The action and racer appreciation prizes continued into American Race Cars Thursday at the JEGS Performance Summer Fling presented by Optima Batteries at National Trail Raceway with a $25,000 check awaiting the last driver standing.
The previous days saw Sean Parker win the American dragster in the Super Tuesday Shootout over Jeff Serra and Garrett Griffith securing $15,000 on Fuel Systems Technology Wednesday after defeating Bailey Ferraro in the final.
With the pace of the Thursday event Peter Biondo and the Fling team determined that time would allow them to put on a race for those out of competition after the second round. The SERVPRO 48-Car 10K Shootout filled up within 30 minutes and soon after the 24 door cars and 24 dragsters were called to roll into the lanes in conjunction with the 25K American Race Cars event.
Despite the heat, both the racers and track staff wasted no daylight through the afternoon. The ladder was set for the 25K event at 13 cars — Pete D’Agnolo, Andre Nunez, Tim Kelley, Joe Barush, Jeff Serra, Eric Aman, Bob Payton, Scott Tate, Brandon Prest, Christopher Northup, Jeremy McCormick, Aaron Vail, and Bob Kolibsky Jr.
Aman turned it one-thousandth red to Payton, Nunez broke on the line against Kelley, Prest was red by .001 to Tate, and McCormick was eight thousandths red against Northup. Kolibsky Jr. used a .013 advantage on the tree to advance past Vail, and Barush was .004 taking .005 at the stripe to knock out Serra. D’Agnolo had a free look at the tree on his bye run and posted a .022 bulb.
In the quarterfinals Kelley moved to the semifinals after the .018 breakout of Northup. One thousandth separated Tate and Kolibsky Jr. and the three thousandths breakout of Tate advanced Kolibsky Jr. Payton turned it one thousandth red to D’Agnolo, and Barush cut a .003 light on his single run.
An unexpected cell popped up, dropping half an inch of rain within the hour onto the racing surface. Biondo and the Fling team made the decision to postpone on-track activities until Friday morning.
Friday morning will begin with a New Entry Time Run at 8:00 a.m. Racing will resume at 8:20 a.m. with the quarterfinals of the SERVPRO 10K Shootout. The semifinals of Thursday’s 25K will go down at 8:30 a.m. At 8:45 a.m., all racers on property are eligible to participate in a Run For The Money Time Run.
In the quarterfinals of the SERVPRO 10K Shootout, Cory Gulitti will have lane choice over Josh Luedke, Todd Knight will have lane choice over Jack Ostrowski, and Chad Six will have lane choice over Sean Pitts.
In the semifinals of the American Race Cars 25K Thursday event, Joe Barush will have lane choice over Bob Kolibsky Jr. and Pete D’Agnolo will have lane choice over Tim Kelley.
You can follow all the action from the JEGS Performance Summer Fling presented by Optima Batteries live at www.MotorManiaTV.com thanks to Strange Engineering.
For more information, visit www.BracketRaces.com, the Spring Fling Bracket Races Facebook page, or text the word “COLUMBUS” to 74121 for race info and updates.
This story was originally published on August 27, 2021. 
