Only four drivers in the entire International Hot Rod Association visited more than six finals in 2013.

But only one of those drivers, Donalsonville, Louisiana’s Jimmy Hidalgo Jr., came away a world champion.

Hidalgo was one of the winningest drivers in IHRA competition this season, visiting seven finals on the Summit Racing Equipment Pro-Am Tour with three wins campaigning cars in both the Stock and Super Stock categories.

Thanks to that consistently, Hidalgo qualified for the Summit Racing Equipment Tournament of Champions in both classes. And at the Summit World Finals at Memphis International Raceway, Hidalgo drove his most consistent and successful car to the world championship in Super Stock, claiming his very first title in IHRA competition.

Wes Neely loves racing at Memphis International Raceway.

The Florence, Mississippi native visited the Tennessee track three times in 2013, winning every time he unloaded the car. The first two wins helped him clinch the Division 4 championship on the Summit Pro-Am Tour in convincing fashion.

And his third win at the track? Well, that only handed him his very first IHRA World Championship in Stock by winning the Summit Racing Equipment Tournament of Champions at the Summit World Finals.

Neely entered the Summit World Finals as one of six drivers representing their division as Summit Pro-Am champion and Neely did his division proud by winning it all in Memphis. Driving a bright red 1988 Trans Am that he has campaigned throughout the south the past four years, Neely went four rounds on championship Sunday culminating with a huge win over Wade, North Carolina’s Jeff Longhany.

John Dustin did not have a good weekend at the Summit World Finals.

Well, not to start out at least.

In the days leading up to championship Sunday in the Summit Racing Equipment Tournament of Champions at Memphis International Raceway, Dustin had just about everything you could imagine go wrong. First off, his wife and young daughter couldn’t make the trip due to work obligations and the drive itself left him second guessing the trip. Once on the road, the driver out of Rockville, Maryland found himself on the side of the road with motorhome trouble.

Finally, once at the track, Dustin came down with a bug and spent the rest of the weekend not feeling well.

“It was a rough weekend, to say the least,” Dustin said.

If you are looking for an unlikely champion from this year’s Summit Tournament of Champions at Memphis International Raceway, look no further than longtime racer David Marcus Jr. from Sarasota, Florida.

Marcus has the stuff, there is no doubt about that. He has won major races, he has contended with the best, heck he won the Division 2 Super Rod championship on the Summit Pro-Am Tour earlier this year. But when it comes to taking down the best in the sport, not even Marcus was sure what lied ahead.

“To be perfectly honest, I was pretty thrilled when we made it down to four. At least then I knew that I was in the money and I could go home happy,” Marcus said. “At that point I was actually pretty calm. It almost relaxes you when you make it down to the final few. You can regroup, take a breath and know that, either way, you are coming away with something.”

The year was 1990. A then 27-year-old Daryl Griffin was just getting into the world of drag racing when he did the unthinkable, winning the IHRA Hot Rod World Championship in only his third year behind the wheel.

Now, 23 years after winning his first title with the International Hot Rod Association, Griffin has returned to the spotlight by pulling off a remarkable repeat, winning his second career IHRA Hot Rod championship more than two decades later at the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment World Finals at Memphis International Raceway.

“This is unbelievable. I never thought I could get here again,” Griffin said. “But with my friends, my family and God by my side, here I am all these years later. After winning the first one I got married, had a child, so you prioritize. But a few years ago Kent Roundtree called me up and asked if I wanted to drive the car and the rest is history. Let me tell you, several years have gone by, but the competition is just as tough.”

Winning a world championship in your own car, that is one thing.

Winning in someone else’s car, that is an entirely different animal.

With issues arising in his own car just one week prior to the Summit World Finals in Memphis, Lillington, North Carolina’s Tim Lucas was left with one option and one option only – find another car or miss the Summit SuperSeries championship race. While a number of different options existed for Lucas, at the end of the day there was only one car he wanted to drive with so much on the line, the tried and true Chevrolet Nova of longtime IHRA racer Donald Webb.

Having built the engine for Webb’s car himself, Lucas knew a thing or two about one of the winningest rides in the south. Now, with over $10,000, a brand new dragster and much more on the line, Lucas was ready to wield the familiar yet not-quite-his-own car through four rounds of competition against the best Top ET racers from across North America.

Kevin Pollard had has one heck of a year.

The 36-year-old racer out of Fincastle, Virginia has racked up big money wins, two track championships, a couple of Summit SuperSeries championships and recorded a big win at the Division 1 Summit Team Finals at Piedmont Dragway representing his home track of Motor Mile Dragway.

But all of that couldn’t compare to the weekend he put together in Memphis at the Summit Racing Equipment World Finals.

With the Mod ET World Championship on the line, Pollard went four huge rounds at Memphis International Raceway to capture his very first world championship driving his all black 1972 Chevrolet LUV pickup to a final round win over Jay Norris in the Summit SuperSeries championship race.

For some who spend their lives playing in the arena known as drag racing, a lifetime can go by without experiencing the joy of winning a big time race or a national title.

But for Justin Poindexter, that thrill of hoisting a championship trophy high into the air and hearing the title “world champion” attached to your name is something that he has already experienced in his young racing career.

And he is only 13 years old.

Poindexter won the second-ever IHRA Junior Dragster World Championship at the Summit World Finals after four rounds of grueling competition against the best racers ages eight to 18 in North America. The young racer from Millington, Tennessee eliminated racers from Montana, Texas and Virginia on his way to the title, eventually winning a showdown with defending Junior Dragster champion Austin Johnson in the final to claim one of the biggest prizes in the sport – and he is still a few years away from being able to drive a real car.

From the northern corner of British Columbia to the southern tip of Florida, the International Hot Rod Association saw its most diverse lineup of world champions ever as the IHRA wrapped up its 2013 season Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment World Finals at Memphis International Raceway.

After a weather-filled Saturday, Sunday’s championship finale went off without a hitch as beautiful weather greeted the 10 world champions left standing in the Summit Racing Equipment Tournament of Champions and Summit SuperSeries races held over three days at the Millington, Tennessee track.

And from the nearly 200 cars that qualified for this year’s championship tournaments, those champions were Graham Foster (Top Sportsman), Austin Cowan (Top Dragster), Jimmy Hidalgo Jr. (Super Stock), Wes Neely (Stock), John Dustin (Quick Rod), Dave Marcus Jr. (Super Rod), Daryl Griffin (Hot Rod), Tim Lucas (Top ET), Kevin Pollard (Mod ET) and Justin Poindexter (Junior Dragster).

The real excitement behind the Summit SuperSeries program is that anyone, anywhere can win it.

Drivers from the United States, Canada and even as far away as Aruba, Alaska and Hawaii have the opportunity to race for a track championship and, with a little luck and a lot of skill, make it all the way from their local track to the big stage at the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment World Finals at Memphis International Raceway to compete for a world championship.

And that is exactly the tale told by Tim Lucas, Kevin Pollard and Justin Poindexter.

All three drivers won at their local tracks, advanced further at the Team Finals level and eventually found themselves walking in Memphis along with 48 other drivers going after a championship. With drivers from all across North America on hand to compete in Memphis, at the end of the day, those three drivers were left standing as the 2013 class of the IHRA Summit SuperSeries presented by AMSOIL as Lucas (Lillington, N.C.) took the title in Top ET, Pollard (Fincastle, Va.) claimed the Mod ET championship and Poindexter (Millington, Tenn.) won the Junior Dragster world championship.