20 Loy cut a .017 light to beat David Bigham from Calhoun, Ga., in a first-round matchup. After getting past Travis Peake from Elkin, S.C., in round two, it set up his best reaction time of the day, a .002 light in a round-three win over Tim Butler from Sarasota, Fla. “If I had just won the first round, I would have been tickled to death,” he said. “Our goal was just to win the first round and the next thing you know, we’re in the money runs. Everything kept falling my way and it was super exciting.” Loy had a better reaction time again to beat Timmy Roe from Paris, Ky., in round four and then advanced to the next round when Jeff Flood from Mocksville, N.C. red-lighted. After making a single pass in the semifinals, he got off to a slightly better start (.026 to .028) against Chris Black from Butler, Pa., in the final round. However, Black stayed strong and edged him for the win. Still, Loy was proud of a family effort as he and his father, Randy, do all the motor and transmission work on a 1967 Chevelle with a 383-cubic inch small block engine and nine-inch racing slicks. “It ain’t much to look at,” he said. “But, my dad knows how to set the suspension up. When I started racing it six years ago, it didn’t work near as good as it does now. There’s been a lot of suspension work we’ve done and it’s really good. But, we do all the work on the car. Nobody touches that car, but us.” LOY’S PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS COMPETITION OF IHRA SUMMIT SUPERSERIES PROGRAM Travis Loy barely won the International Hot Rod Assocation (IHRA) Summit SuperSeries championship at his home track of Knoxville Dragway. Just weeks later, he came within one round of becoming the Mod World Champion at the IHRA World Finals. “I didn’t think I was going to win the points. The last two races I was down six rounds to the guy ahead of me,” Loy said about his hometown track. “I won the last two races to win the points and it was still close. To do as well as I did at the World Finals, that was a thrill.” He didn’t go into the IHRA Summit World Finals with many expectations. The 37-year-old labor union worker from Harriman, Tenn., had a major goal of just winning his first race. Instead, he got on a major roll during Mod (No Box) eliminations.