Words by Darr Hawthorne - Photos by James Drew, Bob Johnson, Tim Marshall and Paul Schmitz

After a long, rain delayed 2013 March Meet, two nitro champions emerged with a record setting performance by Jim Young in Frank and Debra Ousley’s “Crop Duster” dragster taking home the Top Fuel trophy after beating Denver Schutz in the final on Sunday night, March 10, at Auto Club Famoso Raceway. That made back-to-back wins for the same team with Young in the seat.

Both cars ran hard all day, but Young reached the finish line stripe in 5.651 seconds at a stellar 269.08 miles per hour beating Schutz’s losing 5.703 ET at 242.15 mph. Young defeated the reigning Heritage Series Champion Adam Sorokin and veteran Jim Murphy running bracket-like 5.60’s in every round of eliminations on the way into the winner’s circle.

The Funny Car final paired Washington State’s “Mr. Explosive” Mark Sanders and Canadian Tim Boychuck. Sanders’ son Jake as crew chief had their new ’70 Mustang Funny Car running strong all weekend.