In what was the largest Lucas Oil divisional field so far in 2009, current Lucas champ Bill Reichert continued to add to his point total at the second Division 1 event of the season held at Maple Grove Dragway in Reading, Pa. The win for Reichert was his second in D1 having won the Richmond opener earlier in the month.

Taking Competition Eliminator over his teammate Steve Szupka was former World Champ Frank Aragona Jr. as Szupka’s dragster broke before staging in the final.

Nearly 600 cars were on hand at the Pennsylvania facility with picture perfect weather throughout the Memorial Day weekend. Friday and Saturday nights featured the alcohol cars with a dozen dragsters and seventeen Funny Cars on hand to qualify. The event also featured fireworks on Saturday for the large crowd on hand that took advantage of the $25.00 per carload entry.

Leading the dragster contingent was the blown dragster of Mike Kosky from Cuddy, Pa., with a stout 5.441 followed by Florida racer Bill Evans’ A/FD with a 5.449. Current D1 champ John Finke was #3 with a 5.453 in his New York-based A/FD and Reichert’s entry was #4 at a 5.469.

On his way to the finals Reichert defeated Bruce Horner’s blown dragster before squaring off with low qualifier Kosky in one of the best races of the night. Kosky was out first with a 0.010 light but Reichert caught him at the stripe running 5.323 to Kosky’s 5.429.

On the other side of the ladder Finke and Evans were putting on a show of their own with Finke’s low ET of the event 5.288 besting Evans’ black dragster’s 5.397, setting up the final.

At the green Reichert was off first and never looked back, running a 5.310 to Finke’s off-pace 5.435. The win was Reichert’s second consecutive win at the track and put him in a commanding lead in the Division 3 points chase. Runner up Finke continues to lead the D1 chase by nearly 100 points over his closest competitor, Mike Kosky.