Shawn Langdon competing at Virginia Motorsports Park in Northdinwiddie, VA (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
NORTH DINWIDDIE, Va. — The PlayNHRA Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park started off with a bang for qualifying in all four divisions.
Qualifying Session 1
Pro Stock Motorcycle: Session 1 for the Pro Stock Motorcycles started off with Chase Van Sant and Angie Smith going head-to-head down the track. Even though both of them started off really well, Smith faded just a little bit and had a small amount of smoke emit from her bike resulting in the higher position going to Van Sant. After that, John Hall and Richard Gadson raced each other with Gadson having the better run. Then, Matt Smith and Gaige Herrera went down next to each other for 1,000 feet and Herrera had the better run by far. But Herrera wasn’t only just the number one qualifier after session one, he made a new track record for Pro Stock Motorcycle by 5/100 of a second.
Pro Stock: Troy Coughlin Jr. and Aaron Stanfield kicked off qualifying for Pro Stock. Stanfield had the better run though, because Coughlin Jr. spun tires early on in the match. Next up was another Coughlin with Jeg Coughlin Jr. facing off against Erica Enders. Both of them had great runs, but Enders was just marginally better and earned the better qualifying position with the number one spot.
Before the next race could begin, the team of Dallas Glenn had to put his parachutes back into his car as Glenn accidentally ejected his parachutes while in the staging lane area. Once his team had him all ready to go, Glenn faced Greg Anderson and had the better run against the veteran as Anderson shut his car off.
Erica Enders competing at Virginia Motorsports Park in North Dinwiddie, VA (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Funny Car: The first round of qualifying for the Funny Cars was between Terry Haddock and Jim Campbell. Campbell smoked his tires off the line and automatically gave the win to Haddock, but Haddock got a little bit squirrely near the end of the strip. The same exact thing would happen to Buddy Hull and Dave Richards who were up next, except Hull didn’t get squirrely at the end; he just slowed way down.
Cruz Pedregon and Blake Alexander faced off next. Pedregon had the better run as Alexander smoked his tires early on as well, but Pedregon wasn’t free of the smoked tire curse as he smoked his at the end of the strip.
The next round saw the best drag race of the day so far, but it ended prematurely as the one driver lost a cylinder. Paul Lee and Chad Green started off the line side-by-side and continued so until Lee’s car spewed fluid and smoke, indicating a lost cylinder. Green, having the better round, managed to get into the number one qualifying position.
After that, Alexis DeJoria and Ron Capps went head-to-head and had a very close race as well until DeJoria got loose. Something similar happened to Bob Tasca III and Daniel Wilkerson in the next match-up, except Wilkerson let off the throttle instead of getting loose. Matt Hagan and J.R. Todd also saw this same fate as Hagan did the same thing as the drivers before him.
The final two competitors to race 1,000 feet were Austin Prock and John Force. Prock had the better run as veteran Force let off the throttle half-way through, giving the better spot to Prock. After all was said and done though, Green held the number one position after session one.
Top Fuel: Dan Mercier and Jasmine Salinas were the first two to the track for the Top Fuel dragsters. Neither driver performed at their peak as both Salinas and Mercier followed the day’s proceedings of smoking tires. After them Lex Joon and Cameron Ferre took to the strip, followed by Shawn Reed and Josh Hart. The former was racing at Virginia Motorsports Park for the first time in his career, and ended up being victorious against Hart as Hart spun his tires.
Brittany Force and Tony Stewart went up next. In sequence, both drivers smoked their tires, but somehow Stewart managed to smoke his in a way that put him ahead of Force enough to claim a better qualifying position and living up to his nickname.
The next match-up saw Billy Torrence and Clay Millican side-by-side. Torrence took the cake on this one due to Millican’s blower belt breaking and flying in the wind at high speed. Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown, who were after Torrence and Millican, faced the same dilemma, except Schumacher spun tires instead of breaking a belt. Brown had a perfect run though, and landed in the top spot due to being the only driver so far that didn’t have a single issue in the Top Fuel class.
Shawn Langdon and Steve Torrence faced the continuing curse of the day with having an issue during their run as both of them spun their tires. Langdon did first though, and that was because he had a cylinder misfire.
Finally, Justin Ashley and Doug Kalitta went head-to-head to finish off Top Fuel qualifying. In an extremely close race, Ashley had the better elapsed time and Kalitta had the better speed, making each driver a victor in their own right.
Bob Tasca III competing at Virginia Motorsports Park in North Dinwiddie, VA (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Qualifying Session 2
Top Fuel: Justin Ashley and Tony Stewart found themselves next to each other for session two of Top Fuel qualifying. Stewart had the better run and earned himself a better position than Ashley.
Pro Stock: Eric Latino and Matt Hartford raced each other during session two of Pro Stock qualifying, with the former earning himself a better spot.
Pro Stock Motorcycle: Chase Van Sant and Hector Arana Jr. followed the proceedings of the classes before them, and Arana Jr. earned himself the better spot as well.
Final Qualifying Session
Funny Car: Wilkerson and Todd kicked off the final session of qualifying for the Funny Cars. Even though both drivers had a cylinder out, Wilkerson managed to stay ahead of Todd to claim the seventh seed.
DeJoria and Capps were up next, and DeJoria claimed the number four spot while Capps got eighth because he smoked his tires.
After that, Tasca III and Lee raced 1,000 feet next to each other. They were neck-and-neck up until Lee let off the throttle, slowing down and handing the number one qualifying position to Tasca III.
“We left Bristol [and] I was pretty pissed off because my car wasn’t right,” said Tasca III. “I took a bunch of junk parts and put them on the car this weekend. [We] keep this up and we’ll be getting the winner’s hat.”
Top Fuel: Langdon and Billy Torrence faced off first for the final session of Top Fuel, with the former claiming the number one spot with the latter claiming the 12th position. The next round that consisted of Hart and Reed saw Langdon get robbed of that first place spot by Hart, but Langdon was able to hold on because he had a little bit of a better speed while Reed managed to take home fourth.
Salinas and Steve Torrence were up next. Even though Salinas lost a cylinder early on in the match, she still managed to qualify better than the veteran by stealing fourth from Reed, and bumping Torrence down to seventh.
Kalitta and Ashley claimed second and ninth respectively, and Stewart and Brown got third and fifth in a close match that resulted in Brown letting off first.
“Great job to the guys,” said Langdon on being the number one qualifier. “Even with how hot it is, the track’s still great; really smooth. We just need to get it down the track and that’s what we did.”
