Duane Shields Bakersfield wrap up

Shields Unable to Secure Title in Bakersfield

The NHRA Division Seven meet at Auto Club Famoso Raceway was the last Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in the Pacific Division. It served as a chance
for Duane Shields to secure the division championship and then finish out
the season with two remaining national events on his schedule. In drag
racing, rarely does anything ever go as planned and unfortunately for
Shields he was unable to sew up the title and will have to wait until the
last two divisional events in other parts of the United States are
contested.

Even though the car qualified 6TH at Bakersfield with a 5.46, the engine was
experiencing problems throughout qualifying due to a hub which controls the
timing. After the third qualifying session the team found that it burned up
two rotors so they opted to change engines to be sure they were ready to go
for Saturday’s eliminations.

In the first round, Shields faced red hot Randy Eakins. Eakins was at the
top of his game and had an excellent 0.018 reaction time to Shields' 0.080.
Shields then slightly got out the groove and spun the tires 200 feet out and
then had to pedal it. Eakins charged ahead for the win and posted a 5.63 at
243 MPH to Shields’ 5.84 at 261 MPH. “The car left fine but I was just a
hair out of the groove and that was all she wrote” Shields said.

With the first round lost, Shields’ two closest competitors can go out of
division to try and win the championship but must win the race in order to
secure the title. “Our first round loss left the championship undecided so
we’ll wait and watch the competition race out of division to see if they can
win the championship.” Shields said.

Courtesy of Rich Bailey