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NHRA Denso Spark Plugs 4-Wide Nationals (Las Vegas, NV)

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER

Race number four of the 24 event NHRA season is well underway at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As this update is being written, the Top Alcohol cars are running their final qualifying session, before starting eliminations later this afternoon. Leading the way going into this session on the dragster side are two Northwest racers, Kim Parker, number one at 5.211 275.00, closely followed by Shawn Cowie at 5.259 - 274.00. A very interesting observation is that three of the top four cars are running blown on alcohol, in sharp contrast to the apparent domination of the A/Fuel combination as commonly seen these days. In fact, six of the 16 cars in the field are blown alky, which is becoming a rare circumstance on the national circuit.

The only serious change in the qualifying order for the dragsters saw Garrett Bateman jumping past the blown cars of Severance and Demke to take over the #3 spot, behind Parker and Cowie. Of note is that neither of the top two qualifiers improved, nor did Demke or Severance. A few improvements in the bottom half of the field saw Red Deer, Alberta's Mike Quayle break into the 5-second zone with a 5.65, but that timeslip saw him drop from #13 to #15 on the final list. And Greg Hunter finally got a time on the board, clocking a solid 5.48 -263.26 to slot in one spot above Quayle.

Comebacking - after 15 years away from the sport - is Oregon's MItch Myers and he's working hard to shake off all that rust. The final qualifier saw him put down a representative run of 5.480 at 265.43 mph to move up to the #12 spot in the final order. That earns him a date with fellow Oregonian Joey Severance in the first round of eliminations this afternoon. Looks like the Larry Miersch-led team will have some work to do to get Myers' car running well enough to overcome the current world champion.