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This victory marked Greg Anderson's fourth K&N Horsepower Challenge Championship and ties him with Kurt Johnson for the most wins.
After a full year of grabbing all the qualifying points they could manage, the top seven NHRA Pro Stock drivers and the eighth by fan vote readied themselves for the biggest single payday shootout and the 2011 K&N Horsepower Challenge. The stage was set and the pairings were finalized during the Bristol event, just less than a week before the teams would lay their cards on the table in Norwalk, Ohio.
2011 K&N Horsepower Challenge Champion Greg Anderson
Multi time K&N Challenge Champion, Greg Anderson came into the event as the number four seed, but as he put it "any one of the eight drivers could win from any position" and he didn't take a one lightly.
"You have eight great drivers, eight great cars, you really can't pick a favorite," he said. "It's not like you go in to this just overflowing with confidence just knowing you are going to win this race. You come in with what you think is about a one in eight chance of winning fifty grand."
"You just can't think you are anything special," he continued. "First round I have Ron Krisher. Of course we made our very first qualifying round on Saturday morning where Krisher and I ran within one thousandth of a second of each other. So I could see how things were going to shake out there. It was going to be a hell of a drag race and come down to who could get off the starting line first."
NHRA Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson wins the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge jackpot
The first round of the K&N Horsepower Challenge was also going to be the final qualifying session for the Pro Stock drivers, thanks to the entire day prior being washed out by persistent rain.
While Anderson came out on top in round one, due to the misfortunes Krisher experienced in the other lane, it wasn't really the run they were looking for. "We didn't make a real clean run but we were able to get some more data," he explained of his 6.605 ET. "With that, we were really able to turn it around for the second round."
During the first round, Erica Enders, in the Challenge by fan vote, laid down the best pass thus far of the weekend and managed to grab the low qualifying spot on her way to meet up with Anderson for the next round in the Challenge. An elapsed time that did not go unnoticed by Anderson and his crew.
For the semi-finals, Anderson pulled out all the stops by first nailing the tree with a .008 to Enders .037 and it was all over from there. Anderson extended his starting line advantage, dominating both ends of the track and easily taking the win light with a 6.583 over Enders much slower 6.649.
The round win would send Anderson into the K&N Horsepower Challenge final for a fourth consecutive year.
"She had lane choice, but the guys just did an outstanding job on the car," said Anderson. "She would have been the favorite in that race for sure as she was quicker in first round. We stepped up to the table and she was driving great but I did a decent job, got off the starting line ahead of her and we outran her. Now we had lane choice going into the final and we were the favorite."
"Things changed in a hurry," he added of his change in confidence throughout the rounds. "It was an up and down day, but once we made that second round and learned what we did there, we felt we had a good package for the final."
Over on the other side of the ladder, K&N's Mike Edwards was making his way to meet up with Anderson and a repeat of last season's matchup.
"We knew it was going to come down to driver again," he said of the final. "Mike [Edwards] absolutely did a great job. He got me pretty good on the starting line, but my car was so good, the guys did such a great job, that I just chased him down and got that big trophy."
Edwards had Anderson by over two hundredths on the tree, but could only manage a 6.632 while Anderson nearly duplicated his earlier ET with a 6.587 and took nearly six feet at the stripe.
"I'm glad I didn't look over 'cause I would have been scared to death with Mike ahead of me all the way down the race track," he confessed. "I stay focused and stayed forward and never looked over until the end of the race track and when that win light came on. I was a little bit surprised and a little bit shocked."
"Happy as hell to be honest," he exclaimed of his winning moment. "I got very excited inside the race car. The Challenge is just a neat-neat deal, neat race and I love K&N and what they do for the sport. It's the most fun event to race and win all year long."
The victory marked Greg Anderson's fourth K&N Horsepower Challenge Championship and with the feat is now tied with Kurt Johnson for the most wins. In the history of the Challenge, Anderson's back to back victory makes it the fifth time that a driver has won two consecutive seasons.
In addition to Anderson grabbing the highly coveted trophy, the championship ring and the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge jackpot, he also had one very excited K&N Horsepower Challenge Sweepstake contestant, who was paired with him earlier in the weekend.
"When I came around that corner [at the top end of the track] and you see that fan and how excited he is that I won, so he won, too," he said. "It's the neatest thing in the world to be able to do something for someone else. You feel a little guilty when they first pick your name out of the hat, thinking boy what if I let them down and I'm the only one that didn't let their person down. It was very exciting and just the coolest thing ever."
