Dinwiddie, Va - It's been a little bit of a struggle for the reining NHRA World Champion, Duane Shields, as up until this past weekend his Shortline Express team had not won a round in NHRA competition so far this year. But just as racers and fans predicted that streak wouldn't last long as Shields not only got his first round win of the year but he also secured his first event victory of 2012 as well.
The win at the Virginia Motorsports Park also gave Crew Chief, Mike Johnson, his seventh victory with a different driver. Since this was one of the new NHRA regional events the competition was tougher than at one of the traditional divisional events as 17 top alcohol dragsters tried to get into a very tight 8 car field. "We were lucky just to qualify as several big name drivers went home before the start of the first round" Duane said after qualifying second with a 5.35 at 266 mph.
In round one, Duane met up with no. 7 qualifier Jackie Fricke in a tight race to open the round. Fricke left first but Shields was able to make up the difference with a better ET and got around her at the top end of the track. Duane took the stripe with a 5.40 at 267 MPH to Fricke's valiant 5.47 at 263 MPH. "This was our closest race of the day as we ran a .41 to her .46. The car went straight down the track and we were able to get the win" said Duane.
In the second stanza, Duane raced east coast veteran Mike Kosky. Duane rolled into the beams and staged deeper than he anticipated and was late getting off of the starting line as a result. But Kosky shook the tires and Duane was able to get past him and take the win with a 5.41 at 268 MPH to Kosky's 5.61 at 253 MPH.
In the finals, Duane took on a familiar competitor from last season, Rich McPhillips. At the hit, McPhillips was out first but smoked the tires. Meanwhile, Duane made another clean run down the track with a 5.38 at 265 MPH to McPhillips' 6.98 to get his first victory of the year. "We hopped it up in the finals but dropped a cylinder. Regardless, the car ran good and we are definitely happy to get the win. In fact, just getting a round win today was great. I Hope this will give us some momentum going into Houston next weekend" Duane said.
The Shortline Express team would like to thank GRP Connecting Rods, NGK Spark Plugs and Molinari Racing Products for their support.
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