(Words – Darr Hawthorne & NHRA/Photos Jeff and Mike Burghardt) – Driving prowess with incredible reaction times and top performance in a shortened season made the ingredients necessary for Erica Enders-Stevens to become the first woman to win an NHRA Pro Stock World Championship title at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.   In the final round with double red light start, Enders defeated her closest points rival Jason Line at the season-ending 50^th NHRA Auto Club NHRA Finals.

In nitro racing, Don Schumacher Racing’s Matt Hagan claimed his second Funny Car world championship in dramatic fashion over John Force and also won the World Finals, while Andrew Hines took the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship by racing to a first-round victory. Part-timer Morgan Lucas earned the Top Fuel race victory and Hector Arana Jr. captured the Pro Stock Motorcycle event win.

Enders-Stevens raced to her sixth victory of the season when both she and Line fouled at the start (Enders-Stevens -.002 to Jason Line’s worse -.011) in the winner-take-all final-round meeting at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. Erica is the third female to win a world championship in the NHRA Drag Racing Series, joining three-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney and three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Angelle Sampey.

Erica Enders-Stevens and Team Owner Richard Freeman

“It’s awesome to be a part of this female movement in NHRA,” Enders-Stevens said. “I think it goes to show what we’re capable of and what a great platform NHRA gives all of us girls to climb the ladder and to get to where we want to go.  “To join two of my heroes, Shirley Muldowney and Angelle Sampey, who are both my friends now, as NHRA world champions, is simply unreal. The words of advice I’ve received from those two women means so much to me.”

Enders-Stevens, whose early life as an NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League competitor was the subject of a popular Disney Channel original movie in 2003, began pursuing this goal in 2005 when she made her Pro Stock debut. After advancing to six final rounds in her first eight seasons she broke through with her first victory in 2012 at Chicago. She challenged for the championship the last three seasons, finishing a career-best fourth in 2012.

In Nitro Funny Car, Hagan claimed his second world championship title when he won his semifinal round over tire smoking DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. He then put an exclamation point on his title by racing to his fourth victory of the season and 14th of his career by defeating second place finisher John Force in the final round.

Force let his funny car crew chief Jimmy Prock go, just prior to the second Las Vegas race and that may have been his performance undoing. Don Schumacher immediately hired Prock.

Hagan powered to a final round performance of 4.076 seconds at 310.77 mph in his Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger to hold off Force’s Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, which finished in 4.086 at 276.58.

“I think that the championship was really what we were after, and the race win was kind of icing on the cake,” Hagan, who earned his first world championship in 2011, said. “But it just solidifies that we had a great race car. To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, and everybody says he’s the best, so we beat him, and that’s what’s cool about this deal. It was nice to finish it out here strong. We beat him here last year at this time, and we did it again this year. Hats off to him. They’ve got a great car, but we had a little better one today.”

Hagan scored four victories this season, including three in the Countdown playoffs to wrap up the championship after finishing the regular season in eighth place. Hagan, who is also a cattle rancher in his southwest Virginia home, has finished first or second in the points in four of the last five seasons.

Alexis DeJoria became the quickest woman in NHRA nitro funny car racing with her 3.998 qualifying in her the Patrόn XO Cafe-sponsored 2014 Toyota Camry-bodied fuel coupe.  She plowed through the field from the #1 position with a 4.025 in the first round against Gary Densham, a 4.012 in round two defeating Robert Hight and then smoked the tires losing to John Force in the Semi’s.

Morgan Lucas took his second Top Fuel victory of the season and 11th of his career by posting two of the top three-quickest runs in category history to hold off newly-crowned Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher in the final round. Schumacher earned a record eighth Top Fuel world championship at the end of qualifying on Saturday.

Lucas, who ran a part-time schedule this season, raced to round wins over Billy Torrence, Shawn Langdon and Antron Brown (above)  in early rounds before defeating Schumacher in the final.

Morgan Lucas in the near lane posted a track record 3.704 to take the final-round win over Tony Schumacher.

“I feel like I’m doing a better job behind the wheel on a part-time basis than I ever did racing full-time,” Lucas said. “The car was fast, and it was on a string. I almost didn’t have to steer it or do anything. It felt like I was strapped to a missile. I had a lot of fun today.”

Andrew Hines captured his fourth Pro Stock Motorcycle world championship and first since 2006 when he claimed the first-round win over Katie Sullivan. Hines raced to six victories during the season to earn his first championship in the Countdown era aboard his Screamin’ Eagle Vance and Hines Harley-Davidson.

“I’ve been waiting a long time to be able to write ‘4x’ next to my name,” Hines said. “It was nice to finally get it done, but also to get it done with a win. I didn’t really want to have to be the guy who waited for someone else to lose to clinch it. It’s great to get that big trophy and that big check, but the biggest trophies I have are my wife, Tanya, and my kids, Declan and Rion.”

