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Romine
Racing News
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Mike and Patty Romine had a clear agenda and a firm strategy as they headed to Las Vegas for the AHDRA National Finals race. The agenda - concentrate on winning the race and the points would take care of themselves. The strategy - build a special 'Vegas' motor.
Mike stated, 'Every year when we leave Las Vegas, I say that I really need to build a special motor to race here because of the very unique combination of conditions. This year, about a month before the race, Patty told me that I had the time and the resources this year and that I should build that special motor I had always talked about. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that that was exactly what I needed to do. The Vegas race was critical to the Points Championship and we wanted this Championship very, very badly.' Patty added, 'After Mike decided to build the special motor, we started to work out the details of the rest of the plans - to come out early and test on Thursday - and Friday, if necessary. We wanted to have all our ducks in a row for Saturday. We wanted first round of qualifying to be spectacular.'
Spectacular it was as Mike tied the national record with a 6.357 with his first qualifying pass. The team was ecstatic! Everything was going according to the plan! However, Doug Vancil had arrived with his own plan in place and ran a 6.33 in round 2 of qualifying. The battle was on and Mike and Doug went blow for blow for the entire weekend - right up to the climactic semi-final round when Doug's fire went out at half track and he lost his match against Mike Lehman. The Romine crew and many others realized the implications of that occurrence - all Mike had to do was win his match against one of the toughest competitors on the circuit - Jay Turner. If he won, Mike would win the championship; if he lost, the championship would go to Doug.
In one of the closest races of the weekend, Mike was able to crank out a 6.34 to get around Jay's 6.44. And the crowd went wild! Mike Romine had just won his first AHDRA National Top Fuel Championship! In between leaps into the air, a teary-eyed Patty exclaimed, 'I can't believe it! It's really over! We did it!'
Back in the Romine pits, the celebration was cranking up, but Mike had to remind everyone that there was still the minor matter of a race to win. So, championship in hand, everyone buckled down and concentrated on the last pass of the season. Though Mike slowed down in the final and ran his slowest pass of the weekend (6.48), it was just barely enough to win and put the exclamation point on the weekend and the season.
Mike summed up his championship season, 'We have been fast and consistent all season and consistency was what we were really concentrating on. We won 4 out of the 10 AHDRA races we attended, had no DNQ's and no first round losses. Realistically, if we had not had a couple of parts failures and glitches, I think we could have won 9 of the races. I am really excited about next year. We are working on some big plans and are in great position to start the 2006 season."
As Mike and Patty headed for home after Monday night's banquet, happy voices singing 'Viva Las Vegas!' were heard coming from the big red rig.
Mike and Patty would like to thank all their sponsors for the 2005 championship season: Harley-Davidson of Salt Lake City, Romine Cams, Chromatic, Performance Machine, Fram/Autolite, Ross Pistons, Mickey Thompson Tires, and Competition Distributing.
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