Kayla Mozeris Makes History at Toyota U.S. Nationals
Drag Racing Action Online
Images Phil Hutchison, Mashie Mihalko, and courtesy Kayla Mozeris
Drag racing history and the NHRA U.S. Nationals are synonymous. So many firsts have occurred on the hallowed grounds that one loses sight of just how many great historical events take place during the week know as the Big Go.
Carnasciale, near lane, is off the line first but Mozeris tracked him down for the U.S. Nationals win
Winning her first Competition Eliminator title to add to her Super Stock and Stock trophies was second generation racer Kayla Mozeris. Mozeris from Phoenix AZ defeated D1 racer Joe Carnasciale in the finals at Indy with a 0.552 under 7.418 in the Neff & Mozeris Racing Ford powered K/AA as Carnasciale, who had the better light, lost with a 0.457 under 8.993 in the Carnasciale family I/SM Cavalier. The win at Indy made her the first woman to win in Competition Eliminator at the Big Go.
With the largest field of Comp car in the country vying for the 70th Annual U.S. Nationals title, getting through six rounds of competition was grueling.
Mozeris had the added burden, if you would call it that, of competing on Friday’s “Race within a Race” the RoofTec Comp Clash. The Clash, the brainchild of Rodger Brogdon and his RoofTec brand rewards racers in the top 16 in points in the Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund.
Mozeris and her team partner Cali Neff worked their way through Friday’s Clash field to meet in an historic all female/team final. As it worked out Cali took the win in the family J/DA over Mozeris in a close race. With both racers having nearly identical reaction times and it took Neff’s -0.566 7.654 run to Mozeris’ close -0.531 7.499 pass for the big win.
Friday’s Clash final had teammates Neff, far lane, and Mozeris up against each other in an historic all female final
“We really benefited from running the Comp Cash Clash early in the weekend,” Mozeris said. “It gave us extra runs down the track and additional looks at the tree. That may have been the difference between coming away with the Wally or empty handed. Overall, we turned on 9 win lights in 10 elimination rounds between both races.”
“Cali is my teammate and friend. Being able to showcase both of Clint Neff’s cars in the final round of the Cash Clash was an experience we will never forget. There was no pressure going into that final round. Regardless of who turned on the win light, Neff & Mozeris racing was taking home all the cash ($64,000)!”
Friday night’s winner’s circle had the Neff/Mozeris team all smiles
“To see Cali win her first race meant more to me than if I would’ve turned the win light on. We win and lose as a team. The last thing I said to her before we suited up was “Hey, let’s give them a good show”, and we did just that! We were the only two females to qualify in the group of top 16 drivers for the Cash Clash. We also made a little history by becoming the first all female Comp final to run in the history of the NHRA.”
NHRA Competition Eliminator is unique not only for the wide selection of cars and powerplants used, but to keep the playing field as level as possible, the NHRA institutes a CIC (Competition Index Control system) to keep parity if a particular car or combination is too quick in relation to the class index. During eliminations, a competitor who runs more than a half-second (.50) under their index will have their index temporarily reduced by one hundredth (.01) for each hundredth under that they ran.
So, between needing to win the race, drivers must also be aware of how quick they are going in relationship to their index. It’s a precarious balance.
In Mozeris’ case during eliminations, she kept it clean in round one, but things became to unravel in R2 when she crushed her 8.14 index with a 0.575 under 7.565 hitting her with a 0.07 CIC penalty. Her competition in that round, the A/A of Scott Linder lost traction and shut off but Mozeris, unaware of his issues, kept her foot in it despite her crew screaming on the starting line to click it off. For some reason she couldn’t hear them a quarter mile away.
Round two had Mozeris taking her first CIC hit of eliminators beating the A/A of Linder
Round three found Mozeris running of an 8.07 index, but it didn’t matter as she dispatched Brian Browell’s D/D with a 0.511 under 7.599. Again, getting a hundredth taken away from her index.
So now Mozeris is running of an 8.06 index in the quarter finals against RoofTec president Roger Brogdon. Luckily for Mozeris Brogdon had a terrible RT and she slipped by for a 0.498 under 7.562 to get to the semis.
“Coming into the semis my crew chief and I both agreed that we didn’t come this far to only come this far,” Mozeris said. “If taking personal index (PI) was necessary, we were going to do it.”
And as it worked out, Mozeris did just that. Crushing the 8.06 index with a 0.596 under 7.464. beating the C/DA of Don Thomas who was right there with a 0.525 under 6.905 in the loss.
This is what taking too much stripe looks like but hey, it’s Indy
“I have no regrets about taking PI. (Personal Index) I don’t know if I’ll ever be in the position to win this race again. Win or lose, I wanted to know that I left it all on the table.”
This set up the finals against Carnasciale with Mozeris running off a 7.97 index. As stated earlier, Carnasciale got the better RT but Mozeris wanted the Indy title as bad as anyone could have and once again blew out the index with a 0.552 under run to claim the U.S. Nationals.
Carnasciale, near lane got himself into some CIC problems in his semifinal win against Todd Frantz costing the Rhode Island driver over a tenth off his index
To put things in perspective Mozeris started the weekend off with an 8.14 class index. She left Indy with a PI index of 8.04 not counting the temporary 7.97 she had in the finals.
“Win or lose we wanted to know we left it all on the table. I wanted to take PI in the last two rounds knowing I could win, versus losing because I was trying to save the index and forever live with that regret. I may never be in this position again to win Indy, so we let it all hang out.”
“After I had won the first round, I had this overwhelming gut feeling that we were going to win the race. It was a feeling I wholeheartedly believed. Our win lights kept coming on and we kept doing a decent job of protecting the index down track.”
“I was fortunate to share the national event stage with my father back in 2021 when he won in Comp, and I won in Super Stock in Denver. I thought that would be the pinnacle of any event win in my life. Now, when I roll into the water box for the remainder of my career, I will be remembered as a U.S. Nationals champion. This is a race that was on my bucket list to win, as is every racer, but I didn’t know if realistically it would ever happen. It takes a lot of moving parts and things falling into place at the right time to win any event, let alone the Big Go.”
“I have been fortunate to win three national events now: Las Vegas 2013-Stock Eliminator, Denver 2021-Super Stock, Indy 2024-Comp Eliminator. I’m very proud to say that I’m a three time winner in three different classes.
“Overall, I’m proud to be a part of this Neff & Mozeris Racing team. We came into the week with three comp cars and crushed the weekend with a Cash Clash win (my teammate Cali) & runner up (me) and bringing home the US Nationals Wally. It was a true team sweep!”
I must thank so many people for the win starting with Clint, Cali & Jaime Neff (car owners). Joe, Robbie, Amanda & Tawnie Mozeris (my family)
Brian & Greg Willson ,Lance & Brandi Jarman,Gee George
Steve Szupka, Rodger Brogdon & RoofTec,The Hudson Family
The Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund, Panhandle Performance Engines, i70 & Harlan Towing,Advanced Automotive, Inc. and DistribAire, Inc.and lastly Derek Howard.
Division One Comp racer Steve Szupka who currently leads the NED in points had this to say about Kayla’s Indy win. “I have followed Kayla’s career from Stock thru Comp and got to meet her thru Clint and the Neff family.”
“To see her win in Comp at Indy and Cali in the RoofTec Comp Clash was awesome! Great things happen to great people, and it couldn’t have happened to better people than Kayla, Cali, Clint and the Neff family.”