Bill Reichert St. Louis summary

Reichert adds to points lead with St. Louis win

MADISON, Ill. - Defending NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion Bill Reichert and his Rislone Engine Treatment/Bar's Leaks sponsored team added to their current national and Division 3 points lead with a win during this past weekend's Division 3 event at Gateway International Raceway just outside of St. Louis. Reichert made it a clean sweep, qualifying No. 1, setting low elapsed time and top speed of the meet.

Reichert, who runs Reichert Racing Engines in Owosso, Mich., qualified his injected nitro dragster on the pole with a 5.395 second pass at 270.97 mph. In round one, Reichert defeated Dave Hedges with a 5.406 at 268.87 mph, then defeated Dave Hirata in the semifinals with a 5.486 at 266.11 mph.

Reichert's final round opponent would be Noah Condo's blown alcohol machine. Condo was unable to get his car fired for the final, giving Reichert a competition bye for the victory, where he soloed to a 5.443 at 267.43 mph. Reichert also won this event last year.

"The car ran pretty good all weekend," said Reichert. "The conditions were about the same as last year, but this year we had one percent less nitro, and the track was a little trickier to get down. We're all real happy with the performance of this Rislone car; it's running pretty consistent right now."

There will be little rest for the Rislone Engine Treatment backed team as they head to the famed O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis for next weekend's Division 3 event there. Reichert hopes to keep his momentum going into that event.

"We're real happy with the way the year is going," stated Reichert. "We've been on a pretty good roll the last few races, hopefully we can keep that going. We have a lot of races in the next few weeks, so this string can really help us if we can keep it up."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the alcohol cars followed by two sessions on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday.

-credit: www.barsleaks.com