Courtney Force – the daughter of the most decorated Funny Car racer in history – John Force, has taken her first ever NHRA final round win in Seattle, defeating Matt Hagan in the final, whilst Erica Enders took her second Pro Stock victory of the season.
To get to the final though, she had to eliminate her father – who had one of his best runs in the Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang in some time.
Force beat home Hagan by a almost a tenth of a second in the final – 4.238 to 4.328.
After making it into the field as 14th qualifier, she was matched against Cruz Pedregon in round one and edged him out when he encountered an issue. Next to fall victim to the first year racer was Bob Tasca III and then ‘dad’ encountered problems as the 23-year-old blasted her way into the final.
Points leader, Robert Hight was taken out in the opening round by last round winner, Johnny Gray, whilst his JFR team mate, Mike Neff was also eliminated in round one by Tasca III.
By making it to the semi-finals where he was eliminated by Hagan, Capps closed the points lead to Hight to 31.
TOP FUEL
Steve Torrence moved to within striking distance of the top three in the Full Throttle Top Fuel Series with victory over Shawn Langdon at the Northwest Nationals.
Langdon has positioned himself well for a tilt at the Countdown, now moving to sixth in points with his runner up position. He made the final after eliminating ex-pat Australian Top Fueller, Dave Grubnic.
Grubnic eliminated Spencer Massey in round two on his way to the semis after earlier taking out Morgan Lucas.
PRO STOCK
After creating history with her first victory in 2012, Erica Enders wasn’t keen on Courtney Force sharing the spotlight with her in Seattle, taking victory in the Final over Jason Line.
In a giant killing performance, Enders deposited Ron Krisher and Championship front-runners, Greg Anderson and Allen Johnson on her way to the Final round.
Line was able to close the gap to Championship leader, Johnson and elevate himself above Anderson to second in the standings.
He knocked out Jeg Coughlin in the opening round, before leaving Mike Edwards and Vincent Nobile in his wake.
The next NHRA event will be at Brainerd in Minnesota for the Lucas Oils Nationals in two weekends time.