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Stock Runner-Up Caps Strong Swing for Cummings Team
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Hammond, LA: Slate Cummings took runner-up honors in his Moser Engineering backed Stock Eliminator Camaro at last weekends O’Reilly Auto Parts Super Start NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX. Cummings maneuvered his C/SA entry thru a talent laiden field before falling to a member of another prominent sportsman racing family, Jerry Emmons in the final round.
Cummings began his march to the final round with an opening round defeat of Mike Braswell. He then knocked off Larry Hudson’s entry before using a stellar .004 reaction to dispose of Phil Jackson in round three. In Sunday’s final eliminations, he defeated top qualifier Jim Hale in the quarterfinals, and Sam Pourciau in the semi-final round, setting up a final round tilt with Emmons. There, Slate took a slight starting line advantage, .042 to .055, but Emmons overcame the deficit with a 10.469 on his 10.44 target, while Cummings slowed to a 10.987 on a 10.92 dial.
The runner-up, while a strong showing to be certain, leaves a void in Slate Cummings otherwise impeccable racing resume. Cummings, a two-time IHRA World Champion, the defending NHRA Division 4 Super Comp Champion, a winner of the coveted Moser Axle Mania Shootout, and a multi-time IHRA national & divisional event winner, has yet to score a victory in NHRA competition, despite making several final round appearances in Super Stock, Super Comp, and Stock Eliminator.
“It’s getting to the point of frustration,” explained Cummings. “I’ve knocked on the door so many times, in national event and division races, but I can’t seem to break thru. This weekend, I really thought it might come; I got a lot of breaks on my way to the final, and I drove well when I had to. But it wasn’t meant to be. My hat’s off to Jerry and the entire Emmons family. They’re a great group--they’re all great racers, and they’re incredibly humble. They even apologized after the final, they know how badly I want to win one of these. Who does that?”
Despite falling one round short of the ultimate goal, Cummings’ runner-up finish capped another strong string of performances for the Moser Engineering team. Weeks earlier, the brotherly duo of Britt and Slate Cummings clinched a pair of IHRA Division 4 championships. Britt took the lead in Quick Rod from early season favorite David Bills on the strength of back-to-back victories at the Pine Valley Pro-Am event, and solid showings at the Division 3 event at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI. Slate Cummings earned his Division 4 Stock title in slightly more dramatic fashion. In Martin, Slate needed to make a final round in his familiar Moser Engineering Camaro in order to overtake Jarrod Granier for the division title. Cummings earned a runner-up finish to Aaron Allison on the first day of the event to secure his latest in a long lis t of IHRA division titles, and his first in Stock Eliminator.
“Our Stock program has really come together recently,” explained Britt Cummings. “I didn’t have any luck in the Camaro last season, or early this season. We regrouped, and put Slate behind the wheel, which has proven to be a good move. Then, over the summer, we sent the motor to Wegner Performance Engines, which has been the best decision we’ve made yet. We’ve got phenomenal power now, we’re one of the quickest C/SA cars out there. That makes racing, especially on the NHRA side where we’re grouped with the carbureted combinations, a lot easier--knowing that we can win the majority of our heads-up matches.”
With a strong season already behind them, the Cummings team still has a handful of events in which to compete to close out the 2008 campaign. This weekend, family patriarch Larry Cummings and Slate Cummings are entered in the NHRA O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals in Memphis, TN. The team will also run the remaining NHRA LODRS events in Shreveport, LA and Oklahoma City, OK, in addition to attending a handful of big dollar bracket events to close the season.
In addition to Moser Engineering, the Cummings team acknowledged the ongoing support B&M Performance. For more information on the Moser Engineering backed Cummings Motorsports team, visit www.BayouBoyzRacing.com.
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