AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals Recap

Timothy Fletcher | September 29, 2018

The 20th stop on the 2018 NHRA Mellow Yellow tour brought us to Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, MO for the 1st half of the AAA Insurance sponsored events. This race had some of the best quotas we have seen all year with every class meeting/exceeding the 55 car allowance besides SS that was only 2 cars shy. With only 4 races left, every driver is looking to get in their final points claims and better their scores nationally or divisionally, with the end goal of putting the #1 on their ride for the next season.

David Rampy

When talking Comp Eliminator you immediately think of David Rampy, who just so happen to extend his resume and add his 99th win over Allen Wilson here this weekend. Rampy was the #8 qualifier this weekend and didn’t really have a worthy opponent until the final round, going only a few hundreths under his index in the prior 4 rounds. With Rampy in the hole about 5 hun with his .079 light, Wilson, who had a big CIC penalty of -.16 coming into the round was only able to run 8.238(-0.472 under), giving Rampy the almost .040 MOV running 7.240 on his 7.80 index. Greg Stanfield would face off against Brad Zaskowski in the Super Stock final, with Stanfield running dead on 7 to take the win at 1320 ft. The reacts were a coin flip, .023 to .025, and unfortunately it appears as though Zaskowski missed the dial as he hit the breaks to run 10.075 on his 10.04. Stanfield also scrubbed some speed at the end but set it down to dead on and the 13th win of his career.

Leah Pritchett would collect her 2nd consecutive win on this stop for the Factory Stock Showdown class, as long time class runner and former winner Stephen Bell couldn’t get the car to 1st cone under power. Pritchett made dominating passes all weekend, never running slower than 8.031 in eliminations and qualifying in the #2 spot at 7.936. Someone that is definitely not new to the winner circle was the Stock Eliminator champ Drew Skillman as he just skates by Daryl Bureski in a close double breakout final. Skillman would be sitting at the starting line about 2.5 seconds longer than Bureski and killed the tree with a .007 light. At the end of the track Bureski ran 11.421 on his 11.44 dial as Skillman ran 8.864 on his 8.88, giving him the beacon by just .003.

The .90 categories had 2 different style of drivers winning their class for the 1st time, as Rick Hughes took home his 1st ever SC trophy and 1st ever of his career. The 8.90 final drivers were not particularly great in the reaction time area with a .025 to .027. But Hughes got to the finish line and made the right choice to pull out the anchor and get behind as he ran 8.921 to be over the 8.90 index, while Don Higgins ran under at 8.884. Tim Nicholson was the 9.90 champion for the 1st time as he puts up a .021 package on Mitch Withers. Nicholson in his beautiful, 4-speed, 100 mph Chevy Camaro was behind at the start when Withers let go .004 but he as well as others miss-judged the 50 mph spot and ran 9.856, when Nicholson was .017 and grabbed 4 levers to run 9.904 at 101.97.

Top Sportsman would have Glenn Butcher defeating Bill Yates Sr. for his 1st national event win, with a .034 light Butcher was able to run 6.534 on the 6.51 for an ok .058 total package. Yates was slightly better on the tree with a .010 and looked to have tons of room, but slowed way down running .067 over his 6.65 dial. Jenifer White comes out of top of the fastest bracket class and now has a pair of Wally’s as she defeats Afton Swanson. White was given a 2 hun head start dialed in at 6.14, as Swanson was dialed in at 6.12, and the race was basically over on the starting line as Swanson must have been distracted to be .102 on the tree to the .028 of White. Swanson ran it under to a 6.104, as White was way ahead and on the plus side of the dial at 6.164.