Besides have over 450 cars in attendance; a K&N Spring Fling Vegas record; it finally came to pass that there was the first ever $1,000 winner in the Spring Fling $20,000 Challenge. The concept is 20 randomly selected drivers are given one chance at the ‘Tree with a .00X reaction time awarded a crisp $100 bill. If any driver record a perfect .000 reaction time, they receive ten of those crisp Ben Franklins.

In four past Spring Fling Bristol and last year’s Vegas event, no one has yet to collect the ten “large.” It didn’t take long here as Kevin Heffington from Moxee, Washington reacted his way to the $1,000 win.

Besides the obvious round money and purse, over $40,000 in prizes and awards from various sponsors are given away throughout the weekend. Promoter Kyle Seipel said, “Both Pete [Biondo, co-promoter] are extremely thankful for the support we receive from not only the racers but our sponsors as well. It’s because of each that has made the ‘Fling series of races as successful as they are.”

Eliminations began promptly at 8:00 am and with this many cars they ran well into the night. Last year, the locusts (yes, the actual bugs) descended on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway one night creating havoc. Today it was the wind which blew tornado-type winds and deposited some valuable Nevada sand onto the track surface resulting in considerable downtime. And when the “smoke” cleared, eliminations continued on.

In Pro Eliminator semifinals, Jesse Adams faced off with Paul Russell. Russell, from Alabama turned it red and gave the win to Adams. The participants in the other half were Mark Faul and Dan Goss with Faul taking the lead at the green light and never looked back for the win. In the final round, Faul left the starting line a tad too soon and lit the red light handing the win to Adams.

Adams said, “I had some problems this weekend but today can’t get any better than this.”

The Super Pro class semifinals consisted of Larry Spitalli, Stan Essery, Justin Sears and Bart Smith. Spitalli fouled against Essery and Sears went dead on the dial with a 7 to defeat Smith. Sears turned on the red light in the final by .007 and the Canadian contingent celebrated Essery’s win.

Essery said, “We fought a lot of problems to get ere but this all makes up for it. I have to thank everyone who helped us and Kyle and Peter for putting on a great race.