Looking at the sheer number of racers, vendors, and spectators that made their way to the 2014 NMCA Fontana Street Car Nationals, you would never have believed that the Auto Club Dragway hadn’t been used in three years. The folks at the NMCA worked overtime to bring everything together for the grand re-opening — including dragging rubber over the blacktop for fourteen days straight–and managed to pull off a huge success with the event.
ARP Outlaw 8.5
NMCA West’s eighth-mile really-small-tire class drew seven entries at Fontana, with qualifying led by George Raygoza. His 5.160 pass was followed by Dan Hale at 5.375, Jimmy Grace with a best of 5.393, and Erik Carlstedt at 5.513 to round out the top half of the field.
In eliminations, things started off with a close call. Grace, paired with number six qualifier Eric Outlawd in the first round, ran an off-pace 6.283 to Outlawd’s winning 5.438, but Outlawd’s Mustang trailed smoke at the eighth mile finish line and drifted so close to the wall that the track crew came out to check for debris. The second pair matched Carlstedt and fifth-qualified Steve Fulghan, with the reaction time advantage and the win going to Carlstedt, and Fulghan trailing smoke past the 60-foot mark. Hale got the go-ahead into the semis when number seven qualifier Kevin Crain struck the tires off the line but still managed to run a sub-six-second pass. Finally, the odd-numbered field gave a first round competition bye to Raygoza, which he used as another test pass, running it out to a 5.185.
The semis matched Hale and Outlawd first in a close race to the eighth, with Hale taking a slight lead at the hit and building on it to a 5.301 to 5.359 win. Raygoza and Carlstedt had another close, clean race, with Raygoza driving around a .098-.147 holeshot to cross the finish first, 5.354 to Carlstedt’s 5.481.
In the 8.5 final, a brief staging battle took place before Raygoza bumped in first. Hale upped his game, delivering a .03 holeshot, and found a couple hundredths of a second to add to it down track compared to his previous best run, clocking 5.271 to Raygoza’s 5.279, earning him the win.
Lucas Oil N/A 10.5
Defending class champ Tony Aneian led N/A 10.5 qualifying with a best of 8.122 at 168.37 miles an hour, with Gypsy Mike Valentino second at 8.226, and Randy Jones third at 8.262 in the seven car field.
On Sunday, the first pair in the water box were fourth-qualified Bryan Cobbett and number five qualifier Joe Keurjikian. A big reaction time advantage and a clean 8.339 pass to Keurjikian’s 8.847 gave Cobbett the go-ahead. Next up were Jones and number six qualifier Brad Udell. After a bit of trouble getting his Cavalier staged up, Jones relinquished a .05 reaction time advantage to Udell, but picked up the front tires and carried them out past the 60-foot lights and ran to an 8.348-8.534 victory. Gypsy Mike got an unexpected bye when Bruce Kent was a no-show, and ran it out to a 9.009, trailing smoke and triggering a pause while the crew made sure the track was free of oil. Finally, Aneian got to take his odd-field single and carried the fronts quite a way down track with an 8.140 at 162 and change.
Aneian and Cobbett were first in the semis – Cobbett was ahead for the first few feet thanks to a holeshot, but Aneian reeled him in quickly and went on to the finals with an even-quicker 8.078 to Cobbett’s 8.223. On the other side of the ladder, Valentino got another gift in the semis when Jones had to be pushed back at the starting line, and ran another wheels-up pass, this time clocking an 8.233.
The final round seemed like a foregone conclusion, with Aneian on an eight-oh pace and Gypsy Mike running no better than mid twenties. Perhaps in an attempt to get into Aneian’s head, Valentino double-bulbed and pulled all the way in while Aneian was still well back, and it might have worked – when the ambers dropped, Gypsy Mike was away with a .086 light, while Aneian clocked a glacial 1.069, and limped down track on a thirteen second pass while Valentino ran to the winner’s circle with an 8.312.
ProCharger Street Outlaw
Six cars qualified in Street Outlaw, led by class overdog Kevin Young at 7.581. Ryan “Toaster” Jones was second, with his Chevy II clocking a best of 7.649, bracketed by Kevin’s brother Jeff at 7.721 to round out the top of the ladder and the seven-second club.
