Dynamic team owner Don Schumacher has a very successful venture to the scenic Pacific Northwest as two of his team drivers roll to victory at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.

Schumacher’s son Tony wins in Top Fuel for the second time this season as he wheels the ultra-powerful U.S. Army sponsored dragster to victory. Schumacher handles Australia’s David Grubnic in the championship finale winning at 4.690 secs 321.96 mph compared to Grubnic’s 4.761 secs at 316.75 mph.

Schumacher’s final round appearance was his third straight at the Seattle event and also the third consecutive on the 2006 circuit for the now surging defending NHRA POWERade World Champion.

Top Fuel racing at Seattle was paced by Brandon Bernstein who was the defending event champion. Brandon ran a swift 4.555 secs which was low ET of the meet however he was an early victim losing to #16 qualifier Alan Bradshaw during the upset-filled round one on Sunday.

Rookie J.R. Todd has another strong event driving the Torco Skull Shine dragster. Todd, who won it all at Denver 7 days before, goes to the semi-final round before losing out to Schumacher.

Based on his second round finish, Doug Kalitta extended his POWERade Top Fuel points lead over Melanie Troxel, who lost in the first round. Kalitta now leads Troxel by 40 points.

Schumacher team driver Whit Bazemore won in Funny Car driving the Matco Tools Dodge Charger defeating his racing stalemate and current NHRA POWERade points leader Ron Capps in the final round. Bazemore scored when his 5.036 secs at 309.42 mph prevailed over Capps’ 5.108 secs 293.15 mph in the very heated atmospheric conditions.

The victory was Bazemore’s first since April last year and it also included round wins over Phil Burkhart Jr., Tony Bartone and Tony Pedregon.

Capps’ runner-up finish combined with John Force’s first round loss to Capps teammate Gary Scelzi extended his overall POWERade points margin to 88.

The top FC performance was delivered during qualifying by Robert Hight who flew the AAA Auto Club Mustang to both low ET and top speed at 4.840 secs 318.17 mph. For Hight, it was his 5th FC pole of the season. The California-based driver was however dealt out of competition by Tony Pedregon in round two – 5.318 secs to 6.117 secs.

Team Mopar driver Allen Johnson took the measure of the Pro Stock program driving his Tennessee-based Dodge Stratus. In that final, Johnson handled 2006 NHRA Gatornationals winner Tom Martino. “AJ” won easily as his 6.767 secs at 204.63 mph was never challenged by Martino’s tire shaking 7.368 secs at 146.45 mph.

Johnson’s win was his 4th career NHRA national event title and it also included elimination round wins over Mike Edwards, Greg Stanfield, and Warren Johnson.

Martino’s strong runner-up finish came in his first driving assignment for a newly formed Dart Racing Pontiac GTO team owned by Dick Maskin and with Bob Glidden as crew chief.

The event featured a Canadian winner with Calgary’s Jirka Kaplan earning his first career national event title in Competition eliminator. After qualifying 11th, Kaplan’s BB/AM supercharged 23T benefited from 3 different red-lighting opponents during eliminations and he was assured the title when his final round opponent Doug Lambeck went .008 red.

The event’s highly competitive Top Alcohol eliminators went to Sean O’Bannon and Brian Hough. O’Bannon’s win in TAD was his third of the season and came over surprising first time finalist -- Spencer Massey, from Texas. Hough, who is one of the Pacific Northwest top rated TAFC pilots, won that eliminator when he outgunned California’s Steve Gasparrelli in the final round.

TAD winner O’Bannon qualified #1 at 5.474 secs and then set low ET for the class at 5.446 secs during eliminations. Runner-up Massey, driving an injected nitro car was credited with top speed at 264.80 mph.

Jay Payne drove the Valvoline-sponsored Chevy Camaro to both low ET (5.642 secs) and top speed (258.96 mph) in TAFC.

The event’s Top Alcohol Dragster program included a very strong qualifying efforts for Canada’s Paul Julien (from Mission BC). Julien ran a superb 5.542 secs at 253.71 mph to qualify #5. In round one he lost out on a holeshot when his 5.639 secs at 252.37 mph was turned back by a quicker leaving Mark Hentges who ran 5.682 secs 248.48 mph.