Team Summit Holds Points Lead Following Atlanta

Despite an early exit Sunday at the 37th annual NHRA Southern Nationals, Greg Anderson left Atlanta with the points lead. Team Summit counterpart Jason Line—the reigning NHRA Pro Stock champion—remained third in the series standings.

Rain delays cut qualifying in half, and with just two sessions to earn a position, Anderson found himself outside the top half of the field. On Sunday, the tough qualifying experience and lack of lane choice amounted to a challenge that proved unsurmountable.

“I got off on the wrong foot in qualifying. I had to run a really fast car in the first round of eliminations,” said Anderson, who had a holeshot on Chris McGaha but was unable to retain the advantage. McGaha caught up and won with a 6.545 second, 211.13 MPH pass to Anderson’s 6.561/211.00.

“I made a mistake in qualifying that I don’t usually make, but I learned from it,” continued Anderson. “We’ll go home and use this week to try to find more performance. It’s hard to win out there; we need to get our advantage back.”

Jason Line qualified in the number three position and had a top car in each of the two rounds on Sunday. Although he was out in the second round, last season’s Souther Nationals winner was eager to move ahead.

“I lost on the holeshot,” said Line, who clocked a 6.563/210.93 in round two that was narrowly topped by Erica Enders’ 6.578/210.77.

“The KB Racing team was able to put Bo Butner’s car on the pole and win. Even though we had a couple of snafus and the rain threw a wrench in our works, there are positive aspects we take away from this weekend,” continued Line. “One positive is we finished this three-in-a-row series and now we get to go home and work on our stuff. We move on from here and push forward.”

Tim Wilkerson, the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car driver and 20-time Funny Car winner, made his way to the 38th final round of his career. Although he came up short in the final against Ron Capps, Wilkerson moved into eighth in points all the way from 11th in Funny Car standings.  Capps took the final round win 3.991/317.79 to Wilk’s 3.978/316.60.

“I think everyone in the pits knew I was going to get my stuff together one of these days. We had some lucky rounds today, but we’ll take them,” said Wilkerson, whose Atlanta performance marked his first final round appearance this season.

“I’m proud of my guys. They really did a good job today. We’ll take our car back home and see what we can do in Topeka,” Wilkerson said.

Final Round Results

Top Fuel—Steve Torrence (3.745/320.81) defeated Tony Schumacher
(4.061/243.28)

 Funny Car—Ron Capps (3.9391/317.79) defeated Tim Wilkerson (3.978/316.60)

Pro Stock—Bo Butner (6.569/211.26) defeated Erica Enders (6.593/210.97)

Pro Stock Motorcycle—LE Tonglet (6.843/194.35) defeated Jerry Savole (34.292/20.68)

What’s Next
The next race in the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kansas, May 19-21.

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