“We are blessed to do this. Even all those years with no sponsor, no money, going from race to race on that ramp truck, we were always luck to be able to do this,” Lagana said. “And now we are at a higher level than we ever thought possible. I look back at how hard we fought to get to four seconds and now we are running with the best of them. It just shows that good things can happen to those that put in the time and heart.”

Lagana won the championship by sweeping the Top Fuel category Saturday night, taking down both cars from the Mitch King Motorsports stable to walk away with the Nitro Jam Ironman and claim the championship by 10 points over Litton. Litton struggled all weekend and never managed to put together a full pass in three tries.

To reach Saturday’s Top Fuel championship Lagana simply owned the field in the first round with a crowd-pleasing 4.770-second lap at over 316 miles-per-hour to easily dispatch of Massey. In the other opening round contest Litton watched his championship hopes go up in smoke – figuratively and literally – in a loss to King.

In Pro Fuel, a championship battle between Bill Evans and Mike Manners that featured only one point of separation entering the event was tightened even further following the first round as the pair entered the second session tied for the championship lead and paired together on the track.

With the championship on the line, Evans did what he has done all season long and blew by Manners with a near record pass of 5.282 seconds while Manners struggled off the line. The round win was just enough to seal the title by just four points over the “Shredder” crew of Manners.

“It was a hard fought battle. I know that Manners has two of the best guys out there that can tune a car and for us to be able to come out and beat those guys, and of course there were other good cars out there, but it just seemed like it was us and them and for us to get the edge over a great team like theirs is incredible,” Evans said. “And for it all to come down to one final pass for it all was all you could really ask for. It was an incredible night and a great year.”

After winning the first ever Pro Fuel race back in January, Evans can now add the first ever Pro Fuel championship to his list of accomplishments as he prepares for bigger and better things next season.

“You have to realize that we came from nowhere this season. Last year we couldn’t make our car run to save our life and we spent all winter working to get the car ready for this year,” Evans said. “An old racer told me that if you fail to prepare you prepare to fail and we really took that to heart in the offseason. Now we get to enjoy this and get ready for an even bigger season next year.”