NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

A week after winning the Southeast Division NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Gainesville Raceway, David Rampy and Jeffrey Barker doubled up with wins in Comp and Top Sportsman, respectively, at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. Not to be outdone, Terry Nagel claimed his third win since late last season when he nabbed the Stock title. The rest of the winners from the traditional East Coast opener were rookie Justin Ashley (Top Alcohol Dragster), Annie Whiteley (Top Alcohol Funny Car), Fred Allen (Super Stock), Jacob Elrod (Super Comp), and Sherman Adcock Jr. (Super Gas).

Ashley, the son of former nitro and Pro Mod racer Mike Ashley, was competing in just his second event behind the wheel of the Meyer family’s injected nitro dragster. The 22-year-old ran low elapsed time of the event in qualifying with a 5.143 and drove to the Top Alcohol Dragster final, where he squeezed out a narrow 5.232 to 5.258 win over defending Gainesville winner Rich McPhillips. [Watch video]

Whiteley not only won her fourth career Top Alcohol Funny Car title and made the quickest and fastest runs of her career, but she also got to share the Gainesville winner’s circle with her son, Steven, who scored the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series title. Whiteley won the final with a 5.412 at 273.22 mph on a single run after Dan Pomponio broke. A round earlier, she defeated low qualifier John Lombardo Jr. in a great side-by-side race, 5.404 to 5.425. [Watch video]

For Rampy, the victory marked win No. 93 in his storied career. Driving his Skillman Automotive-backed A/EA Bantam roadster, Rampy qualified No. 7 and worked his way to the semifinals without incurring a large Competition Index Control penalty. Rampy lost a tenth of a second in index during his semifinal victory over Jenny Treadwell, but he was still able to pull out a win in the Comp final when Wes Leopold fouled in his A/SMA Dodge Stratus. [Watch video]

In Super Stock, Michael Volkman managed to win 11 straight rounds in Gainesville aboard his GT/LA Sebring before a red-light start ended the streak in the final round. Volkman’s foul allowed Allen to claim his first national event title in his SS/TB Chevy S-10. Allen, a three-time runner-up in Comp, including at last year’s St. Louis event, kicked off eliminations with a nearly perfect .001 reaction time against Gary Ewing and also avoided disaster when Dan Zrust broke out by a thousandth of a second after gaining a six-hundredths advantage at the start. [Watch video]

Longtime Division 3 Stock racer Nagel has been on a tear that most racers can only dream about. Nagel won the Division 3 National Open event in Indianapolis last fall and also captured the Division 2 Lucas Oil Series opener in Orlando, Fla., last month. In Gainesville, Nagel wheeled his F/SA ’68 Camaro to another win when he stopped Richard Mace in the final round. All told, Nagel has won 20 of his last 21 rounds of competition. [Watch video]

The Gainesville Super Comp field was loaded with talent, and the final round reflected the quality of the competition with 2015 Super Gas national champion Elrod taking on former Million Dollar Drag Race champ Troy Williams Jr. In one of the closest races of the entire event, Elrod prevailed, 8.917 to 8.931, with a margin of victory at the finish line of just .0006-second. For Elrod, the win marked his third national event title and second in Super Comp. [Watch video]

Two-time national champion Adcock has appeared in more than 20 national event finals during his great career, but few were as meaningful as the Gatornationals Super Gas final, where he took on his longtime friend and fellow NHRA champion David Tatum III. Adcock, in his Peak-backed Corvette, grabbed a small lead at the start, and it was enough for the win, running a 9.908 that held off Tatum’s perfect 9.900 pass. For Tatum, who has six national event titles to his credit, just making it to the final round was rewarding; he has spent the last couple of years rebuilding his race team after his Chevy Nova Super Gasser was stolen. [Watch video]

In 2015, Barker won the inaugural championship in Top Sportsman presented by Racing RVs, and after a pair of wins, he’s an early favorite again this season. With 6.5-second elapsed times in his Cobalt, Barker is essentially bracket racing a Pro Stock car, but he’s one of the best in the class. After qualifying No. 2, Barker earned a bye into the final round when he stopped quarterfinal opponent Jason Lynch. After giving up a hundredth of a second at the start, Barker won the final in a double breakout against Casey Spradlin’s unique ’37 Chevy. [Watch video]