IHRA: Champions crowned at rainy Northern Nationals

Your town might need rain, but precipitation seems to follow the IHRA as it travels – and that was the case Friday and Saturday at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan on Friday and Saturday.

That said, the IHRA and U.S. 131 crew did an exemplary job of working in the track between showers – and fans were rewarded by some stellar performances, and several IHRA world records.

At this weekend's final event of the IHRA Drag Racing Series for the four Pro categories – though there's plenty of IHRA racing left this season for the Summit Sportsman competitors – 2016 champions in AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car, Pro Modified, Pro Stock and Nitro Motorcycle were crowned.

In Pro Modified, Billy Harper in his sinister-looking black Dodge Viper was the only champion to have the title pretty much wrapped up when he came to U.S. 131. Harper didn't win the race, but he did run an elapsed time of 5.803 seconds, the fastest run in IHRA Pro Mod history, although he did not get a chance to make a second run to make the record official. It was Harper's first championship in the IHRA Pro Modified class. Second in points was Ruben Tetsoshvili in his lime green Chevrolet Camaro, a car he worked hard to develop all season.

The Pro Mod races were enhanced by the presence of a couple of IHRA legends: Billy Glidden, son of Pro Stock icon Bob Glidden, and Rickie Smith, who has 11 IHRA championships, starting with his first in 1976.

The finals consisted of a tight run between Glidden and comparative youngster Jason Hamstra, who was making his first start with the IHRA. Glidden had problems in his final round with a run of 6.938 at 144.83mph, but Hamstra had even more problems, and ran a 11.564 at 70.56mph.

En route to his win, Glidden set a Pro Mod top speed record of 250.98 mph, and Rickie Smith set an ET record of 5.831 seconds. Smith was not able to make an appearance in the semifinals due to a broken rocker arm in the engine that caused a blower failure and a flash fire – too much to repair before the next round.

In AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car, it was the third straight championship for Jason Rupert and the Littlefield-Rupert Chevrolet Camaro, but it didn't come easily – four cars had a shot at the title, and Rupert hadn't won since San Antonio, the second race of the season.

But Rupert proved he deserved the title at U.S. 131, with a final-round victory over John McIntire Jr.'s McAttack Camaro. Rupert's closest competitor for the title, McIntire had problems with his run, but Rupert laid down a 5.522 second, 262.54mph pass, an IHRA world record for both speed and elapsed time. As the last run of the day, at almost midnight, Rupert put an exclamation mark on his year. For the third year straight, he's the champ, and McIntire the runner-up. The other two drivers with a chance at the championship were Shawn Bowen and Mark Sanders, and they ended up third and fourth, respectively.

In Pro Stock, it came down to the wire between Cary Goforth, who had a slim three-point advantage, and Trevor Eman. It was settled in the semifinals when the two drivers squared off against each other – Goforth narrowly edged out Eman in a near-photo-finish race, essentially giving Goforth and his AMSOIL Camaro his third straight championship, with Eman in second.

In the final round, it was Goforth against a surprisingly strong J.R Carr, and it was another nail-biter – Goforth ran a 6.31 at 221.35mph, while Carr posted a 6.33 at 221.02mph.

And in Nitro Motorcycle, current champ Jay Turner came to the Northern Nationals with a healthy points lead over Bob Malloy, and he needed it – Turner's first run ended in a clutch failure, and his second run was sunken by a mysterious fuel problem. But Malloy broke on his first round of eliminations, deeding the championship to Turner.

As for the race itself, it came down to a battle between Frank Capone and Tii Tharp, with Capone taking his first IHRA win, with a run of 6.45 at 220.26mph, to Tharpe's 6.50 at 200.80mph.

It was an abbreviated season, but the IHRA, under series president Mike Dunn, winner in both Top Fuel and Funny car and a former analyst for ESPN, will have a more robust season in 2017, with additions that include the return of the Top Fuel class and some added venues.