Aaron Leyda

Aaron Leyda and Howard Farris rolled through the water box as eliminations continued. The mighty alcohol burning Chevrolet of Leyda vs. the nitro powered Hemi of Farris pulled into the beams and Leyda was out first by a big margin. He immediately shook the tires but quickly regained traction with a nice pedal job. Farris blasted through the 330-mark with header flames high but started easing to the centerline and was forced to lift. The cars swapped the lead three times as Leyda came blasting by to take the win with a 4.46 at a whopping 180 mph to Farris’ 4.40 at 126 mph.

Bobby Marriott’s nitro burning “Shockwave” rolled out next up against another mighty Chevrolet of David Purifoy in the “Thrill Factor”. Purifoy had taken out Marriott before, in the final round at Mo-Kan Dragway in Purifoy’s 2010 championship-winning season, but Marriott had his number in this one. Purifoy was off the line first but his 4.20 at 160 mph was no match for Marriott’s stout 3.94/187 to get the win light and secure a spot in the final round with just one pair to go.

Brad Rigler (far lane) got the semi win over Nick Poloson.

Marriott and Jones held the two quickest elapsed times so far but with Brad Rigler and Nick Poloson doing their burnouts, Jones’s 3.94 wasn’t safe yet. Two heavy hitting blown alcohol burners came to the line as Rigler looked to continue his hot streak. Poloson was off the line first by over half a tenth and needed it as the cars were side by side as they came to the stripe. Rigler took the lead right at the lights winning with a 3.93 at 190 mph to Poloson’s 4.01 at 170 mph. Rigler bumped Jones from the final and would advance to his second final round in a row, this time to face Bobby Marriott to decide the winner of the 2011 Texas State Championships.