Now that the city of Las Vegas received their monthly allotment of rain Saturday, eliminations continued Sunday morning for the Maytag Silverstate Refrigeration Saturday, beginning with the fourth round of the Pro class.
 
Obviously the delay did little when it came to racers concerned with their dial-in on a bright, sunny Sunday morning, as five out of the seven pairs of Pro racers resulted in dead-on-the-dial winning runs. With the conclusion of that round, Justin Lamb, Tony Marconi, Willie DenBoer, Tommy Dutcher, two-time finalist so far this weekend Brad Burton, Thursday’s winner Jody Lang, Wesley Eisenga and Tim O’Moore remained.
 
Making their way into the semifinals was Dutcher, DenBoer, Lang and the guy who’s looking to go to his third final in as many days, Brad Burton. The semifinals also set up a possible repeat of Thursday night where Lang defeated Burton. Burton faced off with Dutcher but turned on the redlight to move Dutcher into the final round for a $10,000 payday. Lang then faced DenBoer and a seven-thousandths package by the foot-braking Lang moved him into a meeting with Dutcher.
 
Lang has had an impressive run this weekend with one win Thursday and a semifinal appearance on Friday and now this. In the final, the NHRA Winternationals champ Lang suffered trans brake problems forcing him to “flat-foot” it off the starting line which ultimately handed the win to the Ramona, California racer Tommy Dutcher.
 
Super Pro had seven cars remaining in the quarterfinals with Scott Hearn receiving the bye into the semifinals. The other combatants were Tom Malicki, Duston Wurtz, Chuck Hawk Jr., Michael Otis and from the “senior tour,” Richard McFarland and Ted Seipel.
 

At the round of four, Hearn, Wurtz, Otis and McFarland attempting to hold up the “senior tour,” battled it out. Hearn defeated Wurtz and McFarland “drilled” the ‘tree with a .009 reaction time to defeat Otis.
 
When Richard McFarland began racing, Scott Hearn had yet to be born. And that’s what makes drag racing; and in this case bracket racing; so great. Forget the “senior tour,” anyone has a chance when the green light shines. In the final, when the green light did shine, both Hearn and McFarland left with double-0 lights but it was McFarland who ran closer to his dial-in for the $20,000 victory in a car he and his buddies built themselves in their garage based around a Pontiac engine.
 
“Thanks to Peter and Kyle for putting on a great race,” said McFarland. “I’ve been to the Bristol ‘Fling and both races are fantastic. I’m going to have to go home and talk to my other half but I just might be going to Bristol now too.” And now he has the traveling money to do it.
 
With Saturday’s eliminations completed, the final day, Baldwin Racing Cancer Awareness Sunday began with racers still eager to score last chance wins in both classes. In the quarterfinals, six remained; Jesse Adams, Todd Zampese, Mark Faul, Gregory Harrison, Stan Deming and Bill Kidd. Deming, Zampese and Faul all survived the cut with Deming earning the valuable bye run in the semis guaranteeing him a spot in the final.
 
With those three left, Zampese defeated Faul with Zampese and his dragster, still also into the quarterfinals in Super Pro with an identical car. Deming with the bye, tested the ‘tree with an .028 reaction time and a dead-on the dial with an “9” run.
 
In the Pro final, Zampese made the first step toward a double-up win with his defeat of Deming on a double break-out.
 

Super Pro action in the quarterfinals had Kevin McClelland, Brad Pierce, Todd Zampese, Dan Wheeler, Aaron Steinkey, Mark Kidd and Kevin Houmard outlasting over 300 others.
 
Houmard received the last bye run of the night in the quarters and Zampese continued in his quest to double-up by defeating Wheeler. Former NHRA national event winners Pierce and McClelland tangled with “K-Mac” McClelland taking the win. Steinkey and Kidd ended the round with both drivers recording double-0 reaction times but Steinkey prevailed for the win.
 
Semifinals? Zampese used a .020 package to defeat McClelland and Steinkey turned on the redlight to move Houmard into the final and attempt to thwart Zampese’s double-up victory. But that wasn’t to be, as Zampese became the very first Spring Fling victor in two separate classes in the same race… and with the same car; legal according to Spring Fling Vegas rules.
 
“I feel very blessed this weekend,” said Zampese. “This was a great race and I had a great time.”
 
With the 2015 version of the K&N Spring Fling Vegas event in the books, everyone is looking forward to 2016 and the K&N Spring Fling Million next year where even more money will be awarded to racers.
 
“We’d like to thank everyone who participated this year and all the sponsors who help to make our events successful,” said co-promoter Kyle Seipel. “Both Peter [Biondo] and I can’t thank everyone enough and we’re really excited for the future of the Spring Fling brand."