“Next Generation” NHRA drivers Robert Hight and Brandon Bernstein, who were both close personal friends to Eric Medlen, score highly emotional victories at the Las Vegas SummitRacing.com Nationals.

Hight helps the healing process for John Force Racing and for Eric’s father John Medlen (who was participating at the event) with a timely win in Funny Car eliminator. Robert topped a very quick field driving the Auto Club of California-sponsored Ford Mustang. In the final round Hight faced off against current NHRA POWERade points leader Ron Capps. Both drivers had some tire spin problems but it was Hight who recovered first to win at 5.126 secs 282.90 mph compared to Capps’ 5.592 secs at 178.57 mph. The dramatic victory, which also included round wins over Tommy Johnson Jr., Del Worsham and Jim Head, was Hight’s first of the ’07 season and the 6th of his career.

FC racing at Las Vegas was paced by Mike Ashley who drove the Evan Knoll Torco-sponsored Dodge Charger to low ET of the meet at 4.725 secs. On that run Ashley recorded a fantastic 334.32 mph – the fastest speed in FC racing history. Ashley was unable to back up that mark for an official NHRA speed record however and the outstanding qualifying effort was tempered on Sunday when he was upset by #16 qualifier Jack Beckman in round one. He had trouble and Beckman beat him easily with a run of 4.775 secs at 327.19 mph.

One of the biggest new stories of the event is the shocking DNQ by John Force whose best effort of 4.852 secs was bumped down to 17th by Jack Beckman in Saturday’s final session. That marked the end of an incredible qualifying streak for Force which dated back to 1987 and 335 races in a row.

The event featured the return of Jerry Toliver to FC class competition driving his new Rockstar Energy Drink Toyota. Toliver looked strong and just missed qualifying in his first event back running a best of 4.859 secs

Brandon Bernstein scored over a very quick Top Fuel field which featured a bump spot of 4.618 secs. Driving his Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster, Bernstein ended a determined event bid for Georgia’s Bob Vandergriff driver of the UPS-sponsored dragster when his 4.512 secs at 330.07 mph prevailed in the final round.

Brandon’s march to victory lane also included round wins over Clay Millican, Cory McClenathan and Morgan Lucas.

Top Fuel class racing also featured a remarkable non-qualifying development when normal class stalwart Doug Kalitta missed the field driving a specially-painted Chip Foose/Mac Tools dragster. Kalitta’s best run was 4.641 secs.

The event featured another strong outing by the independent Oregon-based Hartley Racing team who were runner-up at Houston two weeks earlier. At Las Vegas they qualified 10th and won in round one over David Grubnic (4.618 secs to 4.686 secs).

Morgan Lucas also had a strong Top Fuel event in his first race out with newly acquired crew chief Rahn Tobler. Lucas, who also drove in the TAD class, went to the TF semi-final round before losing out in a close match to Bernstein.

Low ET of the meet was set by Tony Schumacher during qualifying at 4.479 secs but for the second year in a row at this event he was upset in round one. He lost out to J.R. Todd when his powerful U.S. Army sponsored dragster smoked its tires.

Pro Stock racing saw Greg Anderson increase his overall NHRA POWERade points lead with his 3rd victory of the season. Anderson thrilled the event sponsor with a very timely win in the Summit Racing Equipment-sponsored Pontiac GTO.

In the PS final Greg saved his best effort of the weekend when he unloaded both low ET and top speed of the meet at 6.724 secs at 205.29 mph to turn back the low qualifier Jeg Coughlin, who ran a 6.758 secs driving the Slammer-sponsored Chevy Colbalt.

During time trials, Coughlin and his racing teammate Dave Connolly had qualified 1-2 in the class recording identical elapsed times of 6.733 secs.

Pro Stock racing was once again a very tight affair with all 16 qualifiers bunched together between 6.733 and 6.794 secs.

Rookie California-based PS driver Bill Windham provided the event’s most harrowing moment during Friday’s qualifying session with a truly fantastic “save” driving his Big-O-Tires sponsored Chevy Colbalt. Windham came as close as you can come without tumbling over in a very wild ride. His car was withdrawn from competition after the near incident for evaluation.

Northwest “hitter” Joey Severance prevailed over a very competition Top Alcohol Dragster program which featured a final round confrontation between the #1 and #2 qualified cars. Pole qualifier Severance (5.341 secs), wheeled his supercharged alcohol car to victory when Morgan Lucas’s injected nitro car went into instant tire smoke when he hit the throttle.

Low ET in TAD went to Las Vegas-area racer Duane Shields who hit a 5.335 secs during eliminations before he lost out to Severance in the semi-final round.

TAFC class racing at the SummitRacing.com national drew a very strong entry list of 26 cars and was paced by recent NHRA Houston winner Brian Hough at 5.630 secs.

That championship round featured two California-based drivers with Jay Payne scoring over fast rising class star Sean Bellemeur in a battle of Chevy Camaro-bodied machines. Payne, driving his Valvoline-sponsored machine, overcame a great .010 RT by Bellemeur to win a 5.716 secs 255.05 mph to 5.815 secs 252.85 mph match.

The top performance overall in the TAFC class came from another California-based team with Doug Gordon’s potent Chevy Monte Carlo hitting a 5.615 secs at 259.01 mph in round one – which was low ET/top speed.