Team Latus Top Fuel Win in Virginia

[baldbutt]

Congratulations Steve and crew ( Mike, Mike , & Digger) !

Steve cut some great lights in the eliminations.

.044 , .057 , .046 .

A well deserved win for a hard working team.

Good job,

RB

[Mike]

After qualifying a lackluster 13th, a competitive tune was finnaly found. The track and weather were phenominal and difficult to get a handle on since we do not often have such great conditions. After reviewing data from previous similar runs at other tracks, a tune was decided upon with Slonaker making the changes. Steve knew that a "40" pass was needed to get through the first round with Doug Vancil. Doug may not have been too worried about cutting a good light against what he thought was a 6.69 bike. Steve tree'd him, winning by just .001 of a second to Dougs better 6.438/220.22/.092 light against Steve's 6.485/207.85/.044 light.
In the 2nd round, Schmidt had us covered by running a 6.363 in the 1st round but must have been aware of Steve's lights and maybe thought we were on to something in Steve's bike and may step it up another notch. Maybe too much anticipation as he red lit. Seeing the red in the opposit lane, Steve hit the throttle for another 6.487/207.21 win.
3rd round found us, with all the really fast guys out, against Stewart who had been running mid 6.50's all weekend. With another stellar .057 light/6.488/207.78 run, the win was ours.
4th round with Armon Furr was nervous since he is known to cut good lights, when needed. They too, also found something in their bike as they went from 6.69 in the 2nd round to 6.50 in the 3rd. Steve cut a fantastic .046 light for a holeshot win with a 6.544/209.26 to Furr's 6.500/214.35.

This was Steve's first win in 2 years and well deserved. The big surprise was that it also put the Dorn team into the points lead. We had not run the numbers for this type of scenario and so were not really thinking about the points this late in the year with our current position.