NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Frank Affronti scored the biggest win of his long Competition Eliminator career, winning the Deecell Power Systems NHRA Comp Clash on Friday of the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals.

Affronti, runner-up at the 1999 U.S. Nationals, defeated 2022 world champion Ryan Priddy in the final round, (-.523) 8.35 to Priddy’s (-.519) 6.42, a race that wasn’t as close as those numbers would indicate after Affronti grabbed a nearly three-hundredths advantage at the Christmas tree to take home the $20,000 top prize.

Affronti took a couple of easy wins in the first two rounds in his 104 Contractors D/SMA Cobalt, beating four-time world champ Bruno Massel Jr. then 2022 Super Stock world champ Peter D'Agnolo, neither of whom was able to make a representative run, then powered to a (-.59) 8.37 in the semifinals to beat original Comp Clash founder Rodger Brogson's (-.51) 7.71 in his B/Street Roadster.

Priddy and the Mountainview Performance A/Altered Camaro had a tough draw from the drop against Kevin Carter's Deecell-backed A/Nostalgia Dragster, powering to an impressive (-.63) 6.44 to beat Carter's (-.61) 6/82, then got an easy semifinal win over 2005 Comp world champ Jeff Taylor, who shut off early. In the semifinals, Priddy, a four-time NHRA national event winner, had to get past his teammate and team owner Paul Mitsos, and did so by just .005-second with a holeshot-aided (-.50) 6.43 to Mitsos’ (-.52) 6.55.