Alexander, Hight, Coughlin, Tonglet Winners In Wine Country
Alexander, Hight, Coughlin, Tonglet Winners In Wine Country
By
Dragzine July 29, 2018
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- Alexander brings home second career victory as he makes a move towards the 2018 Countdown
- Defending world champion Hight notches second Funny Car victory of the season
- Coughlin Jr. becomes second Pro Stock driver with three wins on the year
- Tonglet takes down Hines in final round for his third consecutive Sonoma win
California native Blake Alexander brought home the second Top Fuel victory of his career in front of a sellout crowd at the 31st annual Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.
Robert Hight (Funny Car), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) and LE Tonglet (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were also winners in their respective categories at the 15th of 24 events on the 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule.Alexander powered to the winner’s circle with a run of 4.004-seconds at 287.41 mph in his Pronto Auto Service Center dragster to take down the winningest driver in Top Fuel history, Tony Schumacher, in the finals. Despite having competed at only six events on the season, Alexander now has three final round appearances as he is now one of four Top Fuel competitors with multiple wins on the year.“We may be a part-time team but we come out to the track trying to win every race, and so far this year we have had a lot of success with that,” Alexander said. “My life has changed this year with how well we have been running, and the opportunity that Bob [Vandergriff] has given me to drive his racecar has been paramount in my career to take me to higher levels.”
Alexander took down Mike Salinas, three-time world champion Antron Brown and Scott Palmer as he continues to make a bid to qualify for the Countdown to the Championship.Schumacher’s third runner-up finish of the season helped vault him into second in the points standings as he continues to close the gap on points leader Steve Torrence.Schumacher was also one of four Top Fuel competitors to join Torrence by clinching a position in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs, as he, Clay Millican, Doug Kalitta and Leah Pritchett fill out the first half of the 10 available Top Fuel spots in NHRA’s six-race postseason championship clash.The defending Funny Car world champion Hight used a 3.984 at 319.75 in his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS to beat Ron Capps in the finals. He secured his second win of the season and the second of his career in Sonoma.
