InsideTopAlcohol

INDIANAPOLIS (Aug. 14) -- A victory and a semifinal finish at the Division 3 double-header weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis finally convinced reigning Super Gas world champion Mia Tedesco she made the right call by building a brand-new CARS Vehicle Service Contracts/Schepel Motors/NGK/Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Dragster.

Tedesco crew chief "Racin' Jason" Lynch also won in his CARS Vehicle Service Contracts/Abruzzi Transmissions & Converters/Hoosier Tires Super Gas Cutlass, making this the most successful outing of the year for Tedesco Racing.

"Until recently, it's been kind of a struggle getting this new dragster dialed in," Tedesco said. "We had great success in Top Alcohol the last two seasons but we still built a new car because we knew it would eventually make us even better. I think we're finally starting to see the rewards for all the hard word and testing we've been doing."

Racing out of the No. 6 qualifying position in the rain-postponed Ray Skillman Auto Group Spring Spectacle of Speed, originally scheduled for late April, Tedesco collected her landmark 10th Wally trophy by beating Marty Thacker, Brandon Greco and Kirk Wolf in the final with a string of ever-
quickening passes.

She quickly caught and passed first-round foe Thacker to win with a 5.372 at 275.00 mph to Thacker's surrendering 8.010 at 99.97 mph. She then took a wire-to-wire victory over Greco, crossing in 5.291 at 277.32 mph to his 5.444 at 261.27 mph. In the final, Wolf gave it away at the starting line with a red-light start, but it probably wouldn't have mattered as Tedesco blasted to a 5.258 at 279.85...

Duane Shields and the PEAK A/Fuel Dragster team was back in action over the weekend in Atco NJ for an NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional event. The race attracted a very competitive field and five teams didn’t even make it into the tight eight car show. In fact, it was so competitive that Duane’s 5.27 qualifying time was only good for the 5th seed. It was just a short time ago that a run like that could put a driver in the pole position.

It was during qualifying that the PEAK team broke a crank and had to install a new engine before the start of eliminations. In round one, Duane raced Richard Bourke. At the hit, both drivers had identical .087 reaction times but Duane lost traction and had to abort the run. “When we switched engines after breaking the crank we unknowingly gained a lot more power and it was a little too much for the track. We will tune the new engine down a little bit before our next event” Duane said.

Next, the PEAK team returns to the national stage as it competes at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd MN, August 17-20. Duane would like to thank PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil, Final Charge, Blue Def, NGK, GRP and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their support.

NAPA Filters/Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Funny Car team won its fifth straight regional event at Heartland Park Topeka where they also won a national event in May

Topeka, Kan., August 3, 2017 – The main character in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, famously clicked her heels together, repeating the line, “There’s no place like home,” in an attempt to get back to Kansas. For John Lombardo Jr. and the NAPA Filters/Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Funny Car team, there is no place like Heartland Park Topeka where they swept both the national and Central Region events hosted there during an onslaught that includes a 19-1 win-loss record in eliminations beginning in April.

Though the win at the July 28-30 event didn’t add to the national tally of the Top Alcohol Funny Car points leader, it all but assured him of his fourth regional championship in the past five years with an unblemished record of five wins in 2017 in a best-5-of-7 format.

After a hiccup at the Fallen Patriots NHRA Route 66 Nationals ended Lombardo’s winning streak at five races, his team kept focus in an effort to reclaim their momentum and hunt for a long-coveted season title. Lombardo qualified No. 1 in Topeka with a 5.563 and displayed awesome consistency during eliminations with runs of 5.525, 5.500, and 5.511.

“We stay the course, strive for continued improvement, and resist laying losses off on others,” said Lombardo of his team’s ability to rebound. “Rick (Jackson, owner/crew chief), Les (Davenport, tuner), and the whole team are determined to put a fantastic race car on the starting line every time they lower the body. I am very fortunate to be among a group that is determined to find the next two to three hundredths to win the next ones. For five outings, we had a very good car when we needed it, a little bit of luck, and have gone down the race track a lot. We went out early in Chicago but came right back in Topeka.”

Lombardo is entering an important stretch of the season where his team...