Reading PA - Duane Shields, the Defending Champion of both the NHRA national and regional events held at Maplegrove Raceway just missed another trip to the Winner’s Circle at this year’s Lucas Oil Regional where he lost to Rich McPhillips in the final round. Duane qualified third with a 5.34 but was on the outside looking in at the beginning of the final qualifying session. This added a lot of excitement in the grandstands since there was a good turnout of friends and family rooting for Duane. Fortunately, the PEAK team didn’t disappoint the fans as they got the PEAK Dragster into the show during the final session.
To add to the qualifying excitement, the first round was a real squeaker as Duane beat John Finke in a hole shot! Duane had an .062 reaction time to Finke’s .090 and that’s what won the round for Duane even though Finke had a slightly quicker 5.381 to Duane’s ever so close 5.386. “That was a very competitive and close race in the first round especially after being under a lot of pressure just to qualify” Duane said.
In the semifinals, Duane took on Jeff Veale. At the hit, Veale was off the line first with an 0.066 to Duane’s 0.070. As the cars roared down track, the PEAK dragster over powered Veale’s car and took the win with a stout 5.30 at 274 MPH to Veale’s 5.43 at 268 MPH to make it to the finals.
In the final round matched up, Duane faced familiar east coast opponent Rich McPhillips. At the hit Duane struck the tires and went up in smoke. Meanwhile, McPhillips was on a clean pass and took the win. While Duane was glad to have made it to the final round, he was disappointed that his car abruptly lost traction. “We always want to win so I’m obviously disappointed but overall I can’t complain. We qualified for a very tight field and we won the first round on a hole shot and we also had a great run in round two. So, it was still a pretty good weekend for the PEAK team” Duane said.
The PEAK team now moves on to Norwalk, Ohio for the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, June 23-26. Duane would like to thank his sponsors PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil, Final Charge, Blue Def, NGK, GRP and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their support in 2016.
To add to the qualifying excitement, the first round was a real squeaker as Duane beat John Finke in a hole shot! Duane had an .062 reaction time to Finke’s .090 and that’s what won the round for Duane even though Finke had a slightly quicker 5.381 to Duane’s ever so close 5.386. “That was a very competitive and close race in the first round especially after being under a lot of pressure just to qualify” Duane said.
In the semifinals, Duane took on Jeff Veale. At the hit, Veale was off the line first with an 0.066 to Duane’s 0.070. As the cars roared down track, the PEAK dragster over powered Veale’s car and took the win with a stout 5.30 at 274 MPH to Veale’s 5.43 at 268 MPH to make it to the finals.
In the final round matched up, Duane faced familiar east coast opponent Rich McPhillips. At the hit Duane struck the tires and went up in smoke. Meanwhile, McPhillips was on a clean pass and took the win. While Duane was glad to have made it to the final round, he was disappointed that his car abruptly lost traction. “We always want to win so I’m obviously disappointed but overall I can’t complain. We qualified for a very tight field and we won the first round on a hole shot and we also had a great run in round two. So, it was still a pretty good weekend for the PEAK team” Duane said.
The PEAK team now moves on to Norwalk, Ohio for the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, June 23-26. Duane would like to thank his sponsors PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil, Final Charge, Blue Def, NGK, GRP and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their support in 2016.
