The Southwest Heritage Racing Association, presented by MalloryPrint.com and Mears Mazda Volvo, packed the pits at Paris Drag Strip in Paris, Texas on Saturday, August 5th for the SHRA Summer Nostalgia Nationals. This was the first time the SHRA series has competed in Paris and this event was presented by Equipment Sales and Service of Texas. Over 100 old school drag racing machines were on hand to entertain a great crowd eager for some big burnouts and fun in the sun with the SHRA nostalgia series.

                The Alkydigger Nostalgia Eliminator 1 class coming into Paris found the 'Dragon Slayer' '57 Chevy Funny Car wheeled by Lubbock runner Andy Mears at the top of the points page, but by only one point!  Tommy Drozd and Tera Graves have been throwing everything they have at catching Mears who got off to a big lead early in the season.  Tera took the Walden Power Equipment digger from Kilgore to the top of qualifying for the second race in a row with a 4.681, grabbing that Neil & Parks qualifying bonus. However, Tommy Drozd who qualified second at the last race in Temple, followed up with a number two qualifying effort at 4.682, just missing that Neil & Parks bonus by 2 thousandths of a second!  Mears in an effort to defend his points lead was in the mix by qualifying third with a 4.695.

NE1 - Jason ONeill

NE1 - Clay Cunningham

N E1 - Andy Mears & Tommy Drozd

                The 10 car field would find Tera Graves facing off against points leader Andy Mears in a semi-final battle, with Graves knocking out the points leader with a 4.67 blast at 150 mph.  Drozd would march through the field from his number two qualifying position and into the final round taking out Keith Zimmerer and Clay Cunningham along the way and with a bye run in the semi.  Drozd came up just short on lane choice in the final as Tera's 4.672 was just enough for lane choice from Tommy's 4.678.  The final was everything it was built up to be with Tera getting a slight lead on Drozd at the green but Tommy's altered had just enough horsepower to nip Tera with a 4.682 to her 4.710 and with that Drozd took the top spot in the Alkydigger NE1 championship chase with two events remaining. Tera will need to continue to perform well as she has 34 points to make up sitting in third place. 

NE1 - Tera Graves

Winner NE1 - Tommy Drozd