Words by Jeff Burk, Photos by Joe McHugh

The 2013 Mickey Thompson Tires DragRacingOnline.com AA/FC Challenge presented by Comp Cams Championship went down to the last race of the season at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park with four drivers still with a mathematical chance of becoming the 2013 AA/FC National Champion. Because of that situation the Tulsa event was one of the more intense in the history of the series. 

The contenders, led by points leader Shawn Bowen, came to Tulsa for their fourth race in just six weekends and only one week after the previous race at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Mich., which is no easy deal for professional racers much less these hobby racers. Contending teams and drivers pushed themselves and their equipment to their limits trying to win the DRO Championship and it showed.

For the first time in the series history there were three cars qualified with an ET in the 5.70s. There were more teams that destroyed engines at the final than at any other event. The drivers, too, showed the effect of the grueling final stretch with red lights and late lights determining many races.  In the end Ronny Young and tuner Kebin Kingsley put the “Blue Max” Plymouth Arrow Funny Car into a national event winner’s circle for the first time since the 1984 Mile-High Nationals when Raymond Beadle beat Don Prudhomme. The Bowen family team with driver Shawn Bowen, who dominated the series this year, became just the third team to win the DRO national championship in the five-year history of the series.