Greg Pursley battles to win the Southern California Toyota Dealers 200
Greg Pursley's record at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale is pretty impressive. He won a NASCAR Whelen All American Series national championship and a Toyota All-Star Showdown late model race at the track. By his count, he won 28 Super Late Model races and a couple of NASCAR Soutwest Tour races over his career at Irwindale.
NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Driver Greg Pursley
The only thing missing was a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West win at Irwindale. He changed that on Saturday night in dominating fashion.
Pursley won the pole and led a race-high 164 laps in the Southern California Toyota Dealers 200 presented by King Taco. It was his first win at Irwindale in 48 career West Series starts.
"It's huge. I keep telling everybody we've won everything there is to win here," said Pursley, a driver for Gene Price Motorsports. "We've won a national championship here. We've won two championships in the Super Late Model here. We've always come so close in the West car. We almost won the Showdown last year with eight to go and had a flat tire. That's the way our season was last year. This is a great win for the Gene Price Motorsports team and myself. Hopefully we can come with that same car for the Showdown."
Pursley led the first 66 laps of the race and gave way to Micheal Self until the midway point when drivers had to make mandatory pit stops.
Greg Pursley wins NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Race at Irwindale
"Ever since we unloaded the car off the trailer, it's been really good. We led for quite a bit," Pursley said. "We were running the pace I wanted to run there at the first 100. The 21 car (Self) came up on us and wanted to get by us. I told my crew chief I'm just going to let him go. I don't want to go any faster. We need to save our stuff for the end. We let him go and came in under the break and did a few adjustments on the car."
It didn't take Pursley long to regain the lead. He passed Self on lap 103 and was out front for the remainder of the race. The only caution in the final 100 laps of the race came when Justin Funkhouser's car caught fire on lap 158.
"Took off on the second 100 and got out there a little bit, got a little bit of a cushion and eased up and ran my pace that I wanted to run for a while there until the final yellow flag there," Pursley said.
It was the fifth win in seven K&N Pro Series West races for Pursley this year. He has a commanding 278-point lead over Moses Smith in the West Series standings. Pursley was asked after the race if all his success is making him nervous.
"It's making me nervous because I don't want to stop doing it," Pursley said. "I'm so fortunate to have my team right now. Gene Price has given us the best resources to work with. My team is great. It's just all working out. It's all just coming together this year. I'm just going to try and ride it as long as I can."
Derek Thorn, making only his third K&N Pro Series West start of the season, was second. It was his second top-five finish in three races.
"It was really good, didn't get the qualifying lap that we had hoped," said Thorn, who started eighth. "We were first in that last practice session, so we were really hoping for the pole position. Fighting the car a little bit. We only had the daytime to kinda get the car where we wanted it. It kind of gave us a false reading with Irwindale turning into night here. The track really didn't gain as much grip as we had hoped. We kind of stayed on the neutral side for the first 100 laps, just holding on for dear life, trying to save positions. We ended up back to seventh for the first 100. After that we climbed up back into the top five."
Dylan Kwasniewski, Pursley's 16-year-old teammate at Gene Price Motorsports, came in third, putting both GPM cars on the podium. It was Kwasniewski's fourth top-five finish of the season.
"The first portion of the race was pretty bad," Kwasniewski said. "The car was a little upset, it was just loose, couldn't handle the car. We were trying to keep our compsure at the beginning of the race. We started to fall back and I got a little bit worried. We made a lot of changes, took a couple swings at it. It definitely made the car better for the second portion of the race. We got to pass a lot of those cars back. Maybe we had a chance to go for the first or second place finish. I'm happy with a third-place finish. I'm glad we got back up there."
The K&N Pro Series West race from Irwindale will be broadcast on Speed on July 21 at 6 p.m. ET.
The next K&N Pro Series West race is at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash., on July 10.
At the halfway point Gaviria lead was nearly 3.5 seconds.
The K&N backed team LTD Racing Y.E.S. Yamaha and David Gaviria extended their championship points lead with a dominating flag-to-flag victory in the AMA Pro SuperSport race at Road America. The 26-year-old Gaviria controlled the race from the drop of the green flag by immediately stretching his lead over the field on the four-mile, fourteen-turn racing circuit at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. His lead peaked at the halfway point of the 10-lap race at 3.5 seconds. When the checkered waved at the end of the 40.5-mile contest, Gaviria still maintained a 1.4 second margin.
