Mission Accomplished: Perkins Jegs All-star bound

Mission Accomplished: Perkins Jegs All-star bound

The Western Division event held in Tucson Arizona this past weekend carried heavy points implications for Cody “The Flash” Perkins’ bid to become the western division’s Top Alcohol Dragster all-star representative in Chicago this year. The tight race began the week before with Perkins leading Duane Shields by 10 points and Jim Whitely by 11 (Both less than one round). The lead extended slightly for Perkins following the Phoenix event the previous weekend, but it was far from wrapped up.

The scenario was as follows. If Perkins could make it to the second round, even if Whitely won the event, he couldn’t retake the lead. If Shields could win the event he’d be in a tie with Perkins, the tie breaker being head to head victories which stood at a tie of 1 and 1.

After Friday’s qualifying rounds Perkins sat in the #5 position, and was paired against the Edgecombe family dragster driven by Randy Eakins in the first round. After a narrow 5 hundredths of a second victory, Flash once again found himself in control of his own destiny.

Perkins was in the second round against number one qualifier Duane Shields. Cody knew that the best strategy was to race his own race, hitting the tree hard and setting the car up for a number the track would hold. Shields ran into tire shake near the hundred foot mark and had to slap the throttle pedal to settle it down giving Perkins a big enough lead to take the round, and the all-star position.

Even though Whitely was no longer in the all-star points battle, he was hungry to win a race. Jim had made it past Miersch and Demke to advance to the final against Perkins. Once again, Cody and father Bob Perkins felt that a consistent car and a good light could take the team to victory lane. However, the Whitely team reeled off an unbelievable number of 5.311 (Low et of the event by 8 hundredths) to overcome Cody’s 7 hundredths of a second hole-shot.

On a side note, Perkins’ car experienced a little issue in qualifying which involved the mid-track removal of a body panel. (I.E. Magnesium went flying at about 200 MPH) Nonetheless, Perkins’ car is still wearing the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation colors to help the charity reach a wide audience. If you or someone you know have been affected by Type I diabetes, or if you would like to find ways you can help those who fight the disease each day, please check out:

www.jdrf.org

Courtesy of Blown Chances Productions