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| Photo Credit: Richard H Shute/Auto Imagery Inc. |
At the NHRA Midwest Nationals, three of the top four classes of NHRA drag racing competed at World Wide Technology Raceway as the latest round in the series championship Countdown. Pro Stock Motorcycles received a planned break after an emotionally difficult outing at zMax Dragway in Charlotte leaving Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock cars of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series to entertain the crowd in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Top Fuel class eliminations resulted in an interesting semi-finals with Leah Pruett matched against Mike Salinas and Steve Torrence racing against John Hart. Taking the top spot in qualifying, Salinas and his Scrappers Racing car was triumphant against Pruett while Torrence’s CAPCO Racing machine earned his latest berth into a 2021 finals defeating Hart. In the finals Steve Torrence leaped off the line with an awful 0.142-second reaction time but proved victorious in the late stage of run when Mike Salinas’ car drifted off line. The win for Torrence is the driver’s ninth Top Fuel finals victory of the 2021 season. Steve Torrence stands with a 36-point lead on Brittany Force in the Countdown.
Eliminations for the Funny Car category at the NHRA Midwest Nationals saw Ron Capps and JR Todd out of competition after the second round while John Force and Cruz Pedregon failed to progress into the finals. Making it to the deciding round for the winner of the NHRA Midwest Nationals was the Motorcraft Quick Lane-sponsored Ford Mustang of Bob Tasca III versus Matt Hagan’s New Holland-sponsored Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat drag racer for Don Schumacher Racing. In a solid last match, a 0.047-second reaction time for Hagan was enough of an edge to take the win. Matt Hagan had just recently returned to his ride after being sidelined for two events due to COVID-19. Despite missing two trips with the NHRA Funny Car class, Hagan had previously secured a spot in the Countdown championship round for year-end honours and has thrived since the start of the title run. He is now 59 points ahead of Ron Capps with four events remaining in the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.
In the Pro Stock car class, Erica Enders and Dallas Glenn met for a fiercely close Sunday afternoon battle in the finals. Ender’s launched away from the starting light nicely with her Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro but Green achieved a near-perfect reaction time granting him the early advantage. Through the run, Enders closed the gap until finally nosing forward to take the victory in the finals. The victory at World Wide Technology Raceway for Erica Enders has allowed her to close to within 17 points of the leader in the season-long class standings Greg Anderson.
The next event for the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series is the Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex with festivities taking place between October 7th and October 10th.
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