Morgan Lucas wins top-fuel title at NHRA Winternationals

The last time elite drag racers John Force and Larry Dixon competed at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, at the National Hot Rod Assn. Finals in November, they wrapped up series championships in their respective divisions.

On Sunday at the NHRA Winternationals, the first stop of 22 on the Full Throttle Series, which concludes in Pomona this November, neither fared too well.

Force lost in the second round of funny car eliminations after Dixon lost in the first round of top fuel.

The top-fuel final ended up featuring sixth-seeded Shawn Langdon, 27, and ninth-seeded Morgan Lucas, 28, who were classmates at Jurupa Valley High in Mira Loma. They both race for Forrest Lucas, Morgan’s father and the owner of Lucas Oil.

As the sun was setting after a long day made longer by numerous action-delaying oil spills, Lucas won the showdown against Langdon for the Winternationals top-fuel title.

Lucas had an elapsed time of 3.835 seconds on his winning 1,000-foot run, with a top speed of 316.38 mph. Langdon’s numbers were 4.047 and 313.73. Lucas picked up 114 points in the series standings to Langdon’s 94.

Lucas said he and Langdon, 2001 graduates, met in an English class their senior year at Jurupa Valley and have been close friends since. “This was a dream come true,” Lucas said.

Force’s loss came against son-in-law Robert Hight, 41, the president of John Force Racing. Hight ended up in the funny car final against Matt Hagan, 28, a Virginia cattle rancher who was runner-up to Force in the national standings last year.

Hight nipped Hagan for the title, with the difference a quicker reaction time at the starting line, .060 of a second to .105. Hight had a run of 4.056 seconds and 312.71 mph to Hagan’s 4.023 and 310.20. Hight leads Hagan in the point standings, 118 to 93.

On a day of upsets under perfect weather, top-seeded pro stock driver Erica Enders, 27, had a disastrous second round when her car shut down during her warmup burnout. In the first round, she hit a track-record and personal-best 212.43 mph.

Eleventh-seeded Jason Line beat fifth-seeded Greg Stanfield in the pro stock final with a quarter-mile run of 6.529 seconds and a top speed of 211.89 mph.

Dixon lost in the first round of eliminations when he smoked his tires, enabling Terry McMillen, winless in his career, to beat Dixon to the finish line by three-tenths of a second. Dixon on Saturday had set a national record of 3.770 seconds and qualified No. 1 for the ninth time in his last 20 Full Throttle events.

Of Sunday’s one and done, Dixon said, “We were too hopped up and went out and spun the tires.”

Misfortune hit McMillen in the second round as he lost a blower belt and was eliminated by Lucas.

Another big upset came in the second round when Langdon beat seven-time series champion and third-seeded Tony Schumacher, who led early before losing traction. In the first round, Schumacher’s 327.03 mph topped his national record of 325.61, set last year at Las Vegas.

Langdon advanced to the final round with an upset of second-seeded Antron Brown. Those two met in the final round here last November after Dixon had wrapped up the series title. Brown was the winner that time.

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