Starting off on Tuesday in between time run sessions, 16 door cars and 16 dragsters lined up alongside each other to square off for a new Race Tech dragster chassis. At round three, eight drivers met on the ladder including Bryan Sorce, Troy Williams Jr., Logan Back, Rocky VanNote, Gary Williams, Josh Gnandt, Russell Sparks, and Courtney Grisez.

 

Troy Williams Jr. fouled out to Sorce, while Back was perfect and .012 above to lock out VanNote. Gary Williams got the round win with a .006 bulb over Gnandt, while Sparks was .007 total against Grisez. Two trucks staged up against each other in the semifinals where Williams was .004 to the red light of Back. On the dragster side, Sparks didn’t leave the line while Sorce was .008 and clicked it off early.

 

Williams would appear in another one of many Fling shootout final rounds, while it would be the first for Sorce. Sorce was .001 crossing the finish line stripe first by .002 to be .010 total, shutting the door on Williams’ .013 and one-thousandth under the dial to pick up the brand new Race Tech dragster chassis.

 

During the last time run session, no-box and box drivers had the opportunity to put a number up on the scoreboard to qualify among the top 16 packages to race in the free Coltrin Door and Moulding $5,000 Shootout. Out of all entrants, the top 16 ranged from .001 to .010 total and in the end it came down to the first and second place qualifiers. After a .001 package, Donovan Williams carried his camp to a second final round in the same evening. Chris Wallin, the number two qualifier after being .003 total, would meet him in the final round. Williams was .008 on the tree and dropped it dead-on zero after taking .009 to the .003 and .014 above of Wallin to pick up the $5,000 big check.

What started with 32 bottom-bulb hitters turned into two with Jaeden Durst and Jennifer Vignola facing each other in the Laris Motorsports Insurance No-Box final round. Durst let go .015 off the hit, securing the $2,000 No-Box bonus and custom championship trophy by using a substantial starting line advantage over the ‘67 Camaro of Vignola. Durst then went on to combine with the Box field.

 

The six drivers that reached the ladder included Victor Ellinger, Brian Willingham, Ryan Sparks, Zac Fulcher, Dylan Guy, and Glenn Ferguson Jr. Ellinger was .012 and took .006 at the stripe to move past Willingham, while Fulcher and Sparks were separated by just four-thousandths of a second but it was the dead-on five lap of Fulcher that would advance. Guy was .012 and took .019 for the win over Ferguson Jr.

 

A door car versus dragster pairing made up half of the semifinals, where Ellinger was .002 and dead-on five to lay down .007 total in the ‘80 Volvo against the five thousandths red light of Guy. On his solo trip down the track, Fulcher was .001 and ran dead-on his dial with a seven to put together .008 total.

 

With phenomenal laps from both drivers in the semifinals, parking it in the winners circle would not be an easy task for Fulcher or Ellinger. The final was decided by just one thousandth of a second with Ellinger crossing the stripe first to run dead-on three for his first ever Fling winner’s circle. Only minutes before his 50th birthday, Ellinger cashed in for $50,000 on Strange Engineering Friday.

It was Williams' fourth Fling main event final round appearance.

 

 

Door Cars go 3 for 3 at the Fling at Norwalk! Mike Matty Jr. from Ashland, OH wins the last day for $30K on Function Enterprises Inc. Sunday! He was .006 to the -.003 of Coty Whitt.