With both Capps and Young out in the same round, the “Chi-Town Hustler” got a bye into the finals. On the other side of the ladder Snap-on executive and “boss” for Cruz Pedregon, who is sponsored by Snap-on Tools, would meet in the semi-finals. Young’s tuner, Jerry Newman, had the engine and clutch tuned up for this race and ditto for Cruz.

On the flash of green Young put a .031 holeshot on the Cruzer and was motoring away when he shut off the engine at about 400 feet. Cruz made another piston-smoking lap going just 6.293/158.15.

Young said the reason he shut the engine off was that they never had more than 30 lbs of oil pressure despite changing out the oil pump between rounds.

“I just didn’t want to blow all of my stuff up and oil the track so I clicked it.” The team later found out that they had a bad gage and that there was actually a couple hundred pounds of oil pressure all along.
The teams had about 90 minutes to turn the cars around. Pedregon’s engine was badly wounded and with the help of the Bowen family and others the completely rebuilt their engine and made it to the line just in time. The Chi-town Hustler team had their own problems and they broke a steering arm on their single and couldn’t find a replacement for the Hal Canode chassis. Fortunately Mike Bowen was able to weld the broken steering arm and that team was then able to answer the call for the final round.

“Chi-Town Hustler” (Matt Schramel photo)

The final round went off at about 10 p.m. Saturday night just before the Mississippi River-induced dew started to cover the Cordova quarter mile.

Both drivers took their time staging and then Cruz stepped up with a .052 RT to Minick’s .097. Pedregon kept his foot in the throttle all the way to the finish line stripe as did Minick. Despite sacrificing yet another motor, Cruz ran a 5.902/228 to cover Minick’s out the back door 5.944/240.00 and won his first DRO race and the Funny Car title at the 60th World Series of Drag Racing.

CONCLUSION

The World Series once again proved to be the pivotal race in the DRO AA/FC Challenge series. The World Series DRO race awards a point and a half for every point earned. Because John Hale didn’t qualify, four drivers jumped in front of the defending champ and with two races remaining (U.S. 131 on Sept. 6-7 and Tulsa on Sept. 13-14), six drivers and teams still have a mathematical chance to win the Mickey Thompson Tires DragRacingOnline.com AA/FC Challenge National Championship.