Sportsman racing extraordinaire Slate Cummings recently punched his ticket to the annual NHRA Jeg’s All-Stars Shootout with an impressive win at the NHRA Division 4 Lucas Oil Series event at No Problem Raceway Park in Belle Rose, Lousiana behind the wheel of his Moser Engineering-backed Stock Eliminator Pontiac Firebird.
Slate kicked off eliminations in his B/SA machine with an opening round freebie when opponent Thomas Gordon was unable to make the call, but his march through eliminations took a rather rare twist from that point forth, as he found himself in four consecutive heads-up B/SA runoffs on his way to the final.
“I’ve never seen four heads up races like that before on the way to the finals,” he said of the way his side of the ladder played out. “We just swapped over engine builders and to have the power that we have is just an ungodly feeling. Jeff Taylor has just made that dang thing fly.”
Cummings’ toughest challenge came in round three, when he was paired with Jeff Adkinson, who also runs Jeff Taylor power. “When I had Jeff Adkinson, I wasn’t really sure what he had or not. He has Jeff Taylor power, too and he’s one of the fastest [B/SA] in the country. So, I was a little worried about him.”
The venerable racer did what he had to do however, grabbing an .017 starting line advantage while the car took care of the rest in a 10.29 to 10.47 rout. Another heads-up match went his way in round four, placing him in the money round alongside the A/SA of Jimmy Hidalgo Jr.. Slate was second off the line by a good margin, but used his championship-winning driving skills to drive a narrow .005 margin at the stripe to run dead-on his 10.32 dial with a 10.320 for the win.
The win at No Problem solidified his entry into the Jeg’s All-Stars in both the Stock and Super Stock categories, where he’ll represent Division 4 in the elite race that features sportsman racing’s biggest stars on the big stage in Joliet next month for big prize money and plenty of bragging rights.
“I feel real good about that,” he said of the upcoming shootout. “I’ve got a real good track record of being double entered in the All-Stars. I have the baddest team around and all kinds of folks who come with me to help and I have a new crew chief that just started with us last year. I have no worries, all I have to do is drive.”
In addition to the Moser Engineering components used on each of the Cummings Motorsports entries, Slate’s machines also utilize K&N Oil and Air filters. For more information on each of these renowned manufacturers, log on to their respective websites at moserengineering.com and knfilters.com.
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