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Yates, who won from the No. 1 qualifying position, knocked off Tom
Martino, Ron Krisher and Warren Johnson to pick up his 24th career victory.
With the victory, Yates moved from third place in the points standings
to the top spot and now leads Greg Anderson by 59 points.
Savoie nearly clinched her third consecutive Pro Stock Bike championship
by winning her fifth race of the year when Karen Stoffer fouled at the
start giving the victory to Savoie. Savoie, on her Mohegan Sun Suzuki,
recorded a run of 7.210/184.75 to capture her 27th career victory. The
Pro Stock Bike final featured the first all-female final round in NHRA
competition since 1982 when Shirley Muldowney defeated Lucille Lee in
the Top Fuel final.
"I got really emotional after the run," said Savoie. "It
was because if all goes well in Las Vegas we're going to win the championship.
After the year we've had, with sponsors and things with the other competitors,
things are going really great. Our bike is running awesome and Star
Racing deserves all the credit for that."
Savoie defeated Keith Dennis, Steve Johnson and Antron Brown to advance
to the final.
The victory puts Savoie 173 points ahead of Craig Treble and in position
to clinch her third consecutive NHRA crown if she qualifies at the next
Pro Stock Bike event in Las Vegas.
Photo Section:
Photos by Steve Embling
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| Clay Millican and starter Rick Stewart converse
on the starting line after Millican's burndown fiasco with Doug
Herbert. |
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| After a short rain delay, which may have cooled
things off a bit, they staged without incident on their second attempt.
Millican was first off the line, but Herbert drove around him at
the far end, turning a 4.731/319.67 to Millican's 4.772/301.07. |
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