A woman’s place

Thursday, April 6, 2006 | 6:51 a.m.

Melanie Troxel is pleasantly surprised to have advanced to all four Top Fuel finals this season and five in a row dating from last year's season finale. She's also quite happy to be leading the National Hot Rod Association's Top Fuel points standings going into this weekend's NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

But Troxel is absolutely thrilled that her Skull Gear/Torco Race Fuels team is having that type of success despite the fact that it's not quite the well-oiled machine that she and team owner Don Schumacher would like. To wit, Troxel did not qualify at each of the past two races until her final qualifying run.

"To go to this many finals in a row certainly is a surprise," Troxel said, "but success in general is something that I think we all knew we were capable of.

"We've struggled, especially in the last two races, to qualify ... so it's not like we're just having this perfect year where nothing can go wrong. The guys just seem to make it happen when they need to. That really has given me that confidence that as long as we get in the field, we've got a good shot of going rounds on Sunday."

Troxel, who has competed in Top Fuel on a limited basis since 2000, earned her first Top Fuel victory at the season-opening race in Pomona, Calif., and has led the standings ever since. Both feats, she admitted, have come as a surprise.

"My goal was to win a couple of races by halfway through the season, but I don't think anybody can expect to go to four or five straight final rounds," said Troxel, who leads two-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon by 128 points.

"It's definitely a luxury to have this kind of a lead and I'd hate to give it away and be in a situation late in the year ... where we might have had a shot at (the championship)."

Day at the Beach

The Champ Car World Series opens its 2006 season Sunday with the 32nd running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in California.

Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais won last year's race, but part-time Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy has had success on the streets of Long Beach of late, earning three of his four career victories there in the past six years.

Tracy, who is dabbling in the NASCAR Busch Series this year, said his first priority is to win the Champ Car World Series championship.

"My championship aspirations are the same as they've been every year," said Tracy, who won the series title in 2003. "Our goal is to win races. I think that our team, we have the ability (and) we have the speed, we just need to cut out the mistakes and some of the bad luck ... This year we're going to be a factor."

Also noted

The number of career victories for Pro Stock Motorcycle's Angelle Sampey, the winningest female in NHRA history