by Jerry Bonkowski
 New Hampshire winners (from left) Greg Anderson,
John Force and Tony Schumacher. (Photo courtesy NHRA) | In Funny Car, record 16-time champion John Force, who turned 65 last month, rallied from deep in the pack to power his way to his second win of the season and 143rd of his career. Force (4.160 seconds at 309.49 mph) defeated No. 1 qualifier Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final round.
The win was also yet another milestone in Force’s legendary career: he now has at least one win at every track that has appeared on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series circuit.
“I had a great day,” said Force, who climbed into third position in the Funny Car points standings. “I’m not going out of racing any time soon, but I was going to win at New England. I almost did the first year and this year I finally did.”
In Pro Stock, 54-year-old Greg Anderson won his second race in a row (won last week at Englishtown, N.J.), his third race of the season and 77th of his career. The four-time world champ had a winning run of 6.512 seconds at 214.72 mph in the Pro Stock final, defeating 2012 world champ Allen Johnson (6.530 seconds at 213.50 mph).
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“My car has been fantastic,” Anderson said. “I’m absolutely having a ball. I’ve got a great race team behind me and they are doing a great job. I can’t wait to go to the next race.”
And in Top Fuel, defending champion and 8-time world champ Tony Schumacher, at 45 the kid of the trio, roared to his second win of the season and 79th of his career.
Schumacher’s 3.809-second run at 321.35 mph run edged runner-up Larry Dixon (3.881 seconds, 319.60 mph) and pushed Schumacher to second in the Top Fuel standings.
“[Crew chiefs] Mike [Green] and Neal [Strausbaugh] did an outstanding job today,” said Schumacher. “I felt like I drove well today. Together as a team we went out and won. We did a great job, what a battle.”
Sunday’s race was the 10th event on the 24-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The next race is this coming weekend’s (June 19-21) Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway.
Lincoln Electric is a proud partner of John Force Racing & Don Schumacher Racing.
