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Cooper Chun wins 10th anniversary Spring Fling Million By Jessica H. Spears
Las Vegas is known for its dazzling lights, continuous cash flow, neverending excitement, and a bit of luck. Throw in a heavy dose of horsepower, and you have the Moser Engineering Spring Fling Million presented by Optima Batteries. Contested at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, this event extravagantly showcases the intricacies of bracket racing. This high-stakes atmosphere didn’ t rattle the young guns as the marquee winners were 21, 23, and 25 years old, respectively, to become the youngest trio of main event winners in Fling history. All three are past Drag IllustrateD 30 Under 30 honorees. The first driver to witness the final-round win light illuminated against the breathtaking mountain backdrop was Cory Gulitti during the American Race Cars 32-car Shootout. Notably, Gulitti was behind the wheel of his 2021 American dragster, which he earned in Vegas four years ago, while taking the win over Kevin Brannon on Advanced Product Design Tuesday.
Silver State Refrigeration Wednesday was aptly named as cooling temperatures ended the racing action after the second round of eliminations. Once the burnouts and wheelstands resumed on Thursday, Gage Burch claimed the
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$ 30,000 payday over a red-lighting Bradley Johnson while adding a second Fling trophy to his overflowing collection.
Burch revealed a small secret to his success and skill by saying,“ Honestly, having a good support group, and I know a lot of people say this, but I really have a very good race car that Matt [ Dadas ] and Bo [ Butner ] provide for me. The race car is very good and makes me look like a hero at the finish line. I’ m glad to come out here and be able to do my thing with all my people.”
The MRCOOL DIY Direct King of the Fling Million was an invitation-only event for former Fling Million finalists throughout the decade. Six winners and six runners-up dueled for $ 10,000
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and an eternity of bragging rights. Perhaps it should have been dubbed the revenge tour as the former second-place finishers eliminated all the Fling millionaires in round one. Eventually, Kyle Cultrera and Spencer Massey squared off in the final round, where Cultrera earned the eight-ten-thousandths margin of victory. To add an exclamation mark at the end of his King of the Fling Million title, Cultrera has now won at all four facilities and events in the Fling franchise.
On Friday, all cards were on the table as the ante increased for the event’ s feature race: the Fling Million. The high roller of the weekend was barely eligible to cash in poker chips at the casino as he turned 21 years old just one week before conquering the record-breaking Fling Million car count of 384 entries. Cooper Chun yielded an average reaction time of. 006 to clinch the $ 450,000 payday over Josh Pickett to become the youngest and highest-paid Fling Million victor during the 10th-anniversary celebration. In addition to the enticing jackpot, Chun earned a luxury limousine ride to spend an evening in the executive suite at the South Point.
Chun is no stranger to success, with multiple big-money bracket race final round appearances, including a $ 30K runner-up at this event last year. The 2024 DI 30 Under 30 inductee was motivated to etch his name into the history books with a calm yet focused demeanor during the latter rounds. After enjoying a luxury limousine ride and an evening in the executive suite at the
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS SIMMONS |