Defending Champ Runs Well But Exits in First Round

Courtesy of Rich Bailey

NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster Champion Duane Shields had one of those weekends where the car ran well over all, but he had to be a little disappointed when eliminations rolled around on Saturday. Unfortunately, the defending Winternationals Champ suffered a first round loss.

Duane started the weekend off right by qualifying number one in the first stanza of qualifying with a 5.41 at 262 MPH. In round two of qualifying, Duane improved his time with a respectable 5.35 at 259 MPH blast but ended up third in the final qualifying order as two other teams had quicker times.

In round one, Duane Shields faced off with Brooks Brown. The two got into a long staging battle which resulted in Shields smoking the tires right off the starting line. "The staging battle didn't go our way but lessons learned for the future" Shields said.

From Pomona the Shortline Express team heads across the country to compete next weekend at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in Gainesville, Florida as they will devote much of their racing schedule to the east coast. The team also has a new crew chief as long time A/Fuel tuner and former car owner Mike Johnson joins the team. "Mike is now working with us so we have a great professional team" Duane said.

Duane would like to welcome new sponsors GRP Connecting Rods and Molinari Racing Products who join long time sponsor NGK Spark Plugs.