Duane Shields driving the PEAK A/Fuel
Dragster returned to his competitive ways by going some rounds and making it to
the Semifinals at the O’Reilly NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent Washington,
just south of Seattle. “We are certainly making progress although two more
round wins today would have been better” Duane said summing up his weekend in
Seattle.
Duane qualified fifth with a strong 5.35
at 265 MPH and faced Oregon competitor Joey Severance in the first round.
Severance beat Duane in their prior match up at Woodburn so Duane was looking
to rebound. At the hit, Duane was off the starting line first with an 0.040 to
Severance’s 0.077. Severance was never
able to catch up as Duane took the stripe with a 5.41 at 254 MPH to Severance’s
5.74 at only 195 MPH
In round two, Duane took on Johnny Ahten
who drives a nitro burning A/Fuel Dragster.
At the hit, Ahten had a slightly better reaction time but that would not
matter as the PEAK team was on their game. Ahten began dropping cylinders right
off the line while Duane cruised to a solid win. Duane posted a 5.43 a 260 MPH
to Ahten’s 5.58 at 257 MPH.
In the semifinals, Duane faced red hot
Shawn Cowie, the winner of the Woodburn Regional event. Duane got the advantage
off the starting line, however, he smoked the tires giving Cowie a sizable
lead. Cowie laid down a 5.33 at 267 MPH to Duane’s 6.45 at 262 MPH. “We wanted
to repeat what we did in the second round but as it gets hotter it’s harder to
generate the power. Sill, we needed an extra tenth and we gave it a little too
much clutch and it smoked the tires" Duane explained.
It was a great weekend for PEAK as each
of their teams went to the semifinals and Dan Fletcher doubled up in both Stock
and Super Stock. Duane would like to thank 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 and Shortline Markets for their support.
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