Eliminations

(Chris Haverly photo)

In first round action almost every race team saw improvement. Shigamatsu’s team was prepared as they recorded their best speed and ET of the race, 6.320/221.56, against Canadian racer Devin Pelrine who slowed from his qualifying effort with a 6.617/220.17. Pelrine put a slight holeshot on the Japanese entry with a .084 RT to Shigamatsu’s .087 RT. but his 6.61 ET was not nearly good enough for the win.

(Chris Haverly photo)

In the next pairing Tommy Grimes used a 6.364/220.33 effort to trailer Canadian Damian Cowden who had a 6.393 ET. Number-one qualifier Horne easily defeated Fresno, Calif., racer Tony Ruggiero with a 6.295/223.10 lap. Ruggiero had problems on the pass, shutting off early and coasting to a 13.26 ET.

The final pair of the first round found Canadian Mike Pelrine (one of two Pelrine’s in the race) improve with a 6.532/219.90 lap to upset number-two qualifier Sternotti, who slowed to a 7.34/145.17 losing effort.

It was obvious as race day wore on that one lane was marginally better than the other and both Grimes and Horne got impressive wins from the right-hand lane when their opponents, Mike Perrine and Takeshi Shigamatsu, had aborted runs in the tricky left lane.

The final round was a classic matchup between defending 2012 AHDRA champ Doug Horne and arch-rival and number two in points Tommy Grimes. Because he had low winning ET in the semifinals, Horne had lane choice and he took the preferred right lane putting Grimes in the lane that had seen just one winner all day.

Grimes knew that Horne had the performance advantage so he would have to have a great light for a reasonable chance of a victory. Grimes rose to the occasion. At the flash of green Grimes left with a .025 RT followed by Horne with an uncharacteristic .064 light. It was Horne’s worst reaction time of eliminations by a bunch. Grimes on the other hand had his best reaction time of the event (.025) and his best ET of eliminations (6.347). Despite Horne’s “out the back door” 6.320/227.92 Top Speed of the meet effort he wouldn’t catch Grimes and Tommy Grimes was on the podium as the winner of the final Nitro Harley race of the 2013 NHRA season.