“Yeah, Maybe I Should Have Lifted.”

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – It was a good weekend for Spencer Massey as he beat Alan Johnson in the Top Fuel finals at the Supernationals in Englishtown, NJ. A baby-faced Massey garnered his second consecutive win on the holeshot running a 3.821-second run at 319.07 mph against a 3.815-second run at 322.19 by Worsham. “It’s awesome to beat the Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi/Del Worsham car in the final,” said Massey. “The Al-Anabi car has been on a roll and running killer numbers, so we knew we had to be on our 'A' game, that the car had to run well, and I had to be on my game.”


Though taking unnecessary chances, Mike Neff took top-honors in Funny Car paired up against Cruz Pedregon in the final round. Neff’s Castrol GTX Ford Mustang went 4.071 at 314.09 mph which was more than enough as Cruz red-lighted. “I knew he red-lighted,” said Neff. “I was sitting there waiting for the Tree to come down, and I heard him leave and knew he red-lighted because the Tree hadn’t come down yet. I looked over and saw that his bulb was red, then I looked up and saw our win light on. By that time, I had already hit the gas and was taking off and saw our win light on. I wanted to see what it would run, then I was saying ‘Don’t drive over the centerline or something.' Wouldn’t you lose if you did that? Yeah, maybe I should have lifted.” It appears that Mike lives by the motto “never-lift.” We know why Neff get’s along with John Force so well!


As usual, Pro Stock was especially competitive. So competitive in fact that legend Warren Johnson failed to qualify! Last week’s winner Shane Gray qualified second, but was taken out by Greg Stanfield in the first round. Shane was a little late at the light and was never able to catch Greg though he ran a blistering 211.03 mph top speed run. Stanfield made it to Round 3 before losing to Allen Johnson by a mere 4 feet! The Nitrofish GXP ran a 6.559-second 210.87 mph run against Johnson’s-6.555 second 210.70 mph. Dang it was close!


In the Final round it was all Dodges with rookie Vincent Nobile going against Allen Johnson. Though Nobile ran 6.618 second e.t. against Johnson’s 6.689 seconds, the rookie was a little too quick at the line posting a red light. Johnson was not a bit dismayed at being slower than the rookie since he supplies Nobile with engines. “I’m very proud of our engine guys and Mark [Ingersoll, crew chief], who makes the tuning calls. Vincent is a fierce competitor, and I’m sure we’re going to tangle a few more times before this is over.” No one can accuse Johnson at holding back the good engines.


Pro Mod seemed to have the “prettiest” pits with Melanie Troxel and rookie Leah Pruett-Leduc. After several successful test runs in the RoadRage.com Camaro, Pruett-Leduc, made her Pro Mod Series debut. "Pro Mod is the most difficult car I've ever driven," said Pruett-LeDuc, the reigning Nostalgia Funny Car champion. Though top qualifier and new National record-holder, Troxel’s ’53 Corvette was taken out early in the first round by Dennis Radford. Unfortunately, Radford car came across Troxel’s lane hitting the left wall. The crew was able to get Radford’s car to the start of Round 3. Pruett-Leduc made it to the second round before losing to Mike Castelana. The show was won by Danny Rowe in his ’68 Camaro.