After coming extremely close at the previous two NHRA national events with runner-up placings at both Houston and Las Vegas, Ashley Force has made major Motorsports headlines becoming the first female driver to win in NHRA’s Funny Car category. In a terrific twist of fate, the overall POWERade points leader ran her quickest ET of the event in the final round while racing alongside her legendary father, John Force. Ashley’s Castrol-sponsored Ford Mustang ripped a sensational 4.837 secs at 320.36 mph while Force succumbed to early tire spin problems.

Ashley’s first FC class win came in her 27th career start in the category and in her 4th final round appearance. She defeated Del Worsham, Jim Head and Ron Capps in earlier action after qualifying in the 11th position entering Sunday’s final eliminations. The victory also helped her pad her overall points lead over Tim Wilkerson to 59 points. She is also the first ever female POWERade points leader for the FC category.

FC eliminator was paced by recent Las Vegas event winner Tim Wilkerson who drove the Levi-Ray-Shoup Chevy Impala to an impressive 4.774 secs at 325.92 mph during qualifying. Those numbers held up for both low ET and top speed of the event.

Friday’s opening round of qualifying featured a baptism of sorts for JFR team driver Ron Neff who experienced his first career major fire driving his “Old Spice” sponsored Ford Mustang. Neff, who was formally the crew chief to Gary Scelzi, nearly collided with Scelzi who was in the other lane during the high speed top end incident. Neff managed to shake off the close call and did come back later for a strong #7 qualifying effort.

Antron Brown, who crossed over this season from Pro Stock Motorcycle to Top Fuel dragster racing collected his 2nd win of the season driving the Matco Tools dragster to victory. Brown used a better starting line reaction time in the final round to upset POWERade points leader Tony Schumacher in a sensational dash to the stripe. Antron won with a 4.537 secs at 325.14 mph compared to the US Army car’s quicker; 4.521 secs at 329.58 mph.

The win moved Brown to within 26 points of Schumacher for the POWERade points lead. Tony Schumacher had set low ET of the meet during the semi-final round when he beat Rod Fuller with a 4.511 secs. Schumacher’s TF racing teammate Cory McClentahan had qualified #1 for the event with a 4.562 secs run in the Fram-sponsored dragster.

The Pro Stock final round at Atlanta was a truly memorable one with Pontiac GXP drivers Mike Edwards and Jason Line both recording identical 6.680 secs elapsed times. Edwards, driving his Penhall-sponsored machine, earned his first win since Dallas 2006 based on a better .009 RT.

Edwards, who qualified 5th, outran Dave Northrop, Allen Johnson and Jeg Coughlin in earlier action.

Ron Krisher, driver of the Valvoline-sponsored Chevy Colbalt earned the pole and set low ET of the meet at 6.644 secs while homestate fan favorite Warren Johnson carded top speed at 207.98 mph.

The Atlanta event marked the return to Pro Stock circuit racing for Ohio’s David Connolly who finished 3rd in NHRA points last year. Connolly was behind the wheel of a new Cagnazzi Racing Chevy Colbalt sponsored by Charter Communications. His first race back produced a strong #6 qualifying position that was followed by a holeshot round one loss to Kurt Johnson.

Former NHRA POWERade World Champion Andrew Hines picked up his first Pro Stock Motorcycle win of the season in dominating style aboard the Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod. Hines beat the Suzuki of Chip Ellis in the final round winning a very close 6.946 secs 191.40 mph to 6.958 secs 190.70 mph decision. The win was Hines’ 14th of his career and came from the pole.

R/UP Ellis set both low ET and top speed for PSM at 6.943 secs and 192.60 mph.

The JEGS Pro Mod Challenge circuit hosted it’s 3rd scheduled event of 2008 with that victory going to homestate driver Eddie Ware. Ware wheeled his all new ’68 Pontiac Firebird to a final round 6.055 secs at 235.51 mph to beat the ’63 Corvette of Roger Burgess who slowed to a 6.499 secs at 179.56 mph.

The JEGS PM Challenge event featured a very swift 6.099 secs bump spot and was paced by the powerful ’68 Firebird of Canadian Raymond Commisso who set both low ET and top speed at 5.957 secs and 244.87 mph during time trials.

Pro Mod racing also produced the event’s most harrowing moment when the Jegs-sponsored Pontiac GTO driven by Troy Coughlin collected the guardwall hard during round one of competition. Coughlin, who had qualified 5th with a career best 6.021 secs, was reportedly knocked unconscious for a time but was otherwise not seriously injured. His GTO did however receive major right side damage.

Summit Southern Nationals event activities included a major announcement from parent company Coca Cola that it’s energy drink brand Full Throttle will succeed POWERade as the NHRA series primary sponsor beginning in 2009. NHRA Pro racing will thus become known as the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series next year.

The Atlanta event also included the 2008 Dart Dash for Top Sportsman class racing. That race-within-a-race, which was hosted during Saturday’s schedule, featured 26 of the top rated TS cars from across North America. The hard fought all nitrous title bout was won by Florida’s Matthew Buck who wheeled his Pontiac Firebird to a final round 7.102 secs at 194.94 mph to turn back Keith Raftery’s GTO.

NHRA’s TAD racing featured yet another ‘08 season win for Texan Spencer Massey who won for the 2nd year in a row at Atlanta driving Gene Snow’s injected nitro car. Massey’s victory compliments his impressive back-to-back IHRA circuit wins (in Top Fuel – driving for Mitch King) earlier in the month at San Antonio and Rockingham.

Frank Manzo once again was all conquering in TAFC class racing driving his Lucas Oil-sponsored Chevy Monte Carlo. Manzo won for the 13th time at Atlanta Dragway and for the 74th time in his fantastic career when he beat transplanted Australian Steve Harker in the final round. Manzo prevailed in a very close 5.558 secs 260.81 mph to 5.569 secs 257.83 mph decision.