Duane Shields Wins NHRA US Nationals

Courtesy of Rich Bailey

Indianapolis, IN -  After three prior times of making it to the final round, Duane Shields finally won the Mac Tools NHRA US Nationals after almost not qualifying for the event. Because of heavy rain that plagued the race on Labor day weekend, it didn’t appear that Duane Shields would make it into the show let alone the Winner’s Circle. The event was reduced to just two qualifying sessions due to numerous weather delays and Duane’s 5.58 was just shy of the 5.56 needed to qualify. But since it continued to rain, NHRA officials decided to reschedule the remainder of the event for the following weekend which opened the door for Duane to get another shot at qualifying. Not only did Duane qualify but he finally got his elusive win. “It feels great to be the US Nationals Champion and our plan finally came together” Duane said after winning the "Big Go". 

As a result of the week long postponement, the PEAK Motor Oil team was short on help so long time crewman Ralph Freeman set the clutch and did the starting line procedure while Duane tuned the car. “Our plan was to be conservative and just get the car down the track. The conditions were marginal on Saturday but we were able to be a little more aggressive on Sunday since the conditions were better and more consistent” Duane said.

Duane was able to get into the field with a much improved 5.46, which was good enough for the 11th qualifying position. He then faced Dan Page in the opening round. Duane was first out of the gate with a 0.067 reaction time and never looked back as he stopped the clock with a 5.51 at 260 MPH to take the win. Page had problems and coasted to the finish line.  In round two, Duane made a single when his opponent Robin Samsel couldn’t get his car into reverse. Looking for lane choice, Duane ran it out the back door and posted an impressive 5.40 at 263 MPH to move on to the next round.

In the semi finals Duane took on Dave Heitzman in his closest race of the day. Once again, Duane got off of the starting line first with a 0.078 to Heitzman’s 0.101. However, Heitzman quickly passed the PEAK Motor Oil Dragster before Duane was able to regained the lead just before the finish line and won the round by less than a car length. Duane’s 5.41 at 267 MPH was just enough to cover Heitzman’s 5.42 at 264 MPH.

The finals came down to Duane and Sidnei Frigo.  Even though Duane had been in a US Nationals final round three times, he was feeling confident that he would soon win his first US Nationals title on the fourth try. “Sidnei had the car to beat over the last couple of weeks so we had to be on our game. But, I felt good all day and was confident going into the final even though we stayed conservative on the tune up” Duane observed.

As the lights came down Frigo got off the line first with an excellent 0.014 reaction time but smoked the tires.  Duane had a slower 0.038 reaction time but made a clean pass and charged to his first US Nationals victory posting a 5.43 at 267 MPH to Frigo’s 5.85 at 228 MPH. "This is unbelievable! What a turn around going from almost not qualifying to winning Indy! In the past we have had the quickest car here and didn’t win. This year we didn’t have the quickest car but we had one of the most consistent cars. What’s even better is that we won Indy while unveiling PEAK Motor Oil as our new title sponsor” Duane said.

Duane thanked both his new and existing sponsors: PEAK Motor Oil, PEAK Antifreeze, Herculiner Truck Bed Liners, Blue DEF Diesel Exhaust Fluid and FINAL Charge Heavy Duty Truck Antifreeze, GRP Connecting Rods, NGK Spark Plugs, Molinari Race Products, Sierra Ice and Shortline Markets for their tremendous support. “I’m proud to be sponsored by PEAK. They have high quality products and we are now the US Nationals Champions. I look forward to representing PEAK for years to come.”