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NHRA Lucas Oil Comp Eliminator champ Mike Saye
by Phil Burgess, National DRAGSTER
12/16/2002
 Mike Saye
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You didn't have to be Mike Saye to know what he was thinking at the season's final event: "Oh no, not again!"
Just as he did in 2001, Saye battled Don Stratton down to the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, and just as it happened last year, Saye's hopes of deciding his own destiny ended with a devastating first-round loss.
"It looked like a repeat of last year; it didn't look good at all," said Saye.
Unlike last year, however, when Stratton won the event and stole the crown practically from Saye's head, fate smiled kindly on the South Carolina engine builder, and Stratton lost in the second round to crown Saye, the 1995 Super Stock national titlist, champion for the second time in his career.
The points race had all the earmarks of a great back-and-forth drag race. Saye began decently, taking the points lead at "half-track," then fending off the late-season charges of Stratton - who came roaring on like an A/Dragster at the three-quarter mark - and fellow Division 2 ace Larry Pritchett, both of whom passed him for a short time before Saye nipped them at the stripe.
Saye's season began on a slightly rocky note. He bowed out against Larry Pritchett in the quarterfinals and semifinals at respective NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events at Orlando Speed World Dragway and Gainesville Raceway. Pritchett was a thorn in Saye's side all season, putting Saye on the trailer in three of his first five races.
A win at the Mac Tools NHRA Gatornationals was a morale boost, especially because it came with a backup engine inside the bay of the Carolina Machine Engines H/A Cutlass after Saye and crew chief John Clark lost their number-one mill just before the event. The win vaulted him to second place in the standings behind Jeff Taylor; though, despite runner-upping in Montgomery, Ala., he quickly fell to sixth place as other racers began scoring points.
After losing to Pritchett in the second round of the Mac Tools Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals in Bristol, Saye reached the semifinals of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta, where he lost to Bob Bailey's clutch .501 light but still earned enough points to move into the points lead for the first time.
Saye added to his lead with an out-of-division victory at the Division 4 Lucas Oil event at Louisiana's State Capitol Dragway and a key win over Pritchett in the final round of the Division 2 event at Georgia's Silver Dollar Raceway. As with any national championship chase, the subtext involved a battle for divisional honors as well, and Saye's victory over Pritchett gave him a slim 10-point lead in the fight for the divisional crown. Pritchett also was now second to Saye in the national championship race, some 53 points back with each driver having claimed points at three national and five divisional events.
Just as things looked good for Saye, so came his summer of discontent.
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An early round loss at the Division 2 event in Bristol cost him his divisional lead by one point to Pritchett, and his national lead over Pritchett dwindled to only nine markers. On the same weekend, Stratton entered the top 10 for the first time with the first of what would be three straight wins in Division 1. Pritchett took out Saye again, this time in the semifinals of the Division 2 meet in Atlanta, then beat Taylor to take the national points lead from Saye and boost his lead over Saye in the Division 2 battle to 23 points. Stratton cozied up into third place behind Saye with his second straight Division 1 win, then leapfrogged over Saye with his win at Maryland's Cecil County Dragway.
Stratton's momentum was halted somewhat at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, where he went out early, but Pritchett won the race to expand his points lead. Just when Saye thought things couldn't get any worse, two weeks later Stratton won the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Reading to pass them both.
Then it became "Saye hey" time.
Just as he had won the fall Chicago national event last year to take the title lead, Saye struck back with a vengeance this year by winning the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals in Memphis to pull to within seven points of second-place Pritchett and 36 of Stratton.
At the time, Saye ranked his odds of passing the duo at a lowly 30 percent.
"Hey, I'm not even second right now," Saye told National DRAGSTER. "Pritchett has one more divisional left to claim, same as me. If either of us wins the last Division 2 race [at Darlington Int'l Dragway], we'd go ahead of Stratton, but Stratton has many more opportunities, and it's hard to imagine him not improving by at least 20 points."
Incredibly, all of what he needed to happen eventually did happen. Saye beat Pritchett in a winner-take-all showdown at the final Division 2 race at Darlington to grab the national points lead and clinch the Division 2 crown. Pritchett dropped out of the national chase with an early round loss at the Chicago national event, his last opportunity to earn points, leaving it up to Saye and Stratton once again.
Stratton had a chance to overtake Saye by winning the Division 7 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in Las Vegas, but he lost in the final round to take the battle to the Finals, where points leader Saye needed to reach the final to improve. Stratton needed only a semifinal finish.
"We came to Pomona with a new combination because we knew we needed to be fast, and we figured we'd have three qualifying runs to get it dialed," said Saye. "Of course, with the rain, we only got one run, so that put us in a bad spot. Fortunately for us, it hurt Stratton, too. He ended up ninth, and we knew that meant he'd have to race the No. 1 qualifier [Taylor] in the second round. There were only 31 cars, so Taylor got a bye into the second round. Stratton had no help either way."
Saye lost to Brian Browell in round one, and Stratton beat Jeff Gillette. Memories of 2001 flooded back to Saye, but the agony this time was short-lived as Taylor dispatched Stratton in the second round to end the battle. Ironically, it was Taylor whom Saye edged for his first crown, in 1995, and Taylor who helped decide last year's Super Stock title in Dan Fletcher's favor.
"It was an unbelievable finish," said Saye, who listened to the outcome over the PA system in his pits. "Stratton had three chances - the national and divisional events in Las Vegas and the Finals - to improve his score, and he couldn't. He is a great competitor with a fast car, but his luck turned against him. That is a part of racing."
Saye acknowledged the help of crew chief John Clark, brother and chief mechanic and machinist Bill, his employees at Carolina Machine, Comp Cams, Goodyear, ATI, and wife Gail and daughters Michelle and Keely, who were with him during his key win at Darlington.
Saye's 2002 track record 660 points | |
| Gainesville Raceway (Div. 2) | Semifinals |
| Mac Tools Gatornationals | Won event |
| Montgomery Motorsports Park (Div. 2) | Runner-up |
| Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals | Semifinals |
| State Capitol Dragway (Div. 4) | Won event |
| Silver Dollar Raceway (Div. 2) | Won event |
| O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals | Won event |
| Darlington Int'l Dragway (Div. 2) | Won event |
Return to 2002 Sportsman News Archive