 ormer Top Fuel world record holder Shelly Payne got her first AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge win with a final-round victory over Troy Critchley at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas. Husband Jay Payne may have been the pre-race favorite and track record holder, but Shelly beat him in a wild second round and went on to eliminate defending event champ Thomas Patterson in the semifinals and Critchley in the final for her first victory since she won Top Fuel at the 1996 Northwest Nationals in Seattle.
"We're incredibly happy," Payne said. "This means as much as any of my other wins, for me, for my dad, for all of us."
She got a slight jump on Critchley at the line in the final and pulled away to win with a 6.09, her best run all weekend. Critchley, driving the AMS flagship '70 Barracuda (above), slowed from a 6.09 in the semifinals to a 6.17 and absorbed his sixth loss in six career AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge finals.
In round two, Shelly beat husband Jay in an all-Valvoline matchup with a slowing 7.91 at just 89 mph against his squirrelly 10.34. Both absolutely killed the tree, Shelly with a .013 reaction time and Jay with a .002 – by far the two best reaction times of the entire event.
The loss could have been a crushing blow to Jay's championship hopes, but the other AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge title contenders, Joey Martin and U.S. Nationals champ Joshua Hernandez, also fell in that round.
Hernandez (shown), who was knocking on the door to the fives and 240 mph with a first-round 6.01 at 239, slowed to a 7.28 in round two and fell to Kirk Kuhns' 6.31, 221.
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