Chicago’s own Don Schumacher may have enjoyed his finest hour yet in drag racing as his Mopar Funny Car team absolutely dominated action at hometown Route 66 Raceway. Not only did two of his team drivers, Gary Scelzi and Ron Capps qualify 1-2, they also met in the event’s final round with Scelzi earning his 35th career NHRA title (10th in a FC). In a super exciting match, Scelzi edged out POWERade points leader Capps, 4.838 secs 321.42 mph to 4.850 secs 318.39 mph.

Scelzi had set both low ET and top speed while earning the pole at 4.736 secs and 330.96 mph driving the Mike Neff-tuned Oakley/Mopar Dodge Charger. On Sunday he ran very consistently while defeating Bob Gilbertson, Tommy Johnson Jr., and Jim Head to advance to the final round.

Capps’ R/UP was also a strong statement and came after he was a surprising DNQ at Topeka the weekend before.

Schumacher’s 3rd team car, the MTS Dodge Charger driven by Jack Beckman, also made the semifinal round before he lost out to Capps on a red-light foul start.

FC racing did produce some more oddities. For the first time in his 55 race career, Robert Hight did not qualify. Hight’s JFR team appeared to still be suffering residual effects from that major incident in the 2nd round at Topeka the week before. They could not get their all new AAA Auto Club Ford Mustang to behave on a very tricky and heated Joliet racing surface. Also on the DNQ list was last week’s Topeka winner Mike Ashley whose best run of 4.867 secs was #17.

Larry Dixon won his first Top Fuel title since Indy 2005 when he put his new sponsor SkyTel into the winners circle for the first time. Dixon was able to overcome both a lane choice disadvantage and a quicker start by opponent Rod Fuller in the final round to win. Dixon carded a winning 4.579 secs at 322.11 mph driving for team owner Don Prudhomme while Fuller’s Fabick Cat dragster, owned by David Powers and tuned by Canada’s Rob Flynn. struck its tires shortly after leaving the starting line.

Top Fuel qualifying was paced by Chicagoland’s favorite son Tony Schumacher who ripped a terrific 4.462 secs on Friday night which stood up for low ET of the event. Schumacher fell in a major round two upset to Dixon however when his U.S. Army dragster smoked its tires.

Top Fuel class racing also featured very solid semi-final round appearances for Doug Herbert and Doug Foley. Herbert’s Snap-On Tools car made a great comeback after being a DNQ the week before and for Foley, an IHRA tour regular, the semifinal round was his best finish yet in NHRA competition.

Friday’s night’s TF session saw Scott Weis do a big half track wheelstand. The car landed hard and Weis was then forced to withdraw from further competition due to a back injury.

TF racing also featured the first start in the class ever in NHRA for Scotty Cannon – who qualified #13 with a career best 4.557 secs. Cannon had previously driven in the NHRA Funny Car class and had three TF starts this season in IHRA.

Pro Stock racing was dominated by Chevrolet brand cars with Kurt Johnson and Jeg Coughlin both earning major titles.

Johnson won the prestigious annual King Demon Crown on Saturday when his ACDelco Chevy Colbalt outgunned the PiranaZ Pontiac GTO driven by Greg Stanfield. KJ moved first (.033 RT) and never looked back while taking the victory; 6.692 secs 207.15 mph to 6.729 secs 206.26 mph.

It was Johnson’s 4th career NHRA King Demon Crown win and he earned $50,000 for the victory.

Sunday’s Pro Stock eliminator final featured a battle between the two mail order giants with Jeg Couglin’s Jegs-sponsored Chevy Colbalt outrunning Jason Line’s Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac. That final was a “Jim Dandy” as Coughlin carved out a .002 RT to win a razor thin 6.658 secs 207.37 mph to 6.656 secs 208.07 mph duel.

Coughlin had defeated Mike Edwards, Kurt Johnson and Larry Morgan in earlier action.

Greg Anderson was credited with low ET & top speed of the meet after he went 6.617 secs and 208.94 mph during qualifying. Anderson however had problems in round one and was upset by former NBA Basketball player Tom Hammonds.

Defending POWERade World Champion Andrew Hines won his first race of the season in Pro Stock Motorcycle winning a final round battle over Matt Smith. Hines recorded a winning 6.959 secs at 192.11 mph to beat Smith’s 7.014 secs at 187.18 mph.

Hines’ victory, aboard the Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod came from the pole – he set both low ET and top speed at 6.921 secs and 193.65 mph during time trials.

Smith’s runner-up performance aboard the Torco-sponsored Buell helped to boost his overall points lead in POWERade PSM.

The Joliet event featured the 23rd running of the very prestigious Jegs Allstars Sportsman event. NHRA’s Northeast Division One prevailed in overall team points and the individual winners included Spencer Massey (TAD), Frank Manzo (TAFC), Sal Biondo (Comp), Michael Iacono (Super Stock), Russ Linke (Stock), Ron Erks (Super Comp), Ed Olpin (Super Gas) and Craig Abbot (Super Street).

Sunday’s TAD and TAFC eliminators featured very hard fought wins by Bill Reichert and Mickey Ferro.

Reichert, the defending NHRA Lucas Oil World Champion toppled fast-rising star driver Kate Harker (from Australia) in the TAD final. Reichert ran a swift 5.203 (low ET) in the final round.

Mickey Ferro upset the TAFC applecart for the second time this year driving his Chevy Camaro. Ferro’s win came over the quickest TAFC program in NHRA history – a 5.693 secs bump. Ferro, from Connecticut, and who won for the first time in his career at Gainesville in March, easily defeated Cy Chesterman in the final round.