![\"Antron](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/456-WorldChamp-WC21.jpg\")
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The moment that Ron Capps had been waiting on for 20 years finally came true as he won his first NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car World championship at the AAA NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway.\u00a0 His Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Tommy Johnson, Jr., won his first Pomona Fall Funny Car race and his third of the year on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Doug Kalitta rocketed off the starting line against his Kalitta Racing teammate, J.R. Todd to end his season with a Pomona Top Fuel win on a hole-shot.\u00a0 Antron Brown had already claimed his third Top Fuel championship in Las Vegas two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Jason Line won the Pro Stock championship over race winner Greg Anderson, and in the Pro Stock Motorcycle, Jerry Savoie outlasted the Harley-Davidsons of Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec to take his first two-wheel championship Wally back to Louisiana\u2019s Cajun country.<\/p>\n
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![\"448-DougKalitta-Sunday-Pomona2[1]\"](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/448-DougKalitta-Sunday-Pomona21-1024x681.jpg\")
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The Kalitta Racing Mac Tools Top Fuel team of Doug Kalitta ran the table at Pomona against his teammate J.R. Todd in the final round to collect his fourth win of 2016 and 42nd<\/sup> of his career.\u00a0 What was so impressive about his victory was his reacting first and then holding off a much quicker Todd.<\/p>\n He used a time of 3.745 seconds at a speed of 326.63 mph to take down Todd\u2019s quicker pass of 3.704 seconds, 327.90 mph.\u00a0 He sprinted past Shawn Reed, eight-time world champ Tony Schumacher and Shawn Landon in the earlier rounds.\u00a0 The win moved him to second in points, where he will finish for the fourth time in his career.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so proud to drive this Mac Tools dragster,\u201d said Kalitta, the nephew of drag racing legend Connie Kalitta.\u00a0 \u201cI have a heck of a group: Jim O (Oberhofer), Troy (Fasching)… this entire team is awesome.\u00a0 The guys worked so hard, and to close the season with a win is great.\u00a0 This is a trophy I have been chasing for a long time, and I am so glad to earn it.\u00a0 I am a winner until the Winternationals and I am so excited to close the season on a high note.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe history was here, for me, growing up watching Connie race over the years, and to be able to win today was huge for me and for everybody on the team. \u00a0It was very cool that [J.R. Todd] and I were both in the final and got to run for the money there. \u00a0It will be good momentum for all of our teams that we finished off the season with some good runs.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ron Capps celebrated on Saturday, making his first Funny Car championship official.\u00a0 He was eliminated in the second round on Sunday against John Force; his coronation on Monday night is set to begin in Hollywood.<\/p>\n “We really wanted to leave Pomona with two trophies, but we’re not going to be greedy,” said Capps, who finished the year with a category-best five titles that pushed his career total to 50, including one in Top Fuel.<\/p>\n “Yesterday took so much out of our whole team, and it shows how good Tobler and the guys are that we came out today and ran that good against Force. \u00a0Losing early didn’t take anything away from what our NAPA team accomplished all season.<\/p>\n “I’m sure there will be some celebrating tonight and tomorrow at the NHRA awards banquet in Hollywood. \u00a0I can’t wait to bring our team up on the stage and share that moment with them.\u00a0 And I’ll finally be standing all the way to the right when the top-10 is introduced.”<\/p>\n For Capps\u2019 crew chief, Rahn Tobler, it is his fourth world championship as crew chief and first with DSR; he won two with Shirley Muldowney in Top Fuel and one with Cruz Pedregon in Funny Car.<\/p>\n “I can’t even tell you how focused Rahn Tobler has been this year,” said Capps, who was the series runner-up in 1998, 2000, 2005 and 2012. \u00a0“I almost gave up trying so hard and wishing so hard, and just focused on winning races. \u00a0With everything we got this year – my 50th career win, passing some people I really looked up to in the sport with wins – that’s mind-boggling for me.”<\/p>\n Capps won his first championship officially by 52 points over Pomona winner Tommy Johnson, Jr.<\/p>\n It was Johnson who was the Funny Car DSR star on Sunday, matching 16-time champ John Force in the finals with an identical elapsed time of 3.918 seconds to squeeze by Force for his third win of the season and 15th<\/sup> of his career.\u00a0 The margin of victory was based on reaction time, with Johnson having five-thousandths of a second in the bank in a great side-by-side finale.<\/p>\n “It’s so tough out here that if you can finish second out of all these cars, you had a really, really good year,” said Johnson.\u00a0 “We weren’t the best; obviously that was Capps this season; but to be right behind him and be ahead of all the others, I don’t know how you could be disappointed.<\/p>\n “I’ve always wanted to win this race. \u00a0Won the Winternationals (season-opener), but never won the Finals. \u00a0You have two and a half months to celebrate this and you want to end on a high note because it sets the tone for the off-season. \u00a0Just a great day. \u00a0Just a great year for not only our team but for all the DSR Funny Car teams.”<\/p>\n Johnson’s victory pushed the DSR total to 293 including 14 in 24 events this year; that is one short of tying the DSR record a year ago for Funny Cars.<\/p>\n Johnson marched through eliminations, taking down Dave Richards and the John Force Racing contingent of Robert Hight, Courtney Force and dad John in the finals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jason Line clinched his third Pro Stock world championship after he raced to his 14th<\/sup> final round this season, although he lost the race to his KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson.\u00a0 By just winning the semifinal round, he put the points out of reach for second-place Anderson.