NHRA’s last event of the “Countdown to Four” playoff round produced some very high drama as the final slots are now determined for each NHRA Professional POWERade category.

The “Countdown” race for Funny Car eliminator was particularly interesting as two of it’s key players, Gary Scelzi and Ron Capps, who were on the outside looking in coming into the Richmond event, both secured slots following dramatic event efforts.

In fact the FC final round featured the two star Mopar-team drivers and it was Gary Scelzi earning the victory with his 4th circuit title of the season. Scelzi drove his Oakley/Mopar Dodge Charger to a final round 4.956 secs at 306.60 mph to defeat Capps, who smoked the tires driving his special edition Brut/Valvoline Dodge Charger.

Scelzi’s win makes him the only driver to have ever won in both Funny Car and Top Fuel eliminator at the Virginia Motorsports facility.

Ironically, with the advancement of Scelzi and Capps to the final round at the event, their racing teammate Jack Beckman was eliminated from ’07 POWERade Championship contention. Beckman, who was the 3rd seed entering the race lost in a major round two upset to Tony Bartone which opened that door of opportunity.

The event was run off without two of the FC class’s star drivers as both John Force and his daughter Ashley Force were not in competition. John is still in a Dallas hospital mending from his injuries following his crash there (Sep. 23rd) and Ashley’s Castrol-sponsored Ford Mustang was withdrew from competition after chassis safety modifications, mandated by John Force, could not be completed in time.

The only JFR car at Virginia was the AAA Auto Club Mustang driven by Robert Hight which did compete with chassis safety modifications. Hight ran extremely well during qualifying (4.790 secs – 2nd) but then smoked the tires in round which advanced Ron Capps.

FC class qualifying was paced by Tommy Johnson Jr who ran a 4.790 secs (low ET) driving Don Prudhomme’s Skoal-sponsored Chevy Impala, however TJ’s car went silent following it’s round one burnout handing an easy victory to Cruz Pedregon.

Top Fuel racing ended the surprising ‘07 season suffering for Doug Kalitta as the normally top class contender earned his first win of the year. Kalitta drove his Mac Tools-sponsored dragster to a sensational final round winlight over Melanie Troxel. In a wire-to-wire matchup, Kalitta’s 4.647 secs 316.08 mph prevailed over Troxel’s 4.649 secs at 316.45 mph.

TF round one included some high drama too as Brandon Bernstein held off Bob Vandergriff for the 4th and final Countdown to Four slot when he beat Vandergriff in a head-to-head match-up. Brandon won easily at 4.595 secs 324.12 mph while Vandergriff’s UPS-sponsored car went into tire smoke.

Top Fuel racing highlights included a strong semi-final round finish for former IHRA circuit regular Doug Foley. Foley qualified his Torco Mach Series Accelerator-sponsored car 10th and then rudely upset Rod Fuller and Brandon Bernstein before he lost out to Kalitta.

Tony Schumacher earned the pole for Top Fuel with a stout ride of 4.524 secs however he was dealt out by #16 qualifier Morgan Lucas in round one; 4.575 secs to 4.622 secs.

Runner-up Melanie Troxel, who had won recently at NHRA Memphis, and is Funny Car class bound for 2008, was credited to top speed of the event at 327.59 mph.

Pro Stock saw Ohio’s Dave Connolly continue his amazing streak by winning his 5th consecutive NHRA circuit event. Connolly rode his Torco-sponsored Chevy Colbalt past a strong event bid by Colorado’s Vieri Gaines in the final round winning a close 6.671 to 6.679 secs duel.

Connolly’s victory (his 8th of the season), also included round wins over Ron Krisher, Max Naylor, and Richie Stevens. He qualified 2nd behind only his racing teammate Jeg Coughlin. In fact both drivers recorded identical 6.645 secs elapsed times (low ET and side by side) but Coughlin got the pole based on speed.

The benefits of team racing were also very apparent at the event. Team Mopar driver Allen Johnson who lost out in a round one match-up to Kurt Johnson and then saw his ‘07 season campaign on the line in round two when KJ raced Allen’s Mopar-teammate Richie Stevens. Richie combined a great .030 RT with a run of 6.670 secs to eliminate Kurt Johnson’s ACDelco Chevy and that secured the 4th and final slot for Allen Johnson.

Pro Stock racing did include a surprise participant with the entry of Sweden’s Adam Flamholc for the event. Adam drove his all new Pontiac GTO to a respectable 6.771 secs at 203.86 mph but that fell shot of the required 6.699 secs bump.

NHRA AMS Pro Mod circuit cars were in action at Virginia and that eliminator produced a first time winner; Rick Stivers, driving his supercharged Camaro.

Stivers benefited from a big break in the final round when favored Raymond Commisso (from Toronto) had a .002 red foul start driving his R2B2/Steelback Chevy Camaro. Stiver’s winning time was a 6.138 secs at 231.04 mph.

Stivers, who is from Kentucky, beat Jay Payne, Mike Stawicki and Tim Tindle in earlier competition.

Pro Mod eliminations produced the event’s most harrowing moment when California’s Shelly Anderson made hard impact after losing control of her Valvoline-sponsored Camaro in round two. Shelly collected both guardwalls in the incident, severely damaging her machine. She did emerge from the crash on her own but was taken to hospital for observation.

The Virginia event also included an exciting Nitro Harley exhibition which was won by Jay Turner. Turner rode to a final round time of 6.811 secs at 197.97 mph to take the title over Bill Furr who redlit away a superior 6.740 secs at 205.13 mph. Turner took the measure of Phil Schmidt and Tommy Grimes in earlier rounds. Doug Vancil set both low ET and top speed in NH at 6.344 secs and 221.42 mph during qualifying but lost out in round one.

Sportsman racing was highlighted by a big win in Super Stock by Georgia’s Grant Lewis. Driving his GT/AA-classed ’05 Grand Am – Lewis won the event from the pole position.