Team LTD Racing's David Gaviria grabbed the lead of the 10-lap Road America race and never looked back.
"It was very difficult for me," Gaviria said. "I was thinking about that before the race, because being in the lead of the race is pretty difficult, because you don't know if you are fast or you are slow, so I tried to do my best out there, and it worked. At the end of the race I was just taking care of myself," said Gaviria, "to relax and ride smooth but quick."
Although Tomas Puerta earned the pole position, he experienced a mechanical problem while leading the race.
The win was Gaviria's second of the year and it gave him a 26-point lead in the West Division SuperSport points chase after five rounds. Unlike his first win of the season at Daytona earlier this year, when he snatched the win on the last lap, Gaviria and his Yamaha R6 officially led all ten laps of the race.
Teammate, Huntley Nash, improved his starting position by four spots, earning a13th place finish in the highly competitive Daytona SportBike race. However, hard luck befell the other two LTD riders on Saturday as pole-sitter, Tomas Puerta, suffered a mechanical issue while leading the SuperSport race and, Sam Nash, had a late crash that dashed a top ten finish in the same event.
Huntley Nash earned a 13th place finish in the highly competitive Daytona SportBike race.
"It was alright," said Huntley Nash. "13th is better than last weekend, so all we can do is keep moving forward. The beginning was kinda fun, but in the second half of the race, I really didn't have anyone to battle with. We are still working on our front-end setup and hoping for some more improvement tomorrow."
LTD Racing's Director of Competition, Gary Medley, said he feels Nash took a huge step forward with his performance at Road America.
Puerta won the pole but then had bike issues on the first lap. "I'm disappointed for the team and me but we get another chance tomorrow," commented Puerta.
Sam Nash had his top ten finish drift away as the law student crashed in the final laps. "I lost the front on the next to last lap," said Nash. "It was an easy crash, but then it hit the gravel, and that did some damage."
LTD Racing's Director of Competition, Gary Medley, remarked, "It's good to win and David did well. It was an excellent job as usual from him. He could be a champion this year. We had a huge step with Huntley. He keeps improving and it shows his maturity. We'll keep working on it in this direction. It was a tough break for Tomy (Puerta), after winning the pole and being so fast this weekend, but he has another chance tomorrow."
Tommy Phillips got his 23rd NHRA National Event win during the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee.
Now in his fourth season competing in his 1957 Corvette Roadster, Tommy Phillips has even more reason to love the car after he acquired his 23rd NHRA National Event during the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee.
Phillips, who competes very successfully in both Super Comp and Super Gas, found himself with an uncharacteristic early exit in Super Comp when he bowed out in round three to eventual class winner, Shane Carr. But it was a whole different story over in Super Gas.
Tommy Phillips' 1957 Tiger Flow/K&N Corvette Roadster
Phillips was on an absolute beeline for the final right from the start, with the very tight packages he put together in his Tiger Flow/K&N Corvette, in the ultra-competitive 9.90 index class.
In round one, Phillips put together a very safe .014 light and a 9.907 to take out his competition and place himself number four on the qualifying ladder for round two pairings where he would meet up with Richard Campbell. Campbell gave it a good shot, but with Phillips' .009 total package which included his near perfect reaction time, there was little room for him to get in and Phillips was on his way to round three.
It would be an easy lap for the Texas resident in the next round as his opponent, Dale Koncen was timed out at the tree, sending Phillips on a single and giving him an extra free shot at the track to dial his car in just that much more.
The competition single proved to be a bad thing for the gentleman in the other lane during Phillips' quarter final match up. With a .013 light and a dead-on 9.900 ET, Phillips held off Division 1 standout, Tom Stalba all while taking nearly foot feet at the stripe.
"That was the key round," he confessed. "I had just lost in Super Comp, and had to face Stalba in Super Gas. Anyone who follows the sport knows he's a top contender, so I had my hands full. He hit the brakes at the finish line, and I didn't do a horrible job but I took the stripe by more than I wanted to. It just worked out: 9.900. Like I said, that could've easily been 9.899. But when it's your day the thousandths fall your way. This time they fell my way."
Next Phillips sent David Owens packing in the semi-finals after more than doubling him at the hit and sailing past Owens 9.904 effort, when he squeezed the margin of victory to a mere .005 at the finish line.
