Earlville: David Wells preview

EARLVILLE, Iowa - Former two time Division 5 Champion David Wells will be looking to wrap up a third Division 5 title during this weekend's NHRA Division 5 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series event at Tri-State Raceway in Earlville, Iowa. Wells and the Blue Bunny Ice Cream/ "Plain Vanilla" team enter the event with a commanding 153 point lead over last year's Champion, Bruce Bowler, by virtue of three wins and one runner-up on the divisional level this year.

In addition to wrapping up the division championship, Wells and team will be shooting to win at the only race track in their home state of Iowa.

"We're just going to do the best we can with the track that we have to work with," said Wells. "It's normally a pretty good track, and they have done some work on it to help improve it."

If Wells wins the race, and Bowler does not make the final, he will mathematically clinch the championship. In the event that Bowler does make it to the final, and Wells wins, Bowler must then win the final Division 5 race in Denver, then win two out-of-division races, which most likely will be Noble, Okla., and Las Vegas, to pass Wells.

"The No. 2 guy Bruce Bowler is going to be there, obviously," stated Wells. "That's an A/Fuel car, so weather is going to play a big factor with him.

We'll just have to do the best we can, and see what happens."

Wells currently holds the track record elapsed time at a 5.56 seconds. He hopes with a better race track this year, he may possibly better that time this weekend.

"It's all going to depend on the air conditions and what they have done to the track," stated Wells. "There has always been a bad spot in both lanes about 40' out, where almost everybody tends to shake. They have tried to correct that problem in the track by grinding some of the rough surface away. So, I'm sure the first couple of runs will be on the edge, because we will have to get some rubber stuck on the track, and hopefully from there it will start coming around."

Qualifying begins at 4 p.m. Friday, with two more sessions on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday.

-dwr