Sunday saw no break in the heat. That said, round one had Thompson paired up with fellow Californian, Brendan Murry.

Contrary to the huge crowd on Saturday, the stands were not so full on Sunday Next year the NHRR will be held Thu, Fri Sat for a shot at better eliminations attendance.

Early on Murry held his own and continued to give Thompson a race.

In spite of carding his best time of the weekend, Murry's 6.11 was no match for Thompson's 5.909 at a whopping 255.82 (top speed of the meet).

With the relentless sun getting hotter by the minute, shade was at a premium and everyone was at the point of just wanting to get the race over. Towards that end, in round two Thompson had to face the always tough Howard Haight.

Sacrificing some aluminum in the process, Thompson's 5.959 at 255.63 edged out Haight's game 6.028 at 240.81.

In line for yet another final at Bowling Green. In the other lane would be Roger "Radar" Lechtenberg in Dale & Kat Surh's "Orange Crate". Roger is the only non-HSMS driver to win a NHRR (2003).

This is the way a race should end with the #1 and #2 qualifiers meeting for the title.

With still a nose in the lead, the Orange Crate did the one thing nobody expected -- it smoked the tires and in spite of a nice pedal job, Radar could not come close to catching Thompson.

Thompson carded yet another five second run (5.921 at 250.23) to rack up the teams 6th NHRR championship. Lechtenberg stopped the clocks with a 6.306 at 237.00.