JEGS Northern SPORTSnationals Crowns Champions
Courtesy of Jegs
COLUMBUS, OH – A total of nine champions were crowned Sunday at the JEGS NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals at National Trail Raceway with Jason Coan of Kokomo, Ind., and Jeremy Duncan of Charlestown, Ind., leading the way
with victories in Comp and Super Stock, respectively.
The event featured a massive field of 525 competitors from all over the U.S. and Canada, making it the second largest turnout since the inaugural Columbus SPORTSnationals event in 2005.
Coan, whose lengthy résumé includes a win at the 2009 JEGS Northern SPORTSnationals, collected his second win after driving his four-cylinder powered dragster to a final round win over Dave Yediny of Nazareth, Pa. Coan left the starting line with a very competitive .016 reaction time and extended the lead with an 8.16 to defeat Yediny’s L/A Opel.
Duncan, the runner-up at the 2010 JEGS Northern SPORTSnationals, took his Camaro one step further when he defeated former world champion Anthony Bertozzi in the Super Stock final. Both drivers made exceptional runs with Duncan taking the victory by a margin of just five-thousandths of a second at the finish line.
The Stock Eliminator title went to Steven Dziorny of Leonard, Mich., who at the age of 16 became one of NHRA’s youngest national event champions. Driving his Dodge Dakota truck, Dziorny took the win after his opponent, Adam Davis, fouled in the final round.
In Super Comp, Phillip Smida II of Canfield, Ohio claimed his first NHRA national event title when he stopped the JEGS.com dragster of third-generation racer Troy Coughlin Jr. Smida took a big lead at the start and drove to an 8.97 on the 8.90 index while Coughlin, who earlier in the weekend drove to a runner-up finish in the rain-delayed National Trial Raceway Lucas Oil Series event, lost with an 8.94.
Another first-time champion was Rob Moser, of Portland, Ind., who collected his first win in the Super Gas class. Moser, who operates Moser Engineering, a leading manufacturer of axles and other racing components, drove to a narrow 9.91 to 9.92 final round win over 2008 JEGS Northern SPORTSnationals champion Gary Linkhorn.
Scotty Rienschield, of Sunland., Ind., a former track champion at National Trail Raceway and the current Division 3 points leader, scored a clutch victory in the Super Street class when he drove his ’69 Corvette to a close 10.925 to 10.929 victory over former division champ Linn Bebout’s ’69 Oldsmobile in the final.
Curt Fredrich of Burlington, Wis., enjoyed a memorable weekend as he won the Top Sportsman title during Thursday’s Lucas Oil Series re-run and then returned on Sunday to drive his ’68 Camaro to a win over Gary Wojnoswki Sr.
Another double winner was Ricky Adkins of Milan, Mich., who won Saturday’s JEGS Top Dragster Shootout and then returned to win on Sunday when he stopped Dylan Stott in the final. Adkins is also the runaway leader in the North Central Division Top Dragster standings. Finally, Newark, Ohio, racer Kyle Sensabaugh claimed the title in the Jr. Dragster class when he defeated Conner Griser in the final.
For the sixth-straight year, the JEGS Crown went unclaimed as no one was able to win two of the three JEGS SPORTSnationals events that are held in Belle Rose, La., Fontana, Calif., and Columbus. The special award, a handcrafted trophy designed by Dan Dreisbach of Naked Sculpture, has been claimed just once.
