Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series - West Regional - Las Vegas, NV

After two days of time trials and qualifying, we're down to the final qualifying session, later this morning, for the Top Alcohol cars at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There's 15 Dragsters and nine Funny Cars competing, and in the TAD field, the bump spot is already down to a 5.327, while the TAFCs have the top seven qualifiers in at 5.564 or better. Leading the way for the dragsters is a resurgent Chris Demke, with a 5.255 - 275.45, while Sean Bellemeur served notice on the funny car field with a booming 5.428 - 266.79 blast. An interesting sidenote is that Shawn Cowie ran quicker and faster (5.253 - 275.56) in a time trial run on Thursday, but has not made a pass since.

One other note is that Angelle Sampey is not in attendance at the event, and has eliminated herself from championship contention for the TAD title in 2024. Now the only obstacle to Cowie taking the crown is Jackie Fricke. She's running this weekend at Las Vegas, and is not currently qualified, but can't gain any points anyway as she used up her allotment of regional events months ago. She will be at Pomona, but will have to win the event AND have Cowie not get past the first round to overtake him by.... wait for it.... ONE point for the championship.

We'll have more news, and hopefully final results from the Vegas regional tomorrow. Then it's on to Pomona where we'll have our west coast correspondent and photographer, Bob Snyder on hand to take in all the action from the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals. Keep coming back here to see all the photos and reports over the next two weeks.

10:00 AM UPDATE: Just saw the Saturday schedule for the West Regional event and it shows the final qualifying session for Top Alcohol at 12:00 noon, first round of eliminations at 2:30 PM, second round of eliminations at 5:00 PM, and final round(s)..... must be tomorrow. It's making for a long weekend for the alky racers, then the majority of them have to load up and head west for Pomona.