91����

While much of the country remains frozen or at least facing weather conditions that are too cold to race, the 2025 season kicked off last weekend with a pair of NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series divisional events.

The Southeast Division held their annual season opener at Orlando Speed World Dragway, while the Pacific Division also got underway with a doubleheader event at Firebird Motorsports Park in Phoenix. The anticipation that surrounds each new season wasn’t lost on NHRA Sportsman racers, who fill the staging lanes at both events. Here are some of the highlights from both races.

The Phoenix event also marked the first regional race of the season featuring Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car, and Jon Bradford and Maddi Gordon emerged as the champions. Gordon is well-known to NHRA fans following her successful rookie season in 2024. The third-generation racer finished second in last year’s points battle and is off to a great start, especially after running a 5.47 in the final against Brian Hough, last year’s No. 3 ranked driver.

As for Bradford, he made waves with his Top Alcohol Dragster victory over Casey Grisel. A three-time divisional winner in Top Dragster, Bradford now races a supercharged TAD entry that is equipped with a torque converter and electronic fuel injection, which was approved for this season. The new combination proved to be extremely competitive as Bradford ran 5.19 at more than 278 mph in the final, and his worst reaction time of the day was a .027.

No one was able to double-up at the Division 7 event, but Don Bevers and David Cook came close by making a pair of final rounds in Comp and Top Sportsman, respectively. Bevers drove his A/SMA Probe to a win in the first event on Friday over Kevin Carter and then went to the final on Sunday, where he lost to Joe Mozeris.

Cook was in contention for the Right Trailers Top Sportsman title until the final week of the 2024 season, and he’s off to a fast start this year with a win in Race 1 over Joseph Lucas and a runner-up later in the week to Division 6 racer Robert Strohm. Predicting a future world champion in February is a pointless exercise, but even after two races, it’s not hard to at least label Cook as one of the leading contenders for 2025.

When it comes to scoring points, past world champions Ryan McClanahan and Kyle Rizzoli had to feel good about their Phoenix results. McClanahan, whose SS/AM entry is one of the quickest cars in Super Stock, won the first event and then went to the semifinals on Sunday before a broken rear end in the semifinals of Race 2 prevented what might have been a double-up.

Rizzoli won Race 1 in Stock with his ’69 Camaro and then went to round three of the second event. As a result, he’s currently tied with Darin Grossi, who backed up a round-three finish with a win on Sunday.

The Phoenix event was also a big weekend for Chad Guilford, who won in Super Stock with his Cobra Jet Mustang. Guilford won the Stock world championship in 1992 and four Lucas Oil Series events between 1992 and 1995. Now, 30 years later, he’s back in the winner’s circle.

There were several familiar winners at the Division 2 event in Orlando, Fla., including Comp champ Monty Bogan, who earned Top 10 finishes last season in both Comp and Super Stock. Bogan won the Comp final over David Eaton.

Also of interest was Stock winner Bruce Kastle, who claimed his first divisional event behind the wheel of his Mercury Cougar. Kastle’s only other final round came nearly two decades ago at the 2007 Division 3 event at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk.

Kastle wasn’t the only “feel good” story of the event as Neal Vaccaro claimed his first NHRA Wally after a career that spans 50 years. Vaccaro, a regular in the Mid-Atlantic .90 Association, used a nearly perfect 10.908 in the final to stop Rudy Matthews. Vaccaro was previously a finalist at the Cecil County Dragway event in 1993.

Finally, the cool temperatures in Orlando produced record-setting performances, including an historic run in Stock eliminator. Pennsylvania’s Tony Fagnilli became the first Stock eliminator racer (non-Factory Showdown car) to run in the 7s with a 7.84 in his FS/AAA COPO Camaro.