Rocky Mountain Raceways Competitors Tear Up Vegas!
by Michael Eames

Two weeks ago, 64 racers representing Rocky Mountain Raceways ventured to Las Vegas to compete in the Division 7 Summit Racing Series E.T. Finals. Sixteen tracks fielded teams from across the Western United States in five categories: Super Pro, Pro, Sportsman, Motorcycle/Snowmobile, and High School.

The “home-track advantage” held true to form as the Las Vegas Motor Speedway team captured the overall title. RMR finished seventh overall in the three-day competition but that doesn’t tell the whole story. A few local racers had a really good weekend.

It all started Saturday in the Super Pro class. Tommy “Tommy D” Debartolo from Grantsville took his Mopar-powered rear engine dragster to the winner's circle in the prestigious “Race of Champions.” The special R.O.C event takes the top four points-earners from each track in each class. You are left with the best racers battling each other for an opportunity to represent their track against other Race of Champion winners from across the country at the NHRA finals in Pomona, Calif., on Nov. 1-4. There is a $5,000 “winner-take-all” purse up for grabs for the seven competitors.

The Motorcycle/Snowmobile Race of Champions had an all Utah final. Sandy’s Mike Cragun was able to out-duel Provo’s Larry Mota in the final. He will have the opportunity at the $5,000 purse in Pomona in two weeks.

In addition to the shot at the $5,000, both Debartolo and Cragun each pocketed a cool $3,500 to help them get to Pomona. They did Utah proud.

The RMR team took the overall Race of Champions points title and finished second in the team spirit contest.

Sunday’s final eliminations showed again the RMR crew was a tough group to beat out on the trailer. Several local racers went deep into eliminations.

For the second day in a row, we had an all RMR final round. This time, two Sportsman racers, Bud Price from Bountiful and Scott Smith from Orem, went through seven rounds of eliminations before facing each other in the final. Price, driving his always tough Mustang, took out Smith in the final.

The racer of the event had to be Cragun. Not only did he win the Race of Champions Saturday, he took his Kawasaki all the way into the final round of Sunday’s eliminations. He came up on the wrong side of the win light. The final round margin of victory was a scant .0043 of a second.
All of the racers represented Utah well. It shows the quality we have in this state and that we can race with anyone, on any track. We wish the best of luck to Mike and Tommy as they represent Utah in the Super Pro and Motorcycle classes in Pomona during the first week of November.