Needing a big pass after a pedestrian opening-round clocking of just 5.565 against Ken Perry, which gave Demke lane choice in the quarterfinals, Tedesco responded with a massive .108-second reaction-time advantage that helped her lead the champ from start to finish. Her 5.289 at 273.72 mph in the CARS Protection Plus/Schepel Motors/NGK/Lucas Oil injected dragster sealed the deal ahead of Demke's 5.345 at 273.16 mph.
"Chris Demke is one of the best out there and he's always going to make a good run," said Tedesco, who had never beaten Demke in three previous matchups. "He's usually going to kill the Tree and they rarely make mistakes with their setup, so to get by someone like him is a real honor.
"We knew we needed to make a good run, we knew we needed to go after it, and that's what we did. Thankfully it worked and we advanced."
As the No. 1 qualifier, Tedesco faced Perry in Round 1 and was given the win on a red-light foul by her opponent. Perry was a .098-second early while Tedesco cruised to a leisurely 5.565 at 253.28 mph.
"In that first-round race we put a hole (cylinder) out at the step, and it felt like it wasn't running really good at all," said Tedesco, only the second woman in history to qualify No. 1 in TAD at this event. "Thankfully he went red, so it didn't really matter. We got by Ken, brought the car back, tried to get everything fixed, and got it put together in time to come up with a new game plan against Chris."
Tedesco will now face Dan Page, who ran a 5.334 at 272.17 mph in his quarterfinal win over Bill Litton. Tedesco will have lane choice in her race against Page.
"We're going to keep taking it one round at a time and really we are only running ourselves," she said. "If we can make a good, solid lap, that should do it. That's the game plan. Just go up there, make good laps every run, try to do the best that we can, and if the win light comes on, then it was meant to be our day."
In Super Gas action, Tedesco raced her CARS Protection Plus/VP Racing Fuels Chevrolet Cavalier to Round 4 before losing a razor-close race to Alan Bush. Both drivers left with identical .016-second reaction times and stayed side by side all the way down the quarter-mile, but Tedesco arrived one-thousandth of a second ahead of the 9.90 index, handing the victory to Bush, who posted a 9.904 at 163.31 mph.
"I'm not hanging my head at all," Tedesco said. "That run against Alan wins the majority of races. We're both .016 on the Tree, I take 5 thou, breakout by a thou. That's just racing, nothing to be upset about. If I do that every round, I would normally win. You know, Alan Bush is such a good competitor and he always makes good runs and I knew that going in. It was just a good race."
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| Top Alcohol Dragster upstart Mia Tedesco took out 2014 world champion Chris Demke in the second round of eliminations to advance to the final four of the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. |
