Yukon Gear & Axle Wednesday at the Sparco Fall Fling presented by Optima Batteries had blue skies and hot weather.

Three hours of time trials followed by eliminations found 323 cars making the first-round call. For round six, there remained 15 racers: Million Dollar winner Jeff Verdi; Pro Stock crew chief Tommy Lee; Mike McKay, Austin Durham; Tommy Zimmerman; Anthony Bertozzi still left in with two entries; Chris Stine; Jamie Bridge; Scott Albrecht; Jeff Taylor; Johnny Ezell; Cody McDaniel; Taylor Sweeton; and Bobby Spence. Six of the remaining were door cars.

Survivors of round six included Bridge, Taylor, Zimmerman, Ezell, McDaniel, Stine, and Bertozzi still hanging tough with both of his entries. Unfortunately, Bertozzi’s Cinderella ride ended in the quarterfinals with him being defeated by McDaniel and Stine. The two remaining combatants for the semifinals were Bridge and Ezell.

For the semis, Ezell and Stine faced off with Stine getting the win, while McDaniel and Bridge raced to the finish line with McDaniel getting the nod into the $15,000-to-win final. Indiana versus Tennessee, respectively.

Racing any of the Flings is a tough proposition and Chris Stine showed just how tough it can be. He used a .006 reaction time coupled with a dead-on the dial with a “2” to turn away Cody McDaniel. McDaniel’s reaction time was a .014 which actually left him “mathematically ineligible” for the win, but still earned him a $3,000 check to get his weekend started, while Stine walked away with his $15,000 winnings.  [09/28/17]

Two-time Pro Mod world champion Troy Coughlin will be the first to tell you he dodged a big bullet at the last J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series event two weeks ago in Charlotte when he inexplicably lost in the first round yet kept his championship hopes very much alive when title rival Mike Castellana exited one session later.

"It could have been a walkaway for Mike but he ran into a tough opponent Round 2 when he raced Jonathan Gray so we're still in the hunt," Coughlin said. "I don't think anyone is surprised Jonathan is running so well. He's got Rickie Smith tuning that car and they're going gangbusters, for sure. It's a good thing they haven't run all year or they may be the ones we are all chasing at this point."

The unexpected turn of events for the two most dominant cars in the class left Coughlin just 48 points, or a little more than two rounds of racing action, behind Castellana with two races left in the season, including this weekend's sixth annual AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park.

"We still need Mike to get beat early and we need to go a round or two more on race day to tighten this thing up for the finale in Las Vegas," Coughlin said. "They definitely should out-qualify us with recent rule changes and the weather we're expecting this weekend, so it'll be the work we do on race day that'll ultimately put us over the top.

"The good news is that even though we lost a bunch of horsepower with that unexpected rule change, we've still got a fighter jet here with our twin-turbo JEGS.com Chevrolet Corvette C7. We plan to go as hard as we can every single round, including during qualifying, and we will not quit until it's over."  [09/28/17]

The NHRA has changed some dates for next year’s Countdown to the Championship.

The six race Countdown will begin at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, PA, on Sept. 13-16 followed by Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis on Sept. 21-23; the Texas Motorplex in Dallas, TX, on Oct. 4-7; zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, NC, on Oct. 12-14; The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 25-28; and ending at Pomona, CA, on Nov. 8-11.  [09/28/17]

Starting from a fourth-place qualifying effort of 3.97 seconds over the eighth-mile at San Antonio Raceway this past weekend, Eddie Rogers went on to score his second Mid-West Pro Mod Series victory of the season. Rogers steered his supercharged ’69 Chevelle to a winning 4.04-second pass in the final over the blown, late-model Corvette of Jonas Aleshire, who was disqualified for leaving a fraction of a second before the green light flashed.

“Neither one of us knew he had redlighted until we got down to the end of the track,” said Rogers, from Berryville, Arkansas. “Apparently he got loose anyway and slowed down a little bit and we didn’t make a great pass, but you just race to the conditions you’re given. It was enough to win and that’s all that really counts.”

Track co-owner and MWPMS organizer Keith Haney also races his nitrous-boosted 2014 Camaro in the series and qualified number one with a 3.90 that stood up as quick time for the meet. Haney lost traction, however, in the semi-finals against Rogers.

“The rear tires just broke loose 280 feet out,” Haney explained. “Just like a fuel car; I had never had that happen like that before.

“It was still a good weekend, though,” he continued. “The track was good, the management and staff at the San Antonio track were great to work with, and everyone with the Mid-West Pro Mod Series had a great time there. We were a little short on cars because some were previously committed to attending another event and a couple were out of service, but contrary to some Internet rumor starters, we still paid out a full purse in cash at the track, which I know Eddie and his team very much appreciated.”

After also winning there earlier this year, Rogers now looks forward to a return to Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park for the 2017 MWPMS World Finals Oct. 13-14, which with 27 pre-entries is shaping up to be the biggest race in series history.  (photo courtesy MWPMS)   [09/28/17]