Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 3213 “Our goal was to make sure we got both cars qualified for the TOC in IHRA because when you get here, everybody that’s here is someone. Summit puts up the money, and if it wasn’t for Summit, we wouldn’t have a way to shine. Everybody that gets here has done something. They say, ‘to be the best, you have to beat the best,’ and that’s surely what they’ve got here. The goal is always to make our sponsors look good. Our goal is to always put a winning image out there because we don’t win every race. So the idea is to always put forward a winning image, and IHRA gives us that opportunity with the way they run double eliminations and double events. We can go to one weekend and run two races before we leave. Even if you do bad that first day, you’ve got a shot in a whole new race on Sunday. That’s unique for Sportsman. Every one of our races is double, and that works great for us because we only pay the fuel bill once. We’ve been running this TOC for like eight years. I think myself and Mark Nowicki in Super Stock are the only two that have qualified for it every year. It’s been a while since I qualified for it in two cars – I think it’s been three years. I’ve come in feeling like I have a great shot, but it always gets away from me. I miss the tree or I do something stupid, and I always feel like it’s always me. So going into it this year, I just tried to hit the tree.” “I’ve been driving Junior Dragster for eight years. I’ve already started driving big cars, but I can stay in Junior Dragster for another two years. It’s a huge advantage to race Junior Dragster before you get into a big car because you learn everything at a young age so it just comes naturally after that. I’d really like to go into a professional category, but in the end if that doesn’t work out, Sportsman racing is where I’ll be. I’m not really picky – I think anything is really cool, but I think Pro Stock is a really cool class. I’m pretty calm. I feel good about it (winning the TOC), but at the same time, I’m humble. At the end of the day, it’s just a good day, and it worked out for me. I’ve had this car for three years, and we’ve had different motors on it. Nonstop, me and my Dad work on it, and I can’t thank him enough for all he does. He’s always tuning it and making it better. We got here and didn’t know what kind of setup we wanted to put on it. It ended up working out; the car was nasty all day.” Summit Tournament of Champions Super Rod: Jacob Elrod, Harrod, Ohio, ’92 Corvette, 9.897 secs. at 165.15 mph, (.008 rt) - def Charlie Stewart, Azlo, Texas, ’63 Vette Roadster, 9.896 secs. at 164.07 mph, (.016 rt) Summit Tournament of Champions Junior Dragster: Gage Burch, Palmetto, Fla., Halfscale, 8.474 secs. at 59.39 mph (-.007 rt) - def Kaelie Morton, Fort. St. John, British Columbia, Canada, 7.959 secs. at 82.21 mph (-.018 rt) Burch on his Victory: Elrod on his Victory: