"Mr. Explosive” goes against Hale’s Mike Burkhart tribute Camaro. (Jeff Burk photo)

Hale and Sanders raced each other again and the results of the second round was same as the first. Hale got the win with a 6.247/219.33 when Sanders red-lit away the third quickest lap of the event, a 5.852/249.12 losing effort.

That set up a classic final round meeting between teams and drivers each with a pair of DRO national championships on their resume.
Both teams had serious issues to overcome. The Bowens had pulled the centers out of two pairs of slicks (down to the cord) on their previous winning passes and were forced to run a pair of slicks that were already starting to “bubble” in the finale. 

Hale and crew chief Guy Tipton were also facing issues as they had one of Aeromtive’s  brand new 21 gallon pump on the engine for the first  time and had no idea yet of that pumps fuel curve.

(Joe McHugh photo)

Both Hale and Bowen went into the final with their best tune-ups in the cars because even though the Bowens’ had an obvious performance advantage they wanted a sub-5.70 ET so that they could reset the ET record held by Marc White of 5.707 which he set at Tulsa Raceway Park at last year’s DRO race.

Hale and tuner Tipton were still in unknown territory with the new fuel pump but on the warm-up for the final round the engine sounded much crisper and accelerated faster when they blipped the throttle to seat the clutch.

The cars pulled into the lanes at around 10 p.m., which, despite the late hour saw most of the crowd still in their grandstand seats. Both cars were started and both engines’ headers sent billows of unburned nitro into the air, forcing those starting line crew and spectators standing between the cars to cover their mouths and eyes to escape the eye-burning, gagging nitro fumes as the cars staged.