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Alcohol ace battled Cowie, breakage to claim third straight season crown
Joey Severance didn't only battle Shawn Cowie for the world championship this season - it just seemed that way. The Northwest rivals battled not only for national supremacy but also for the West Region championship, and they certainly didn't go out of their way to avoid one another. Cowie was present at 13 of the 17 events at which Severance competed, and they faced off against one another on six of those occasions.
In all, 94 drivers accumulated points in 2007, and drivers like secondgeneration phenom Megan Meyer, rookie Justin Ashley, Indy winner Josh Hart, Jackie Fricke, and more certainly made noise and scored wins, but in the end, it boiled down to Severance, the two-time and reigning world champ from Woodburn, Ore., against his Canadian counterpart, Cowie.
The two warred back and forth across the country, and even at the four events they scored when the other was not present, their results almost always mirrored one another. For example, Severance won the NHRA SpringNationals in Houston, and the following weekend Cowie answered with a victory at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, and while Severance was winning at Woodburn Dragstrip, which he co-owns with the...