“The car was
unbelievable,” said Jon Siegel. “The run
sheets tell the story. The car moved .001 in my last
five runs. It’s been like that all season.
Actually, it’s been like that ever since I put my
FTI converter in the car. Before the quarterfinals
Dwayne (Roberts, his opponent) asked what I was dialed.
I jokingly said 6.543. I was that confident that number
would come up on the board!”
With just three cars
remaining and a $200,000 payday in clear sight, Siegel
squared off with another Florida racer, Palmetto’s
Jeff Keen. There, Siegel’s wagon once again ran
dead-on, posting a fifth consecutive run within .003 of
his dial-in, with a 6.542. However, an uncharacteristic
.042 reaction time cost Siegel the round and his shot at
Million Dollar race history.
“I’ve got mixed
emotions about the day,” explained Siegel. “On
one hand, it was my first million, we were the last door
car in the race, and after the split we made a ton of
money. It’s hard not to be happy with the
performance. But on the other hand, I was deep in the
million and had the car to win, so it’s
disappointing to not make a good run in the semi’s.”
While his payday at the
million will almost certainly be Siegel’s greatest
memory of the 2009 campaign, it was far from a surprise
for the Florida resident who has driven his FTI Converters
Wagon to over a dozen final round appearances this season.
Siegel, who normally races the Wagon in both electronics
and footbrake competition, scored a $5,000 Footbrake
victory at Emerald Coast Dragway earlier this summer. He
also netted a $2500 victory in the Super Pro category at
Bradenton Motorsports Park. He won a gamblers race at the
NHRA Bracket Finals in South Georgia, and took runner-up
honors in a 6.50 heads-up event the same weekend. He
scored a double victory, winning both Super Pro and
Footbrake in the same night at Sunshine Dragstrip,
arguably one of the toughest weekly bracket tracks in the
country. Outside of his familiar wagon, Siegel has enjoyed
success as well; He won Hot Rod at the IHRA Pro-Am event
in Immokalee, FL at the wheel of Vince Costa’s FTI
Nova, and scored a runner-up at Atco Drag way’s
$10,000-to-win Hoosier Footbrake Nationals in New Jersey.
