Race number seven on the 2009 IHRA Nitro Jam schedule found racers and fans gathered at beautiful US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, for the IHRA Northern Nationals presented by Dart Machinery.

With points battles heating up and performance levels on the climb, the promise of a thrilling weekend of close, fast racing was fulfilled, and then some.

At the end of the day Del Cox (Top Fuel), Kenny Lang (Pro Modified), and Frank “Flying Meatball” Gugliotta proudly posed with well-deserved Northern Nationals Ironman trophies.

Also claiming victories at Martin were Ricky Adkins (Top Sportsman), Rick Schneider (Top Dragster), Jim Marshall (Stock), Larry Cummings (Super Stock), Luke Bogacki (Quick Rod), Jim Lintner (Super Rod), and J.J. Brock (Hot Rod).

In the record books Tony Pontieri will go down as the new IHRA Pro Mod E.T. record holder at 5.936 seconds, while Brad Personett came just shy of setting a new world speed mark with a pass of 247.07 miles per hour. Melanie Troxel added her name to the record book as well when she became the first woman to drive a Pro Mod car into the five-second zone.

In Elite Motorsports Pro Stock Frank Gugliotta (6.331) and John Montecalvo (220.98) also set new U.S. 131 Motorsports Park track records in E.T. and speed.

In sportsman action Troy Stone ran an unheard of 5.869 second lap at 235.60 miles per hour to reset both of those records in the Top Dragster category.

Sportsman racing took center stage on Saturday night as Bruce Thrift picked up a cool $22,500 in winning the Moser Axle-Mania Sportsman Showdown over Scott Macy.

In addition to the national event coverage, check out reports from the Summit Pro-Am event at Mountain Park Dragway.

Don’t miss the opportunity to get off track with Randy Cunningham as he interviews one of the most colorful Top Fuel competitors in the game, the one and only Smax Smith.

There’s also another of Susan Wade’s features on IHRA members tracks. This time around she presents her unique perspective on Outer Banks Speedway.

And of course IHRA President Aaron Polburn offers his unique take on the state-of-the-sport and the world in general in his “The Last Word” column.

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Participating companies include:

ACD
Altronics
Aries
Booth-Arons
Champion System
DJ Safety
Halls Custom
Harland Sharp
Moduline
Pro-Filer
Reher-Morrison
Roman Performance
S&W
Sunset Ridge

For this issue and other issues of Drag Review, go to www.ihra.com/dragreview