Litton, Paton get overdue wins at The Bend

And all three drivers had to endure a day of unique conditions of interesting weather to walk away winners.

A few passing thunderstorms during the early afternoon hours delayed the start of the Nitro Jam professional rounds by nearly an hour, but the drivers were able to adapt and turned the potentially threatening weather into a collection of great runs. The fans were also rewarded as they poured into the facility throughout the afternoon and stayed into the night to see the debut of Nitro Jam’s new format in Ontario.

All three finals had great side-by-side passes, but it was Top Fuel that produced the most excitement with quarter-mile burns and a close finish to close out the nitro portion of the evening. Litton also added a bit of a scare during the run, coming inches from the outside retaining wall at the finish, but it mattered little as Litton came out on top and made up some ground in the championship chase.

“What a run for the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Dragster. It was a great pass and it was really nice to walk away from Grand Bend with a victory,” Litton said. “I have won at a lot of tracks over my career, but this is one that has eluded me. Now I can check another off my list.

“I also can’t say enough about these fans. We love coming up here to Canada and representing Lucas Oil and to see all these great fans stick it out was really neat to see.”

Litton (Indianapolis, Ind.) ran a weekend best 4.748 elapsed time at 298.93 miles-per-hour in the final round, edging Lagana’s 4.824, 254.47 pass. Litton also picked up his 21st career Ironman Saturday night and gained some momentum in the chase for the 2010 Top Fuel championship.

“We are certainly happy with the way the car ran tonight. We haven’t been having the runs we are capable of as of late so it is nice to finally get back on track with a win tonight,” Litton said.