Duane Shields Makes it to Semifinals at Maple Grove

Courtesy of Rich Bailey

Reading PA - Duane Shields had a respectable showing at the 28th annual Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals. The race held at Maple Grove Raceway holds a special place for Duane, who drives the PEAK Motor Oil sponsored A/Fuel Dragster. “Other than the rain, we love racing at Maple Grove Raceway because we have a big fan base here” Duane said. 

In qualifying, Duane didn’t disappoint his loyal Maple Grove fans as he qualified sixth with a strong 5.39 at 266 MPH. 

In the opening round of eliminations, Duane took on Marty Thacker. Unfortunately for Thacker, he left the line early which automatically gave the win to the PEAK Motor Oil team. Duane posted a 5.36 at 265 MPH on the run.

Moving on to the second round, Duane was matched up against Richard Bourke. At the hit, Duane was out of the gate first with a 0.033 to Bourke’s 0.078. Duane would end up winning the round at both ends of the track with a 5.31 at 264 MPH to Bourke’s close 5.34 at 263 MPH. 

In the semi-final round, Duane faced fellow west coast racer Chris Demke. As the lights of the tree came down, Duane’s car lost traction at the step, and then the throttle hung open, keeping him from trying to regain traction.  Duane was able to close the throttle by pulling it back with his foot but by this time Demke was long gone even though he popped the blower at 1000 feet. “We were disappointed that we lost the round considering Demke banged the blower. That’s the first time the throttle has ever hung open. We thought we were really making some headway and we were happy with how the car ran. It’s a fine line, we didn’t want to overpower the track so we took some power out of the tune up. We just took too much power out” Duane explained. 

Duane would like to thank his 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 support.

TAN