Cordova Finals Story

New Faces and Familiar Names Find Success at Cordova

by Debi Shepard

CORDOVA, Ill. - SUMMIT FastNews - The IHRA Summer Nationals found both new faces and familiar names in the winners circle at the completion of the event, which was delayed for over an hour as rain moved into the Quad City area late Sunday afternoon. Doug Herbert, Bob Spina, Gary Shearer, Ron Miller, and Von Smith took home honors in their respective professional categories before an enthusiastic crowd at Cordova Dragway Park.

In his Snap-on Tools-backed Top Fuel Dragster, Doug Herbert moved up in the point standings as he took the win, defeating the CarQuest-sponsored entry of Paul Romine in the delayed final round. Using every advantage, the Cherryville, N.C.-based driver deep-staged his Murf McKinney dragster on the final run, leaving on Romine and taking the win with a 4.983 second elapsed time at 291.76 miles per hour.

After the win, his first in 1998, Herbert said, "Sometimes deep staging will break the other driver's concentration, giving you that small window of opportunity. You have to use every advantage that comes your way."

Top Fuel Harley found a new face in the winner circle as Bob Spina took the win over Jay Turner in the final. Spina and Turner were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the points coming into this race, and the win will vault Spina into the thick of the points battle.

Another new face took the trophy in the Pro Mod ranks, where Gary Shearer defeated Landon Jordan, both making their first-ever final round appearances. Shearer took the win by running a 6.887 second elapsed time to Jordan's 6.728. Points leader Scotty Cannon exited competition in the second round, breaking on his run against Shearer.

Pro Stock winner Ron Miller in the Moser Engineering entry made his first professional final round appearance and capitalized on a 0.438 second reaction time to take the win over reigning World Champion Floyd Cheek, who recorded a losing 6.887 second elapsed time to Miller's 6.920..

A familiar face in the Alcohol ranks was last years champion, Von Smith, returning again to take home the trophy and the points lead over Monty Todd in the tight points battle.

Dave Price took Super Eliminator honors over Angela Sicilia in the newest IHRA eliminator. Top Dragster winner Matt Cooke defeated Bob Cifranic and Top Sportsman found Marco Abruzzi winning over Jeff Dobbins. In the Rod classes, winners included Rusty Cook in Quick Rod, Rick Heald in Super Rod and Danny Waters, Jr., in Hot Rod. Anthony Bertozzi was the Modified champ, Willie Devore took home the Super Stock crown and Larry Hodge won Stock Eliminator.

The event was the third on the 1998 IHRA schedule. The tour moves to western New York next weekend, for the CarQuest Empire Nationals at New York International Raceway in Leicester.

Results provided by the FastNews Network, courtesy of Summit Racing Equipment ** http://www.summitracing.com/ **