Anderson Maintains Points Lead with Four-Wide Final Round Appearance

Greg Anderson and Jason Line may be Minnesota natives, but they have called Mooresville, North Carolina home for quite a while. Twice a year they get to race on home turf at the prestigious zMAX Dragwa in Charlotte. Between the two drivers, they have six Charlotte wins.

This was the fourth Four-Wide final for Anderson, who won the special race in 2011 and 2012 and runner-upped in 2015. He also has a win and a runner-up at the fall Charlotte event.

Anderson nearly made it seven, making it to the final round of the eighth-annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals this weekend. The final was the fourth of the year for the four-time NHRA Pro Stock champion, and it further padded his points lead.

“I’m never happy with second,” said Anderson. “Chris McGaha got the trophy, and it was well-earned. All we can do is move on and do a better job next week.”

The Four-Wide format is a unique challenge. Four drivers race one another on a four-lane racetrack. The two fastest drivers in each quad advance to the next round until there is a final four where the quickest driver wins and second is runner-up. The third and fourth place drivers earn semi-finals finishes.

Anderson had the fastest time in the first round of eliminations with a 6.598 second pass at 210.87 MPH—top speed of race day. Shane Gray also advanced as the second-best of the round.

In the second round, Anderson again had the best time of the four, with a 6.606/210.60 moving ahead to the final round. Gray also advanced, as Alex Laughlin and Tanner Gray were defeated.

In the final Anderson clocked a .025 second RT, but McGaha took the win with a 6.591/210.44 to Anderson’s 6.614/209.56. Gray recorded a 6.648/209.33, and Skillman clocked a 6.648/209.33 that was negated by a red-light start.

“One thing is for sure, you have to be top-notch, or you’re not going to win one of these races,” said Anderson. “This class is tough. You have to have the three major ingredients in place: the driver, the engine, and the car.”

Jason Line was the quickest in his opening-round quad, his 6.594/210.67 besting Allen Johnson and Alan Prusiensky. Chris McGaha was second to move ahead with Line into the next round.

Unfortunately, Line’s 6.616/209.49 wasn’t enough to move the reigning Pro Stock champ into the final. McGaha and Drew Skillman moved on while Vincent Nobile and Line were dismissed.

“It just wasn’t our day,” said Line. “We tried to test some new parts and we didn’t run like we should have. But we had a Summit Racing Chevy Camaro in the final, and that’s a good thing.”

Tim Wilkerson and the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang did well in qualifying, making three of four passes heading into Sunday. On race day Wilkerson exited in the second round.

Despite some tire smoke, Wilkerson’s was second-quickest in his first round meeting with Matt Hagan, Bob Bode, and Cruz Pedregon. His 4.336/267.59 sent him ahead to round two along with Hagan, who was 3.930/330.07 at the finish line.

“After the tires smoking in the first round, I had to figure out what we did wrong,” said Wilkerson. “I thought I had caught it. Then not having lane choice hurt. With the tire spin we didn’t recover after that.” Wilkerson continued, “We’ll see what we can get done in Atlanta.” Wilkerson is currently No. 11 in the Funny Car standings.

Final Round Results
Top Fuel—Steve Torrence (3.783/323.89) defeated Tony Schumacher
(3.874/309.13), Leah Pritchett (3.796/318.84), and Terry McMillen (4.650/171.23)

Funny Car—Ron Capps (3.933/322.65) defeated Jack Beckman (3.959/320.05), J.R. Todd (4.103/307.72), and Matt Hagan (8.820/93.67)

Pro Stock— Chris McGaha (6.591/210.44) defeated Greg Anderson (6.614/209.56), Shane Gray (6.648/209.33), and Drew Skillman (Foul)

Next Race
The next race in the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, May 5-7.

For more information and complete race results visit DragRaceCentral.com.