Shields Makes it to Semis at Maplegrove but Needed More

Reading PA - Duane Shields in the Muscle Milk A/Fuel Dragster was looking for a big win at Maplegrove Raceway to stay alive in his quest for the 2021 East Coast Regional Championship. Duane came close at the rescheduled race but lost a tough semi-final round match-up.

Duane qualified second in the one-shot qualifying session with a fine 5.26 at 273 MPH. As the second seed, Duane was matched up with Frank Schuster who had difficulties managing the track in qualifying. At the hit, Schuster was out of the gate first with a .032 to Duane's .105. Schuster was on a much-improved pass than his qualifying run would indicate, but the Muscle Milk machine easily flew by him with a clean 5.27 at 276 MPH to Schuster's 5.58 at 257 MPH.

In the semi-finals, Duane faced Dan Dietrich. As the cars left the starting line it was Dietrich out first with a .090 to Duane's .125. As the dragsters reached the finish line it was Dietrich with an upset win. Dietrich rang up a 5.37 at 267 MPH over Duane's close 5.34 at 273 MPH. "This was a must-win race for us but it wasn't meant to be. We'll go to Indy and see if we can rebound there next weekend" Duane said.

Duane would like to thank Muscle Milk, NGK Spark Plugs, GRP Connecting Rods, Clean Boost, SRI, and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their support of Shield's Racing in 2021.