So, what happens when the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series visits Denver for the Mopar Mile-High Nationals? Antron Brown makes the finals at Bandimere Speedway. Actually, Brown making it to the finals in Top Fuel is a common occurrence but this time he drove the MATCO Tools sponsored dragster to the 64th victory of his career. After losing in his last three final round appearances, Brown toppled Leah Pritchett with a better elapsed time of 3.792 to Pritchett's 3.816.
Both Antron and Leah trail Pritchett's teammate at Don Schumacher Racing for the series points lead. The final round defeat was only Pritchett's second of the 2017 season in her Papa John's Pizza ride. Her teammate Steve Torrence now leads the Top Fuel class by 54 points over Brown and 70 points over Pritchett. Brittany Force who was displaced by Brown in the Semifinal round at Denver had eliminated Torrence in the Quaterfinals.
In NHRA Funny Car, Robert Hight claimed his first victory of the 2017 Mello Yello season by defeating Tommy Johnson Jr. in his Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T. When Hight's Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro crossed the finish line, it notched the 38th win of Hight's career. As the head honcho at John Force Racing, Hight now has thirteen consecutive seasons with a win in the NHRA's Funny Car division. With the win at Bandimere Speedway, Hight leap frogged his way to third place in the series points behind Ron Capps and Matt Hagan.
For the second event in a row, Pro Stock's Drew Skillman stood atop the podium. By .009 seconds, Skillman posted an ET of 6.916 to beat his previous best time in the class. After beating Bo Butner off the tree, Skillman carded a 198.15 mph run over Butner's 198.88. Butner maintained his season points lead as the NHRA moves west to the northern California city of Sonoma for the July 28-30 event. With ten races left in the 2017 NHRA season, drivers and teams only have four races left before the Countdown to the Championship begins. If you have a high performance ride at home, check out the racing ignition products and racing spark plugs available at Shop E3. See you in Sonoma!
