Todd Drives Camry To NHRA FallNationals Semis

ENNIS, TX – J.R. Todd advanced to the Funny Car semifinals, while teammate Doug Kalitta reached the second round in Top Fuel to lead Toyota in Sunday’s Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex.

In Sunday’s opening round, Todd ran the quickest Funny Car pass of the weekend with a 3.867-second run, narrowly defeating Tim Wilkerson by .0056 seconds. That would set-up a second-round match-up with number one qualifier Robert Hight. Todd had a slight advantage on the tree, but Hight was up in smoke right at the hit. As Hight began to pedal it, Todd started to lose traction, but would get it to hook up in time to win the pedalfest.

Todd would then take on point leader Matt Hagan in the semifinals. The DHL Camry driver had a terrific .007 light, but double-stepped it, losing traction with the parachutes deploying as Hagan drove off to victory.

Alexis DeJoria ran a 3.893-second pass at 329.91 mph but fell just short in her first-round Funny Car match-up with John Force, losing by just .007 seconds or approximately four feet. It was the best pass of the weekend for each driver.

In Top Fuel, Kalitta faced fellow Toyota driver Antron Brown in round one where Kalitta had a great .037 light, but his car was out of the groove right at the hit. He was able to pedal it and get it back in the groove as Brown started to lose traction. Brown pedaled it a couple times but couldn’t get it to hook up with Kalitta taking the win. His day would come to an end in round two, though, against Steve Torrence as Kalitta was up in smoke early.

Shawn Langdon registered the quickest reaction time in Top Fuel with an outstanding .020, but then smoked the tires, giving the first-round win to Clay Millican.

The NHRA is back in action next weekend at the Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, October 15-17.