Jack Beckman (Funny Car), Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock), Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcyle) win at the Midwest Nationals held at World Wide Raceway.

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Top Fuel

Schumacher wins his second Wally this season and 88th of his career. But it

was his first in the Countdown to the Championship since 2014, the same year he last won a world championship.

Schumacher’s day began with a close race with Julie Nataas who made her Top Fuel debut. Then had even closer race edging out points leader Antron Brown. Finally he beat Shawn Reed to make it to the finals beating Steve Torrence.

“It was a great day,” Schumacher said. “Running Antron Brown second round, we had to go after it. You look back on moments like that and we made the choice to go after this stuff and run well. I’m proud of the guys.”

Torrence had the starting line advantage and the lead until Schumacher chased him down in the lights. Tony Schumacher’s MOV: 0.0107 seconds (approximately 5 feet).

Funny Car

Ron Capps was 40 – 23 against Jack Beckman in prior events and Capps is 5 – 4 against Beckman in prior final rounds. But now they are tied in final wins as Beckman driving John Force’s car as he recovers from early season race incident.

Capps had the starting line advantage, but Beckman had the lead as they went by the Christmas tree and never trailed from there on for the win.  Beckman wins his 34th Funny Car Wally.

Four years ago Beckman lost his ride and not raced until he was asked by the John Force. The win is the first since he came back this year.

“It feels great to be back,” said Beckman. “We are going to savor this one.”

The point won go to John Force who is currently in third place for the season championship.

“It’s a complete honor to drive this car,” said Beckman.  “John Force has done everything and we may not have seen the last of him yet. He is by all metrics the greatest of all time and he’s also a friend of mine. He’s also John Force. He’s his own personality. I am absolutely fine with having an asterisk next to John Force’s 17th title out there, but we have Mount Austin and Jimmy (Prock) to continue to try to close that gap on.”

Pro Stock

Dallas Glenn won with a great light and never trailed for the win. He wins fifth Wally this season and 13th of his career.

“I really want this one,” said Glenn. “We have got in final rounds 3 times and we came up short. And we kept our points lead, Yes.”

Glenn had to beat his teammate Greg Anderson to make it to the final. In the final he had a great start at the line and led the who race edging out Stanfield.

Glenn has the points lead but is still locked in a very close battle with Stanfield for season championship and to make matters worse, six-time champion Erica Enders is in third place.

“Coming into this weekend I was thinking, St. Louis is usually where stuff starts happening,” said Glenn. “The first two races, the who’s who of the Countdown starts to be established. Then the big moves really start being made, kind of like the deciding race as to who is really going to be in the Countdown chase and who’s not really starts in St. Louis. There are only three races left, and there just isn’t a lot of time to gain points, especially when you have the same four drivers in the semis the first three races in a row. It’s really hard to gain points on somebody when they’re right with you the whole way.”

Pro Stock Motorcycle

Gaige Herrera wins Pro Stock Motorcycle and took the season points lead.

Herrera has 19 final wins out of 21 times in race finals.

“Its all about consistency, we had a awesome bike all weekend,” said Herrera “Credit goes to guys back in the shop. We just show off all their hard work.”

Herrera is 7 – 1 against Van Sant in prior events and each has won 1 times against the other in final rounds. Van Sant with the starting line advantage, but Herrera with the lead by 330 feet and never trailed from there on for the win.

“We’re leaving with a lot of confidence,” said Herrera. “I’m glad to say my bike’s back, especially after the last couple of races. I had a red light and in Charlotte had a malfunction and lost a decent amount of points to Matt and he got the points lead. I’m glad to get that back.”

Herrera and many of the drivers were pleased with the updates at the facilities.

“I’m glad I get to win in St. Louis, I’m not far from here and it’s a beautiful facility. I’m glad the rain was only Friday. It was a good day of racing.”

Story by: Kevin Proot /stlracing.com

Photos by: Larry Vancil /stlracing.com