Warren Johnson Racing

NHRA: 19-year-old gets second career win

NORWALK -- Sunday was sweet for 19-year-old Vincent Nobile.

The New York native earned the second Pro Stock victory of his young career in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Instead of carrying the Wally (the name of the trophy handed out at NHRA Nationals) into the post-event press conference, he brought a bowl of Summit Motorsports Park's famous buck-a-pound ice cream.

"It's not as sweet as a Wally, but this moose tracks from Norwalk is pretty good," he said.

Nobile was better than pretty good in his Mountain View Tire Dodge Stratus at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

He easily took care of veteran Warren Johnson in the first round and blistered Ronnie Humphrey off the line, 0.048 to 0.196, to win by two-tenths of a second in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, 16-seed Greg Stanfield couldn't pull off another upset as he posted a red light to get disqualified.

"My team supplied me with a car that was top notch," Nobile said. "We made six great runs. It was basically a bracket car all weekend."

As consistency goes, it was tough to top his four rounds of 6.626, 6.616, 6.616 and 6.615. And Newark's own Larry Morgan couldn't top him either. Nobile beat him off the line and down the track to win by four-hundredths of a second.

"He's like a second father to me," Nobile said of Morgan. "He and my father taught me everything I know about drag racing. It was bittersweet, but obviously it came up sweet for me."

Even sweeter than moose tracks ice cream.

FINALLY: Morgan not only made the finals in his home state, but he put Ford in the Pro Stock finals for the first time since June 15, 2003, at National Trail Raceway in Hebron.

In that long-ago final, the late Scott Geoffrion finished second to Greg Anderson while driving a Ford Escort ZX2. The last time Ford won a Pro Stock National race was May 21, 1995, by Bob Glidden.

LUCKY: Eddie Krawiec had a fortunate afternoon in Norwalk aboard his Harley-Davidson. The Pro Stock Motorcycle rider needed a hole shot to win his opener with Mike Berry and got a free pass into the semifinals when Jim Underdahl couldn't answer the bell in the quarters. He squeaked by David Hope by a mere 0.0266 seconds.

In the finals against Matt Smith, Krawiec trailed at the tree and Smith appeared to be pulling away when he slowed the bike at 300 feet.

"Thankfully we had a little luck on our side today with Matt Smith breaking," he said. "It was my own mistake for going out there and being a little late. The bike shook the tire really hard. Luckily enough, I'm sitting in here talking to you guys.

Hot' Lanta: Warren Johnson Reaches 600 And Force Ties WJ's No. 1 ...

Johnson’s first NHRA National event was the 1971 U.S. Nationals, where he qualified with a 9.595 seconds at a speed of over 139 mph. Certainly, things have changed since then over a career that has spanned the length of eight U.S. presidents. Just an FYI, Johnson’s career best run is now 6.505 seconds at a speed of 212.46 mph, setting both at Gainesville earlier this year. His Summit Racing teammate, Ronnie Humphrey; was absent from Friday’s qualifying, but he had a perfectly good reason. His daughter, Labreska, graduated from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte that day. Humphrey was able to place his hot rod into the No. 11 position in Saturday’s qualifying. He advanced to the quarterfinals before being defeated by Allen Johnson. Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Steve Johnson carried colors of the American Red Cross in an attempt to raise funding for the victims of the recent tornadoes that struck Alabama and Tennessee. Johnson went through the crowd attaining donations and raised around $10,000 for the worthwhile cause. Numerous times throughout the weekend, drivers went by the Red Cross booth to sign autographs for additional donations. The race of the day belongs once again to the matchup in the Top Fuel quarterfinals between three-time champ, Larry Dixon, and seven-time champion, Tony Schumacher. In an amazing stat before their race, both drivers have 36 wins against the other. Schumacher took the win this time with a great 3.886 seconds to Dixon’s run of 3.892 seconds. Sad anyone had to lose that race. Kudos to Don Schumacher’s race teams. As always, they race heads-up in every event. That was so evident in Sunday’s semi-final and final round of Top Fuel when Schumacher and Spencer Massey put on a great side-by-side race with Schumacher coming out on top. Atlanta Dragway is the only place at which Tony Schumacher he hasn’t won. He’ll have to wait another year as Antron Brown won the round and took the Atlanta title in another close race. Their DSR Funny Car teammate, Jack Beckman, is one of the hottest drivers out there right now. After winning in Charlotte last month, the Beckman train rolled on in Atlanta defeating John Force Racing’s Mike Neff in the finals.He beat an impressive list of drivers that Melanie Troxel, John Force and Cruz Pedregon on the road to Victory Lane. Ardy Arani creates images of people, places and sports, especially the large photos of significant victories Motorsports and milestones. The images are historically accurate Motorsports Unplugged down to the smallest detail or sticker on the car. The original art featured on Unplugged Motorsports / NHRA Ashley Force beat depicts his father, John Force, to claim his first NHRA event victory at Atlanta in 2008. The original, measuring over four feet in diameter, is on display in the John personal strength.Ardy Arani is licensed by NASCAR, the IRL and Indy 500. His work can be seen in many museums and galleries, and online at www.ArdyArani.com and www.OfficialRacingArt.com.

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