Sunday Eliminations
With the field
set, the team prepared the car for their first round match up
with fellow Californian, Brendan Murry.
Thompson had
a great Fathers Day present in the form of his daughter Kayla
from Oklahoma who had never seen her Dad race.
KY Mastercam
Dealer, Jim Eastburn and his son were guests of Tom Shelar. Jim
has visited before, but it was the first time for his son, who
was amazed at how fast the team serviced the car.
Contrary to the
huge crowd on Saturday, the stands were not so full on Sunday
Next year the NHRR will be held Thu, Fri Sat for a shot at better
eliminations attendance.
Early
on Murry held his own and continued to give Thompson a race.
In spite of carding
his best time of the weekend, Murry's 6.11 was no match for Thompson's
5.909 at a whopping 255.82 (top speed of the meet).
With the relentless sun getting
hotter by the minute, shade was at a premium and everyone was
at the point of just wanting to get the race over. Towards that
end, in round two Thompson had to face the always tough Howard
Haight.
Thompson got a slight
lead at the hit with Haight right on his tail.
By the 330' mark both
cars were virtually welded together.
Sacrificing some aluminum in
the process, Thompson's 5.959 at 255.63 edged out Haight's game
6.028 at 240.81.
In line for yet another final
at Bowling Green. In the other lane would be Roger "Radar" Lechtenberg in
Dale & Kat Surh's "Orange Crate". Roger is the
only non-HSMS driver to win a NHRR (2003).
This is the way
a race should end with the #1 and #2 qualifiers meeting for the
title.
Lechtenberg
was away first and had some strong early numbers.
With still a nose in the lead,
the Orange Crate did the one thing nobody expected -- it smoked
the tires and in spite of a nice pedal job, Radar could not come
close to catching Thompson.
Thompson carded yet another five
second run (5.921 at 250.23) to rack up the teams 6th NHRR championship.
Lechtenberg
stopped the clocks with a 6.306 at 237.00.
Lechtenberg
gave the team a wave of congratulations.
Happy Fathers Day!
Good friend and fellow Top Fuel
driver Rick McGee made the trip to Bowling Green and was glad
he did.
At the scales, the team
got their time slip destined for framing.
Steve Gibbs congratulated
Brett Johansen and the rest of the team.
The ritual of signing/marking
the NHRR sign on the tower.
This had to feel good.
An emotional Thompson
was interviewed by Mike English.
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