Arana Jr. went on to claim the race victory on his Lucas Oil Buell, taking his second win of the season and ninth of his career by outrunning Hines’ teammate Eddie Krawiec in the final round.

“I popped the clutch and never saw Eddie,” Arana Jr. said. “My bike went straight down the track and it was an amazing feeling. This is going to be a good off-season. I’m glad we got the win for the team. This is a good confidence booster. It’s good for our morale for the next four months.”

* * *

POMONA, Calif. — Final finish order (1-16) at the 50th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.  The race is the final of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

TOP FUEL:

1. Morgan Lucas; 2.  Tony Schumacher; 3.  Antron Brown; 4.  J.R. Todd; 5.  Steve Torrence; 6.  Richie Crampton; 7.  Shawn Langdon; 8.  Dom Lagana; 9.  Larry Dixon; 10.  Billy Torrence; 11.  Troy Buff; 12.  Doug Kalitta; 13.  Khalid alBalooshi; 14.  Bob Vandergriff; 15.  Spencer Massey; 16.  Clay Millican.

FUNNY CAR:

1. Matt Hagan; 2.  John Force; 3.  Tommy Johnson Jr.; 4.  Alexis DeJoria; 5.  Del Worsham; 6.  Tim Wilkerson; 7.  Robert Hight; 8.  Ron Capps; 9.  Jack Beckman; 10.  Bob Tasca III; 11.  Tony Pedregon; 12.  Chad Head; 13.  Gary Densham; 14.  Courtney Force; 15.  Cruz Pedregon; 16.  Jeff Arend.

PRO STOCK:

1. Erica Enders-Stevens; 2.  Jason Line; 3.  Jeg Coughlin; 4.  Jonathan Gray; 5.  Shane Gray; 6.  Rodger Brogdon; 7.  Dave Connolly; 8.  Matt Hartford; 9.  Vincent Nobile; 10.  V. Gaines; 11.  Chris McGaha; 12.  Larry Morgan; 13.  Greg Stanfield; 14.  Jeff Isbell; 15.  Greg Anderson; 16.  Allen Johnson.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:

1. Hector Arana Jr; 2.  Eddie Krawiec; 3.  Andrew Hines; 4.  Chaz Kennedy; 5.  Adam Arana; 6.  Steve Johnson; 7.  Scotty Pollacheck; 8.  Hector Arana; 9.  Jerry Savoie; 10.  Matt Smith; 11.  Jim Underdahl; 12.  Shawn Gann; 13.  Freddie Camarena; 14.  Katie Sullivan; 15.  Angie Smith; 16.  Elvira Karlsson.

 

 

POMONA, Calif. — Sunday’s Final Sportsman results from the 50th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The race is the final of 24 in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series:

Top Alcohol Dragster — Duane Shields (far lane), 5.412, 264.13  def. Cameron Ferre, 5.625, 265.74.

Top Alcohol Funny Car — Steve Harker (near lane), Chevy Monte Carlo, 5.489, 266.21  def. John Lombardo Jr., Ford Mustang, 5.519, 263.36.

Competition Eliminator — Aaron Strong, Chevy S-10, 8.116, 165.44  def. Clint Neff, Bantam Roadster, 10.668, 78.17.

 

Competition Eliminator qualifying was led by Southern Californian John Mihovetz in his ’09 Shelby Mustang AA/ATurbo with a killer 5.920/248.07 pass in at #1.  Mihovetz went out in Round three of eliminations with terrible tire shake off the starting line losing to event winner Aaron Strong’s ’98 S-10 Pick-up.

 

Super Stock — Jeff Taylor, Chevy Cobalt, 9.634, 124.03  def. Marion Stephenson, Pontiac Sunbird, foul.

Stock Eliminator — Bobby DeArmond, Chevyt Camaro, 10.128, 128.18  def. Paula Cotten, Plymouth Duster, foul.

Super Comp — Gabriel Torres, Dragster, 8.907, 168.16  def. Alan Kenny, Dragster, 8.905, 170.08.

Super Gas — Trevor Larson, Chevy Corvette, 9.917, 158.04  def. Tommy Phillips, Chevy Camaro, 9.894, 160.63.

Summit Super Pro — Steve Sisko, Dragster, 9.648, 113.04  def. runner-up Cliff Carr (near lane), Dragster, foul.

 

Summit Pro — Gerald Halle, Chevelle, 9.506, 140.85  def. Dustin Moore, Chevy Nova, foul.

Summit Bike — Roy Hagadorn, Suzuki, 8.862, 142.60  def. Brenda Kay, Suzuki, 8.606, 150.56.

Summit Sportsman — Bill Crutcher, Chevy Nova, 12.490, 107.35  def. Scott Smith, Chevy Malibu, foul.

Summit Bike racer David Ferguson from Newburgh NY ran 9.60 second elapsed times on his ’95 Artic Cat from the #2 qualifying position.  He races in the Summit ET Series at Island Dragway in Great Meadows, NJ.

 

The 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season begins Feb. 5-8 at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.).