National Dragster: Lane's career year continues with second win

No matter what happens the rest of the way, Jeff Lane can already say that 2003 has been one of the best years of his career. With two national event victories in the season's first four races, Lane is off to a flying start and is a serious contender for the 2003 Super Stock title. At this point, he has every reason to feel good about his chances, but at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, he actually spent much of the weekend feeling bad.

"When I got to the track, I was sick with a bad cold,"' said Lane. "I had it all weekend and didn't do any gambling or anything fun. I just went back to my hotel and ordered room service every night Looking back, that may have helped me concentrate on racing."

Once the race began, Lane and his partner, Jerry Hancock, had more adversity to deal with. The team had to park their Dick Sherman-owned B/EA Olds after blowing an engine during Friday's first Comp qualifying run. Later, they discovered a leaking intake port in their SS/CM Grand Am.

"We thought that we'd have all day Friday to ourselves, then we had to go and thrash on the Super Stock car," said Lane. "At that point, we were pretty frazzled."

Once they repaired the intake port, Lane's SS/CM Pontiac was flawless, running between 9.11 and 9.14 in every round, not counting a shutoff 9.18 on his semifinal bye. Lane has also been quick to adapt to the new LED Christmas Tree lights; he left on each of his five opponents and had no reaction time worse than .024-seconds.

"The car would have run 9.12 on every run down the track this weekend. It was that good," said Lane. "They really hot-lapped us on Sunday, but the car stayed consistent. Once we got our [mechanical] problems straightened out, it was really a great weekend."

After scoring early-round wins over Bruce Fulper and Eric Bell, Lane got a bye into the final, where he faced twotime NHRA Super Stock champion Dan Fletcher and his Summit Camaro.

Fletcher, who won a double-breakout battle against Gary Faul in the semifinals, provided Lane with his toughest opposition of the weekend. Lane gained a slight edge at the start, .013 to .015, and held on for the win with a 9.14 on his 9.11 dial.

"When we left, I knew I had a good light," said Lane. "Downtrack, I was pretty sure I was going to go around him, then he dumped me at the last second. I think I've run Dan six times, and our record is now 3-3, so that's not too bad."

The key race: With a semifinal bye on the line, Lane stopped former major league pitcher Eric Bell in round four. Lane cut a nearly perfect .006 light and ran a 9.139 on his 9.12 dial to stop Bell, who was close behind with a .02over 10.10 from his rare SS/FA '70 Plymouth.

The runner-up: As did Lane, Fletcher had his share of mechanical troubles in Las Vegas. After installing a transmission in his Stock entry Thursday, Fletcher broke an engine in his Summit SS/IA '69 Camaro Friday. He replaced the wounded bullet before the start of eliminations and drove to his fourth career Las Vegas final.

Fast facts: John Gallina dominated qualifying with a stunning 8.229-second run from his turbocharged SS/DX Buick. ... After Gallina, four of the next five qualifiers were in SS/AA entries, including Michael Ogburn, Jerry Jenkins, and Dave Raybourn, who went 8.95, 9.03, and 9.09, respectively. ... Tony DeFrank was awarded the Strange Engineering Perfectly Strange award for running right on his 10.49 dial in round three.

Did you know? Following his latest victory in Las Vegas, Lane now is 44 in national event final rounds. His other wins came in Pomona (2003), Seattle (1992), and Phoenix (1991). Three of his four runner-up finishes have come in Comp.

Quotable: "Yes, this car is still for sale, but the price keeps going up." - Jeff Lane

Best packages: 1. Tony DeFrank (Tarzana, Calif.) .006/10.490 (10.49 dial) round three; 2. Sean Cour (Brush Prairie, Wash.).020/10.370 (1037 dial) round one; 3. Jeff Lane (North Bend, Wash.) .006/9.139 (9.12 dial) round four.