Lee Callaway race summary

Callaway wins second straight divisional in Earlville.

EARLVILLE, Iowa - NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Lee Callaway won his second-straight divisional event during this past weekend's Division 5 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Tri-State Raceway in Earlville, Iowa. The win was Callaway's second of his career, and gave him the Division 4 points lead.

Callaway, from Baytown, Texas, qualified his Tom Conway tuned Blown Alcohol Dragster third in the field with a 5.612 second elapsed time at 254.81 mph. In round one, he took out current Division 5 points leader Alan Bradshaw with a 5.636 at 253.52 mph, and then received a competition bye in the semifinals when his opponent Phil Mass could not make the call.

In the finals, Callaway would face defending three-time Division 5 Champ David Wells. Callaway took a .453 to .491 (reaction time) starting line advantage and held on for the win with a 5.658 at 252.95 mph to Wells' quicker-but-later 5.649 at 251.95 mph.

"We just really had a great weekend," said Callaway. "I can't thank my tuner Tom Conway and my crew enough, they gave me a great racecar to drive all weekend. We were able to run well off the trailer just like we had planned, and that really set us up for the rest of the weekend. We had some tough opponents in Bradshaw and Wells to win this thing. When we found out that Mass wasn't going to be able to make the call, we decided to hop it up and see what the track would hold for our bye run, and that didn't work. We went back to our normal set up for the final, and we were able to run well enough for the win."

The Callaway Racing Team will head straight to their next event for this weekend's Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at the new No Problem Raceway in Belle Rose, La. There Callaway hopes to have another strong showing to defend his current points lead.

"We are going to go down there on Thursday and do some testing," stated Callaway. "Stacy McLemore will be able to go with us next weekend, and that will be a huge addition to the team. He has been the man behind the scenes at the shop, but hasn't been able to get free from work to go to the track with us. With him there with us, I think it will only make us that much stronger. We're on top of the points right now, so everyone will be gunning for us. They say it is an awesome track, so I'm looking forward to it."

-cr-