Brown, Pedregon, Anderson, Ellis No. 1 at E-Town

Antron Brown

Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Chip Ellis (Pro Stock Motorcycle) took top qualifying honors in Saturday’s final session for Sunday’s 46th annual NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Antron Brown collected his third straight no. 1 qualifier as none of the other 15 competitors were able to top his run of 3.725 seconds at 319.52 mph from Friday’s sessions.

Brown, a two-time winner at Englishtown in the Pro Stock Motorcycle division, knocked J.R. Todd off the provisional pole in Friday’s second round and held on as Todd just missed re-claiming the top spot on the final run of the day, coming up just two-thousandths of a second short with a 3.727, 321.27.

The top qualifying effort was Brown’s the 40th of his career and his second Top Fuel pole at this track, where he’s finished runner-up to Larry Dixon twice in this event.

“We’re very excited, especially being back here at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals here in Englishtown," Brown said. “It feels good to be back in front of all of our family and all of our friends and right now our car has been running exceptionally well. We’re getting the bugs worked out of it and we’re still growing with our combinations. We’re looking forward to tomorrow and we’re ready to get after it."

Tony Schumacher qualified third with a 3.736, 323.66, followed by Leah Pritchett (3.736, 321.04) and Shawn Langdon (3.737, 324.12). Jenna Haddock too the bump spot and will face Brown in the opening round on Sunday.

Cruz Pedregon

In Funny Car, Cruz Pedregon picked up his third no. 1 qualifier of the season, topping Chad Head for the top qualifying honors.

Pedregon’s low ET of 3.967 seconds at 309.98 mph from Friday held up through both of Saturday’s sessions, earning him his 60th-career no. 1 qualifier and his sixth at Englishtown, where he has three career victories including a clean sweep in 2014 – taking both the pole and the victory.

“It never ceases to amaze me how much you have to change the set-up of the car when the sun’s out on the track and there’s not as much grip," said Pedregon, who will take on John Hale in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. . “It’s a double-edged sword to have a car that runs a 3.96. It takes a lot to do that and on the other hand, it takes a lot to slow it down. We have to find it tomorrow because tomorrow is the real deal."

The top five remained unchanged from Friday’s sessions, with Head holding second with a pass of 3.996 308.78Followed by Del Worsham(3.998 314.53), Matt Hagan (3.999 315.05) and Tommy Johnson Jr.(4.003 315.27)

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Greg Anderson earned his first top no.1 qualifying spot in nearly five years with a final-round comeback over rookie Drew Skillman to score his 76th-career top qualifier award.

Anderson, who had led the opening qualifying session on Friday, came into Saturday’s final session trailing Skillman but just .001 seconds and found himself in the lane next to Skillman as the final pair of the day.

Anderson would cover the 1,000-foot distance with a time of 6.479 seconds at 214.76 mph to beat out Skillman, who ran 6.486, 214.38 to settle for the second qualifying seed.

This is Anderson’s fifth no.1 qualifier at Englishtown and his first top qualifier of any kind since July of 2010 at Seattle.

"Believe it or not, the race track has been getting better with each run," said Anderson, who will face Val Smeland in the opening round. “We knew if we could get out of low gear, if we could get hooked up initially the cars were going to run faster. I’m just thrilled. It’s been four years since I’ve had a No. 1 qualifying spot. My car just keeps getting better every race we go to."

Erica Enders (6.500, 213.60) was third, followed by Chris McGaha (6.502, 213.91) and Jason Line (6.504, 214.04).

Chip Ellis

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Chip Ellis raced to his first no.1 qualifier since 2008, holding on to beat out Jerry Savoie for the pole.

Ellis came into Saturday’s qualifying in 12th place and barely in the show before roaring back in Saturday’s opening session to move to the top of the ladder with a pass of 6.801 seconds at 197.16 mph.

“From the very first run I made on the bike I knew it had a lot of horsepower," said Ellis, who last started no.1 in September 2008 at Memphis. “The competition is so tough out here, if you look at what you have to run to even qualify this weekend, it’s crazy. It’s tough. We were just keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that PiranaZ bike pulled us through and it did. So we’re ecstatic."

Savoie, who trailed in ninth after the opening session, staged his own comeback later in the day, but lost out on the pole by just .003 seconds, running 6.804 at 197.13 mph to take the second spot.

Hector Arana (6.815, 199.35), Karen Stoffer (6.820, 196.36) and Jim Underdahl (6.835, 198.41) rounded out the top five qualifiers. Angie Smith took the bump spot.

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