NORWALK — The second annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals began under a cloud of sorrow as the death of driver Scott Kalitta less than a week earlier still weighed heavily on the hearts of everyone.
The video tributes, T-shirts and memorial signs were all heartfelt, but the emotional apex wasn’t fully reached until Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert — whose two sons, Jon, 17, and James, 12, died in a Jan. 26 car accident — won his first event championship of the season during Sunday’s final run down the racetrack.
“I had my lucky charm with me here today — my (10-year-old) daughter Jessie,” said Herbert, who fought back tears during his postrace news conference. “We thought about her brothers a lot today and I think they were right there with me in the car during that final run.”
Joining Herbert in the winners’ circle were Tony Pedregon in Funny Car, Greg Anderson in Pro Stock and Hector Arana in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
But while all the winners were applauded loudly by the Norwalk crowd, the biggest ovations of the weekend came for Herbert after his win and before the race when he was pulling near the starting line.
“I got the feeling that just about everyone was pulling for us,” Herbert said. “(Sunday’s win) just added to my great memories of this racetrack. I won here in ’93 and in ’98, and I just like that this is a family-oriented track — especially with the Bader family owning it.
“After my boys were in the accident, Bill (Bader) Sr. was one of the first to send me a note, and that meant a lot to me.”
Unable to defend his Pro Stock championship was Dave Connolly of Elyria. Connolly did manage to defeat Warren Johnson in the first round Sunday morning, which was important because it inched 11th-placed Connolly closer to No. 10 Johnson, who is holding the final postseason spot.
“I guess it wasn’t a total loss,” Connolly said. “But we felt after beating Warren in the first round we controlled our own destiny. We kind of dropped the ball in the second round.
“I feel it’s kind of a lost opportunity.”
The most disappointing part of Connolly’s quarterfinal loss was that it was to Justin Humphreys, who is sitting less than a round win (18 points) behind Connolly in 12th place.
“It’s tough because we just passed Justin in the rankings last week,” Connolly said. “But he had a .002 (reaction time) off the starting line and it would have been kind of tough to run him down.”
The day was a huge success for Anderson, who on Saturday compared the Norwalk race to being like a golf major because he is sponsored by Summit Racing Equipment — which also sponsors both the event and the racetrack.
“If I could be like Tiger Woods in any way, I’d take that,” Anderson said after being reminded of his earlier comment. “He’s a hero of mine and I wish I had a tenth of what he has inside him.”
The win also helped erase his performance last season in Norwalk, when Erica Enders defeated the top qualifier in the first round by hurrying to the staging lane and winning the run when Anderson didn’t pay attention and was timed out.
“That was probably the low point of my season last year,” Anderson said. “That’s a pretty embarrassing thing to let happen in front of my sponsors.”
Nobody would have picked Arana to win the motorcycle title, as it was the first of his 18-year career. He broke a 149-race drought with the championship.
“It feels great to finally accomplish what I’ve been working for all these years,” Arana said. “It’s finally paid off and I’m glad that I never gave up.”
Also not giving up was Pedregon, who said he lost power in his car during both his quarterfinal and semifinal wins.
“The car just stopped running after 450 feet,” he said. “So I knew that there was a lot of horsepower left in the car, and that had me feeling pretty confident heading into the final.”
Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com.

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