Bowen Bests Hale at Tulsa DRO AA/FC Challenge

The 2014 finals for the Hedman Husler Hedders DragRacingOnline.com AA/FC Challenge presented by Comp Cam were held Sept. 19-20 at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park as part of the historic track’s annual Nitro Nationals.

The final round matched up 2013-14 DRO AA/FC Challenge National Champion Shawn Bowen from Michigan and 2011-12 DRO National Champion John Hale from Texas in a classic fuel coupe finale at night with plenty of header flames and drama.

The Bowen family’s “Violator” AA/FC team has absolutely dominated the DRO series for the last two years and this season the team has been in five of the six final rounds of the season. They clinched the 2014 championship at the previous race at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Mich. Their domination continued at Tulsa by defeating old foe, John Hale, in the finals and winning their fourth DRO race in 2014.

On the other hand the Violator’s opponent in the final Hale has concentrated this season on occasional rides an NHRA Funny Car and competing full time on the IHRA Nitro Jam circuit. Hale’s final round appearance at Tulsa was his first final round of the 2014 season and the second time he competed with the DRO series this year.

Despite a short field, qualifying on the ultra-smooth and ultra-tacky Tulsa track surface was highly entertaining.

The Low Qualifier for the fourth time this year was Shawn Bowen tuned by father, Mike, with assistance from brother, Scott. Bowen’s Hemi-powered ’77 Firebird ran 5.921/242.88 for the top spot and Washington State racer Mark Sanders was second at 5.979/241.63.

Bowen earned the bye run in the first round. Mark Sanders’ 6.92/235.10 easily covered John Hale’s 6.22/214 and Ronny Young in the “Blue Max” Arrow got by Fred Farndon when Farndon inexplicably pedaled his Farndon & Lake “Nitro Express” Plymouth Satellite, allowing Hale to drive by him for the win and a trip to the semis.

In the semifinals Bowen really showed his hand with nearly a DRO record 5.731/249.44 (Series records are 5.707 and 253.42mph) thrashing of Young, who slowed to a 6.283 at just 187+. When there are fewer than seven cars the quickest loser in the first round is brought back to even up the ladder.

Hale and Sanders raced each other again and Hale got the win with a 6.247/219.33 when Sanders red-lit away the third quickest lap of the event, a 5.852/249.12 losing effort.

That set up a classic final round meeting between teams and drivers each with a pair of DRO national championships on their resume.

Both teams had serious issues to overcome. The Bowens had pulled the centers out of two pairs of slicks (down to the cord) on their previous winning passes and were forced to run a pair of slicks that were already starting to “bubble” in the finale.

Hale and crew chief Guy Tipton were also facing issues as they had one of Aeromotive’s brand new 21-gallon pumps on the engine for the first time and had no idea yet of that pump’s fuel curve.

Both Hale and Bowen went into the final with their best tune-ups in the cars because even though the Bowens’ had an obvious performance advantage they wanted a sub-5.70 ET so that they could reset the ET record held by Marc White of 5.707 that he set at Tulsa Raceway Park at last year’s DRO race.

The cars pulled into the lanes at around 10 p.m., which, despite the late hour saw most of the crowd still in their grandstand seats. Both cars were started and both engines’ headers sent billows of unburned nitro into the air, forcing those starting line crew and spectators standing between the cars to cover their mouths and eyes to escape the eye-burning, gagging nitro fumes as the cars staged.

At the flash of yellow Bowen strapped a .047 RT on Hale, who had a fairly good .094 RT. Bowen thundered off the line but Hale made up the difference immediately. Bowen had a 1.1035 60-footer to Hale’s 1.1031.

Hale ran quicker to the 330 and 660 marks by a couple of thousandths but he still hadn’t overcome Bowen’s starting line advantage.

Bowen shook the tires of his Pontiac hard at about 400 feet, at which point the header flames went out on his Pontiac indicating that he had lifted. By the time the two cars got to 1,000 feet Bowen was pulling away from Hale and crossed the finish line well ahead of him. It was Bowen’s record fourth win of the 2014 Hedman Husler Hedders DRO AA/FC Challenge series where he also qualified in the number-one spot.

Photo attached: Shawn Bowen and John Hale in the final. (Joe McHugh photo)