Chris Bear wins $50K Thursday at SFG 500

Chris Bear wins $50K on Thursday at the SFG 500 at US 131 Motorsports Park.

MARTIN, MICH. – After a massive field of 660 racers entered the SFG Wednesday $20,000 Warm Up you had to know the crowd would only get bigger. As anticipation grows for the largest paying drag race in history, the fields continue to increase.

Massive Fields

Thursday’s $50,000 bracket race saw an overwhelming 711 entries make the first round call. The huge field only made it through a couple of rounds on Thursday before officials pushed the completion to Friday. The Thursday $50K picked up on Friday morning beginning with the third round.

Kyle Cutrera wins SFG 500 $20K Warm Up at US 131 Motorsports Park

Thursday $50K Race Results

As the day progressed, the field dwindled until only five cars remained in the quarterfinal round. On the doorcar side, Gage Burch defeated Jeremy McKague to advance. Burch combined a .014 light and .02 above his dial to take the .002 win over McKague’s .017 and .02 above.

The dragster side saw Hunter Patton defeat Jeremy York to advance to the semifinals. Hunter was .005 take .011 stripe to go .02 above for the win. York’s .026 and .01 over came up short against the talented Texas racer. Chris Bear grabbed the bye in the quarterfinals.

Gage Burch earned the semifinal bye in his Ford Ranger pickup while Bear and Patton battled for their spot in the final round. In that match up, Bear’s .014 take .007 was just enough to advance him to the $50,000 final. Patton was .013 and .014 above in a losing effort.

The $50,000 final round saw Chris Bear dialed 4.73 in his dragster against Gage Burch in the pickup dialed 6.53. Both drivers nailed the tree with Gage taking a slight .003 to .005 advantage. At the stripe, Gage took .012 to go -.001 under while Bear rang up a dead nine lap. Bear’s .014 total was good for the $50,000 payday.

Ladies Shootout Winner – Erica Baker

The race weekend continues with another $50,000 to win race starting on Friday. Based on the huge car counts, the plan is to race a couple of rounds on Friday and complete Friday’s $50K on Sunday.

That leaves Saturday open for the largest single payday in drag racing history. Racers will compete for a guaranteed winner’s purse of $525,000.

DragChamp will have complete race results and coverage throughout the weekend.

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