The weather wasn’t the only thing that was hot over Father’s Day weekend as the National Hot Rod Association rolled into Bristol Dragway for the E3 Spark Plugs Thunder Valley Nationals. NHRA fans were the beneficiary as a couple of legends to the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series reached career high performances. Top Fuel ace Tony Schumacher blazed through qualifying rounds to earn a spot in his 100th final round while Funny Car driver John Force won his 130th NHRA national final.
Force regained the series points lead posting a 4.37 second run in the finals at 285.59 MPH in his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang as challenger Tim Wilkerson’s hopes went up in smoke. The charismatic Force reached his 207th career final by eliminating Paul Lee, Matt Hagan and Bob Tasca III in early rounds. This was the 10th running of the NHRA event at the famed Thunder Valley racing facility. Del Worsham would leave Bristol with third place points followed by Tasca and Ashley Force Hood.
U.S. Army Motocross Team
In Top Fuel, the U.S. Army team avoided a head-to-head confrontation with series points leader Larry Dixon when 14th place qualifier Morgan Lucas eliminated the FRAM Top Fuel driver in round one. Schumacher took out second place qualifier Cory McClenathan in the semi-final round and went on to claim his 65th career NHRA national win. Tony’s fourth victory of the 2010 season came at the hands of second-generation racer Brandon Bernstein who could only manage a 272.56 MPH against Schumacher’s final run of 306.53 MPH.
Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards coasted to an easy win when challenger Rickie Jones red lighted in the final round. The starting line foul saved Edwards as he fought an ill handling car that didn’t hook up to the hot Bristol track. Teams travel to Norwalk, Ohio, for next weekend’s NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing action for Round Thirteen of the twenty-three race series presented by Lucas Oil. If you are looking for high performance, try E3 car spark plugs in your favorite ride and put our patented DiamondFire technology to work for you.
E3 SPARK PLUGS THUNDER VALLEY NATIONALS RESULTS
TOP FUEL
1. Tony Schumacher; 2. Brandon Bernstein; 3. Cory McClenathan; 4. Antron Brown; 5. Shawn Langdon
FUNNY CAR
1. John Force; 2. Tim Wilkerson; 3. Del Worsham; 4. Bob Tasca III; 5. Ashley Force Hood
PRO STOCK
1. Mike Edwards; 2. Rickie Jones; 3. Jeg Coughlin; 4. Allen Johnson; 5. Ron Krisher
