Duane Shields Makes it to Semifinals in Seattle

Duane Shields Makes it to Semifinals in Seattle

Duane Shields driving the PEAK A/Fuel Dragster returned to his competitive ways by going some rounds and making it to the Semifinals at the O’Reilly NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent Washington, just south of Seattle. “We are certainly making progress although two more round wins today would have been better” Duane said summing up his weekend in Seattle.

Duane qualified fifth with a strong 5.35 at 265 MPH and faced Oregon competitor Joey Severance in the first round. Severance beat Duane in their prior match up at Woodburn so Duane was looking to rebound. At the hit, Duane was off the starting line first with an 0.040 to Severance’s 0.077. Severance was never able to catch up as Duane took the stripe with a 5.41 at 254 MPH to Severance’s 5.74 at only 195 MPH

In round two, Duane took on Johnny Ahten who drives a nitro burning A/Fuel Dragster. At the hit, Ahten had a slightly better reaction time but that would not matter as the PEAK team was on their game. Ahten began dropping cylinders right off the line while Duane cruised to a solid win. Duane posted a 5.43 a 260 MPH to Ahten’s 5.58 at 257 MPH.

In the semifinals, Duane faced red hot Shawn Cowie, the winner of the Woodburn Regional event. Duane got the advantage off the starting line, however, he smoked the tires giving Cowie a sizable lead. Cowie laid down a 5.33 at 267 MPH to Duane’s 6.45 at 262 MPH. “We wanted to repeat what we did in the second round but as it gets hotter it’s harder to generate the power. Sill, we needed an extra tenth and we gave it a little too much clutch and it smoked the tires" Duane explained.

It was a great weekend for PEAK as each of their teams went to the semifinals and Dan Fletcher doubled up in both Stock and Super Stock. Duane would like to thank PEAK Motor Oil, PEAK Antifreeze, Herculiner Truck Bed Liners, Blue DEF Diesel Exhaust Fluid and FINAL Charge Heavy Duty Truck Antifreeze, GRP Connecting Rods, NGK Spark Plugs, Molinari Race Products and Shortline Markets for their support.