You gotta say it as "summernationals". At Englishtown, its one word not two.
Antron Brown leaves the E3 Spark Plugs Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ leading by seven points over Leah Pritchett in NHRA's Top Fuel Division. Although every driver wants to take home a "Wally" from this historic event, Brown had to settle for the points lead instead, as defending event champion, Steve Torrence ran a 3.85 ET at his hometown race to Brown's 3.93 ET.
This was a rematch of their recent clash in the final in Topeka, where Brown beat Torrence for the 22nd time in 23 tries making this win all the sweeter for the CAPCO Contractors team. Torrence made it to the final round by eliminating Doug Kalitta in the semifinals. This year Antron is making a habit of putting his MATCO machine in the finals. He eliminated a hard charging Brittany Force in his semifinal run.
One of the original seven nationals, this year's NHRA event at Englishtown saw a hot track get even hotter, giving more than one crew chief a headache. Elapsed times faded for the finals as big horsepower classes had to take some clutch out in hopes of eliminating dreaded wheel spin. In Pro-Stock, Greg Anderson hooked up from start to finish and took home his 88th Wally, and his 8th National win at Old Bridge Township Raceway.
In the Funny Car final, "Fast Jack" Beckman took top honors in the Traxxas Nitro Shootout beating Ron Capps with a top speed of 312.42 mph. "You don't know if your last win was your 'Last Win' out here," Beckman told reporters. Having eliminated NHRA King (John Force) in the semifinals, you can expect to see Fast Jack again.
NHRA teams head south for another East Coast round. Thunder Valley is the next NHRA National at Bristol, TN. Scheduled for Father’s Day weekend, Bristol Dragway always creates an action-packed weekend. With high horsepower machines running in thinner mountain air, the event has become a "can’t-miss" on the E3 Spark Plugs racing calendar.
