The Mopar Funny Car teams of Mike Ashley and Jack Beckman grabbed the event spotlight during drag racing’s biggest annual event attraction – the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, held at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

Ashley’s third career victory in Funny Car was certainly the biggest and most emotional of his career. Driving a special edition (one race only) Dodge Charger in tribute to the newly established Eric Blake Faulkner Foundation, Ashley roared past the very competitive field. In the final round his run of 4.894 secs at 323.74 mph turned back defending 2006 U.S. Nationals Champion Robert Hight, who had a supercharger failure at about half track.

Ashley, after qualifying 6th, beat Gary Densham, Jack Beckman and Del Worsham in earlier round competition. His event winning car, which was co-funded by Evan Knoll and Jim Jannard, will be auctioned off during the Barrett-Jackson Auction next January with all funds from that also going to the Eric Blake Faulkner Foundation. That foundation was created by Eric’s parents, Donnie and Hollie Faulkner who were present at the event.

Ashley’s FC victory on Monday was preceded by a $100,000 first place prize win for Jack Beckman who scored during Sunday’s prestigious Skoal Showdown. Driving his Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger, Beckman topped his fellow Schumacher racing teammate Ron Capps in that lucrative title bout – winning a very close 4.950 secs 313.80 mph to 4.976 secs 315.64 mph decision.

Funny Car class racing highlights included a spectacular and history making pole qualifying effort for Canadian Jeff Arend who set both low ET and top speed during Friday’s first session at 4.754 secs and 327.51 mph. Jeff’s C.S.K. Chevrolet was however dealt out in a major first round upset by #16 qualifier Jon Capps (brother to Ron) who qualified for the first time in NHRA competition.

FC racing was an ultra-competitive affair with all 16 qualifiers bunched between Arend’s 4.754 secs and Capps’ 4.826 secs bump.

John Force was a shocking non-qualifier at the Indy event missing the cut for the first time since 1984. Force was driving a special edition Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang in tribute to fallen teammate Eric Medlen. Force’s best effort was 4.856 secs (17th).

Tony Schumacher won his 6th Mac Tools U.S. Nationals Top Fuel crown in the past 8 seasons when he rode the U.S. Army dragster to a highly convincing victory. Schumacher won from the pole after setting both low ET and top speed during qualifying at 4.477 secs and 333.66 mph.

Schumacher’s victory was the 40th of his career tying him with Larry Dixon in 10th place on that all time list. In fact, Schumacher defeated Dixon in the final round with a winning time of 4.575 secs at 331.94 mph compared to Dixon’s 4.748 secs 268.44 mph.

Schumacher tore past Clay Millican, Cory McClenthan and Melanie Troxel during earlier rounds of competition. His win came over an extremely quick field which featured a swift bump spot of 4.595 secs.

Ohio’s Dave Connolly won his second race in a row but his first U.S. Nationals crown in Pro Stock. Connolly managed to end the Indy domination of Greg Anderson in the final round winning by a very scant margin at the stripe, 6.710 secs 206.32 mph to 6.729 secs 205.79 mph. That stopped Anderson’s round winning streak at the Indy event at 19 (!)

Connolly received full marks for his victory driving the Tommy Utt-tuned Torco-sponsored Chevy Colbalt. He qualified 3rd (6.659 secs) but then unloaded low ET of the meet in round one at 6.648 secs while defeating defending POWERade World Champion Jason Line. Connolly seemed to never look back after that while also topping his teammate (Justin Humphreys) and then Kenny Koretsky.

Pro Stock racing also featured a surprise low qualifier when Pennsylvania’s Max Naylor drove his Jagermeister-sponsored Dodge to the pole at 6.655 secs. Naylor won his first round but was gunning down on a holeshot by Greg Anderson in round two: 6.735 secs to 6.732 secs.

Pro Stock Motorcycle featured exciting class victories by Craig Treble and Andrew Hines.

Treble earned his first Indy crown aboard the Team Tigue Suzuki owned by Harry Lartigue. He defeated defending 2006 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals champion Matt Smith in the final round when Smith went -.003 red driving his Torco-sponsored Buell. Treble’s event winning time was 7.037 secs at 190.83 mph.

PSB racing was paced by Chip Ellis who rode his Drag Specialties/S&S Racing Buell to low ET (and a track record) 6.948 secs.

During Saturday’s event schedule Andrew Hines rode his Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod to victory in the prestigious Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle. That was Hines’ 3rd career win in that special attraction. His final round effort of 7.005 secs at 189.31 mph beat Chip Ellis’ 7.069 secs at 186.64 mph and earned him a first place prize of $25,000.

Racing at Indy marked the return of AMS Pro Modified circuit to NHRA with 24 cars battling for that title.

That eliminator produced a first time circuit winner when Louisiana’s Harold Laird drove his supercharged ’63 Corvette to victory. Laird upset runaway points leader Josh Hernandez in the final round. The two drivers left the starting line together but Laird pulled ahead to win a 6.102 secs to 6.124 secs decision.

New York’s Mike Janis set low ET in AMS Pro Mod running a superb 6.020 secs in the Eaton-sponsored Chevy Colbalt. Steve Engel had top speed at a terrific 242.14 mph in his ’63 Corvette.

Top Alcohol Funny Car class racing produced a major victory for Frank Manzo who won Indy for the 9th time in his career to tie Bob Glidden at the top of that all time list.

Manzo’s win came in typical Manzo fashion as he scored from the pole and set both low ET and top speed (5.498 secs & 264.34 mph). In the final round his Lucas Oil Monte Carlo outgunned fast rising star driver Bob Tasca III taking a 5.562 secs to 5.779 secs victory.

Marty Thacker earned a big win for supercharged Top Alcohol Dragster fans when he rode the Torco-sponsored dragster to a final round win over the injected-nitro car driven by Dave Hirata. Thacker, who showed his driving prowess through out the event, jumped to an early starting line advantage in the final round and scored convincingly; 5.390 secs to Hirata’s 5.442 secs.

Texan Spencer Massey qualified #1 in TAD (5.233 secs) but then spun his tires in the semi final round. Defending World Champion Bill Reichert had top speed of the meet at 277.54 mph but his car inadvertently shut off while racing Canada’s Ken Perry in round one.

The Mac Tools U.S. Nationals Friday schedule was highlighted by the highly popular Mopar Hemi Challenge event for SS/HA racers. 30 cars were entered this season and the victory went to the West Coast ’68 Cuda owned by Jim DeFrank and driven by Rick Houser. Houser ripped a final round 8.652 secs at 151.32 mph to beat Jim Pancake and secure class bragging rites.

The event also featured competition within NHRA’s Sony Xplode sponsored Sports Compact series. While those two eliminators featured only a few entries each -- history was made. The Pro FWD class saw the previous class record of 7.26 secs decimated. Gary Gardella (7.15 secs), Marty Ladwig (7.17 secs) and Jason Hunt (7.19 secs) all run sub 7.2 secs for the first time in history. It was however Jason Hunt that came away with the official mark as he was the only driver capable of running the necessary back up runs. Gary; Gardella won Pro FWD while Boris Rojas won in an upset in the Pro RWD class.