Duane Shields and the PEAK Racing Team usually have a great weekend with a large following of friends and fans at the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals in Reading, PA. But this time it was a somber event at Maple Grove Raceway because it was their first race back on the tour since losing their long time teammate, Ralph Freeman, who peacefully passed away in his sleep two weeks ago. “This was our first race back without Ralph and we really missed him a lot.” Duane said.
On Saturday night, a memorial was held in the pits for east coast racers and between 75 to 100 people showed up to say goodbye to a well respected member of the Top Alcohol Dragster fraternity. At the Las Vegas Nationals there will be another memorial for west coast racers. That event is also planned for Saturday night.
One of the high points on the racing side was that the team hung in there and got the PEAK A/Fuel Dragster into the show. After all, seven very good teams did not make the solid sixteen car field. Duane qualified sixteenth with a 5.52 at 256 MPH. “We were number 9 after the first session, then we moved to 10th after the second, and then in the final qualifying session we smoked the tires and dropped to 16th so it didn’t put us in a very good position going into the first round” he said.
In round one, Duane took on number one qualifier Brandon Booher, from Urbana IL, Booher ran a 5.30, so it would be a challenge, but not insurmountable to beat him. As the lights came down on the christmas tree, Duane got the starting line advantage with an 0.54 to Booher’s 0.59 but Booher was able to overpower Shields and take a narrow lead and then maintained it all the way to the finish line.
Duane emphasized that qualifying higher would have allowed the team to advance into the next round. “We would have won the match up with number 2, 3, or 4 qualifier, so it’s just how the circumstances worked out. But I was glad to see Robin Samsel win his first ever national event. We will now move on to Vegas to try a whole new engine combination and test some other new things to get ready for 2014”
Duane would like to thank his sponsors 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.
On Saturday night, a memorial was held in the pits for east coast racers and between 75 to 100 people showed up to say goodbye to a well respected member of the Top Alcohol Dragster fraternity. At the Las Vegas Nationals there will be another memorial for west coast racers. That event is also planned for Saturday night.
One of the high points on the racing side was that the team hung in there and got the PEAK A/Fuel Dragster into the show. After all, seven very good teams did not make the solid sixteen car field. Duane qualified sixteenth with a 5.52 at 256 MPH. “We were number 9 after the first session, then we moved to 10th after the second, and then in the final qualifying session we smoked the tires and dropped to 16th so it didn’t put us in a very good position going into the first round” he said.
In round one, Duane took on number one qualifier Brandon Booher, from Urbana IL, Booher ran a 5.30, so it would be a challenge, but not insurmountable to beat him. As the lights came down on the christmas tree, Duane got the starting line advantage with an 0.54 to Booher’s 0.59 but Booher was able to overpower Shields and take a narrow lead and then maintained it all the way to the finish line.
Duane emphasized that qualifying higher would have allowed the team to advance into the next round. “We would have won the match up with number 2, 3, or 4 qualifier, so it’s just how the circumstances worked out. But I was glad to see Robin Samsel win his first ever national event. We will now move on to Vegas to try a whole new engine combination and test some other new things to get ready for 2014”
Duane would like to thank his sponsors 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.
