Meziere Enterprises’ own Don Meziere drove to an impressive national event victory on Sunday at the NHRA Denso Spark Plugs Nationals at The Strip in Las Vegas Motor Speedway, claiming his first career victory in the always-tough Top Sportsman category and his second national  event victory overall.

Meziere, who, along with brothers Dave and Mike, owns and operates the Escondido, California-based manufacturer that delivers a whole range of chassis, cooling system, flexplates, and other racing components, qualified his 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt 13th in the 32-car field with a 6.969 at 198.03 mph. He used a .013 reaction time and a 7.02 on his 6.99 dial-in to advance through the first round, then strapped a .008 light and a dead-on 7.00 on Wayne Newman in round two.

A foul start in the quarterfinals was made good by the earlier foul by opponent Ken Ratzloff, and a .015 light and another dead-on 7.02 was enough to edge Justin Linares in the semifinals and punch a ticket into the final. There, Meziere carded his best light of eliminations, a .006, and drove right around Ed Olpin at the top end to claim the crown by nine feet at the stripe.

Jerry Bickel Race Cars constructed the Cobalt that carried Meziere to the Vegas title, which is powered by a 598 cubic-inch big-block Chevrolet from Green Racing Engines. The engine sports a set of Reher-Morrison cylinder heads atop a Dart Machinery block, with a Crower crankshaft and connecting rods, Manton pushrods, and CP Pistons. An Induction Solutions nitrous oxide system helps provide the added motivation for the car in the world’s fastest door car bracket racing eliminator. Meziere also utilizes Chassis Engineering suspension components and JRi Shocks to plant all that power to the ground and keep it running straight and true.