Dan Mercier and Del Worsham walked away with the largest prizes Sunday at the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series event at Darana Dragway, securing Top Fuel and Funny Car victories worth $50,000 each and adding IHRA Ironman trophies to their collections.
Other winners included John Montecalvo in Mountain Motor Pro Stock, Hank Stubbs in Outlaw Pro Mod, Rickie Smith in Pro Nitrous, Wesley Distekano in Pro Mod, Ryan Peery in Top Fuel Harley, Courtney Moeller in Outlaw Snowmobile, Rachel Curl in Top Alcohol Dragster and Phil Esz in Top Alcohol Funny Car. The program also marked the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series debut of the Fuel Altereds, with No. 1 qualifier Ryan Hill taking the first win.
Mercier, a Canadian driver, became the fourth different Top Fuel winner in four events this season. He defeated Jake Sanders in the final after working past Smax Smith and Lex Joon in the earlier rounds.
Sanders had eliminated top qualifier Scott Palmer in the opener and left on Mercier in the final with a .056 reaction time to Mercier’s .090. But Mercier powered through with a 3.178-second pass at 273.89 mph to Sanders’ 3.317-second run at 226.24 mph.
“It’s my first win in Top Fuel, so it’s amazing,” Mercier said. “This race is for my hero, Terry McMillen, who’s a good friend to me. I love this guy. He helped me get started in Top Fuel years ago.”
Worsham became the first repeat Funny Car winner of the season and has appeared in all four final rounds. He topped Terry Haddock in the final after earlier wins over Joe Morrison and Jacob Slater.
The veteran driver matched his mark of four straight finals set in 1992. His holeshot advantage of .062 to Haddock’s .110, combined with a 3.283-second run at 269.95 mph, overcame Haddock’s slightly quicker 3.282-second pass at 271.25 mph.
“What a day. We’ve closed the deal in two of them now,” Worsham said. “We’ve been to all the finals, and I’ve had tough competition. Every time, the car next to me goes to the finish line, and always makes a full run. That makes it tough because it makes no room for error. A lot of hard work went into this one.”
Montecalvo grabbed the Mountain Motor Pro Stock trophy on the strength of a .005 reaction time in his red Ford Mustang. He ran 4.091 seconds at 175.85 mph to defeat Chris Powers, who lost power late and slowed to a 4.312 at 136.99 mph.
“We ran with IHRA back in 2015. We won Bradenton and then West Palm, but that was it,” Montecalvo said. “Chris and I have battled a long time, but it’s all a lot of fun. I just had to stay cool and do my job.”
Stubbs broke through in Outlaw Pro Mod, driving around Pat Moore’s holeshot with a 3.716-second effort after Moore clocked a 3.895. Stubbs’ earlier rounds included back-to-back runs under 3.60 seconds.
“This means so much to me. Thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity,” Stubbs said. “We came out here with a personal best of a 60 flat. We turned around and backed it up with a 57. The first round, we had a 59, and then a 56 in the semis. Those were all personal bests for me.”
In Pro Nitrous, Hall of Famer Rickie Smith picked up his second straight victory, backing up his Hebron, Ohio, win. He left on Jackie Slone Jr. with a .007 to .037 start and posted a 3.689-second pass at 206.14 mph to Slone’s 3.710 at 204.36.
Peery took Top Fuel Harley after Hall of Famer Jay Turner fouled at the start, while Moeller drove around Edwin Wirbel in Outlaw Snowmobile with a 4.892-second run. Curl edged Rich McPhillips in Top Alcohol Dragster with a 3.517-second pass after McPhillips left .038 quicker.
Esz earned the Top Alcohol Funny Car victory when Tony Bogolo red-lighted by -.010. In the Fuel Altereds’ debut, Hill advanced to the winner’s circle with a 3.512-second run at 211.47 mph as runner-up Pete Dove was forced to lift.
