Pomona - While the NHRA Auto Club Finals is mostly about crowning season Champions, it's sometimes a final race for long time sponsors, drivers or personnel. In the case of PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil, they have chose to take their marketing ideas in a different direction and the sportsman teams whose contracts expired at the end of the year were not renewed for 2020. This was sadly the case for Duane Shields who just completed his final race with PEAK this past weekend.
Duane qualified in the second position in his new Chase Copeland built dragster and raced Chris McNicol in the opening round. Duane got out on McNicol with a .031 to McNicol's .064 reaction time. Duane would ended up beating McNicol at both ends of the track with a stout 5.29 at 272 MPH to McNicol's 5.59 at 214 MPH.
In the second round, Duane took on Casey Grisel. At the hit, Duane went up in smoke due to a loose hose that sprayed fuel all over the back tires. Grisel was on a great run and ended Duane's chances of winning the final national event of the year. "We were fighting a few minor bugs all weekend and the leaky hose ended the race for us. We are going to miss PEAK after having them onboard for the last seven years. They have been a good sponsor but we will be back next season with a new look and new marketing partners" Duane said.
As mentioned, Duane would like to thank his marketing partners PEAK, SRI, GRP Connecting Rods, NGK Spark Plugs and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their incredible help during the 2019 season.
Duane qualified in the second position in his new Chase Copeland built dragster and raced Chris McNicol in the opening round. Duane got out on McNicol with a .031 to McNicol's .064 reaction time. Duane would ended up beating McNicol at both ends of the track with a stout 5.29 at 272 MPH to McNicol's 5.59 at 214 MPH.
In the second round, Duane took on Casey Grisel. At the hit, Duane went up in smoke due to a loose hose that sprayed fuel all over the back tires. Grisel was on a great run and ended Duane's chances of winning the final national event of the year. "We were fighting a few minor bugs all weekend and the leaky hose ended the race for us. We are going to miss PEAK after having them onboard for the last seven years. They have been a good sponsor but we will be back next season with a new look and new marketing partners" Duane said.
As mentioned, Duane would like to thank his marketing partners PEAK, SRI, GRP Connecting Rods, NGK Spark Plugs and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their incredible help during the 2019 season.
