Steve Williams started his Championship season off relatively slow, with his first 3 events gaining only 1 round win. Starting the year out in Pomona, CA for a national event where he would fall in rd2, then heading over to Las Vegas, NV like everyone from d7 usually does for another national then his 1st divisional event of the year where he would not get out of rd1, resulting in only 100 points in his first 3 events (all would eventually get thrown away at the end of the year). Williams would go onto the Fontana divisional towards the end of May where he would turn on only a pair of win lights for a 50 point addition before taking 2 months off, again not the way a championship season is usually started.

Beginning to find some rhythm throughout the next couple events, Williams elected to go to the double event at Sonoma Raceway where he would reach his 1st final round of the year and collect his only win on the year. Gaining him 105 points at his first divisional, then unfortunately getting knocked out in the 1st round of competition at the national event for another throw away 30. Ending his 2 week, 3 race jaunt was in Seattle, WA for the end of the western swing where Williams would find himself in his 2nd final of the season but fall short, gaining a crucial 84 points.

Now only half way through Williams season and well over half way through the NHRA season, he was up to 339 points with only 7 events, 3 of which being divisionals. Taking a look at the schedule, he took a shot and would pull through the gate at 2 more sets of doubles, Salt Lake City, UT and Great Bend, KS, looking for the “what if” scenario. Both races went relatively similar by picking up about 100 points at each track, landing him in the top 10 with a good shot at the crown because of the 1st and 2nd rounds he could better going forward. With only 4 races total left in the year, Williams would need to attend 75% of them to really make a run at it and he capitalized on the opportunity with a runner-up 94 point score in Dallas, TX the first weekend in October.

After about 3 weeks off there would be only 4-5 drivers left in the championship chase and it would come down to the wire. Williams was determined to end the year strong and solidify the championship as he headed over to Vegas 2 for yet another national/divisional to fulfill his allotted point claimers. Starting with a rd4 loss, he ended the trip on a high note with a semi-final finish at the divisional event and due to high car counts, received 93 points and launch him into the #1 spot with 620. The season finale in Pomona, CA had 3 drivers fighting for the top spot, after Williams bowed out in rd1 and Don Nichols (your eventual #2) bowed out in rd2, it left Mark Grame who had to get to the final round to take over the lead by 1 point. Round by round Grame kept turning on the win lights with Williams eagerly watching on, as it came down to rd5 and how the ladder played out, the bye to the final was on his side and if he turned on the win light he would be the Champion. And as you can tell by the title of the article Mark Grame lost a close race to Tony Helms and would have to settle for the #4 spot, handing the #1 scoop over to Steve Williams with 620 final points.

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