Don Eckert photo

Shawn Bowen ran Richard Edwards, who was between the tubes of Justin Grant’s “Stardust” Cuda (above).  Bowen left first and looked to be on a good pass when he lost traction and drifted towards the centerline. In the meantime Edwards was doing the same in the other lane. Bowen cruised past Edwards but then drifted over the centerline and into Edwards’ lane giving the automatic win to a surprised Richard Edwards.

The last pairing in the first round featured odds-on favorite Paul Romine against defending event champion and St. Louis racer Jake Jacobsmeyer. Romine left first and motored away from Jacobsmeyer with ease, crossing the win stripe in just 6.085 seconds at a slower than expected 219.19 mph. With that pass the Nitro Funny Car field was cut to four, with Bronge and Romine now tied for the bonus $1,000 posted by the race promoters for the quickest ET of Eliminations.

Second round action found Romine pulling to the line against arch-rival Doc Halladay at approximately 1 p.m. Sunday when the track was still relatively cool. Romine, who has 34.5 wide Hoosiers, lined up against Halladay, who favors the 38-inch tall Goodyears. Romine left on “the Doctor” and got the win, although he had to pedal the car. It still ran a 6.085 but he was out of it early as his speed was just 219.19.

Bronge raced Edwards on the other side of the semifinals ladder and he made short work of the Chicago based car.  His stout 6.147/237.63 was more than enough to send Edwards pack with his 6.653/211.33.

The final between Bronze and Romine was a classic in many ways. Romine in a Ford Bronge in a Chevy. Both men had identical low ET’s for the Eliminations so aside from the $4500 first prize that would go to the winner there was another $1000 up for grabs to the low ET of Eliminations. Going into the finals the bonus $1000 was Bronge’s based upon he recording a faster speed with his 6.085 than Romine

After the first round of Eliminations Saturday night and the second round on Sunday, Romine and his crew, who didn’t take the heads off Friday or Saturday, decided to ‘go for it’ in the final round and changed out a rack of pistons, installed a new clutch pack and put on a new supercharger.

“Romine said to burn it up if we need to,” said his crew chief Mike Cavalieri, “so we tuned it up.”

The result was a sub-one-second sixty footer and a 5.964/237.00 final round pass for Romine to a 6.140/237.46 for Bronge. Romine’s final round pass not only got him the win but the $1,000 for Low ET of Eliminations.

Romine and his crew have now won two of the last three DragRacingOnline.com AA/FC Challenge presented by Lucas Oil events spanning two years and are once again in the points lead for the 2010 Championship.