Div. 7 Post Race: Shields' Shot at Championship End in Vegas

Shields' Shot at Championship End in Vegas

Las Vegas, Nev. - Duane Shields' chances of winning the NHRA Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Dragster Championship came down to the Shortline Express Gambler Showdown presented by Torco at The Strip at Las Vegas, which is a race his company Shortline Express Markets sponsors. For competitors of the Top Alcohol Dragster class it was a challenge just to qualify as over 20 cars were trying to get into an eight car field. Just to watch Top Alcohol Dragster qualifying would be worth the price of admission.

Shields got into the field in the eighth and final position with a 5.41 at 263 MPH. "We were feeling pretty good as the conditions were like last week's national event so we felt we would do well and we were fortunate to get in with so many cars trying to qualify. But we had a couple of malfunctions that popped up and we were only aware of one of them at the end of qualifying" Shields said. The malfunction they discovered was an ignition problem which the team found and fixed before round one.

Going into the first round Shields faced number one qualifier Hillary Will. At the hit Shields got a sizable lead off the starting line with an 0.064 reaction time to Will's 0.141. But by 1000 feet Will was able to get past Shields as he began experiencing problems. Will recorded a 5.46 at 259 MPH for the win as Shields slowed to a 5.67 at 231 MPH on just three cylinders. The problem turned out to be a regulator in the fuel system that wasn't working.

The loss put an end to Shields hope to come from behind and win the Championship. "After we lost we went down and congratulated Bill Reichert who won the Championship. We knew going into this race it was a long shot and knew what we were up against so we weren't too surprised. We had a great year and had very few malfunctions that cost us a race like what happened today" Shields said.

Now that the pressure is off the team plans to head for Pomona and have some fun at the NHRA Auto Club Finals.

Courtesy of Rich Bailey