Over on the other side of the ladder, Scott Lawton had a mixed bag of luck when his semi-final match up ended in a single after his competitor broke, but picked up a few gremlins of his own on his way to meet up with Phillips in the championship round.
With the Thunder Valley Nationals plagued by rain on two different occasions, NHRA was running rounds at a very rapid pace Sunday evening, with barely enough time for teams to do the minor between round maintenance, let alone anything major.
Lawton made it to the line but was unable to launch and could only sit and watch Tommy Phillips drive away to his 23rd NHRA National Event Wally, in his 29th final round.
"What can you say when things fall into place," noted Phillips. "My Tigerflow and K&N Engineering backed Corvette Roadster was flawless. My driving was pretty solid, and I got the breaks when I needed them. My first two opponents made really good runs, but we were able to be just a bit better. In the quarterfinals, I ran 9.900 against Tom Stalba. That could've easily been 9.899; and we might be talking about his victory. Then Scott Lawton broke in the semi's and limped the car up for the final round. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic to win the race; but no one wants to win that way. I felt bad for him."
Let's face it, there seems to be something to the old expression, "Ladies First." In this case, it's NHRA Pro Stock driver Erica Enders, the only lady currently competing in the highly competitive class. Erica was the first team to qualify number one right out of the gate during the NHRA season opener earlier this year in Pomona and she did it again during the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk. That made her the first to grab all the available points and the bonus money to start off the new season of qualifying for the 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge.
K&N Horsepower Challenge and NHRA Pro Stock Driver Erica Enders
The jam-packed schedule for the NHRA event in Norwalk, Ohio originally had the normal four professional qualifying sessions planned, two during Friday's festivities. Once again, Mother Nature had a say in that and due to constant on and off again rain, the complete day and on track activities for all classes were cancelled.
That left two sessions for Saturday, in addition to the running of the 2011 K&N Horsepower Challenge. Originally, the eight teams in the Challenge would have run the first round as a part of the third session. Since not one professional category had been down the track during the event, NHRA officials made some schedule adjustments, which allowed the Pro Stock teams to get in a session first, prior to the first round of the Challenge.
"We thought we might still get at least one round in one Friday, but the rain just kept on coming," she explained. "The round we got before the Challenge was beneficial. When we got up there, we just wanted to make sure we got down the track for qualifying purposes. We may have been a slight bit conservative."
New Orleans based Enders, who was number eight in the challenge by winning the fan vote, has had a very strong entry as of late. She managed to nail the number three spot with a 6.591, just behind Rodger Brogdon's 6.587 and Jason Line's 6.598.
Round one of the K&N Challenge was held during the second and final session of Pro Stock qualifying, so while the other teams were just looking to improve and get their race day setups, the eight teams in the Challenge had that and more on their plates.
"We knew going into the Challenge we had to be on," she continued. "We were paired with Jason Line and he's not only a great driver but they have tremendous horsepower."
Ender's team stepped it up for the session and not only did she send Line back to the trailer in round one of the Challenge with the .009 margin at the stripe, she also took her ZaZa Energy Cobalt right to the pole position when she put a 6.585 up on the board. That ET also took away the track Pro Stock ET record set just a short time earlier by Brogdon in session number one.
While Enders wasn't able to pull out a victory in the 2011 K&N Horsepower Challenge, she was quick to point out how much being a part of the elite race meant to her. "I was very honored to be a part of the race," she said. "K&N does a great job with it. All those drivers in Pro Stock are so appreciative of the fact that K&N puts it on in the first place. For my fans to come through for me like that and to get me into this race, I just can't be thankful enough."
"It was unfortunate that we were unable to actually earn a position based on actual points, due to my limited schedule last year," she continued. "Coming into this season with Cagnazzi and having a competitive car and team, hopefully we will solidify a spot in the Challenge for us next year. My guys have given me an awesome car all year long. We win together and we lose together. It is absolutely the best team atmosphere I have ever been involved with."
Enders is already on her way. With the number one qualifier at the Norwalk, Ohio event, she grabbed the maximum 175 points along with the cool $3,000 bonus check from K&N Engineering.
After several back-to-back weeks on the road, the Pro Stock teams get the holiday weekend to spend with their family and friends before heading to the next event on the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle schedule, Route 66 Raceway, in Joliet, Illinois July 9-12 and the O'Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
