Florida Sports Wire

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - - Sunday's first-round pairings for eliminations for the 47th annual AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, the third of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.  Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs listed below pairings. Top Fuel -- 1. Richie Crampton, 3.698 seconds, 319.37 mph  vs. 16. Chris Karamesines, broke; 2. Clay Millican, 3.722, 326.71  vs. 15. Ike Maier, 3.937, 301.00; 3. Antron Brown, 3.729, 319.07  vs. 14. Terry McMillen, 3.895, 308.57; 4. Leah Pritchett, 3.744, 325.69  vs. 13. Tripp Tatum, 3.862, 317.05; 5. Brittany Force, 3.745, 320.81  vs. 12. Morgan Lucas, 3.810, 315.64; 6. Tony Schumacher, 3.754, 315.12  vs. 11. Shawn Langdon, 3.783, 318.84; 7. Steve Torrence, 3.757, 325.22  vs. 10. J.R. Todd, 3.779, 323.35; 8. Doug Kalitta, 3.761, 324.05  vs. 9. Dave Connolly, 3.762, 325.45. Funny Car -- 1. Jack Beckman, Dodge Charger, 3.879, 329.26 ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla.  – Brittany Force raced to the qualifying lead in Top Fuel at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals on Friday. Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were qualifying leaders at the third of 24 events in the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season. Force powered her Monster Energy dragster to a 3.745-second pass at 309.56 mph to earn the qualifying lead at Gainesville Raceway. Force, who was the runner-up in Phoenix three weeks ago, has four No. 1 qualifiers in her career. She is chasing her first career victory. “Coming out here, we didn’t know what we were going to get with the weather conditions,” Force said. “We were at least hoping to get one good run in and we did that our first run today and then we really stepped it up on the second run. When I got out and they told me that we were number one and what we ran, I was blown away.” 2015 Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown pushed his Matco Too...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Andrew Hines will start the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Motorcycle season firmly focused on going after his third straight world championship. But another major accomplishment and one of the great, noteworthy NHRA milestones remains in the form of the first 200 mph pass in Pro Stock Motorcycle. That mark appears within reach in 2016 and Hines predicts fans won’t have to wait long to see it. That adds another exciting layer to this weekend’s 47th annual AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, where Hines will also be trying to win for the second time on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson. “I think we'll see that sitting on a scoreboard somewhere early in this year,” Hines said in reference to the 200 mph speed. “It could be one session where you might see two, three, maybe even four motorcycles run over that 200 mph mark and it might just stack up on who goes out first that qualifying session....

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series returns to the swamps of Gainesville, Fla., March 17-20, for the AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals – the third event of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello season.                 Fans in the Sunshine State will be in for a treat at the circuit’s traditional East Coast opener at Gainesville Raceway as the world’s best drag racers power their 10,000 horsepower, fire-breathing machines down the strip in pursuit of championship points and early-season momentum.  Spencer Massey (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Karen Stoffer (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were last year’s winners of the event that will be televised on FOX Sports 1, including live finals coverage at 1 p.m. (ET). The excitement and energy of NHRA racing on the track will be as adrenaline-pumping as ever, but in 2016, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is shifting gears and venturing bold...