Australian drag racer Dave Grubnic became the first Top Fuel driver from outside North America to win an NHRA national event when he beat two-time champion Larry Dixon in the final round of the 17th annual O'Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. The affable Aussie cruised through a 4.60-second pass at 320 mph to score his first victory in eight tries. Funny Car giant John Force and Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson also scored big wins.

Grubnic's long-awaited win put a smile on nearly everyone's face, except Dixon's crew who helplessly watched their man smoke his tires at the hit of the throttle. Force's record 118th NHRA win was also decided early when opponent Tommy Johnson overpowered the track early on in his attempt. A winner of three races in a row, Anderson was a machine all day, finally taking out challenger Dave Connolly for the trophy.

Dave Grubnic

One of the more popular drivers among his peers, Grubnic had suffered through seven runner-up finishes before finally getting the job done Sunday in Topeka. He entered the final at a distinct disadvantage as Dixon's lane choice advantage put him in the less-than-desirable right-hand lane. But somehow his 7,000-horsepower rail traversed the lane, including a tricky launch pad, and carried him to the stripe in 4.600 seconds at 320.28 mph.

Grubnic's victory was actually the second of his career as he won the Budweiser Shootout late last year in Las Vegas, coincidentally against Dixon. But that special event does not rank as an official national event.

"God Bless the United States and all the people here," said Grubnic, when apprised of the ovation he received from his nitro peers. "I'm proud of that. I get on with everyone out here and having their support like that is amazing. We all beat each others brains out but Larry was one of the first guys over to congratulate me after I won. That's how we do it.

"You do start to wonder to yourself if you can win, especially after seven runner-up finishes. You wonder when people are going to give up on you and get someone who's lucky in the car or something. But all you can do is keep slogging away until it finally happens. Now the flood gates should open, right?

"Being the first Australian to win an NHRA event is big. You don't think about that stuff in the car but I'm sure it'll be party time down there when word reaches my fans. That's what it's all about but I wouldn't be able to accomplish a thing without my crew, Connie Kalitta, and our sponsors, who are all very good friends of mine."

Zantrex-3 driver Grubnic reached his first final of the year and eighth of his career by beating John Smith, reigning champ Tony Schumacher, and Doug Herbert. A dropped cylinder that resulted in a 4.69-second pass in his semifinal win over Herbert resulted in him surrendering lane choice to Dixon.

Sticking in the mid-4.5 second range all day while everyone else struggled, Dixon's Miller Lite rail was rock-steady in carrying him to his 66th career final. He beat David Baca, Scott Kalitta, and Morgan Lucas, who had opened the day with the quickest pass of the weekend, a 4.502.

John Force

In a repeat of the 1999 Funny Car final at this event, Force once again beat Tommy Johnson to Topeka's finish line, this time by a large margin as T.J. lost traction early and surrendered the run. Officially, Force crossed with a 4.809 at 320.97 mph, while Johnson carded an 8.167 at 107.67 mph.

Force is now a perfect 4-0 in finals this year, including the last three straight, and has increased his lead in the POWERade points race to 127 over his rookie teammate Robert Hight.

"It's been awhile since we've done a stretch of three wins in a row," Force said. "This one was a lot of hard work. We all saw how many people smoked the tires and our guys had to pull [the tune-up] back and back and you wonder when you're gonna hit that point where it's too weak to go.

"Once we got to the final and we saw Greg Anderson win [crew chief Austin] Coil said, 'That's a good sign.' He's right because it seems like whenever he wins, we win, so I was happy to see him win.

'I'm so happy for ol' 'Aussie Dave.' You never forget your first win and he worked hard to get that one. I've been telling him to just relax and let that first one come to him and it's awesome to see him win one."

This was the third final in a row for Force and the record 184th of his career. The Castrol GTX Start Up Ford Mustang driver was the quickest of the final three rounds, beating teammate Eric Medlen with a 4.81, Ron Capps with a 4.83, and Johnson with a 4.80. He opened with a 4.85 versus Jeff Arend.

Johnson limped into his 18th final-round appearance by surviving a pedalfest with No. 1 qualifier Hight in the semi’s. Both cars were lost in smoke early but Johnson's experience helped him regain just enough traction to get to the finish line first. The Skoal racer, who won Pomona earlier this year, also beat Gary Scelzi and Phil Burkart.

Greg Anderson

Anderson continued to close in on the POWERade Pro Stock points lead with his third victory in a row and third straight at Heartland Park Topeka. The back-to-back series champ, who led the points after every race in 2004 but has yet to be on top this year, has now raced to four finals in the last five national events and has closed to within 13 points of POWERade leader Warren Johnson.

This one was relatively easy as Anderson left first, .014 to .022, and drove away from Connolly with a 6.768 at 203.65 mph to Connolly's slightly troubled 6.907 at 203.68 mph. This was the 34th victory for Anderson, putting him all alone in third place on the all-time Pro Stock win list.

"A couple, three, four races ago I thought to myself that if we don't get started soon it was going to be impossible to pull this thing out," said Anderson. "We made some serious moves, even down to me switching cars, and luckily it all worked out. I credit the rest of the class for forcing us to find another level. That's what this class is all about.

"This brings back the feeling we had last year when we were winning lots of races. I told the guys awhile back that the real measure of a championship team is not how they act when they're winning everything but how a group responds to adversity. That's where you find the difference between a team that wins one or two championships and then fades away and one that is at a championship level for many, many years."

Without question, Anderson is the hottest driver in the class, reaching his 50th career final by blowing past Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, and teammate Jason Line in his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac, before dispatching Connolly in the final.

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