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Charlotte Drag Results

CONCORD, N.C. – The Inaugural Carolinas Nationals at zMAX Dragway at Concord ended a few hours ago, with a thundering pass by “Sarge” Tony Schumacher to surpass Joe Amato as the Top Fuel driver with more wins than anyone. “Sarge” won his seventh NHRA National meet in a row and twelfth win of the 2008 season to surpass Joe Amato’s record. In setting the new record, Schumacher notched his 53^rd class win in a career that appears to be destined to go on for a long time yet. Round One saw “Sarge drive away from David Grubnic as Grubnic had problems early in his run. Round Two had Larry Dixon leave on Schumacher but the Army car drove around Dixon as Dixon went up in smoke a third of the way down the 1,000-foot strip.

 

The third round pitted Hillary Will against the Sarge, as he left the line just ahead of Hillary, whose tires went up in smoke at the start, setting up the final round between Antron Brown and Schumacher. Schumacher left slightly ahead of Brown; Brown had the lead briefly but Schumacher pulled back ahead to win with an ET of 3.882 sec and trap speed of 317.64 mph.

 

In Funny Car, Jack Beckman came into the finals for the fourth time in a row and sixth of the season, meeting Cruz Pedregon, who would leave the event with the point lead regardless of the race results. Cruz had a better reaction time, leaving at 0.059 second, to Beckman’s 0.090 and held the lead at the 1/8-mile point, but Beckman was not to be denied, edging ahead by a thousandth of a second at the 660-foot mark and going on to a margin of victory of about ten inches at the timing line, extending Pedregon’s winless string to over two seasons.

 

Pro Stock honors went to Justin Humphreys, wheeling his Warren Johnson-powered Pontiac GXP through the field, starting with a 6.754 second, 206.07 mph win over Rob Mansfield in the first round, then sending Jim Yates back to the hauler in Round Two in their first-ever meeting. Round Three had Jeg Coughlin meet Humphreys, with Humphreys leaving the line with an advantage of 0.012 seconds before driving on to increase the gap to a margin of 0.0136, or four feet at the quarter mile. While Humphreys marched through his side of the ladder, Kurt Johnson motored his AC Delco Chevy Cobalt through the other side, beating out Greg Anderson in the second round with a near-psychic light reaction time of only three thousandths of a second, a time matched in the same round when Jeg Coughlin beat out Jason Line with the same reaction.

 

“KJ” had to use horsepower to beat out V. Gaines in Round Three when Gaines put a reaction time of 0.007 second in the book, compared to Johnson’s 0.027. Johnson had to drive around Gaines with the quickest pass of the day in PS at 6.688 seconds. All that power was to no advantage for Johnson in the final round, when his car failed to start with a broken starter. Humphreys tried to stall entering the burnout box and staging, but finally staged and launched, but shut down almost immediately, with a reaction of 0.726 second and an ET of 19.849 seconds, crossing the line at only 42.4 mph. He became the 51^st driver to win a Pro Stock “Wally” with his win at zMAX Dragway.

 

Indy winner Steve Johnson repeated at zMAX, beating out Angie McBride in Round One, in spite of her better reaction time. In the second round, Wes Wells fouled, handing Johnson the win and the next round matchup with Hector Arana. Arana repeated Wells’ red light, moving Johnson into the finals against Eddie Krawiec, marking the first time they have met in a final round. Krawiec left just 0.002 second early on the Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines bike to hand Johnson the win and a short ride into the sand trap when in his excitement he neglected to stop early enough to avoid the rough ride.

 

The Inaugural Carolinas Nationals proved one of the most exciting and best-attended events on the NHRA calendar. With sell-out crowds both Saturday and Sunday, plus reported good attendance Friday, great racing and universal praise from the competitors, this race meet is already being touted as potentially the next “Nationals.”

 

Whatever the future of the event, zMAX Dragway is certainly a new and high bar for other strips to aim for, with more and better amenities for everyone, from the newest spectator to the reigning champions. We can’t predict what will happen in 2009 and beyond, except that we hope to continue to be able to attend these events.

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