Connolly Takes Fourth-Straight Victory, Dixon Takes Top Fuel Lead

ENNIS, Texas — With a refreshing joy that helped heal wounded hearts following the John Force-Kenny Bernstein quarterfinal crash in Sunday’s O’Reilly Fall Nationals, native Texan Peggy Llewellyn celebrated her first National Hot Rod Ass’n victory in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.
She secured a berth in her class’s Final Four for the Countdown to the Championship, improving two spots with her holeshot victory over point-leader Andrew Hines in this last chance for the bike riders.
 She won with a 7.020-second elapsed time at 190 miles per hour on her Klement Motorsports S&S Buell V-Twin to join new point-leaders Larry Dixon (Top Fuel) and Tony Pedregon (Funny Car) and Pro Stock young gun Dave Connolly in the winner’s circle at the Texas Motorplex.
Hines had a quicker and faster 7.007/191.16 on his Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson. But he made up for his loss by leading the bike field that includes No. 2 Matt Smith and No. 3 Chip Ellis. Hines is seeking his fourth straight championship.
Llewellyn, racing a full season for the first time and returning from a five-year hiatus, said, “A year ago, I was back in my real-estate company, working in an office, thinking I wasn’t going to race anymore.”
Furthermore, in the preseason, she had tested on a Suzuki, but the team decided to go with a V-Twin. That, she said, was “like learning how to ride a motorcycle again.”

LEAPING LARRY: With his 42nd-career Top Fuel score on Sunday, Larry Dixon now leads the Top Fuel point standings by 45 points over second-place Rod Fuller and 50 points over third-place Tony Schumacher. (NHRA Photo)

Llewellyn said she keeps telling her team members, “Pinch me! Pinch me!” She added, “[It’s] pretty exciting. My heart and my prayers and my thoughts are with John Force.”
Her victory, coupled with third-place Craig Treble’s first round defeat, made her the only female competing for a championship in any pro class. Three-time champ Angelle Sampey and Karen Stoffer missed the cut. This marks the first time since Sampey’s sophomore season of 1997 that she has finished out of the top three.
Llewellyn also became the first African-American female to win in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.
Dixon, a two-time series champion, said his 42nd-career Top Fuel trophy for Don Prudhomme Racing was simply “a fringe benefit” for the SkyTel Dragster team because he is “looking at the points spread from first to fifth” in this Countdown.
He said he gladly conceded headlines and the spotlight to Hot Rod Fuller, Tony Schumacher, Brandon Bernstein and Sunday’s final-round opponent, Bob Vandergriff.
“You want to be in the top four going into Vegas,” Dixon said after his 4.629-second e.t. and 310.91-mph speed beat Vandergriff’s 5.426/307.72 in the UPS Dragster.
In Funny Car action, Tony Pedregon aced older brother Cruz Pedregon, 5.010/254.86 to 6.882/131.31 in a battle of Chevy Impalas.
Nearly as important to Tony Pedregon as leaping from fifth place to the head of the standings was the fact he won again in his parents’ home state and equaled Cruz in Texas Motorplex victories with two. His folks are from San Antonio and El Paso, and he said he thought about their late drag-racing dad before they fired their cars up for the final — “and he would’ve been proud of us.”
Said Pedregon, “We came in here with some pressure on us.” But opening-round exits by Jack Beckman, Ron Capps and Gary Scelzi gave him an excellent opportunity that he said he plans to exploit. “I’ve had that lead before,” the 2005 champion said, “and I’m going to work real hard to protect it.”
Working hard to scramble the points at the Oct. 5-7 Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park will be competitors Robert Hight (who’s looking to atone for a DNQ this past weekend), Beckman, Capps, Gary Scelzi and Ashley.
Pro Stock’s Connolly said he surprised even himself with a fourth straight victory. His 8.553-second, 112.17-mph effort in the Cagnazzi Racing Chevy Cobalt was a given, as Greg Anderson’s Summit Pontiac GTO broke on the starting line with transmission troubles.
“This year altogether has been remarkable,” Connolly said. “I’ve never won back-to-back races before, much less four in a row. And seven is an all-time high for me.”
Better yet for him is that he leads Anderson at the top of the Countdown order. Allen Johnson and Connolly’s teammate Jeg Coughlin round out the top four. Reigning champ Jason Line is 18 points out of Countdown-cutoff position, while Kurt Johnson is 29 away, Larry Morgan 50 and Warren Johnson 86.