Edwards Maxes Out -- Moves to Verge of Pro Stock Title

(Worsham wins 3rd ’09 Event in FC, Bernstein snaps long TF winless streak)

(Pro Racing Summary Courtesy of NHRA Communications)

Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards went wire-to-wire at the NHRA Virginia Nationals, earning the maximum 150 points, to all but clinch his first career NHRA Full Throttle Series world championship.

The other winners at the 22nd of 24 races in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series were Del Worsham (Funny Car) and Brandon Bernstein (Top Fuel).

The NHRA Virginia Nationals is the fourth race in NHRA’s six-race playoff, the Countdown to 1. The playoff concludes with races in Las Vegas (Oct. 29-Nov. 1) and Pomona, Calif. (Nov. 12-15).

Edwards qualified No. 1, earned the maximum 12 per-session qualifying bonus points, and the 20-point bonus for setting the national record (6.509 seconds) to become the first driver to record the maximum 150 points at a single race.

“This day was near-perfect,” said Edwards, who defeated Greg Anderson and the Summit Racing Pontiac team in the final on a slight holeshot, 6.526/211.43 (with a 0.019 reaction time) to 6.522/212.03 (0.027). “It’s unbelievable what I did here today, what my team did here today. My team was phenomenal. I’m going to enjoy it while I can because my daddy always told me, ‘One day it will start raining, so get ’em while you can.”

Edwards, who drives the A.R.T./Young Life Pontiac, extended his lead from 78 points (over Jason Line to start the day) to 128 (over Anderson), meaning he has more than a six-round cushion (a round win is worth 20 points) with only eight rounds left.

“I’m thinking (championship), but I don’t have it yet,” said Edwards, who beat Line in the semifinals. “It’s close, but you’ve still got to stay focused. You’ve still got to keep your goals ahead. Those two Summit cars are going to be burning the midnight oil to try and get back up there with me. I’m not going to count my chickens yet before they hatch. But I’m living my dream right now, and I’m real close to it right now.”

In Top Fuel, Brandon Bernstein ended a more than two-year winless streak that spanned 52 races when he blew away Antron Brown, 3.844/307.09 to 9.099/75.99.

“We needed a win for our team and for our confidence,” said Bernstein, who pilots the Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster and last won at Brainerd, 2007. “I can’t say enough about our team because with that long of a drought, it could get easy to get really down on themselves and not get out of that funk, but they just stayed positive. Our whole team, my dad (six-time NHRA Full Throttle Series champ Kenny Bernstein), everybody was just so positive, and we just kept at the grind. We knew that eventually we were going to knock down that door and get that win again.”

Brown, the regular season champion who is now in fourth place, did trim his deficit behind points leader Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team from 120 to 81. Dixon and the Al-Anabi team trail Schumacher by 47 points; McClenathan and the FRAM Tough Guard team are 68 points behind in third place.

In Funny Car, Del Worsham played spoiler with his milestone 25th career win over still-in-contention Tim Wilkerson, 4.091/305.98 to 4.179/81.13.

“I had a good feeling this morning,” said Worsham, who drives the Al-Anabi Toyota Solara. “You know, things were just kind of going my way. I was in the car right before first round, and I was just running through everything and I felt the reverser. It felt OK and then all of a sudden, it just felt too loose, and the reverser cable wasn’t hooked up. Right before they started the car, I’m screaming for the clutch guy, ‘Hook up the reverser cable.’ When you find things like that, it’s just kind of your day and you can’t make a mistake.”

Wilkerson moved up from eighth to fifth place on the day, but he's still 82 points behind new points leader Robert Hight, who moved back around teammate Ashley Force Hood (first-round loss to Jeff Arend). He leads Force Hood by 13, Tony Pedregon by 48 and Ron Capps by 63.

“We took advantage of the situation where we made positive ground on the leaders,” said Capps, who trimmed 25 points from his 88-point deficit to start the day with his run to the semis. “But we are still very disappointed because we felt like there were 40 more points that we could have cleaned up with today.”

Pro Mods Rattle Record Book

(Courtesy of: Matthew Brammer)

In the reasonably short history of Pro Modified drag racing, there has never been anything like this weekend's Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge at the NHRA Virginia Nationals. The stands were full and the fans stood and cheered as records were broken, re-broken, and broken yet again. Side-by-side runs in the 5.80's, nitrous cars blasting into uncharted territory, and a turbo-charged monster that sucked the wind from the sails of every other car with a 253.28 mph blast. In the end, Jay Payne defended his event title and won the Warrior and Mike Knowles who failed to even qualify walked away with an NHRA Wally.

