Lady racers and the Mopar brand were the top newsmakers during a highly successful version of the ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville Florida.

In a spectacular show of gender equality the final rounds of eliminations at the event featured no less then five female drivers (a record) and two big winners. Ashley Force prevailed in Top Alcohol Dragster and Angelle Sampey scored in Pro Stock Motorcycle, while Erica Enders (Pro Stock), Melanie Troxel (Top Fuel) and Brenda Grubbs (Stock) all placed runner-up.

Top Fuel racing saw transplanted Australian driver David Grubnic earn his second career Top Fuel win driving the Kalitta Racing/StriVectin-SD dragster. Grubnic defeated overall points leader Melanie Troxel in the final round as he recorded a winning 4.943 secs at 317.90 mph while Troxel unexpectedly smoked the tires. The win was Grubnic’s first since Topeka last year and the final round appearance for Troxel was her fourth straight dating back to the Pomona Finals last season.

Melanie Troxel had entered the final round as a favorite after she recorded both low ET (4.501 secs) and top speed (329.54 mph) in earlier action. Her racing teammate Tony Schumacher had paced the field after qualifying at 4.515 secs driving the US Army dragster.

Mopar racers scored three huge wins within the event’s Professional ranks taking top honors in Funny Car, Pro Stock and in AMS Pro Modified.

Overall POWERade points leader Ron Capps enhanced his standing when he wheeled the Brut-sponsored Dodge Stratus to victory in fuel Funny Car. Capps and his talented crew chief Ed McCulloch were able to knock off a favored John Force in the final round as their consistent 4.860 secs at 316.78 mph took the measure of Force’s 4.990 secs at 305.49 mph in the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.

Capps had defeated Mike Ashley in a dandy round one match (4.799 secs to 4.799 secs!) as well as Tony Bartone and Eric Medlen in earlier action. Force had entered the final round with lane choice and as the favorite after he recorded low ET of eliminations at 4.752 secs while winning over Robert Hight in the semi-final round.

FC class racing saw the much anticipated debut of the all new 2006 Dodge Charger cars from Don Schumacher Racing. Both defending POWERade World Champion Gary Scelzi and his teammate Whit Bazemore unveiled the machines which both ran well out of the season gate. Bazemore qualified #2 behind John Force at 4.769 secs while Scelzi set top speed of the meet in FC at 325.61 mph.

Tom Martino produced another win for Mopar when he unexpectedly prevailed in Pro Stock over the quickest field in NHRA class history (6.701 secs bump). Martino, who was in fact a very late event entry was behind the wheel of a 2nd Kendall GT-1 sponsored Dodge Stratus owned by Colorado’s V. Gaines. Martino delivered the quickest run of his career in the final round at 6.677 secs at 205.80 mph to deny NHRA class history for lady racer Erica Enders. Erica, appearing in her 2nd career final round shook her tires and was forced to shut down the Slammers-sponsored Chevy Colbalt. If Erica had prevailed she would have become the very first female winner in Pro Stock racing history.

California’s Jay Payne also carved out a win for Mopar fans when he collected his 2nd straight Gatornationals AMS Pro Mod title driving his Dodge Stratus. Payne won an exciting Can-Am final round when he beat out the ’57 Chevy of Calgary Alberta’s Glen Kerunsky, 6.155 secs 231.95 mph to 6.161 secs 229.59 mph.

Payne’s win came over the quickest NHRA AMS Pro Mod program in history (6.266 secs) and came within the new 20% supercharger overdrive rules.

Canadian Rick DiStefano paced the ultra quick program after qualifying as he and his engine builder/tuner Al Billes set low ET at 6.050 secs. Australia’s Troy Critchley was credited with top speed in Pro Mod running his spectacular new ’71 Barracuda replica to a 237.90 mph top end.

Angelle Sampey drew first blood in the season-opening event for the Pro Stock Motorcycle category. Angelle defeated her racing teammate Antron Brown in an all US Army/Suzuki final round, 7.138 secs 187.73 mph to 7.134 secs 186.72 mph.

The PSM program was also the quickest in NHRA history featuring a bump spot of 7.158 secs. Ryan Schnitz, riding the Buell of Rob Muzzy set low ET at 7.012 secs while earning the pole but was upset in round two by Geno Scali.

Ashley Force won an injected-nitro dominated TAD eliminator driving her Castrol-sponsored machine. Ashley outgunned Randy Meyer in the final round 5.387 secs 263.46 mph to 5.629 secs 249.93 mph. The injected nitro cars of Bill Reichert and John Finke set low ET (5.265 secs) and top speed (273.22 mph) respectively.

Northeastern-based racer David Ray upset a star-studded TAFC show driving Jay Blake’s “Follow A Dream” Dodge Avenger. Ray earned a come-from-behind win over Iowa’s Cy Chesterman when Chesteman’s new Chevy Monte Carlo broke at ¾ track after building up a big lead.

Canadian driver Jeff Arend looked great in his first FC class start of the season. With new sponsorship from Florida-based Erie Educational Services and with wily tuner Paul Smith calling the shots, Arend ran very consistent during qualifying including a 4.847 secs at 319.37 mph for 10th. Arend did lose out however to Eric Medlen in round one on Sunday (4.824 secs to 4.938 secs).

Pro Stock racing included some true oddities not the least of which were the normally top running ACDelco Chevy Colbalt of Kurt Johnson being a shocking DNQ. Kurt’s best run of 6.708 secs missed the record quick field.

The ACDelco Gatornationals did include a couple of scary incidents on Saturday. During a exhibition run driving his “Nanook” AA/FA Rick Hough went for a rough ride which saw him collect both guardwalls in a fiery explosion. Hough was transported to hospital for observation by emergency helicopter, suffering a serious injury to his right hand. Saturday’s round one of TAD also included a wild crash for Florida’s Don Fiorelli. While racing alongside Ashley Force, Fiorelli had a fuel line break causing him to lose control and make hard contract. Thankfully he too was uninjured.