Our final Island Dub A/GAS Points race of the season brought us back to Atco Dragway in New Jersey. It was sunny with 85 degree temps and 9 cars showed up to compete for the purse and championship. Heading into the final race Stephen Hawes was just one point ahead of last year's champion Ricardo Tolay. In order for Stephen to win the championship he would need to qualify #1, win the race and Ricardo would have to be eliminated by Round #2. It was a large hurdle to overcome but he was trying to accomplish it none the less.
After Q1 Ricard was sitting on top of the field with a 5.77 at a blistering 134mph. Austin Johnson III was #2 with a 6.16 and Stephen Hawes missed 3rd gear and posted a 6.21. In Q2 Stephen fixed his shifting issues and posted a 5.682 @ 127mph to take the #1 spot away from Ricardo. Once the ladder was posted Stephen had a bye run into Round 1 and Ricardo had to face off against Orlando Millan. Unfortunately Orlando was having injector issues and couldn't make the call and Ricardo had the broke bye run and in Round #2 he had a competition bye which gave him the championship for the 2019 Season. Congratulations to Ricardo and his entire crew for winning the championship 2 years in a row.
Other Round 1 updates had Richie Weekes taking out Paul Wolf. Johnny Stover taking out Austin Johnson III. And Steven Pocaro Jr in a naturally aspirated pan car taking about the turbo charged entry of CJ Hargrove. In Round 2 it was Stephen Hawes over Richie Weeks, Ricardo with a bye, and Steven Pocaro Jr over Johnny Stover. This means in the semifinals Steven Pocaro Jr has the bye run into the finals and the showdown between Stephen Hawes and Ricardo Tolay was going to happen once again. Ricardo took out Stephen in the finals at maple grove and now it was a semifinal showdown to determine who's going to race the NA car of the Pocaros.
Unfortunately for Ricardo he was fighting a fueling issue and had to pull boost to prevent from hurting the engine. At the same time Stephen was adding boost to ensure he drove around that freight train of Ricardos. Stephen was off the line first with a .110 RT to Ricardo's .275 and Stephen never looked back posted a 5.532 @ 133mph to Ricardo's 5.782 @ 129mph. If you follow Ricardo's program you know his car consistently posts mid to high 130mph passes routinely so he was obviously down on power. Stephen may have one this round but Ricardo still took the championship.
In the final round it was Stephen Hawes paired up against one of his closest racing family in New Jersey the Pocaros. For Steven Jr it was like bringing a rubber band to a gun fight. But then again we don't race on paper either. Many people didn't expect him to make it as far as he did but when you show up with a car and race anything can happen any given day. When the tree dropped it was Pocaro with a major holeshot over Stephen Hawes. Pocaro posted a .046 to Stephens .132. Unfortunately for Pocaro that advantage was short lived with the boost kicked in on Stephens car and he ran away with a 1.31 sixty foot and a 5.712 @ 127mph. At half Track Steven Pocaro Jr felt the engine let go and pushed the clutch in. Congratulations to Steven Pocaro Jr for making it to the finals in A/GAS in his NA car. Congrats to Stephen Hawes on the win and Ricardo Tolay for the Championship.
Also thank you to Island Dub for their 2018 and 2019 Sponsorship for the A/GAS class. Without the sponsors we wouldn't have a place to race and the wonderful trophies and payouts.