PRO EXTREME

Bubba Stanton

After qualifying his supercharged 1969 Camaro second behind teammate Jason Scruggs with a 3.603/212.69, Bubba Stanton beat Tommy D'Aprile, Frankie Taylor and Kuwaiti racer Turky Alhumidi to match up against Badir Ahli of Dubai in the final round.

Ahli qualified his ’69 Camaro in the 13th position in the 16-car field and stepped up his act on race day running quicker than the number he qualified with in almost every round. He defeated Terry Leggett, Mike Recchia and points leader Scruggs.

Both Ahli and Scruggs damaged their engines in their match up. Scruggs may have known his engine was wounded as he had a .004 RT to Ahli’s respectable .041, but his 3.72 couldn’t hold off Ahli’s 3.66. Ahli's '69 Camaro too sustained engine damage, burning a piston. His NAS Racing team, led by veteran crew chiefs Al Billes and Bob Newberry, made quick repairs, though, allowing Ahli to keep his final-round appointment.

Once there, Stanton left first putting  .020 in the bank and was never challenged by Ahli while making his quickest run of the weekend with a 3.576/215.82 mph against the 3.636/208.59 by Ahli.

"This is awesome, our third win this year,” said Stanton. “We worked our butts off this weekend, but the car was flawless all weekend," he added about his Jerry Bickel-built ride. His damaged engine during the second qualifying session in the wee hours of Saturday morning forced a last-minute swap that saw Stanton and his crew members buttoning up the new powerplant near 6 a.m. on race day.

"I can't thank (team owner) Roger Henson and Jason and Mitchell (Scruggs) and all my guys enough. I couldn't have a better group of guys to help me," the Potts Camp, Mississippi-based driver said. "I've struggled some the last couple of years, but this has been my best year of racing ever and I owe it all to those guys. I couldn't ask for no better."