PM Winner: Jay Payne

In the three rounds of qualifying, the times improved with nearly every pass. At the end of round one, Roger Burgess was on top with a 5.936. In round two, Rick Stivers drove his Trane-backed Dodge Stratus to a 5.906 to hold the provisional top position overnight. By Saturday afternoon, the atmospheric racing conditions had improved remarkably, giving the final round of qualifying a boost that led to a flurry of record-setting times.

In the third pair down the track in the last qualifying session, Dennis Radford piloted his '70 Duster to the quickest-ever nitrous-powered lap of 5.924 at 237.13 mph. The very next pair, Jay Payne broke into the 80's with a 5.870 at 242.67. Melanie Troxel followed soon after with a 5.891 at 244.69, and then Brad Personett launched a record-passing shot of 5.843 seconds at a monster 253.28 mph. Commisso followed with a 5.891 at 243.55, and then Stivers grabbed the No. 1 spot back from Personett with a 5.837 at 245.81.

The march of 80's continued in round one of eliminations with six drivers passing the mark. Notably, Commisso took out points-leader Burton Auxier with a 5.843 and opened the door for Burgess or Danny Rowe to move into first place. Stivers took out Scott Ray with a 5.835, and Joe Baker took out Personett with a holeshot 5.873 to 5.866.

Baker used another holeshot in round two to send No. 3 Rowe packing and took away any chances for him to take advantage of Auxier's early exit, 5.865 to 5.854. Jay Payne ended Burgess' hopes of making any advances on Auxier as well, taking him out with a 5.836 at 244.43 to a 5.911 at 246.30.

In the same round, Stivers had a near-perfect .001 reaction time in his victory over Tim Tindle, running a 5.836 at 247.11 to Tindle's 5.914 at 240.81. The win put Stivers within striking distance of removing Tindle from the top eight in overall points and the chance to run for the cash in the Matco Tools $35,000 Pro Mod Clash to be contested in Las Vegas later this month.

Melanie Troxel and Commisso added even more drama to the round, running the quickest-ever side-by-side round, with Troxel's record-breaking 5.829 at 247.79 losing to Commisso's even quicker 5.817 at 246.03. His mark now stands as the World Record in Pro Mod. In that round, no driver ran slower than a 5.914, and six of the eight drivers clocked times in the 5.80 zone.

Semifinal action paired Commisso against Stivers and Payne against Baker. Baker's luck ran short and he struck the tires while trying to swing for the fences, losing to Payne 5.944 to 8.411.

Baker said, "Truth be told, we got greedy. We didn't detune the car enough for the climate conditions. With everyone clocking such great times we just got carried away."

Stivers blasted to a 5.823 at 246.93 to take out Commisso, who was slowed by a broken spark plug to a 5.998 at 235.35. His win set up an all Team BAE final of Stivers versus Payne.

Adding to the drama of the round, Stivers either had to set an ET record or win the event in order to pass Tindle for the No. 8 spot overall and qualify for the Matco Tools Clash - one of Stivers' goals coming in to the weekend. As Stivers and Payne took the line, it looked like it would be an easy win for the Lexington, Ky. businessman, but at half-track, Stivers couldn't control the monster tune up Anderson put into the car and crossed the centerline, thereby forfeiting the round and handing the win to his teammate Jay Payne.

"It just wasn't meant to be," said disappointed Stivers. "I wanted that record so bad I could taste it, and Brad gave me a tune up that would have run a 5.70-something. The air was there, the conditions were right, but when the wheels went up after I shifted, I couldn't hang on, and it just got away from me."

Payne's victory was his first of the season and his second at Virginia Motorsports Park, his first coming just last year. Stivers won the event two years ago.

Payne wasn't the only driver to leave Virginia with a trophy, however, as Mike Knowles was awarded an NHRA Wally for having the best appearing crew - the first time any Pro Mod team has ever been considered for or won that honor.

Knowles, who failed to qualify for the field, said, "It was really cool to be awarded the best appearing crew from NHRA. That made the DNQ a little easier to take. We always take pride in the way things look and how we present ourselves, so to be recognized for that, it means a lot. It's also huge, as a class, to be included in the judging for that. We've worked hard to keep the relationship with NHRA advancing, and I think this is a great sign of how things are continuing to get better and better."

Next up on the schedule for the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge is the series final race of the season at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas, Oct. 29 - Nov. 1.