As “Black Gold” and “Fair Warning” prepared to square off, Dustin Johnson was hoping for his first TBFA win while Brainerd looked to pad his points lead and be the first driver to win multiple TBFA events. The cars backed up from side by side burnouts and lit the stage bulbs. The ambers flashed and the butterflies were wide open! Brainerd took a slight advantage and ripped down the strip to a 4.76 at 146 mph, which was enough to take the win over Johnson, who clicked off his best pass of the night with a 4.89 at 143 mph in a good final round drag race.

Willie and Kat Brainerd with the “Black Gold” blown slingshot became the first repeat TBFA winner in series history and they remain undefeated in TBFA competition.

“This is honestly unbelievable to me, I’m humbled by it all really, Kat and I never expected to end up winning any of the races much less the first two in a row. We have had more than our fair share of luck in all this and honestly, we haven’t even been close to the index yet and still manage to get the win light. We got lucky in first round when Witko broke out by a thousandth then in the semi-final we got lucky when Grindstaff spun the tires.

“My hat’s off to Dustin and Gary Johnson, they have been doing really well this season and he gave me a great race in the final round. I could hear him all the way.

Brainerd also noted, “I’d like to thank Wes-Mar Racing Engines in Bixby, Oklahoma, for keeping the ‘Black Gold’ on the track after we hurt some things at Shreveport. I will have my rabbit foot in my firesuit and my lucky red underwear on at Kennedale next month believe me.”     
     
Brainerd now leads the TBFA points standings by twenty points over Chris Stouffer while Dustin Johnson jumped from fifth to third with his runner-up finish and finds himself right in the mix after two of eight rounds.

The next stop for the Texas Blown Fuel Association will be Friday, May 20, at Texas Raceway in Kennedale, Texas.

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