Whether it was Loan ’ s pep talks or not , Verdi found his confidence as he went into eliminations in the eighth-mile Spring Fling Million competition . He grabbed a first-round win , then things really got rolling .

“ A few things happened that were lucky breaks that don ’ t normally happen . The guy got timed out on me second round . I couldn ’ t believe that because , hey , we ’ re talking about a $ 2,000 entry fee . I think he bumped the transbrake button by accident when he was bumping in . I could see him moving out of my peripheral vision . I was saying , ‘ Man , he better hurry up .’ Then the tree lit up red on his side . I was kinda ’ feeling bad for him for a second there ,” Verdi says , without so much as a hint of sarcasm .

A third-round win came over big-money bracket race regular Hugh Meeks . Both drivers were dead-on with a two , but Verdi ’ s . 006-second reaction time sealed the deal over Meeks ’ . 012 light . Verdi kept it going with wins over Rodney Snider and Scott Carpenter before the remaining racers were put onto a ladder . Verdi ’ s first draw on the ladder was none other than multi-time NHRA Super Gas world champion Luke Bogacki in his dragster , but the Virginian moved on by just 17-inches .

On to the quarterfinals , Verdi met up with Paul Russell , who found himself in the Super Pro portion of the Spring Fling Million after winning six rounds in the Pro 32 shootout . Russell was closer to his 6.48 dial-in , but his . 075 reaction time negated any advantage he had over Verdi ’ s 5.930 on a 5.90 dial . Jeff reeled it back in with a 5.909 in the semifinals against heavy-hitter Kevin Brannon , setting up a final round meeting with Lane Dickey ’ s rail .

Dragsters seemed to have the advantage through eliminations , but Verdi didn ’ t see it that way .

“ We run against dragsters at home all the time ,” says Verdi , with a smile . “ I said if I get a dragster I have the advantage because he ’ s gonna ’ lift . He ’ s run against fast cars all day long . My car ain ’ t slow but it ’ s a whole lot slower than a 4.50 dragster . He ’ s gonna ’ lift . He ’ s gonna ’ look like he ’ s going by me no matter what . He ’ s been racing side-byside all day and now I ’ m out there 150 to 200 feet . They ’ re going so fast that it ’ ll look like he ’ s gonna ’ catch me no matter what . They will catch me , but maybe a foot after the finish line .”

Racing in the dry atmosphere of the Vegas desert , Verdi was facing weather conditions vastly

different than those he typically encounters in the southeast . Also unlike the swampy southern conditions , the air at The Strip was as consistent as Verdi .

“ I knew I was in a good spot ,” he says . “ The humidity was so low and the temperature was 60-degrees when the sun was out . When the sun went down it stayed 60 degrees . The humidity never changed . The weather stayed exactly the same , it was just the headwind . If I felt the headwind hit the car and I had to drive it around , I knew the car would run over the dial . If I didn ’ t feel it hit the car I figured I would be dead-on . That ’ s what it felt like every time it went a 90 ; I didn ’ t feel the wind hit the car . But when it went the . 91 , I definitely felt it hit the car . Luckily , I had a good light or the other guy couldn ’ t hit his dial .”

After 16 hours and eight rounds of racing , Jeff Verdi spun the starter and pulled his Firebird around the bend and under the famous arch at The Strip . He rolled through the left lane water box , laid down a patch of rubber and brought the Top Gun Firebird into the staging beams . His tree dropped and he was off with a . 014 reaction time , Dickey chasing with his quicker dial-in and . 009 light . Just under six seconds after he left the starting line , the win light illuminated in Verdi ’ s lane . His . 015 package defeated Dickey ’ s . 026 pack .

“ That final round I was deadon with a one . I like to be anything under a 20 package . If you ’ re anything better than a 20 package then it takes a double-oh on both ends to beat you . I try to be . 009 or . 010 on the tree and dead-on with a mid number , and that ’ ll get you a lot of rounds . It might not get you to all of them , but it ’ ll get you a lot without taking the chance of red-lighting or breaking out . That ’ s just from years of points racing at my local track . I ’ m leaving first most of the time so I can ’ t turn it red . I ’ m setting up . 010 ,” Verdi reveals of his strategy .

“ I ’ ll race my opponent ,” he says . “ Some people don ’ t race their opponent . They ’ ll just try to throw packages down no matter who they ’ re running . I ’ ll race who I ’ m running . I feel this package or what I can do right here can beat this guy , so I ’ m gonna ’ try to do what I want to do here and if I get beat , I get beat . I ’ m actually racing my guy versus just throwing something out there . I ’ ll watch my buddies back here ( in Virginia ) red-light against someone who ’ s never been to the track before . He ’ s terrible on the tree and doesn ’ t know what he ’ s doing and my friend is out because he ’ s trying to be triple-oh .”

Verdi ’ s local experience played a part not only in the on-track action , but also in the staging lanes when the racers were deciding how to split up the winnings in the late rounds .

“ It ’ s interesting to see the caliber of racers who race for a living and how they want to split up the money versus people who maybe race as a hobby ,” explains Verdi . “ The guys who race for a living , they ’ re looking for money for the next race . Coming home and going bracket racing locally isn ’ t costing me anything .

“ Some of the deals I didn ’ t want to do as much . We paid two grand to race for this much money so we don ’ t want to chop it up too crazy . A lot of those guys seemed like they ’ d be fine splitting it all up . The winner ends up losing because the winner ends up giving away the money that could ’ ve been . But I could ’ ve lost any round that I won . If you look at it playing the odds it ’ s good to split the money up , but when you do end up winning and you look at what you gave away , you ’ re like , ‘ Oh , my God ,’” Verdi laughs . “ But that ’ s just part of racing . On the local level when you ’ re racing for $ 1,200 and you split it up , it ’ s whatever .”

The check in the winner ’ s circle photos says $ 270,000 , but Verdi says his split of the winnings was actually around $ 100,000 . The six losers at 13 cars walked away with $ 10,000 , and the takeaways increased by $ 10,000 increments as the rounds continued . Proud of his competition , Verdi was amazed by the lack of attention that these payouts received .

“ I feel bad for a lot of these other guys who went rounds ,” says Verdi . “ There was a guy who had a GTO who was still in at four cars . He had a Pontiac motor in his car so at four cars there were two Pontiacs with Pontiac motors , which is a rare thing at big races like that – actually anywhere . He ended up red-lighting in the semifinals . He got forty grand for losing in the semis and the guy who lost in the finals got $ 65,000 . Nobody even talks about them . Isn ’ t that a shame ? These guys won more money than they ’ ve ever won in their life and nobody is even talking about it .

“ That ’ s just the way it is . I just feel for those guys ,” he continues . “ They had a great day . I never saw them again . I felt kinda ’ weird because when you ’ re racing at the local level , you get down to four cars and you talk to each other and you ’ re drinking a beer after the race , hanging out . At that race I got whisked away in a limousine down to downtown Vegas without talking to nobody .”

After returning to the starting line for the winner ’ s circle celebration , Verdi and Loan were treated to a VIP Las Vegas experience . While not widely advertised as a part of the prize , the extravagant treatment is standard operating pro-

82 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 110