Doug Kalitta in Top Fuel and Allen Johnson in Pro Stock scored their first victories of the season while Robert Hight and Andrew Hines also collected wins at the final stop on the three-race Western Swing – the Mopar Mile high NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway outside of Denver, CO.

Kalitta scored his first win of the season behind the wheel of the Kalitta Motorsports dragster with a final round rout of Brandon Bernstein in a good race to the stripe, 3.96 to 4.00 following an .053 to .075 advantage out of the gate for Bernstein. Kalitta used defeats of Terry McMillen, Steve Torrence, and Rod Fuller in the preceding rounds.

Said Kalitta “seeing that win light come on down there was real special and a great relief. This facility gets better and better. I am so glad to finally get a win here. We’ve been close a bunch of times and finally got it done today.”

In Funny Car, Robert Hight won his fourth event of the season and 18th overall of his career, outrunning the boss, John Force, in the titanic final round matchup. Force gained a sizable .031 to .073 edge out of  the gate, but his 4.38 at the top end was no match for the AAA Fords’ 4.21. Hight opened eliminations with a rout of James Day, 4.31 to 6.70, then defeated Ron Capps on a holeshot, 4.25 to 4.23, and punched his ticket to the finals in besting Matt Hagan, 4.1 to 4.23.

“It’s a great win for us and we only have one more race to go before the Countdown,” said Hight.

Johnson wheeled his Mopar Dodge to his eighth career win in Pro Stock and first of 2010 from the no. 1 qualifying position, outrunning Jeg Coughlin in the money round with a 6.97 at 198.26 MPH to Jegs’ slowing 7.85. AJ defeated Bob yonke in round one, Greg Anderson in round two, and raced to the final with a defeat of Johnny Gray, 6.99 to 7.03.

“We’ve got an awesome setup for this track,” said Johnson. “The engine guys do an unbelievable job on the motors for this place. I’d like to race every race here. To go up against Greg in the second round and Jeg in the final, I knew I had to be on my game. Fortunately I was able to do it today.”

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Andrew Hines claimed his third win of the season and 21st of his career in besting Karen Stoffer in the final round, 7.34 to 7.40. Hines used a 7.30 in the opening round to send LE Tonglet home, then a 7.35 against Greg Underdahl to advance to the semifinals, where he bested a red-lighting Michael Phillips with another 7.35.

“My riding has really come around in the last three or four races,” said Hines. “Every round we had to scratch for it. Karen is a tough competitor and she’s got her motorcycle turned around. The Suzuki’s were dominant all weekend, but our V-Rod was able to beat them today all four rounds.”

Saturday

Antron Brown maintained his lead from Friday qualifying to grab his fifth No. 1 qualifying position in Top Fuel with his 3.961 at 286.19 from his Matco Tools dragster. He will line up alongside Terry Haddock in the opening round.

“Today we were trying a few things, trying to get our car ready for the Countdown, but we thought it would run better,” Brown said. “The car wanted to run a .92 or .93, but the track didn’t want any part of it. We were just too aggressive too far down the racetrack. We need to be a little more aggressive sooner, so tomorrow we’ll make those adjustments and try to go A to B because that’s what it’s going to take. And if the sun is out it’s going to be even more tricky. But never in a million years would I have thought that our .96 would stay No. 1.”

Matt Hagan drove his special edition Team Mopar Charger to the pole in Funny Car with a 4.161 at 301.33 MPH, taking the position that John Force held following Fridays qualifying.

“We have a really great race car,” said Hagan. “[Crew chief] Tommy DeLago is doing such a good job, and I can’t say enough about the crew guys. They’ve really come a long way from where they were last year, and I’m really, really proud of them.”

The Pro Stock contingent tepped up considerably in performance on Saturday, but Friday leader Allen Johnson maintained his lead, grabbing his fourth No. 1 spot of the season with a 6.966 at 198.64.

“I’m hoping that this is our breakthrough weekend,” said Johnson. “This season we’ve figured out every way in the world to lose every final that we’ve been in, so maybe this will be the one that we can win one for the Mopar banner and start to hone in on the championship.”

Like Johnson, Michael Phillips edged out the Pro Stock Motorcycle field in a quicker day of qualifying, earning his second career pole with a track record lap of 7.238 at 186.41.

“I had predicted a best of 7.28 for today, but the weather was about 800 feet better,” Phillips said. “I saw Karen (Stoffer) go out and run a 7.27 and Steve (Johnson) ran a 7.28, so I figured that my run would at least be a 7.24. I managed to hit all my shift points perfectly and got the 7.23.”

Friday

Antron Brown charged to the provisional pole in Top Fuel qualifying at Bandimere Speedway, leading the field with a 3.961 at 286.19 MPH effort.

“The conditions out here are really good and the track is really good,” said Brown. “Tomorrow is going to be really interesting because it’s going to be cool and I don’t think the .96 is going to hold. You’re going to see some guys out there going for it and I think you’re going to see a low .90 or high .80. We were No. 1 last year on Saturday with a .86, so it’s definitely out there. We’ve just got to get the power level right and get the car hooked up.”

Funny Car points leader John Force sits atop the qualifying sheets after two rounds with his 4.191 at 296.76 MPH. If he can hold the position, it will mark his fifth No. 1 at the Colorado track.

“We really choked it down on the first run just to make it go A to B to see what would happen,” Force said. “At half-track I’m thinking, ‘This is almost embarrassing.’ But the crew chiefs are making the decisions and it’s very critical to get down there. Coming into this race No. 1 in the points put us at the rear of the pack [in the first session] and allowed us to watch the rest, then that run put us low and put us at the rear of the pack [in the second session] to watch the rest. (Del) Worsham stepped up and ran a great number, then we went out and did it and got it on speed.”

Allen Johnson and his Mopar Dodge topped the field on Friday evening with his 7.020 197.19 best. Johnson is the defending winner of this event and has advanced to the final at the last three events at Bandimere.

“The conditions got a lot better and the track temperature was 20 degrees better so we just adjusted the gear ratio and got after it,” Johnson said.  “The track is pretty awesome and we’ll adjust to it tomorrow. I really think tomorrow will be the best day because it’s supposed to cool down. We’ll have work tomorrow to hang onto it.”

Michael Phillips holds down the top spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle with his track record lap of 7.308 at 183.12 aboard his racers Edge Suzuki.

“That 30 was a surprise (in the first session), I thought it would be around a 40 or 41,” Phillips said. “It had a decent short time and I revved it up good and got it down there. That 30 was impressive. I thought my second run was going to be better, but evidently it wasn’t. I think it will be real fast tomorrow, so I think you’ll see some 20s out there in the morning.”