Make it four straight for Del Cox Jr.

After a bit of a rocky start to the 2009 IHRA season, Cox managed to get things turned around in a big way at midseason and once he got it figured out, he hasn’t lost since.

Cox hasn’t lost a round since mid-July and continued to show his dominance on Sunday with a thrilling victory over teammate Ron August Jr. who was in his first career IHRA final at the President’s Cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway on Sunday.

Make it four straight for Del Cox Jr.

After a bit of a rocky start to the 2009 IHRA season, Cox managed to get things turned around in a big way at midseason and once he got it figured out, he hasn’t lost since.

Cox hasn’t lost a round since mid-July and continued to show his dominance on Sunday with a thrilling victory over teammate Ron August Jr. who was in his first career IHRA final at the President’s Cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway on Sunday.

“With Paul Smith over here and all these guys working their butts off on these cars and then having two of them in the final is pretty cool,” Cox said. “You never know what the year will bring, but after having Spencer Massey in the car and having the same team from the world championship last year is just mind boggling. They do a great job and have given me a great car to go out and try to win this championship.”

With the win Cox (Downey, Calif.) claims his fourth victory in a row and fifth total and extends his streak of consecutive round wins to 12 straight. More importantly, after Bruce Litton fell out in the first round at the hands of August, Cox was able to all but seal the Top Fuel championship entering the World Finals next month in Rockingham.

 “Ron is my new hero. It is great for Mitch and everybody on the team. We are both southern California boys and he deserves it. He did a great job this weekend, “Cox said. “To be in this position is just incredible, I just hope we can keep it going and wrap this thing up.”

Cox ran a 4.842 second elapsed time at 308.57 miles per hour in the final to drive around teammate August (Pleasanton, Calif.) who coasted across the line after running into trouble.

Cox now holds a 74-point advantage over Litton, erasing a one-time 84-point deficit that stood at midseason. After suffering a first round loss at the Rocky Mountain Nationals at Castrol Raceway in early July and falling behind by nearly 90 points, Cox has since won four straight races and turned that one time deficit into a huge advantage.

“It was a stressful weekend coming in here only 24 points ahead and then losing a few points because Bruce was top qualifier,” Cox said. “After Mitch (King) beat me in Canada Bruce had a big lead on me so that shows how good our team is to be able to come back from that deficit and now to have the lead we have going into the last race is great.”

It was an all Mitch King Motorsports final for the first time ever as both cars put on an incredible show for the boss this weekend.

Cox knocked off August, Dom Lagana and Bobby Lagana Jr. to advance to his fifth final of the season while August mowed through Todd Paton and No. 2 man in points Bruce Litton in his first ever IHRA race behind the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster.

In the semifinals Cox defeated Dom Lagana who had a tremendous weekend. In the round Cox ran a solid 4.730 at 303.84 to Lagana’s 4.993 at 265.01. In the other matchup August got around Todd Paton after nearly hitting the wall on more than one occasion.

But after getting it straightened out August was able to coast across the line after Paton ran into trouble to advance to his first career final round.

Possibly the biggest upset of the afternoon came in the opening round of Top Fuel as No. 8 qualifier August upset Litton as Litton went up in smoke at the top end.

August’s big win allowed Cox to pull away in the Top Fuel title chase and he will now head into the World Finals in Rockingham next month with a relatively comfortable advantage as he tries to pick up his first career championship in his rookie season.

In other quarterfinal action Paton stunned Mitch King, Cox defeated Bobby Lagana Jr. and Dom Lagana received a bye run after Smax Smith failed to show.

“We got one more to go so we are going to win the next one too,” Cox added.”

Advertisement