Kalitta, Beckman, Anderson, Stoffer Win at Norwalk

Jack Beckman

2012 NHRA Funny Car World Champion "Fast" Jack Beckman took down all three drivers in the powerhouse John Force Racing stable to collect his third Wally of the season and push him closer to the top of the points standings in Sunday's 51st annual Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Karen Stoffer (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also made their way into the Winner's Circle in Sunday's final eliminations.

Jack Beckman had to overcome some tough odds on his road toward his fourth money round of the season, following a disappointing qualifying effort that put him 11th on the grid, then going up against John Force, Robert Hight and Tim Wilkerson before moving on to face Courtney Force for just their second career final round showdown.

At the start, both drivers were nearly even before Force pulled slightly ahead at the 60 foot mark. Just before the halfway mark, Force began to smoke the tires and quickly fell back as Beckman powered post to take the victory, running a 4.211 at 301.67 mph despite losing a cylinder. Force coasted to the line with a 4.609, 199.64.

Beckman's victory was the 18th of his career and helped push him to two spots to third in the points standings behind Matt Hagan and Ron Capps, despite missing the season-opening race at Pomona.

"This race was awesome for what we had to overcome and the fact that we beat all of the Force cars," said Beckman. "We only made it down the track one time in (four qualifying sessions) and we end up 11th and have to race John Force in the first round. But we ended up in the winner's circle. It was a fabulous win."

Doug Kalitta

In Top Fuel Doug Kalitta beat out defending event winner Antron Brown to score his second win of the season and earn some redemption against Brown, who had eliminated Kalitta in four prior events this season.
Coming into Sunday's eliminations as the no. 1 qualifier following a record-setting run on Saturday, Kalitta picked up round wins over Chris Karamesines, Steve Torrence and Clay Millican to advance to the finals for his third time this season and his fifth against Brown.

Looking for a second straight win in the event, Brown led from the start with a .023-second starting line edge and had the advantage up until the halfway point when he started dropping cylinders, allowing Kalitta to pick up the win light for the 37th time in his career.

Kalitta ran 3.823 at 322.34 mph to pick the victory, while Brown went 3.918, 307.79 in a losing effort.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]"This is our hometown track and it was great having a lot of family and close friends here, so it doesn't get much better than that," said Kalitta. "Even my mom actually showed up. I think she's only shown up one other time in my entire career. She watches it on TV quite a bit but doesn't come too often. I'm going to have to tell her that she has to come out [again since] we won with her here."

Kalitta improved from sixth to third in the standings, trailing leader Brown by 134 and second-place Tony Schumacher by 114.

Greg Anderson hoisted his fourth Wally of the season and took over the top spot in the Pro Stock points standings with a win over rookie Drew Skillman in what was the closest finish of the day.

Anderson and Skillman qualified within 0.003 seconds of each other starting seventh and eighth, respectively and advanced for their first ever head-to-head final-round matchup.

Appearing in his series-leading seventh final round, Anderson held a 0.004-second advantage as both drivers had good lights at the start. Skillman kept the pressure on Anderson and never trailed by more than two feet but came up just inches short at the line, losing out by two one-thousandths of a second to Anderson, who clocked in at 6.592 at 212.19 mph over Skillman's 6.594, 211.43.

It was the 78th-career victory for Anderson and his third in the last four events, and pushed him past Erica Enders-Stevens into the points lead.

Karen Stoffer

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Karen Stoffer picked up her second win of the season with a red-light victory over Angelle Sampey Stoffer, who had to raced her way into the 12th starting spot on the last day of qualifying, earned her second final round shot with victories over two-time Norwalk winner and two-time series champion Matt Smith, 2011 Norwalk winner and three-time series champion Eddie Krawiec and 2010 series champion LE Tonglet to move on to face three-time series champion Sampey, who was looking for her first national event win since 2007.

Meeting in their first final-round since 2002, Sampey was too fast on the tree as she fouled out by .014 seconds to give the win to Stoffer, who crossed the line with a 6.984 at 193.10 mph for her eighth career win.

"Racing Angelle in a final for the first time since 2002 was interesting," Stoffer said. "We both struggled here, so we had to race a couple of times in qualifying. It was great to race her in the final. I would have liked to have seen two green lights, but we all live and die by the Tree in this class. We managed to get our tire hooked up, and we went down the track, so I think we'd have been in good shape no matter what."

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