Funny Car points leader Austin Prock powered to his fourth win of the season for John Force Racing on Sunday at Pacific Raceways, defeating first-time finalist Paul Lee in the final round of the 35th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals.
Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) and Chase Van Sant (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won at the 11th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
In the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Maddi Gordon became the 100th different female winner in NHRA history, picking up her first career national event victory in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Gordon is in her rookie season in the Top Alcohol Funny Car ranks.
“This is amazing. It doesn’t get any better than this,” Gordon said. “This is a dream. I’m a brand new driver and this is amazing. I couldn’t be more thankful and it just feels great.”
Prock went 3.875s at 334.57mph in his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS in the Funny Car finals to get past Lee and pick up his eighth career win as part of another incredible weekend. The pass in the finals was his fourth consecutive run in the 3.80s on Sunday, as Prock, who was also the No. 1 qualifier, defeated Cruz Pedregon and J.R. Todd earlier in the day.
The first-year Funny Car standout became just the fourth driver in NHRA history to win in both Funny Car and Top Fuel in Seattle, following up his 2019 Top Fuel win at the facility, which was his first career victory.
“This whole Cornwell Tools team is just doing such a great job and given me an opportunity to go out and compete for wins every weekend, and we’ve been going a lot of rounds lately. I just hope we can keep it up throughout the rest of the year,” Prock said.
“I didn’t drive all that hot this weekend. I was consistent but consistently slow on the starting line, so they did an outstanding job and they really carried the team. They’ve been doing a great job of that this year and it sure has been fun.”
In advancing to his first career final round, Lee got past Jeff Diehl, defending world champion Matt Hagan and Blake Alexander.
Looking for his first win of the season, Top Fuel’s Steve Torrence simply had to go back to Seattle, as the four-time world champion won for the second straight year at Pacific Raceways with a wild run of 3.963s at 279.79mph in his Capco Contractors dragster in the finals against Shawn Langdon. It is the 55th career win for Torrence, but the Texan had not won since his Seattle triumph a year ago.
But he changed that after a spectacular weekend, qualifying No. 1 and then rolling through Ron Smith and defending world champion Doug Kalitta to reach the final round. Both Torrence and Langdon ran into difficulty during the run, but Torrence had enough at the finish line to claim the victory, moving to third in points. It is also Torrence’s third career win in Seattle.
“I think we left pretty close to each other and I could hear him right there with me, and then I heard him start to go away. But you’re trying to hold it straight and you’re waiting on that light on the wall to come on and it took me forever to finally see it. We’ve been trying to win one of these for a long time,” Torrence said.
“Our car definitely has shown a lot of promise to go out there and throw down when it needs to go fast. We’ve had a difficult time managing the power, so I think this weekend was exemplary of what we can do and what we need to do.”
Langdon, who struggled in qualifying, rebounded in a big on Sunday, advancing to the finals for the third time in 2024 and the 43rd time overall with round wins against Justin Ashley, Josh Hart and Clay Millican. Langdon is second in points while Kalitta stayed comfortably in the points lead.
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In Pro Stock, Jeg Coughlin helped continue an impressive streak for Elite Motorsports, driving to his third victory of the season by taking down points leader Dallas Glenn in the final round with a run of 6.536s at 209.95mph in his Scag Power Equipment/Outlaw Mile-High Light Beer/Elite Motorsports car. It’s the 68th career victory for the five-time world champ and also handed Elite Motorsports its fifth consecutive victory.
Coughlin has been a huge part of that dominant stretch with two victories in that span and was on his game on Sunday, getting around Jerry Tucker, Eric Latino and Chris McGaha in the final round. He followed that with an 0.010s reaction time in the final round against Glenn, getting his second career victory at Pacific Raceways, with the first coming 22 years ago in 2002.
“It feels fantastic. It’s just kind of a corny statement, but the team, as a whole has obviously done very well,” Coughlin said. “We’ve won all but three of the events this year, which is a real testament to our stamina and our abilities.
“We’ve been struggling with some consistency and we really feel like we’ve turned the corner in multiple ways in the last two or three weeks, not because we’ve won the events, but because the cars have become more efficient, they’re accelerating better, and printing better time slips. So, you know, a real tip of the hat to our whole crew.”
Glenn, who stayed in the points lead, advanced to the finals at his home track for the sixth time this season and the 23rd time in his career thanks to round wins against teammate Greg Anderson, Matt Hartford and Troy Coughlin Jr.
Chase Van Sant made his own history and also ended a historic run in Pro Stock Motorcycle on Sunday, picking up his first career victory with a run of 6.720s at 201.31mph on his Trick Tools Suzuki over defending world champion Gaige Herrera in the final round. It snapped Herrera’s record-breaking run of 12 straight victories and 46 consecutive round wins, a string that dated back to last September.
Van Sant, though, was impressive throughout eliminations, taking down Brandon Litten, John Hall and Matt Smith. Van Sant left first on Herrera and led wire-to-wire in a rematch of the final round in Chicago this year. This time, though, Van Sant, the 2023 NHRA Rookie of the Year, got the best of Herrera, denying him any chance of an undefeated season and picking up a victory he won’t soon forget. Van Sant also moved to fourth in points with the win.
“I got down to the top end and saw my win light on and I was just shaking my head,” Van Sant said. “We were down in the shutdown and Gaige yelled something at me and he pointed and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know. Like is this real?’ I’ve gone up against Gaige five times and lost all five times, so to cut a light and get away early and outrun him just speaks volumes to how hard this team has been working kind of silently in the midst of all the drama in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
“Gaige and I have known each other for a while and every time we raced, it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed it. I was super happy for him breaking all of those records, but I told him “If I can end your streak, I will be the happiest person in the world.'”
Herrera maintained a dominant points lead, advancing to his seventh final this season and 19th in his career after defeating Eiji Kawakami and Jianna Evaristo.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action July 26-28 with the 36th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
