The Laris Motorsports Insurance NHRA Cajun Nationals finally got around Mother Nature to crown champions on Sunday afternoon at No Problem Raceway in Belle Rose, LA.
With the original March date rained out and moved to May, the event lost a day to rain when Friday’s schedule was washed out.
Chase Williams (Comp), Trevor Boyd (Super Stock) and Jimmy Hildalgo (Stock) headlined the champions.
Williams became the second Rooftec Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund winner of 2024 when Rick Brown fouled in his B/Pro Stock Truck Automatic.
“I did not see this one coming,” Williams admitted. “We definitely weren’t running our best this weekend. There’s some guys out here that are really, really fast. Just fortunate the breaks came our way today. Took a lot of luck along the way. I guess we screwed up the least, and that worked out in this case.”
Williams, who won last year’s Rooftec Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund title on the same day he clinched a Jeg’s Allstar Shootout, entered eliminations as the No. 12 qualifier, -.537 under the B/Dragster Automatic standard with a 6.793 elapsed time.
Williams opened with a first round win against Joe Tanksley, and then beat Taylor Chomiski. In the third round, he took out the G/Econo Dragster driven by Dave Triplett. In the semis, Williams beat red-lighting Australian native Jason Grima.
Brown’s journey to the final was not without its challenges. He started strong with a win against Ray Goodwin’s A/Econo Altered. He was granted a single in the second round as neither Rodger Brogdon nor Jarrod Granier could make the first round call due to breakage. Brown then faced a competition bye run in the quarter-finals and secured his spot in the semis by defeating Kayla Mozeris.
Brown has ascended into the Rooftec Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund despite his loss.
The second-generation drag racer Boyd proved racing Super Stock can remain as familiar as riding a bike. He beat the Hemi Dart of Doug Fazzolare Sunday to claim the title.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been racing, and my father was supposed to be racing this weekend, but he didn’t feel good,” said Boyd, the son of longtime NHRA Super Stock racer Elisha Boyd. “So I ended up coming down here at the last moment and getting in the car and pretty lost at first. Red lights on practice, and we worked on it. By the time we got to the eliminations, we got it kind of turned around and just had a good weekend. Everything fell our way.”
Hildago didn’t have to go far to get his first hometown victory. The Donaldsville, La.-native won a battle of second-gen drag racers as he stopped Rylie Trumble.
“This is my first Sportsnationals win over here,” Hildalgo said. “This is my home track. We only live about seven miles from the track. And I went out early, lost a tough race to one of the Emmons boys, Gary, second round of Super Stock. They’re always tough competitors and they got plenty of them. Driver was on pretty good. I think pretty much every time except for once, I left with the reaction time advantage, and I utilized that to get it done today.”
Other champions taking home hardware included Kyle Rickman (Super Comp), Jason McClure (Super Gas), Mark Jones (Top Dragster), Ricky Vedros (Top Sportsman), Jimmy Daniel (Super Street), and David Corteaux (ET Motorcycle).
