Las Vegas - Madison Payne, driver of the Muscle Milk A/Fuel Dragster won the final NHRA Regional event of the year convincingly by beating Oregon's Joey Severance in the final round. With 15 tough teams on the property trying to make it into an 8-car field, the Muscle Milk team had things going their way from the start as Madison qualified second with a 5.26 at 274 MPH.
In round one, Madison raced lucky number seven qualifier James Stevens. Madison slightly edged Stevens at the starting line with a .063 light to Stevens' .064. As the cars left the line, Stevens suffered traction problems while Madison was on a great run and took the win. Madison rang up a 5.25 at 273 MPH to advance to the semis.
In the semi-finals, Madison drew Utah's Aaron Olivarez. At the hit, Olivarez got the lead off the starting line with a .035 to Madison's .088. But the Dana Hopewell horsepower made up the difference and Madison took the win light with an epic 5.23 at 274 MPH over Olivarez's valiant 5.29 at 267 MPH.
The final round had Madison facing multi-World Champion Joey Severance driving a blown alcohol combination dragster. Severance got off the line first with a .045 to Madison's .063. Severance then began to shutter the tires and lost a part off of the car which killed the engine while Madison was on another clean pass. She went on to take the victory with a 5.24 at 273 MPH to Severance's 6.11 at 170 MPH. Madison was all over her first win of the season. "It was a great race for us. I'm very happy and couldn't have had a better car this weekend. Running Joey is always fun, but worrisome because he can lay down a stellar package when he needs to." Madison said.
In addition to Madison winning, teammate Mike Handras won in Super Comp over Madison's brother Toby Payne in the delayed final round from the Ford Performance Nationals last weekend. Car owner Duane Shields couldn't have been happier. "We doubled up and finally got a win," he said. "We tried some new things and they worked. Madison did a great job driving and the car ran well on every run. It all went very smoothly and we had some fun" Duane said.
Next, the team hopes to continue their winning ways at the In-n-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, CA, the final race of the year. Duane and Madison would like to thank Muscle Milk, Clean Boost, NGK Spark Plugs, GRP Connecting Rods, and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their valued support in 2024.
In round one, Madison raced lucky number seven qualifier James Stevens. Madison slightly edged Stevens at the starting line with a .063 light to Stevens' .064. As the cars left the line, Stevens suffered traction problems while Madison was on a great run and took the win. Madison rang up a 5.25 at 273 MPH to advance to the semis.
In the semi-finals, Madison drew Utah's Aaron Olivarez. At the hit, Olivarez got the lead off the starting line with a .035 to Madison's .088. But the Dana Hopewell horsepower made up the difference and Madison took the win light with an epic 5.23 at 274 MPH over Olivarez's valiant 5.29 at 267 MPH.
The final round had Madison facing multi-World Champion Joey Severance driving a blown alcohol combination dragster. Severance got off the line first with a .045 to Madison's .063. Severance then began to shutter the tires and lost a part off of the car which killed the engine while Madison was on another clean pass. She went on to take the victory with a 5.24 at 273 MPH to Severance's 6.11 at 170 MPH. Madison was all over her first win of the season. "It was a great race for us. I'm very happy and couldn't have had a better car this weekend. Running Joey is always fun, but worrisome because he can lay down a stellar package when he needs to." Madison said.
In addition to Madison winning, teammate Mike Handras won in Super Comp over Madison's brother Toby Payne in the delayed final round from the Ford Performance Nationals last weekend. Car owner Duane Shields couldn't have been happier. "We doubled up and finally got a win," he said. "We tried some new things and they worked. Madison did a great job driving and the car ran well on every run. It all went very smoothly and we had some fun" Duane said.
Next, the team hopes to continue their winning ways at the In-n-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, CA, the final race of the year. Duane and Madison would like to thank Muscle Milk, Clean Boost, NGK Spark Plugs, GRP Connecting Rods, and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their valued support in 2024.
