Duane Shields knew he had a fast car, he just didn't know how fast until he got to the oxygen-rich air at Mission Raceway Park.

Shields edged out Dale Carlson in the final of the Federal-Mogul Dragster race Sunday at one of two NHRA Northwest Division points races hosted by the Fraser Valley track this year.

Shields' 5.52-second run and Carlson's time of 5.50 seconds was the quickest side-by-side race in the track's 10-year history. The NHRA record for the quickest side-by-side race is 5.378 seconds by David Hirata of Indiana and 5.45 seconds by Melanie Troxel at Memphis last year.

"That was a driver's win," a beaming Shields said after accepting his first divisional Wally (drag-racing Oscar, named after NHRA founder Wally Parks). "I've had some rough drives, so it was nice to get this."

Shields, who lost to 1999 Northwest champ Troxel in the second round last year in his first trip to Mission, came all the way from his Las Vegas home for the weekend of racing to find out how good his new 2000 chassis is.

His mom Tree, dad Lee and brother Pat came along and Shields can't wait to return for the second points race, June 23-25, with his wife and two children. "We really like this track, it's a real performance track," said Shields, who runs five convenience stores in Vegas. "And the people, you can't beat 'em," Tree added. "It's a real family atmosphere."

The most exciting race of the weekend was the dragster semifinal between Carlson and Mark Hentges. Carlson smoked his tires for half the quarter-mile and slid nearly sideways as his car veered toward Hentges' lane. Skid marks an eighth of a mile long showed that Carlson managed to straighten out his dragster just before crossing the centre line.

Hentges, meanwhile, lost his third engine of the weekend. "It just stopped pulling, the car just shut off," the Federal Way, Washington, native said. "It was an expensive weekend." The three motors will cost about $10,000 US each to fix, said Hentges, who was runner-up ahead of Carlson in the division last year. He didn't know whether he'll return for the June points race.