Minnesota native Jason Line won a race for an NHRA-record 16th straight season on Sunday, Aug. 18, racing to the wire-to-wire victory at his home track during the 38th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. Line defeated Wally Stroupe, Alex Laughlin and Deric Kramer to meet Erica Enders in the final. Enders was off the tree just .002 ahead of Line but Line was ahead at the finish line with a 6.597/209.10 to 6.604/207.59 for Enders.

It was a double-up victory for Don Schumacher Racing for the first time in 2019, as Leah Pritchett (Top Fuel) and Ron Capps (Funny Car) won. The nitro double-up for the team comes a race after rival John Force Racing did the same in Seattle.

Pritchett got round wins over Kyle Wurtzel, Billy Torrence and Seattle winner Austin Prock to meet Mike Salinas in the final. Her 3.732 at 321.04 mph easily took the win when Salinas lost traction and clicked off his dragster.

Capps had fallen to longtime rival John Force in an emotional final round in Seattle, a race that gave Force his 150th career win, but Capps rebounded in impressive fashion on Sunday getting wins over J.R. Todd, Jack Beckman and Shawn Langdon to meet teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final. Capps drove to a 3.946/324.28 over Johnson’s 3.947/319.98.

In Top Fuel Harley action, Doug Vancil got his fourth win of the season, this time with a 6.256 (Low ET of the event) at 218.12 mph to Tii Tharpe’s 6.532/217.56. However, Tharpe heads into the U.S. Nationals with a 27-point lead over Vancil for the championship.  (Charlie Anderson photos) [08/19/19]

Late Saturday night at Spokane County Raceway, Mendy Fry won her third consecutive Heritage Series Top Fuel race. Fry charged hard out of the gate in the High Speed Motorsports dragster and posted a 5.79 ET at 241 MPH for the win against Bret Williamson, who took runner-up in the Nitro Summer Nationals with a 6.72 ET at 172 MPH in the Mike Fuller Motorsports "Forever Young."

With a commanding and near-insurmountable lead in the season's points battle, Fry and the High-Speed team are bringing their triple threat to the fifth battle in the six-race NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series at Tulsa Raceway Park on Sept. 21-22.

Brian Losness will have a full race report from Spokane coming later in DRO. [08/19/19]

(Dennis Mothershed photo)

John Troxel's “Brutus” race team was one of six Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit teams that helped headline Route 66 Raceway's Annual Nostalgia event on Saturday, Aug. 17. Although the day started off with rain, the enthusiastic crowd hung in and was treated to a great show. In the first round, “Brutus” led things off with a 6.95 pass [their quickest to date] at 193 mph. This turned out to be the low ET of Eliminations.

In the finals, Team Brutus faced the always tough Bill Walls in the “Nitroflier.” With the cooling temps as the sun was setting and all the moisture in the air, the dew started to come in making for a tricky track.

Chris "The Flying Butcher" Schneider staged “Brutus” and uncorked a .006 light and herded the wandering Hemi-powered Mustang to a 7.14 and a win. The .006 light gave Schneider the Good Vibrations Reaction Award to go along with the coveted Peak Trophy for the race victory. (Dennis Salzwimmer photo)

The GLNFCC Teams want to thank Peak, S&W Race Cars and Good Vibrations for their support of their Group. The Brutus F/C team will return to action this weekend at the legendary World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova, IL.   [08/19/19]

Over 200 vehicles of all shapes and sizes filled the pits on Friday night, Aug. 16, at Lancaster Dragway @ New York International Raceway Park for Truck Night presented by Mallare Trucking. There were race cars, dump trucks, semi trucks, pickup trucks and even a couple of school buses that made their way down the eighth-mile drag strip as part of busy night of IHRA drag racing.

Ann Marie Nugent of West Seneca, NY, scored her first win of the season in Mallare Trucking Top ET. Nugent beat Jim Green to top end to score the victory. In Top 8 Eliminator, Bill Bigham of Niagara Falls earned his second victory of 2019 after he held off a very fast Joe Passero in the finals.

For third time this season Reid Ricketson of Darien Center, NY, was victorious in Gianni Mazia’s Mod ET. Ricketson’s latest final round opponent was veteran Joe Skok, whom Ricketson held off at the finish line to pick up the win and maintain his Mod class points lead.

This season in Hebeler’s Sales Bikes & Sleds has been dominated by Lucas Salemi and Mike Peters. Both drivers had won three times each entering Friday night’s event. Their tie breaker was settled in the final round as Peters broke out to give Salemi his fourth win of the year. Coincidently, it was only the second time this season the pair met in the final round.

Donny “DJ” Raiser of Lancaster won in Tread City Tire Street for third time in 2019 as he beat Russell Morris in the finals after Morris red lighted.

In the special classes in honor of Truck Night presented by Mallare Trucking, Joe Boyles of East Concord, NY, won the Semi Truck class in his 2000 Peterbilt. Ryan Lloyd of Niagara Falls took top honors in the Dump Truck class in his 1998 Kenworth. Both Boyles and Lloyd took home $750 for their wins. Katie Oswald of Alma, NY, won the Street Pick-Up class sponsored by Halleen’s Automotive and Truck Accessories.

The most memorable moment of the night came when racer Keith Cleveland proposed to his girlfriend Tracey Laskowski right on track. He popped the question with a special message on the window of his race car.   [08/19/19]

Allan Middendorf put an altered body on his “American Outlaw” Funny Car chassis and took the win at the World Fuel Altered Nationals in Eddyville, IA. Roger “Radar” Lechtenberg was runner-up on Saturday, Aug. 17.

Middendorf has been campaigning with the Funny Car Chaos series and will return for their final two events of the season, after taking part in the World Series of Drag Racing next weekend. [08/19/19]

MAHLE is now offering their proprietary ceramic thermal barrier coating on any of their PowerPak lineup of performance forged pistons, in both the gas and diesel engine lineup. MAHLE’s Ceramic-based coating acts as a physical heat barrier on the crown of the piston. Keeping heat in the combustion chamber and out of the piston itself not only increases the engine’s efficiency, but the thermal coating also prevents hot spots from forming on the face of the piston. Hot spots can become failure points under extreme use, so in addition to increasing efficiency, MAHLE’s new coating is also a safety net for those who might be prone to abusing pistons. Available on complete PowerPak sets of pistons, or on individual replacement piston orders, the new ceramic coating, combined with the Grafal skirt coating, brings MAHLE’s shelf stock PowerPak program one step further into territory previously only occupied by custom piston manufacturers. [08/19/19]