Maple Grove a Pivotal Race for Duane Shields’ Championship Quest

Maple Grove a Pivotal Race for Duane Shields’ Championship Quest

Reading PA - The Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals held at Maple Grove Raceway became a pivotal race for the 2011 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster Championship as three of the top five teams in points were present. For points leader Duane Shields, a win at Maple Grove would go along way in giving him some breathing room over Bill Reichert, who was sitting in the number two position and Joey Severance, who is currently fourth in the national points standings.

The race was delayed until Monday due to rain which complicated matters for the Shortline Express Team as crew chief Dana Hopewell had to catch a flight back to the west coast due to prior obligations. “I felt confident even with Dana not here on Monday and over all the car ran good and straight all weekend” Duane said.

Duane and the Shortline Express team qualified second with a 5.28 at 273 MPH to set up a first round showdown with Dave DeAngelis. At the hit it was DeAngelis off the line first but that was as much of a lead as he would get as Shields passed him 330 feet out. Shields cruised to the victory with a 5.22 at 278 MPH. DeAngelis posted a 5.65 at 235 MPH. Meanwhile, Reichert and Severance both won their rounds.

In round two, Shields took on Brandon Booher. Duane was able to keep the consistency going and scored another important round win as he screamed to a 5.25 at 269 MPH to take care of Booher, who ran a respectable 5.39 at 261 MPH. Again, Reichert and Severance both advanced to the semifinals along with Shields.

The pressure was mounting in the semifinals, more than it had all year for the Shortline Express team. Shields would take on Mike Kosky and Reichert faced Severance. On paper, Shields had a very good chance to beat Kosky but it wasn’t to be as Shields experienced traction problems and went up in smoke while Kosky flew to the finish line. “We shouldn’t have smoked the tires and I can’t understand why we did. We just opened the door to our competitors who are still in the points chase” Shields said.

On the other side of the ladder, Duane received a gift from Severance as he was able to defeat Reichert. Reichert is now out of races he can claim which eliminated him from winning the Championship.

Shields is out of national event races he can claim, but he still has one division race left. So now Duane’s fate will depend on how well Jim Whiteley and Severance does in national event competition. Shields was disappointed but he knows he still has a shot at the Championship “We still have one more division race we can claim but other than that, all we can do is wait it out and see how Joey Severance and Jim Whiteley does”. Duane thanks all of his supporters including Hussey Copper and NGK Spark Plugs.