Rustin Mayse’s Super Gas Win Highlights First Half

July 13, 2012   ·   0 Comments

Grandview, TX: Rustin Mayse recently earned the Super Gas title at the NHRA Division 4 LODRS event in Tulsa, OK. There, Mayse drove his familiar Mayse Motorsports Corvette to victory by defeating national championship contender Jeff Lopez in the final round of competition. The victory put a positive ending on what has been a rough first half of the 2012 season for Rustin and his Mayse Motorsports team.

The year started off well enough, when Rustin drove his Corvette to a bracket victory back in February. “I thought that win was a sign of good things to come, like it was going to be a good year. I was wrong!” Rustin joked in a recent interview.

Rustin and his family are far from strangers to success. Rustin is a former DragRaceResults.com Bracket Series World Champion and just last season finished the NHRA season ranked 7th in Super Gas standings. His father Robbie has been a finalist at the annual Million Dollar Race, the richest event in bracket racing. Although the team enjoyed a few highlights; Robbie Mayse advanced to the semi-final round of the LODRS event at the Texas Motorplex; the early months of 2012 did not live up to their expectations.

“We’ve had a bunch of little things go wrong,” explained Mayse. “At the Houston national event, for example, I blew a transmission seal out of the dragster during my burnout first round. Then I came up for Super Gas and broke two rocker arms in the Corvette. I had an outside shot at earning the JEGS All-Stars berth in Super Gas, but the final event was in Belle Rose, LA the weekend of my sister’s high school graduation. We went to graduation, then I drove all night to Belle Rose. I got no sleep, one time trial, and lost first round in both cars. To top off the weekend, I had two blowouts on the way home. Then we went to Denver and chased a problem in the dragster all weekend that ended up being the simplest thing: the throttle cable was loose. But by the time we found that, we’d changed transmission, torque converter, ignition box, and more! It’s just been one of those seasons thus far.”

Talent and good fortune finally came together for Mayse at Tulsa, however, as man and machine combined for an unstoppable team. Mayse led off eliminations with wins over Clayton Nance, Terry Sullivan, Tyler Banks, and Frank Nichols. That earned him a free pass into the final round, where he met up with red hot Jeff Lopez. There, Mayse took a .010 to .034 starting line advantage and held off Lopez to take the win with a 9.933 ET to Lopez’s quicker 9.918.

“After losing first round in Super Comp, I was ready to wait and start over again in 2013! But the ‘ole corvette came through again. It varied just .007 all day Sunday and the driver finally woke up. We managed to win that first 2012 Wally,” said Mayse.

The victory vaulted Rustin into fourth position in the NHRA Division 4 Super Gas ranks, and 17th nationally. His father Robbie is also ranked in the top ten of the NHRA Division 4 Super Street points. Robbie is currently ninth, but has attended less events than each of the competitors currently ahead of him in the standings.

“We’ve got a full month off from racing now to start the summer,” said Mayse. “That will be a nice break, and hopefully we’ll be able to have more success in the latter half of the season. Our plan is to attend the NHRA LODRS events in Topeka, KS, Noble, OK, and Houston, TX as well as the NHRA Full Throttle Series events in Ennis, TX and St. Louis, MO. We’ll mix in as many big money bracket events as we can as well.”

The Mayse team wished to acknowledge their marketing partners for their continued support and role in the team’s success. Those partners include Reeder Distributors, Kendall Motor Oil, Wisec, Huntsville Engine & Performance, TCI, CV Products, Milodon, Comp Cams, American Race Cars, Hoosier Racing Tires, Holley Performance Products, Cometic Gaskets, Afco, and BRODIX Cylinder Heads.