The unsettled Midwest spring weather claimed ultimate victory at the Goodguys 21st Hot Rod Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park. As the funny cars of finalists Paul Romine and Shawn Bowen were backing up from their burnouts, the rains started to fall and progressively worsened forcing a cancellation of all final rounds.

The fastest class of them all, Nostalgia Top Fuel, was simply dominated by the Fresno, California based “Raisin Express II” team of Jim Cullen, Denver and Darren Schutz. Using Darren’s tuneup, Schutz’ set low elapsed time of every round, the quickest of which was a 5.837 in Saturday’s opening eliminations. In fact, every run they made here this weekend was in the 5.8 second zone with zero parts breakage! In the final, Schutz was to face the 2007 event Champion Howard Haight.

The unsettled Midwest spring weather claimed ultimate victory at the Goodguys 21st Hot Rod Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park. As the funny cars of finalists Paul Romine and Shawn Bowen were backing up from their burnouts, the rains started to fall and progressively worsened forcing a cancellation of all final rounds.

The fastest class of them all, Nostalgia Top Fuel, was simply dominated by the Fresno, California based “Raisin Express II” team of Jim Cullen, Denver and Darren Schutz. Using Darren’s tuneup, Schutz’ set low elapsed time of every round, the quickest of which was a 5.837 in Saturday’s opening eliminations. In fact, every run they made here this weekend was in the 5.8 second zone with zero parts breakage! In the final, Schutz was to face the 2007 event Champion Howard Haight.

In Nostalgia Funny Car, Romine had an eventful weekend behind the wheel of his “Man O’ War” ’79 Mustang. After getting shut off behind the starting line on his first qualifying run and breaking a rotor in the distributor on his second lap, he finally got it together for a first round win over Peter Gallen then ran the event’s quickest and fastest time of 5.960 @ 237.21 in the semi finals to defeat John Dunn.

Since all classes were down to finals when the rains came, each class was declared a draw. The next vintage drag racing event on the Goodguys 2009 event calendar is the 8th DuPont Blue Suede Cruise August 28-30 at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH.

Event Finalists – Goodguys 21st Hot Rod Nationals

Top Fuel Final:
Denver Schutz, Fresno, CA vs Howard Haight, Brownsburg, IN

Nostalgia Funny Car Final:
Paul Romine, Indianapolis, IN ’79 Mustang vs Shawn Bowen, Grand Blanc, MI ’78 Pontiac
 
Nostalgia Top Fuel “B”:
Jason Richey, Pleasanton, CA vs Michael Sexton, Bloomington, IN
 
Pro Comp I:
Ronny Robinson, Franklin, TN ’23 Ford vs. Frank Cervelli, Mt Holly, NC ’94 FED
 
Pro Comp II:
Derek McCuiston, Troy, OH ’08 FED vs David Shaffer, Lincoln, IL ’33 Ford
 
B/GAS:
David Donaldson, Washington, IN ’48 Thames vs Rob Davis, Lawrenceburg, IN ’67 Nova
 
Nostalgia Gas:
Dale Riha, Shellsburg, IA ’56 Chevy vs. Sam Patrick, Sand Point, MI ’37 Chevy Coupe
 
Nostalgia Comp:
Jim Ries, Reynoldsburg, OH ’91 FED vs. Stephen Shehorn, Chestnut, IL ’27 Ford
 
Hot Rod Eliminator:
Robert Emerson, Greenwood, IN ’65 Mustang vs. Keith Moesner, Evansville, IN ’51 Henry J.
 
1/8th Mile Street Rod Shootout Final (Run Sat 6/13)
Winner: Jiggs Lindhorst, New Berlin, WI ’34 Pontiac 7.057 @ 97.05
Runner Up: Bob Mandanbach, Avon, IN ’70 Nova 7.290 @ 94.56
 
1/8th Mile Hot Rod Shootout Final (Run Sat 6/13)
Winner: Chuck Walbridge, Ft Wayne, IN ’32 Ford 7.067 @ 98.80
Runner Up: John Gray, ’66 Nova 7.517 @ 92.63 

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