Ron Capps continued to ride the crest of Funny Car class success as the current NHRA POWERade points leader wins for the 3rd time in five final round appearances so far this season. Capps qualifies in the middle of the pack (8th) before his talented crew chief Ed “Ace” McCulloch again delivers raceday consistency. Driving his Brut-sponsored Dodge Stratus, Capps beats his closest points rival John Force in the final round. Capps gets out of the gate first and his 4.793 secs at 319.52 mph beats Force’s quicker 4.788 secs at 310.13 mph.

FC racing at Thunder Valley is a swift affair requiring a run quicker then 4.871 secs just to qualify. John Force team member Eric Medlen paces the program with a track record 4.755 secs effort driving the Castrol Syntec Mustang however Medlen is ousted in round two by Capps in a very points consequential tussle; 4.857 secs to 4.858 secs.

Don Schumacher’s potent FC team was certainly “firing on all eight” at the Bristol race as his Dodges occupied 3 of the “final 4” during eliminations. In addition to winner Capps, Whit Bazemore advanced setting top speed of the meet at 327.03 mph driving his Matco-sponsored Charger as did Gary Scelzi who had his best outing of the season driving the new Oakley/Mopar Charger. Scelzi recorded a best of 4.777 secs and 325.45 mph during the event.

Top Fuel qualifying featured the event’s overall most memorable moment when recent IHRA Rockingham winner Cory McClenathan went for a high-speed spill on Friday night. Driving the Carrier Brothers Fram Boost machine, McClenathan had the chassis fail at high speed which saw the car first break in half, get airborne and then slide in a firry inferno. In a testament to both NHRA’s high safety standards and the benefits of good fortune, McClenathan was not injured in the very frightening incident. His team in fact rushed in a back-up chassis from Indianapolis and spent all Saturday outfitting that car. McClenathan managed to make his round one date with Rod Fuller and ran a solid 4.666 secs at 317.49 mph in the first run for the untried car. That effort however could not run down Fuller’s quicker 4.502 secs at 326.32 mph.

Rod Fuller, driving the Valvoline-sponsored dragster did advance to the final round at Bristol for the 2nd year in a row. However his car then smoked it’s tires at the hit and that was simply no match for opponent Doug Kalitta who scored his 3rd career win at Bristol Dragway driving the Mac Tools dragster. Kalitta ran a final round 4.537 secs at 331.53 mph (top speed) to seal the victory. Kalitta had beaten Scott Weis, Brandon Bernstein and Tony Schumacher with 3 prior low 4.5 secs runs.

Top Fuel racing at the O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals featured some history as the 1-2 slots were earned by lady racers Melanie Troxel (4.539 secs) and Hillary Will (4.562 secs). That was a first for drag racing. Then in a couple of surprise developments, Melanie, the overall NHRA POWERade points leader fouled out in round two to Fuller and Hillary lost out on a holeshot to #15 qualifier Morgan Lucas in round one.

The Pro Stock final round featured a battle between Summit Racing Equipment teammates Greg Anderson and Jason Line. Driving their Ken Black owned Pontiac GTOs; Line moved first and took the victory with a 6.716 secs at 205.35 mph effort which beat Anderson’s 6.752 secs at 204.70 mph.

Jason Line was full marks for his 9th career NHRA title has he qualified #1 (6.727 secs) and set both low ET and top speed at 6.708 secs at 205.35 mph.

The O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals marked the return of David Nickens as the Team Manager for the Mopar Pro Stock cars driven by Richie Stevens and Shaun Carlson. Nickens, who did have a previous stint at the helm of the Mopar factory Pro Stock team during the early 2000s replaced Bob Glidden who departed the team after NHRA Las Vegas. Under his guidance team driver Richie Stevens did qualify #8 before losing out to eventual winner Line in round two. The second team car driven by Carlson ran a best of 6.795 secs which missed the quick 6.764 secs cut.

The Bristol race also featured 2006 round #3 for the popular AMS Staff Leasing Pro Modified circuit. That eliminator was won by Jay Payne driving his California based Dodge Stratus – his second event win of the season. Payne qualified #1 with a 6.087 secs and then set low ET (6.063 secs) and top speed (235.72 mph) during eliminations.

The PM final saw Payne earn a lop-sided victory over the cool ’67 Mustang driven by Joey Martin. Payne rolled to a superb 6.089 secs at 235.43 mph while Martin shut off after shaking the tires hard trying to keep pace.

The AMS Pro Mod eliminator featured a swift bump spot of 6.287 secs and strong semi-final round finishes by Chip King’s unique ‘69 Dodge Daytona as well as by the ’63 Corvette driven by transplanted Canadian Danny Rowe.

Bristol event fans were also treated to a Nitro Harley exhibition. That eliminator was won by Mike Romine from Sturgis, MI., who dominated the class. Romine saved his best effort for the final round as he recorded low ET of the meet (6.360 secs) at 220.15 mph to beat Tommy Grimes who ran a close 6.380 secs at 219.65 mph in the other lane.

Romine was also credited with top speed of the meet at 224.62 mph which he produced in round two while beating Doug Vancil.

Sportsman racing produced a first time NHRA national event winner when Randy Wilkes scored in Stock eliminator driving his A/FIA ’01 Firebird. Wilkes first win was not an easy one and included handing Sportsman stalwart racer Anthony Bertozzi a rare final round defeat.

Alabama’s David Rampy continued his torrid NHRA career winning pace in Competition eliminator winning for the 2nd time this season driving his Chevy-powered A/EA. Rampy ran down the unique Ford powered in-line 6-cylinder F/EA of Glen Treadwell in the final round.