’s AMS Staff Leasing/TLR Pro Mod series continued at Dallas. Only 16 cars showed for the eliminator however that weakness was more then made up for by individual performances.

Jay Payne highlighted the event as he went for the quickest and fastest ride in Pro Mod history driving the Valvoline-sponsored Dodge Stratus. Payne just missed the first ever “five” in the class when he went 6.000 secs to pace the field. Payne was also credited with a speed of 239.23 mph – the fastest in class history. Both were backed up within the required 1% -- however NHRA will not recognize that within it’s annuls as the AMS/TLR class is still considered “exhibition”.

Payne’s superb performance did however come to an end in the semi-final round when his 6.087 secs was beaten out on a holeshot by Thomas Patterson who went 6.112 secs. Patterson, driving his Houston-based supercharged Willys, went on to win the event and earn his second career NHRA Pro Mod title. Patterson took an easy win when his final round opponent Steve Engel left before the tree was activated.

The event’s Top Alcohol racing program featured big wins by “Steve(s)” Torrence and Gasparrelli. Steve Torrence, a homestate Texan racer, collected his 4th NHRA national event win of the season when he downed fellow injected-nitro racer Aaron Olivarrez in the final round. Torrence overcame an initial starting line disadvantage to win at 5.259 secs 268.71 mph to 5.316 secs at 266.32 mph. Torrence who is the overall national points leader in the TAD class championship chase, set low ET and top speed at 5.202 secs and 276.46 mph.

Steve Gasparrelli’s win in TAFC came driving his all new Chevy Monte Carlo. Gasparrelli edged out Texan Jimmy Jones in a great final round winning a 5.668 secs to 5.679 secs decision. Oklahoma’s Jackie Stidham, also driving a new Chevy Monte Carlo. Set low ET and top speed for the TAFC class at 5.573 secs and 259.06 mph.