National Dragster: Krueger unbeaten in national event competition

Wally Krueger must be butter because he's on a roll.

At the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, the first national event Krueger has entered, it looked like final-round opponent Shane Carr had Krueger covered when he took a .047 to .149 reaction-time advantage, but Carr misjudged Krueger's 20-mph-faster car at the finish line and lost by a .15-over 11.10 to .04-over 10.96 count.

A couple of months before the race, Krueger won $5,000 playing a poker game called Let It Ride at a casino near his Appleton, Wis., home.

A year ago, ho sold his electrical contracting business to his son and was able to semiretire.

In December after turning 62, he began receiving Social Security payments.

"I'm waiting for it to stop," laughed Krueger about his good fortune.

Krueger only entered the event because he can't go to the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals this year for lack of one grading point. And the field is full anyway, so he towed south to Route 66 Raceway because it was close to home.

"I didn't think I had a chance to win," said Krueger. "I was just happy to be racing there."

After the third round Saturday, he still wasn't thinking about winning; he never thought about it, even before the final round.

"I called my wife Deb and my mechanic Russ Berens Saturday night and told them I had gone three rounds and was going to have my name in National DRAGSTER [in the stats box]," said Krueger. "Russ said, 'Wally, just do the best you can and make me proud.' "

But as Krueger would attest, help comes to those who help themselves. Not counting his two red-light wins and the final round, Krueger's lights were good, and his classic Hemi-powered B/SA '66 Belvedere was deadly, cutting .036, .003, and .018 lights and running dead on the dial to the hundredth twice and .02-second over the third time.

"The car will run; it's the old driver who goofs up once in a while," said Krueger.

After his .018 reaction in the semifinals, Krueger was nervous about fouling against Carr and made sure he saw all of the last yellow light before swapping feet. Krueger was late, but his car came on like a bullet train on the top end.

"That Ray Barton Hemi, when it gets in high gear, you can't slow it down," said Krueger. "[Carr] slowed down to make sure he didn't break out, but he didn't realize I could get around him."

The key race: "The first round is the hardest for me," said Krueger. "It's the one I'm the most nervous about."

The runner-up: Carr reached two NHRA national event Super Comp finals in 1997 (winning one), scored two runner-ups in 2002 and 2003, and has now been in three finals this season, winning Stock in Gainesville and runner-upping in Super Comp in Bristol three weeks prior to this event.

Fast fact: Only one heads-up race was contested in the 59-car field. In a third-round B/S race between No. 11 qualifier Dirk Olson and No. 33 qualifier Johnny Diekema, Olson won, 10.43 to 10.48, after scoring a .017 to .023 reaction-time advantage.

Did you know? Krueger has an original Hemi-powered '66 Belvedere sedan with only 17,000 miles on it. A friend bought it new, spun a bearing in it in 1969, and let it sit. The friend died 10 years later, and his widow offered the car to Krueger, knowing he had always wanted it. The friend's son didn't have the money to fix the engine, so he took a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle in trade. Berens fixed the engine, and Krueger's son raced it in local bracket races for several years. Krueger didn't want to modify the car for racing - similar documented original cars have brought $70,000 to $80,000 at auctions - so he found a similar 273-equipped car in Colorado.

Quotable: "All I ever do is thank the Lord for what he has done for me. I never ask him for anything unless it's for someone else." - Wally Krueger

Best packages: 1. David Rampy (Piedmont, Ala.) .004/11.459 (11.45 dial) round two; 2. Wally Krueger (Appleton, Wis.) .018/10.926 (10.92 dial) round five; 3. Judi Bureski (Des Plaines, Ill.) .021/11.464 (11.46 dial) round two.