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a great year, and thanks to all of our competitors; they kept us honest and made us work hard right to the end,\u201d said Line, who also won the world title in 2006 and 2011. \u00a0\u201cI have to thank all the Summit guys, Ken Black and all of them. \u00a0It has been an incredible season and I can\u2019t believe I didn\u2019t actually mess it up. \u00a0It is such an honor to be up here. \u00a0We have had a great car all year. \u00a0Greg [Anderson] and I have had probably the two best cars all year. \u00a0If it had ended any other way, I would have been disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n Line and Anderson dominated the first year of the redesigned Pro Stock class, which featured electronic fuel injection, 10,500 rev-limiters, shortened wheelie bars and flat hoods. \u00a0Line and Anderson for KB Racing finished the season with eight wins in 14 final-round appearances. \u00a0Line led the points at 22 of 24 events and notched a career-high 65 round wins over the course of the year.<\/p>\n Anderson was able to beat his Chevy Pro Stock Summit teammate Line on a hole-shot in the final round on Sunday by powering to a pass of 6.580 seconds at 210.24 mph, bettering Line\u2019s 6.570-second run at 211.43 mph.\u00a0 It was Anderson\u2019s eighth win of the season, 86th of his career and sixth at the Auto Club NHRA Finals. \u00a0He finished the season second in points, just three points shy of the title.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat day; I can\u2019t cry,\u201d said Anderson. \u00a0\u201cI did all I could do today; I did everything I could possibly do today. \u00a0The only thing I can kick stones about is that I didn\u2019t do a great job on qualifying on Friday. \u00a0I lost three points to Jason and those three points are a big three points. \u00a0You do the best you can and sometimes you make a mistake, and I did on Friday and it cost me, and that was the decider. \u00a0Still a great fight. \u00a0Great fight all year. \u00a0We had some great battles. \u00a0During the last half of the year the rest of the class got in and we had some great battles with them. \u00a0We overachieved this year and we\u2019re leaving here happy.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Victory Motorcycle received their first win as a manufacturer in the Pro Stock Motorcycle division when Matt Smith rode to victory in 8.044 seconds, beating a red-lighting Angelle Sampey in Sunday\u2019s AAA NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway.<\/p>\n Smith claimed his first win since 2013 with the performance. \u00a0The victory moved him to sixth in the points standings.\u00a0 Knowing he had the race in the bag, he pulled in the clutch and pumped his fist in the air as he went down the track.<\/p>\n “You don’t realize how much you miss being in victory lane until you get back to victory lane,” a smiling Smith said after taking his 18th<\/sup> career win. \u00a0“To get a victory for Victory – I like that saying. \u00a0I hope that we can do it more next year. \u00a0I know we are going to have some teammates with Victory next year, and I’m just glad we got to do it first.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t had the best season in the world.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had a fast bike but we\u2019ve had a lot of electrical problems and transmission issues. \u00a0We finally solved that about four races ago, and it was good for us to run as good as we have. \u00a0It struggled in qualifying but it came around today. \u00a0To give Victory their first win is huge. \u00a0I\u2019m so glad I was able to get it done for them. \u00a0We have big plans for next year and hopefully you\u2019ll see us a lot more next year.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship, Jerry Savoie earned his first career world championship after he advanced to the semifinals, while his nearest contenders, Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines, were knocked out in the quarterfinals. \u00a0Savoie, a Louisiana alligator farmer, never led the points standings until he secured the title.<\/p>\n \u201cTo only dream of winning one race, and to come out here and put a deal together with the support of Vance & Hines and my crew and to win the championship is amazing,\u201d said Savoie, who won two races and notched four runner-ups this season. \u00a0\u201cI went to church this morning, and the word was encouragement and to get encouraged from the people that inspire you. \u00a0I want to thank everybody, especially the fans. \u00a0Without these guys, this would not be possible; you make our dreams come true, and those guys are my family.\u201d<\/p>\n Sunday, Smith had an eventful day beating Hector Arana Sr., Eddie Krawiec and Hector Arana, Jr. before meeting Sampey in the finals.<\/p>\n “I’m glad this season is over, even though the last two races we turned the corner and started running well with the bike; I just wish it had been 14 races earlier. \u00a0But you can’t change the past; all you can do is regroup for the future,” he said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just now 90 days before the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello season starts on Sunday, Feb. 12, at the AAA Raceway at Pomona.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The final results for the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello season were not entirely as expected!<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,3399],"tags":[3945,82,512,547,1362,1632,442],"class_list":["post-32615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-nhra","tag-2016-nhra-mello-yello-series","tag-antron-brown","tag-jason-line","tag-jay-wells","tag-jerry-savoie","tag-racing","tag-ron-capps"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/456-WorldChamp-WC21.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-8u3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32632,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32615\/revisions\/32632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}FUNNY CAR<\/h4>\n
![\"446-TommyJohnsonJr-Sunday-Pomona2[1]\"](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/446-TommyJohnsonJr-Sunday-Pomona21-1024x681.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPRO STOCK<\/h4>\n
![\"443-GregAnderson-Sunday-Pomona2[1]\"](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/443-GregAnderson-Sunday-Pomona21-1024x681.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE<\/h4>\n
![\"441-MattSmith-Sunday-Pomona2[1]\"](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/441-MattSmith-Sunday-Pomona21-1024x681.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"450-WinnersCircle-Sunday-Pomona2[1]\"](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/450-WinnersCircle-Sunday-Pomona21-1024x681.jpg\")
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