Jason O'Neill and Tommy Drozd were out next as Drozd rolled through the beams with an apparent trans-brake issue, while O'Neill lost traction at the hit but moved to the next round with a 7.27 at 54 mph. Chris Graves benefitted greatly from the odd numbered seven car field and earned a bye run in first round. Like several others, traction was a problem as Graves blew the tires off at the hit and idled to the win light with three of the top four in the standings moving into the semis.

Jason O’Neill

Jason O'Neill and Leonard Ament kicked off the semifinal as the teams continued to struggle to get a hard launch off the line. Ament went red, giving O'Neill a clean trip to the finals as he idled down to a 10.15 at 45 mph. Cunningham and Graves were up next in a pivotal points match up. If Cunningham could win this round, the door would open to make up ground in the standings. At the hit, Cunningham was off first and Graves again blew the tires off. A quick pedal job from Graves got him back in action but it was too little too late as Cunningham lit the scoreboards with a nice 4.74 at 128 mph to advance to the finals to battle with Jason O'Neill.

By this point, O'Neill had passed Tera W. Graves in the standings to move into third and Cunningham was just a few points from stealing the lead from Chris Graves. At the flash of amber, both cars made clean launches and the race was on. Cunningham was .009 on the tree and held a wheel on O'Neill as the cars blasted towards the finish line. At the stripe, Cunningham's 4.67 at 131 mph took the win light over O'Neill's 4.69 at 145 in a great side by side finale.

After it was all said and done, Cunningham moved into a tie with Chris Graves for the top spot in NE 1 with just two events remaining in the 2015 season. O'Neill sits two rounds up in third place over Tera W. Graves who still holds a mathematical chance at defending her 2014 title. Boy will this Championship bout be fun to watch as the season concludes this fall!