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 because we have a big fan base here” Duane said.
In qualifying, Duane didn’t disappoint his loyal 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 forThacker, 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, Demke got off of the starting line first as Duane’s throttle hung open causing him to smoke the tires. 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 we lost that round considering Demke banged the blower. That was the first time that has ever happened. 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 to much power out” Duane explained.
Duane would like to thank his sponsors: PEAK Motor Oil, PEAK Antifreeze, HerculinerTruck 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 andShortline Markets for their support.
In qualifying, Duane didn’t disappoint his loyal 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 forThacker, 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, Demke got off of the starting line first as Duane’s throttle hung open causing him to smoke the tires. 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 we lost that round considering Demke banged the blower. That was the first time that has ever happened. 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 to much power out” Duane explained.
Duane would like to thank his sponsors: PEAK Motor Oil, PEAK Antifreeze, HerculinerTruck 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 andShortline Markets for their support.
