The 2024 NHRA season came to a close in dramatic fashion at the NHRA Finals in Pomona. And while the bulk of the attention rightfully went to the incredible finishes in the professional ranks – specifically Pro Stock and Top Fuel Dragster, the Lucas Oil sportsman categories certainly didn’t lack late-season drama!
Before we even got to Pomona, the stakes were high at the Division 7 Lucas Oil Series finale a week prior in Las Vegas. There, the epic Stock Eliminator title chase which saw Joe Sorenson and Jimmy Hidalgo, Jr. repeatedly trade haymakers over the previous month, was finally decided. To set the stage: the only path for Sorenson to regain the national points lead at the NHRA Ford Nationals a week prior was to advance to the final round. Well guess what? Sorenson didn’t just make the final: he won the race! The win not only moved Sorenson into the lead, it took his points total to 712. In nearly 30 years of the current NHRA Lucas Oil Series points system, no driver had ever surpassed 700 and failed to win a championship. Despite having 712 on the ledger, Sorenson’s championship was not secure. Hidalgo could regain the lead with a round five win at the division 7 closer, and clinch the title with a round six victory.
There, Hidalgo was able to advance to the deciding round five opposite newly crowned Division 7 champion Parker Theobald, with a semi-final bye run hanging in the balance. One round: Hidalgo wins, and he’s the champ. Theobald wins, and the title goes to Sorenson. By .006 of a second, Theobald won the battle, and Sorenson won the war. Hidalgo’s massive 711 point total (the second highest total of ANY NHRA Lucas Oil racers this season) became the first 700+ total to ever not win a championship!
In only slightly less dramatic fashion, Colby Fuller clinched his first NHRA Lucas Oil Series world championship when he advanced to the Super Comp final in Las Vegas, and while Cody Webber and Cody Lane didn’t officially lock up their respective championships, their clutch performances in Vegas put them in prime position – and they were each ultimately crowned champions in Top Dragster and Competition eliminator.
As the tour moved to Pomona for the season closer, the championships in Top Sportsman, Super Stock, Comp, and Super Gas still hung in the balance. Comp was decided in round 1, as the aforementioned Lane locked up his first championship. In Top Sportsman, incoming leader Allen Firestone fell in round one and could only watch as Bill Yates took his shot at the title. To win the championship, Yates needed to win round 3. He advanced to the critical round, only to red light by a heartbreaking .001-of-a-second, securing the world championship for Firestone.
When Jimmy Hidalgo, Jr. advanced to the final round of the NHRA Ford Nationals in Las Vegas, he took a commanding lead in the Super Stock standings. Hidalgo, who was embroiled in the epic Stock Eliminator battle detailed above, came into that event trailing in the standings, but the clutch runner-up not only vaulted him into the lead, it nearly clinched the title with two weeks left of the season. At that point, only three drivers had a mathematical chance to surpass Hidalgo, and each would have to turn in a monumental performance to do so. Well… Former national champion Ryan McClanahan won Super Stock at the Vegas divisional, which put him four round wins away from the championship (and potentially a second heartbreaking second place finish of the season for Hidalgo). Much like Yates and Hidalgo a week earlier, McClanahan advanced to the pivotal round four where the only thing standing between him and a world championship was Shelby Williams. In the decided round, McClanahan put down a run any Super Stock driver would be happy with – in any situation, let alone the round to decide a world championship! He paired a .022 reaction time with an ET within .006 of a second of his target: a .028 total package! Unfortunately for him, Shelby was just a little bit better: She combined an .011 reaction time with a dead-on 9 run for a .020 total package. That ended McClanahan’s run and secured the title for Hidalgo; the second of his career.
And that brings us to Super Gas. I saved this for last, not just because I was a key player in the final outcome, but because objectively it was the best story in a closing weekend full of incredible stories. Coming into Pomona, I led the national standings, but three other drivers: Keith Mayers, Val Torres, and Evan Kowalski still had a shot at the title. All four of us advanced through round one. All four of us advanced through round two. In round three, Val and I squared off in a pivotal matchup, which he won thanks to a clutch .010 reaction time and near-perfect 9.909 ET. At that point, with just three rounds remaining of the season, I still clung to a precarious points lead.
When Keith Mayers advanced in the following round four, he took the points lead, ending my title hopes. For Mayers part, he flew to Pomona from his Delaware home to drive Pete Bothe’s Porsche; a car he’d never sat in before. His run to a potential title would have been a great story in and of itself… but it wasn’t over yet! While Kowalski fell in round 4 to end his title hopes, Torres kept his incredible run alive. Not only did that round win advance Torres to the semi’s, it set up his second monumental championship matchup of the event, as he and Mayers would meet in that semi-final round. With the round win, Mayers would clinch the championship. If, however, Torres got the nod, he could then tie Mayers atop the leaderboard if he went on to win the event. The first tie-breaker in the NHRA Lucas Oil Series points system? Head to head competition. Given the fact that Mayers and Torres (who hails from southern California) live on opposite sides of the country, it would stand to reason that they hadn’t met up to that point in the season; so the winner of that semi-final matchup would win a potential tie-breaker as well.
Torres got the nod in the semi-final tilt, and then went on to defeat Kris Whitfield in the final round to secure both the event win and his first national championship in the most dramatic fashion imaginable. Coming into Pomona, Torres’s only hope to win the title was to win the event… And he needed additional help in the form of Keith Mayers and myself falling. Except in the end, he didn’t need any help: he knocked off the two contenders himself, and then went on to win the event in extremely impressive fashion!
While the Super Gas chase was one for the ages, at this point it had to be at least somewhat expected. 2024 marked the third consecutive season that the Super Gas lead changed hands in Pomona! In 2022, Bob Locke pulled off the unthinkable – the only way he’d surpass Phil Unruh for the championship was to win the event… which he did! A year later, after racing to a seemingly insurmountable early season lead, Sherman Adcock was still clinging to his championship hopes coming into Pomona before Trevor Larson lit just enough win lights to close his incredible season-ending run with the championship. As dramatic as both of those championship runs were, it’s hard to argue that either were more impressive than Torres’s path to the 2024 title.
That’s the objective side of this. I also want to use this platform to share a little bit of my personal experience. I think it goes without saying that when I left home in late October for the three season-ending events in Las Vegas and Pomona that my goal was to return with my fourth world championship. While that didn’t come to fruition, I will say this: competing for the title on that stage, with those competitors, and in that circumstance… it was an absolute honor! For all the incredible positions that I’ve found myself in over the course of my 30+ years behind the wheel, I’ve never felt pressure quite like I felt in Pomona – round after round! And it’s those moments: when my heart beats a little faster, when I feel that pit in my stomach that reminds me that THIS round really matters…. Those moments are the reason that I race! I love that feeling, I live for it. The best part: I’m very happy with the way that I performed. While it can be difficult to separate performance from results, and as much as I’d love to flip the results, I wouldn’t do anything different if I had it to do all over again. It just wasn’t my time.
The experience was nothing short of incredible – it’s something I wish everyone who pursues this sport at a high level could experience at some point. It made me both more appreciative of my own accomplishments, and more respectful of the competitors giving everything they had to experience the same moments in their own way. It was awesome. These championship pursuits; as taxing, demanding, and consuming as they can be… Those moments are what it’s all about!
