NHRA Junior Dragster #5

All the way to the track this morning, I was thinking what a great day it was going to be. Championship  day for the Juniors and the weather report was excellent. Upon arrival, I learned that shortly after I left last night, there was a serious crash involving Frank Podlogar. That quickly brought things into perspective. Like I asked in a previous post, please keep Frank in your prayers. Now, onto today's Championship Junior Dragster racing. In qualifications, Katie Rusiniak  and Colin Summers in Junior Modified and Junior Sportsman, respectively had Best Reaction Time. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of Colin.

Katie Rusiniak Best Reaction Time Modifieds

After the Qualification Round, Dave Granger (Rt. 66 Staff) rolled out the future of Drag Racing with two young racers applying for their licenses. This is a program developed and implemented by the NHRA in the last year. Max Bakutis, age 10 and Ayden Lane, age 9.

Max Bakutis

Ayden Lane

Their first trees!

At the conclusion of the testing, both Max and Ayden received their NHRA licenses. Congratulations!

After the Qualifications were completed, the Elimination Rounds began. The Modified Division was led by TJ Trench. He had a one point lead over his sister Tori and a two point lead over Sydney Senko. Then things got interesting when TJ  redlighted in the first round and was eliminated. This threw the Track Championship up for grabs. In round two both Tori and Sydney were eliminated which salvaged the Championship for TJ. This was his last race in the Juniors and beginning next year he will take over his Dad's car, which is leading the Rocket Brand Racing Fuel  ET Bracket Super Pro Series.

TJ Trench - 2015 Junior Modified Champion

We had to hurry with the Victory Lane pictures because the new owner of the car was there to pick it up along with Tori's car. Tori will have a new car for 2016.

The racing continued with Brandon Loeschen  winning the race and Julia Hooten  being the runner-up.

Brandon Loeschen

Julia Hooten

In the Sportsman Division, Bobby Churchill continued his winning ways with his win today. In addition, he wrapped up the Sportsman Track Championship.

Bobby Churchill

Mikayla Highland

Here are some more images from today's Junior action.

I want to congratulate all the kids and parents for a great season. See you next year!

To see all the images from today, please click here.

To see all this year's Junior action, please click here.

To see all our images, please click here.