A.J. Ashe followed up his San Antonio Raceway IHRA Top Sportsman Pro-Am victory in March with a near duplicate finish at last weekend’s IHRA Amalie Sportsman Nationals at the same facility. Ashe, a veteran bracket racer with several big dollar victories under his belt, drove his All In Motorsports Grand Am into the final round where he met up with defending IHRA World Champion Jason Lynch.

There, Lynch came out on top of a near dead-heat: both drivers left the starting line with identical .015 reaction times, and Lynch won a “pedal-fest” at the finish line with a 4.597 on his 4.58 target to Ashe’s 4.738 (4.72 dial) to win by a mere .001.

“It’s hard to be too disappointed, we’ve got a win and a runner-up in our first two races,” said a somewhat dejected Ashe. “And you can’t hang your head about losing to Jason--he’s the champion for a reason. I just felt like we had the car to beat today, so it stings not to get it done. Plus, I feel like this team has the talent and the resources to make a serious run at the championship-so you hate to lose a round to someone like Jason, who you know you’ll have to beat to win it. I do want to thank Richard Otwell, Jeff Owen, and everyone at All In Motorsports, as well as Jeff Naiser Racing Engines, Jeg’s, Mickey Thompson, and Bogacki Marketing Solutions for all their help.”

On his way to the final, Ashe dispensed of Donnie Burnside, Bruce Thrift, Curt Frederich, and Marvin Phillips before squaring off with Lynch for the title. Ashe looks ahead to the upcoming Division 4 events on his IHRA schedule, as well as a handful of IHRA Nitro Jam National events in his quest for the IHRA Top Sportsman World Championship.