Rain may have prevented the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals from being finished, but Mother Nature didn’t wipe the smile off Dave River’s face.

For good reason.

Rain may have prevented the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals from being finished, but Mother Nature didn’t wipe the smile off Dave River’s face.

For good reason.

River has been competing in NHRA’s Pro Stock class since 2009 and never won a round.

On Aug. 17, he ended his drought by winning first and second round at Brainerd International Raceway over Erica Enders-Stevens and Dave Connolly. River and the remaining Pro Stock competitors will complete the Lucas Oil Nationals this weekend at Indianapolis. River faces Jason Line in the semifinals.

“We are still on cloud nine,” River said. “The support we have received is overwhelming, and very, very nice. This kind of seems like a dream.”

The victories over Enders-Stevens and Connolly were even more noteworthy considering the overhaul River did to his car on Aug. 16.

“We changed about everything Saturday night,” River, 54, said. “Then, believe it or not, everything worked.”

The key to River’s Brainerd success was the motor he purchased from Richard Freeman at Elite Motorsports.

“That thing has so much more power than anything I have ever had,” River said. “It is a learning preocess for us. We’re not too far off, we just need to keep improving. We were really good against Dave Connolly. We had a very good 60-foot time. Jerry Haas built a great car and it’s capable, but this is a Cinderella story. We didn’t test with that motor. We got the motor Tuesday night before Brainerd and I finished putting the motor in Wednesday night and headed to Brainerd Thursday morning. We defied the odds.”

Now, River is preparing to finish the Brainerd event at Indy. Robert River, Dave’s son, is the crew chief for his father’s 2010 Chevy Cobalt.

“We are going to approach it like we do every other round,” said the elder River about his thought process against Line. “We are going to just try and get down the track and make the best run we can. It’s odd because I really don’t get intimidated and worry about who is in the other lane. I just go out and make the best run we possibly can. I don’t want to let my crew down or myself down. We really haven’t had competitive power before and we’ve known that, and the motor we have now is the real deal. It cost us the same amount of money to go to the races whether we qualify or not. It is a whole lot more fun to qualify and winning those rounds is hard to describe. It was very emotional. I can’t even imagine what it would be like if we won the Brainerd event.”

At Indy, River will try and win the Brainerd event and also qualify for the U.S. Nationals. Following Indy, River will compete at the Midwest Nationals Sept. 26-28 at St. Louis.

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