Silver State Wednesday at the Moser Engineering Spring Fling Million presented by Optima Batteries at Las Vegas Motor Speedway saw nearly 400 single-entered racers stage up for the first of three $30,000 events for the week. Clear skies and temperatures in the mid-70s made for a full day of great racing ahead.
The two finalists in the Laris Motorsports Insurance Pro Field included Karisa Windley in her ‘67 Camaro and Chad Sandlin in the former Fling event-winning ‘85 S-10. Windley was consistently double “00” to teen on the tree in the later rounds and used a substantial reaction time advantage against Sandlin to secure the Pro champion trophy and $1,000 bonus check.
The quarter final lineup included Greg Hicks on a solo, Josh Luedke versus Pro Bonus winner Karisa Windley, and Ken Sweo against Sean Shaffer. Luedke advanced past Windley after running closer to the dial, while Shaffer was .018 total to the .018 bulb of Sweo to move on. Hicks put up the best reaction of the round, a .001, on his bye run.
Five thousandths separated Hicks and Luedke at the hit, and by way of Luedke’s .001 breakout Hicks earned a place in the final. In his solo shot down the track Shaffer turned it just one thousandth red to lose lane choice.
In a heavyweight match up of west coast hitters, Hicks bowed out with a .003 redlight in what would have been his first Fling event win. Shaffer was .010 and took a free ride to $30,000 which made for his second trip to a Vegas Fling winner’s circle after a $50K win at the 2020 Fall Fling West.
Race fans can tune in tomorrow at 8 a.m. PST for Round 1 of Laris Motorsports Insurance $30K Thursday. Everything will be streamed live from our own channel @RaceTheFlings on YouTube. Our in-house camera crew is slated to deliver one of our best broadcasts yet this week with live timing, a finish-line instant replay camera, starting line camera, exclusive interviews, and more courtesy of Hoosier Tire and JEGS Performance.
Subscribe to @RaceTheFlings on YouTube to receive alerts on more live Fling racing action.
This story was originally published on April 4, 2024. 
