Force Maintains Top Qualifier for Eliminations at GIR

(Gateway International Raceway photo)

Under overcast skies Friday, 14-time NHRA Full Throttle Series Funny Car champion John Force took advantage of ideal track conditions, earning top qualifier honors for the 134th time in his career for this weekend's AAA Insurance NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway. His pass of 4.103 seconds was good enough to break the NHRA Funny Car track record, as was his speed of 307.23 mph.

No one threatened Force's numbers during the three qualifying sessions this weekend (Q2 was rained out), but his daughter, Ashley Force Hood, was able to put together a run of 4.123 seconds during Saturday's first session. She will start second Sunday.

In Top Fuel, Cory McClenathan also set a GIR ET record with his pole-sitting time of 3.815 seconds, topping Tony Schumacher's run Friday night of 3.829. Schumacher maintains the track-record Top Fuel speed of 318.62 mph.

Mike Edwards briefly lost the pole in the Pro Stock class to Roger Brogdon, but was able to return to the top spot in the final session of the day with a run of 6.640 seconds. Brogdon is seeded second for tomorrow's eliminations. The surprise of the day was provided by former Pro Stock champ Jason Line who failed to make the 16-car field after 150 straight events without a DNQ. The PS class was the strongest of the event with 27 cars entered.

Hector Arana, the defending Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, took the top spot from Craig Treble with a pass of 6.905 seconds. Treble's speed of 194.63 mph retains the track record for that class. Missouri native David Hope made the field seeded 11th with a seven-second flat.

Pre-race ceremonies for the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals start Sunday at 10 a.m. with eliminations beginning at 11. Weather is expected to cooperate and tickets can be purchased at the track upon arrival.

For the full weekend schedule, click HERE.

For weather information, click HERE.


For up-to-the-minute updates of the action, visit GatewayRaceway.com, Facebook.com/GatewayRaceway, and Twitter.com/GatewayRaceway.

Inside Motorsports Update

From here on out, the Inside Motorsports column at Globe-Democrat.com will appear every Friday in the More Sports section of the G-D sports page. Also, just wrapped up the conversation with 31-time NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel winner and 1994 USAC Sprint Car champ Doug Kalitta. My column on him will be tomorrow's Inside Motorsports, but if you want to hear the entire interview uncut, just click HERE. Doug has been to three finals in four races this year and lost to Cory McClenathan on Monday at Charlotte by .001 seconds. NOT to Antron Brown, as you will hear the idiot doing the interview say...disregard THAT guy...just listen to Doug.