In the finals, it was a meeting of champions: Hale from the DRO series and Rupert from the Heritage series.

At the green it was Hale out first by eighteen hundredths and he held that ‘til about the 330 cone when ‘Big Red’ came charging by like a runaway freight train, tripping the lights at 5.78 and marking off another 251.60 mph charge.

Hale made another 6.04 run, but had issues just before the lights. Something in the clutch went haywire and started to spin the reverser and driveshaft cover around in the car, resulting in the blower shooting off the car. 

“I could hear the driveshaft cover rattling around down there just in the lights, then it went bang, and I thought I had a fire, but I couldn’t see for all the smoke,” said Hale.

Rupert was thinking the same thing in the other lane. “I thought John had a fire so I was going to trail him ‘til he stopped, and since I’m in my fire suit I was gonna jump in there if John needed help to get out.”

Hale was fortunate to have learned from other people’s misfortune; after a reverser lever broke Dale Creasy’s legs in Edmonton, Hale had his reverser hooked to a Morse cable and the lever mounted on the chassis. In the event there is an issue, it would break the cable and the reverser, sparing Hale’s legs from being hit by the lever spinning around.

Rupert was feeling a broad range of emotions in the Winner’s Circle. “I know I don’t look like it, but I am very happy. I just wish my partner Dave Schwartz, could be here. He is in the hospital again and our thoughts are truly with him.”

His team had a great handle on the tuneup too. “The car was perfect; we didn’t even take the heads off of it all weekend,” Rupert explained. “Changed some thrust bearings, plugs, and put fresh Lucas Oil in it, set the clutch and go again.

“I get the credit for the win, but I just drive the thing. The credit goes to this team, Brad Littlefield, Devery Howard, Greg Vanderwendt, Billy Payne, Phillip Cook, Brett Crowe, Matt Rupert, Craig McKee, and of course mom and dad, Brenda and Frank Rupert.”

In addition, while both cars’ fuel pumps passed initial post-race inspection, they are being sent to KJ Crawford to be flowed.