At the West Regional at Pacific
Raceways, Chris Demke picked up his second win of the season to strengthen his
tenuous lead in the most wide-open Top Alcohol Dragster points race in years,
and in Alcohol Funny Car, Steve Gasparrelli conquered a deep and talented field
for his latest win at Seattle, where he does better than at any other track.
In the most consistent performance of
his career, Demke qualified No. 1 with a 5.32 at 267 mph and ran three straight
5.32s at 268 in eliminations for his second win in eight 2013 finals. "Over
the years we've been pretty consistent, but not that consistent," he said. "No way have I ever run the
same e.t. in every single round of a race until this weekend."
Demke's 5.321 covered Megan McKernan's
5.55 in the first round, and a 5.325 in the semifinals eliminated Ray Martin,
who red-lighted by just one-thousandth of a second en route to a 5.39. Johnny
Ahten came up with low e.t. of the meet, 5.313, in the other semifinal to take
out Shawn Cowie, who had won the Northwest Nationals at this track two weeks
earlier. Ahten ended a streak of 12 consecutive round-wins for Cowie, who won
the 2011 SummitRacing.com Nationals in his last start before the horrific
motorcycle accident that sidelined him for two years, then the Woodburn
regional last month, and then the Northwest Nationals.
"Ahten ran right ahead of me, and I
was plenty concerned about him after that 5.31," Demke said. "Those
guys have really stepped up their program this year, and more people than I
even want to think about have gotten their first win over me, so I was plenty
nervous going into the final. I figured I might have to leave on him to win."
He did, with a .049, and leaped ahead in the mid-range when Ahten's A/Fueler
rattled the tires for a 5.320 to 5.56 win that opened his lead on reigning
national champ Jim Whiteley in the national standings.
"We should have been able to run a
high 5.20-something here – we just did at the national event – but we never
veered to far from our original tune-up," Demke said. "It was
consistent and pretty fast the way it was, and it worked – we won. We'll have
the points lead going into Indy, but the championship is still a long shot if
you ask me. We've left too many points on the table with runner-ups, and I
still consider Whiteley the favorite."
Gasparrelli was nearly as consistent in
Top Alcohol Funny Car as Demke was in Top Alcohol Dragster. The many-time
Division 7 champ, who has been in five national event finals and four divisional
finals at Seattle, won this one going away when Shane Westerfield struck the tires
right off the starting line after cutting the best light of the entire event,
.022. Gasparrelli won with a third straight .070 light and 5.6 pass, a 5.64 at
258 mph.
Westerfield, who got his first win
earlier this season in Houston, paced the field in qualifying and reached the
final with wins over the last two Seattle national event champs, John Evanchuk
(2012) and Clint Thompson (2013). A 5.76 erased Evanchuk's close 5.79 in the
first round, and only a 9.77 was necessary in the semi's when Thompson red-lighted.
Gasparrelli duplicated his 5.61
qualifying time in a first-round win over 2008 Division 7 champ Terry Ruckman,
who slowed to a 6.11. In the semifinals, Gasparrelli's 5.66 was more than
enough when friend Doug Gordon, who'd nipped Sean Bellemeur in the opening
round, smoked the tires off the starting line.
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