Rampaging Pro Stock and Pro Modified fields grabbed the headlines at NHRA’s traditional Eastern season-opening event at Gainesville Raceway.

Summit Racing Pontiac GTO driver Greg Anderson put on an awesome as he lowered the NHRA Pro Stock record to a unheard of 6.536 secs while recording his 2nd event win of the season. Anderson beat the hard running Lucas-sponsored Mopar of Ohio’s Larry Morgan in the final round winning with a 6.577 secs at 211.06 mph.

On Saturday Anderson made history by becoming the first driver to top the 210 mph mark in NHRA Pro Stock. He did that by a very wide margin recording a spectacular 211.20 mph at the top end. It was however Anderson’s teammate Jason Line that ended the event holding the official speed record, upping the all time NHRA mark for the class to a numbing 211.69 mph.

Pro Stock racers at Gainesville benefited from some absolutely terrific conditions with a long list of drivers running career best times and speeds. The event’s 16-car bump spot was a super swift 6.634 secs which fell just short of the all time quick mark set at VMP last autumn.

Pro Stock class racing featured some surprise qualifiers and non-qualifiers. Class newcomers Matt Scranton and Justin Humphreys both made the field as did former NBA star Tom Hammonds in his first race back in the class. Scranton, who is a former Sports Compact circuit racer, went to the semi final round.

The event’s Pro Stock DNQ list included Kurt Johnson (for the 2nd year in a row) as well as the normally hard running cars of Richie Stevens, Jim Yates and Ken Koretsky.

The Pro Stock Motorcycle season for NHRA opened at Gainesville in record smashing style as that eliminator featured an all time quick bump spot of 7.033 secs.

Nevada’s Karen Stoffer, who qualified in the 16th and final slot used spectacular driving, including 3 holeshot starts, to win for the 4th time in her career.

Stoffer, riding her Geico-sponsored Suzuki topped the Buell of Matt Smith in the final round as her superior .053 RT made her 7.075 secs at 186.79 mph a winner over Smith’s 7.069 secs at 187.31 mph.

The event saw Angelle Sampey reset the national ET record during qualifying with a fantastic 6.911 secs run aboard the U.S. Army Suzuki. That initial success was short-lived however. In round one Stoffer strapped a superb .004 RT compared to Angelle’s .119 RT to win a 6.983 secs to 6.969 secs decision.

As was the case in Pro Stock car, many riders recorded career best times at the event and a record 11 of 16 qualifiers were in the 6-seconds zone.

NHRA’s AMS Pro Mod Challenge series also got their ‘07 season off to a start. That eliminator featured serious record breaking with the first ever “5s” in NHRA class history.

Josh Hernandez who was credited with the first ever “five” in Pro Mod history late last season at the IHRA event in Rockingham NC, prevailed over the very swift field. Hernandez, driving his Dr. Moon’s Rage Camaro defeated his teammate Troy Critchley, driver of the “Jackhammer” Barracuda, in the final round.

Hernandez notched the all time quickest Pro Mod run at 6.912 secs while enroute to the victory and Critchley was credited with the all time fastest Pro Mod runs (including a 245.81 mph!) while placing second. History will show the name Critchley as the first NHRA Pro Mod car into the 5-secs zone, when he earned the pole with a memorable 5.946 secs effort.

Canadian Raymond Commisso also joined the elite Pro Mod club recording his first “five” during round one of eliminations (5.986 secs) with his Al Billes-tuned, Steelback-sponsored machine. Popular New York-based driver Mike Janis was the 4th driver into the fives at the event riding his all new Eaton-sponsored Chevy Colbalt to a superb 5.964 secs (also in round one).

Team owner “The Don” Schumacher enjoyed a terrific Gatornationals event. After he was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame on Thursday, his teams won both the event Nitro categories on Sunday.

Ron Capps, driving the Brut-sponsored Dodge Charger won huge in Funny Car winning the ACDelco Gatornationals event for the 2nd year in a row. Capps, using the tuning expertise of crew chief Ed “Ace” McCulloch, ran a final round 4.773 secs at 323.27 mph to end the Cinderella bid of Phil Burkart who was driving the independent car owned by Paul Smith at the event.

Capps was probably the most consistent car overall in the class while taking earlier round wins over Tony Bartone, Tony Pedregon and Kenny Bernstein.

Bernstein’s “final four” finish in the Monster Energy Dodge Charger came after his first qualifying effort since making his comeback in the FC category this season.

John Force team driver Robert Hight was the performance leader in FC resetting both ends of the Gainesville Raceway track record to 4.686 secs and 331.91 mph while taking the pole. In fact Hight’s 331.91 mph was top speed overall of the event – faster then a 331.53 mph recorded in Top Fuel by Tony Schumacher.

Canada’s Jeff Arend continued to shine for his new team this season. Arend drove a special edition C.S.K./K&N Filters car at Gainesville and qualified a career high 4th with a best run of 4.774 secs at 326.87 mph. The top end speed is the fastest yet by a Canadian driver. Tricky track conditions on Sunday however resulted in Arend going up in tire smoke while racing against Ashley Force.

Top Fuel racing produced a significant win for defending POWERade World Champion Tony Schumacher. Tony’s 36th career victory passed Don Garlits on the all-time event winning list – he is now 4th. Schumacher’s talented U.S. Army team won a terrific final round battle versus Larry Dixon’s SkyTel-sponsored dragster, 4.542 secs 325.14 mph to 4.589 secs 321.65 mph.

Schumacher’s win was his first of the season and moved him closer to overall points leader Rod Fuller who he defeated in a crucial head-to-head semifinal round pairing.

Larry Dixon set low ET of the meet when he ran a 4.510 secs to earn his 27th career pole position.

Top Fuel racing featured another strong showing by cross-over former Funny Car class driver Whit Bazemore. Bazemore qualified 4th and went to the “final four” driving his Matco Tools sponsored dragster.

Top Alcohol Funny Car class racing featured a surprise winner with Connecticut’s Mickey Ferro winning his first ever national event. Driving his Chevy Camaro, Ferro ran career best times and slayed some class giants while taking the title. In the final round he used a holeshot start (.081 to .153) to defeat fellow Northeast division racer Paul Gill.

Ferro’s biggest win however came in the semi-final round when he simply outperformed defending World Champion Frank Manzo; 5.539 secs to 5.572 secs.

Frank Manzo had during class qualifying recorded the fastest speed ever in TAFC class history at an amazing 265.74 mph driving the Lucas Oil Chevy Monte Carlo.

Kansas-state based Randy Meyer won over a very spirited and injected nitro dominated TAD program. Meyer won that eliminator from the pole (5.170 secs). In the final round he used a holeshot start (.081 to .119) to upset pre-race favorite and defending World Champion Bill Reichert. Meyer won a terrific dash as his 5.222 secs 257.73 held off Reichert’s quicker and faster 5.205 secs at 274.50.

TAD racing did feature two Canadian entries with the Ontario-based supercharged cars driven by Ken Perry and Jeff Veale both making the field. Perry overcame some early mechanical problems to record a superb 5.281 secs at 266.95 mph (by far the quickest supercharged time of the race) to take the 4th slot. Jeff Veale qualified the all new Can-Am effort car owned by the Cantrell Brothers #11 with a 5.397 secs at 264.18 mph. Both drivers however lost out in round one of competition.