AAA Texas Fall Nationals
October 13th-16th, 2016
Ennis, TX
This past weekend at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals, Texas native Driver Bill Litton returned to his home state in hopes of winning the Wally again as he did during last year’s 2015 Fall Nationals. The Texas Motorplex has a long history for being a favorite track amongst drivers and fans alike. The facility opened in 1986 and was the only track of its kind, being the first super-stadium designed and built specifically for drag racing. Since then, it has been the main site of record breaking passes, championship clinching performances, and jaw dropping events. It is one of only three all concrete drag strips on the NHRA racing schedule, which allows crew chiefs ample opportunity to pull off nationally notarized performances. Not surprisingly, the track added two more record breaking times to its long list of successes this past weekend. Randy Meyer Racing and Team Litton Racing joined forces again this weekend with minds set on Texas takeovers! Driver Bill Litton, Crew Chief Randy Meyer and crew members Dan Pomponio, Mary Meyer, Rich Tetter and Kevin Anderson saddled up the high horse-powered machines as day one of the race weekend approached.
Qualifying began on Friday with a rain delay that ultimately limited qualifying to only two rounds. When the rain ended and the Safety Safari completed their job of drying the track and assuring a safe racing surface, the Litton Financial Dragster was able to enter the arena. Driver Litton blistered down the track with an impressive career best time AND speed of 5.24 seconds @ 279.79 mph! The run puts Litton in the #1 spot setting an excellent tone for the rest of the weekend. Per Litton, “Now that’s some serious Randy Meyer horsepower!”
As the sun set, the shootout continued to the second and final qualifying round. Driver Litton faced off against Rich McPhillips, the owner of the dragster that Litton won the race with last year. McPhillips went up in smoke as soon as he hit the throttle and had no chance against Litton. Litton launched hard with some night nitro flames clocking in with another impressive run of 5.27 @ 274.16 mph! The final order at the end of day one puts Team Litton at the top of the pack securing the #3 spot overall in the fastest field in the history of the class. Litton wraps up his thoughts on the day stating, “I am blessed and thankful to be driving the Randy Meyer Racing nitro dragster with such a talented team.”
Elimination rounds started on Saturday where Driver Litton faced off against Bradley Thompson for the first time in their careers. Litton put up a good fight but lost a cylinder at the hit and was forced to run on only the seven remaining cylinders. This set back put Litton behind and he fell short of the win. Dan Pomponio described the loss of a nitro fired cylinder as, “An anomaly that no one has figured out completely.” Crew Chief Randy Meyer remarked on the run adding, “Bill lost a cylinder which means it fouled out one of the plugs. Unfortunately, he only ran on seven cylinders and this caused him to get beat down the track. We gave it a good hard try but this means our day is done at the races.”
Although Driver Litton did not get to bring home the cherished Wally, cowboy hat, and buckle from The Texas Motorplex again this year, he still left with having accomplished a new career best time and speed which he celebrated with clients of Litton Financial, potential sponsors, friends and family. Per Litton, “Thirty cars came to shoot it out this weekend. The difficult truth was that 29 were not going to make it. We sure wanted to be the one to take our team and fans to the Winner’s Circle but the competition was fierce and we didn’t get a break when we needed one. Our team worked real hard but it just wasn’t our day. Hopefully all eight will stay lit next time. It was nice to have Phil Taylor, the artist for The American Fallen Soldiers Project, attending this weekend. I am thankful for this opportunity and for everyone that has supported us this year.”
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