Summer started just in time for the 23rd Annual Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, just minutes from downtown Covington, when qualifying began Friday afternoon.
Racers and fans alike were treated to temperatures in the 90s on Friday, 80s on Saturday while cooler weather and cloud cover greeted those at the track on Sunday. The clouds burned off by early afternoon as the final rounds in the pro and sportsman classes competed for the coveted Wally, the golden statue of Wally Parks, founder of the National Hot Rod Association. Event winners in each class were awarded a Wally at the end of Sunday.
Shawn Langdon, who counts Kent native Wes Barber among his crew, came oh so close to his first win in his second full season in top fuel as he made it to the semi-final round losing to Cory McClenathan, who went on to beat Antron Brown in the final for the event win.
“We keep getting closer, but these gremlins keep biting us,” Langdon said. “Something broke. We’re looking at it right now. We banged the burst panels out of it as soon as it hit the throttle. It was unfortunate because Cory was there for the taking – he smoked the tires and I had him by .05 on the tree. Who knows what would have happened had we made it down.”
This marked back to back wins for McClenathan this season, who beat his Don Schumacher Racing teammate using a 3.887-second run at 311.70 mph, according to the DSR website. The margin of victory was just 11 feet.
This was McClenathan’s third win of the season in top fuel.
“The FRAM guys did a great job today,” McClenathan said in a statement on www.shoeracing.com. “The track was very tricky. There in the sun in the final was really tough. And because I’ve been here so many years I knew to put on the darkest shield you have and get up there and cut the best light (reaction time) you can.”
Tim Wilkerson beat Ron Capps in the Funny Car final and Greg Anderson picked up the victory in Pro Stock.
Maple Valley, meanwhile, was represented by three racers competing — Brad Plourd in Super Stock and Super Comp, Jim Mabry in Super Street and Bob Woodruff in Super Comp.
Plourd was hoping to take home a Wally from the race at his hometown track, but, he left the starting line early in the first round of Super Stock and was eliminated by seven-ten thousandths of a second.
It looked like Plourd had a better shot in Super Comp where he made it to the fourth round, but lost to Ken Mostawich. He was just two wins away from a national event win at Pacific Raceways. He had already notched a win at Englishtown, N.J., in June and had been to three finals thus far this year.
Mabry lost in the first round as did Woodruff, who was beaten despite having a perfect reaction time at the starting line.
Meanwhile, Jeff Ashwell, driving the NAPA Auto Parts Mustang with his team trying to break their “Seattle curse” after blowing up or burning the car down to the ground in previous efforts at the Northwest Nationals seemed to be off to a good start.
They qualified in the No. 10 spot and put together a pair of good runs between qualifying and the first round but lost in that first round of eliminations Saturday afternoon.
The Ashwell Racing team was happy with the progress they made because they “didn’t catch fire or hurt any parts,” according to a team spokesperson.
This weekend the NHRA heads to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., for the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals for the second stop of the three-race Western Swing. From there the tour heads to the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Denver, Colo., from July 23-25.