Jeff Young ended up the victim of mechanical woes on Sunday, though, and couldn’t make the call in the first round against Armen Maghdessian, who stood his shoebox Chevy on the bumper and clocked an 8.119 single pass. Toaster paired up with fifth qualified James Lawrence, and nobody was more surprised than we were when our boss Lawrence took the holeshot and never looked back, winning 7.526 to Jones’ 7.683. The celebration was exceedingly brief, however – a parachute mishap sent Lawrence into the gravel trap at the top end of the track, resulting in cosmetic damage to the nose of the Camaro and packing grit into every crevice. After the Camaro was extracted from the top end, Kevin Young and Chice Coleman paired up. Coleman took a big holeshot lead, but struck the tires and lifted, while Young flew to a clean 7.557 pass, moving on to a ladder bye straight through the semis to the final round.
While his crew had done everything possible in the time available to get the gravel out of his Chevy, when Lawrence and Maghdessian paired up to see who would face Young in the finals, there was still enough left to cause problems. At the hit the Camaro was all over the place, making several big swings side to side and nearly contacting the wall before crossing the center line, fortunately far behind Maghdesssian. That set the final round pairing, and when the moment of truth came, Young’s leisurely .139 light wasn’t a factor – Maghdessian stood his car up again, while Young ran hot, straight, and true to the finish line, winning Street Outlaw 7.454 to 8.296.
Mickey Thompson Tires True 10.5
Mark Luton led the TT5 qualifying ranks with a 6.750 at 219.79 miles an hour, followed (albeit distantly) by the second MMR car piloted by Dana Cook with a 7.412, Johnny Coleman with a 7.454, and finally Bert Heck at 12.305. The first round was also the semi-finals thanks to the four car field, and things kicked off with Cook versus Coleman. Cook took the starting line advantage and ran to a clean 7.426, while Coleman had to pedal his Chevy through the first half of the track, finally lifting for good at the thousand foot mark. Luten earned the other slot in the final round when Heck posted a lackluster quarter-second RT and struck the tires at sixty feet.
The all MMR final was over before it really began, with Cook jumping the gun to the tune of a -.230 redlight. She still posted a respectable 7.334 quarter mile, while Luton took his time to savor the win light in his lane, cruising to an 8.746.
Garrett Turbo Pro Mod
Despite having the fewest cubic inches in the field, John Mihovetz took top qualifying honors in the eight car Pro Mod field, running 5.187 to the thousand foot mark. John Scialpi pushed his big Tri-Five Chevy to second spot with a 5.268, Greg Seth-Hunter was right behind with a 5.271, and Scott Oksas rounded out the top half of the field at 5.428. Defending Pro Mod champ Joe Lepone, Jr. was fifth at 5.493, with Rick Snavely running 5.678, Robert Costa at 6.207, and Andrew Berry completing the class with a best-but-broken 13.525.
Lepone was the first casualty on Sunday, going down to Oksas 5.385 to 5.477. Next up were Snavely and Seth-Hunter – after grabbing a huge holeshot, Snavely carried the tires to the 330, while Seth-Hunter edged left and got into the centerline dust, falling behind and ending his day. Scialpi and Costa were next in line, with Scialpi giving up the round when his car made a hard swing about a hundred feet out and he had to lift to save the bodywork. The final first round pairing went to Mihovetz – though Berry put together a solid 6.184 pass, it was no competition for the turbo Mustang’s blazing 5.165.
The semis began with a dramatic match between Costa and Snavely; Snavely took the holeshot but was immediately in trouble, pedaling the car and trying to reign things in as Costa passed, but losing control and crossing the center line before yanking it back in and hitting the wall in his own lane. Fortunately, Snavely was unharmed, and the car was slated for retirement anyway, but nobody likes to see a race go down like that. Once the track was cleared, Mihovetz and Oksas lined up to decide who would race Costa in the finals. Mihovetz took a full tenth bite out of Oksas at the tree, and would need it, as the Camaro pulled hard down track but ran out of room before catching up, sending the Mustang to the finals.
The Pro Mod money round saw Mihovetz on the losing end of a one tenth holeshot from Costa, but traction, not reaction, decided the winner. Both drivers were in and out of the throttle all the way down the track, with Mihovetz ultimately able to pedal a bit better and skate to a 6.535 to 7.472 win.