Pomona CA - Duane Shields and the PEAK A/Fuel Dragster team went into the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona confident of a strong finish to end the 2018 season and why not? The team earned the East Coast Championship by a combination of winning races and going to late rounds. Things were going well at the final event of the year until the third and final qualifier when the engine gave up the ghost. But still the team got into the show as the number eight qualifier with a respectable 5.31 at 273 MPH on a previous run.
Timing is everything and it would have been preferable if the engine went away on Thursday or even Friday but the engine waited until Saturday morning to let go causing the team to scramble in order to change engines before round one which left no time for tuning the new power plant. The team successfully swapped engines but barely made it to the starting line on time where Duane took on Shane Conway in the first round pairings.
Conway qualified ninth with a 5.32 at 266 MPH so it looked to be a very close and competitive race. As the cars left the starting line, Duane went up in smoke right at the hit. Meanwhile, Conway was on a clean run and advanced to the second round where he lost. Duane summed up the situation this way: “After my team busted butt to get the motor changed and everything associated with it, we got it done just in time to make it up there only to lose traction. We will start a new season in February” Duane said.
Duane and his team who finished the 2018 season seventh nationally would like to thank PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil, Final Charge, Blue Def, NGK Spark Plugs, GRP Connecting Rods and Brad Anderson Enterprises for a great Championship season and look forward to another good year in 2019.
Timing is everything and it would have been preferable if the engine went away on Thursday or even Friday but the engine waited until Saturday morning to let go causing the team to scramble in order to change engines before round one which left no time for tuning the new power plant. The team successfully swapped engines but barely made it to the starting line on time where Duane took on Shane Conway in the first round pairings.
Conway qualified ninth with a 5.32 at 266 MPH so it looked to be a very close and competitive race. As the cars left the starting line, Duane went up in smoke right at the hit. Meanwhile, Conway was on a clean run and advanced to the second round where he lost. Duane summed up the situation this way: “After my team busted butt to get the motor changed and everything associated with it, we got it done just in time to make it up there only to lose traction. We will start a new season in February” Duane said.
Duane and his team who finished the 2018 season seventh nationally would like to thank PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil, Final Charge, Blue Def, NGK Spark Plugs, GRP Connecting Rods and Brad Anderson Enterprises for a great Championship season and look forward to another good year in 2019.
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