(Ron Lewis photo)

In eliminations Chris Dempke made his fourth straight final round and once again went home without a win, this time at the hands of first-time winner, Californian Steve Davis.

In the final Davis left first with a .038 light and motored to a 5.498/256.21 while this season’s perennial runner-up, Chris Demke, tried to catch up from a late .061 light, shook the tires and then slipped to a 5.595/260.97 losing effort.

The diggers had a respectable bump of 5.837 that was held by Washington State's Doug Hegge and his injected nitro car.

Alky Floppers

Tony Bartone went from the doghouse to the penthouse in just one race on the NHRA series. Last week in Houston the New York racer couldn’t crack the quick 16 qualifiers but this week all was changed and he was the quickest and fastest car in the class, qualifying in the one hole and then going on to win taking out veteran flopper pilot Roger Bateman of Calgary, Alberta, in the final round.

“Basically, it was a storybook weekend,” Bartone said. “We had electronic troubles that prevented us from even qualifying (for the previous national event) in Houston. This weekend we rebounded as the number one qualifier."

In the semi-finals, Bartone knocked off TAFC veteran Jay Payne. Bartone’s elapsed times varied by only .037 of a second and his qualifying time had the rest of the field covered almost a half-tenth.

In the final it was all Bartone, but with just a little luck the Canadian could have sent the New Yorker packing. Bateman had an .024 light to Bartone’s .067, which would have been okay had he still been driving a fuel coupe but is way off the pace for an alky flopper. Bateman shook the tires early and attempted to pedal his way out but it was over when he lifted as Bartone went straight up the track without a wiggle, running a 5.640/253.42 that easily covered Bateman’s troubled 11.106/82.51.

Comp Eliminator

In Comp Eliminator action, Dan Fletcher, the defending Lucas Oil Comp Eliminator World Champ from Churchville, N.Y. picked up right where he left off at the end of the 2008 season by winning his third national event of the 2009 season. He did it by outdriving number-three qualifier Scott Hedlund in an ’09 A/SM Cobalt.

At Vegas there were three Comp Eliminator cars in the 200-mph range.  Cliff Howard’s B/D ran a 200.74, Steve Holloway’s A/AA GTO turned in a 206.39 but the quickest and fastest car this event was the A/AA ’09 Pontiac GXP driven by Washington’s Todd Horner. Todd qualified for the field with a 12.38 lap on his 7.20 index. In the second round he red-lighted and, knowing the run wouldn’t count and couldn’t affect his class index, he ripped off a stellar 6.662/209.33 lap. 

It’s worth a mention that a first time Comp eliminator fan could have been surprised by the fact that Tom Brown qualified his F/ED with a slug-like 28.00 lap on an F/ED 8.98 index. It is also interesting to note that of the seven Altered cars competing at Vegas not one had a Bantam, Fiat, or Ford T-Bucket body. Every one of them was a doorslammer.