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Sunday Elimination Notes

A couple of updates from the track here in Las Vegas as we work our way through the starting rounds of competition. As always, we’d like to extend special thanks to our event coverage sponsor Mickey Thompson. Check out their great line of wheels and tires at www.mickeythompsontires.com.

If you wondered whether the heat of the day was going to slow down Mike Maggio from his 6.001 pace last night, his competition single in round 1 was only .016 slower, and he carried another three MPH through the traps.

Sometimes getting to the finish line first doesn't earn you the win - Mike Bowman had left Sean Renteria for dead in their first round Pro Street Pairing, right up until he got loose and kicked the reflector blocks over into Renteria's lane. It's hard to argue you didn't cross the line when the evidence is bouncing around in the other guy's lane...

Vic Brum (in the near lane) looked like he was going to get an odd-field first round single in Hot Street, but Tony Aneian, who broke on his only qualifying attempt yesterday, was laddered against him as an "all run" entry and ended up stealing the trip to the finals from Brum.

Final Results – All Classes

Pro Street

Over the weekend, everyone’s attention was focused on Mike Maggio in Pro Street. Coming off of a high-5-second pass in practice, he qualified number one with a 6.001 pass late on Saturday, and the question wasn’t so much whether he’d win the event than if he would do it with the first five in competition. His ladder bye first round netted a 6.017, which demonstrated that the conditions weren’t going to be a huge handicap, then rattled off a 6.000 against Kelly Bluebaugh in round 2. The semi-finals paired him against John Scialpi, but a red light on the other side of the tree meant even though Maggio “only” ran 6.055, he would still be going to the last round.

Meanwhile, Rod Burbage was quietly working his way through the far side of the ladder, or at least as quietly as is possible in a blown Pro Street Corvette. Qualified third, Burbage drew #20 on the roster, Andrew Berry, for the opening round. After taking almost a tenth lead at the tree, Burbage never looked back, running 6.116 to Berry’s 7.010. Round 2 was closer at the start, with Burbage only .01 ahead of Joe Lepone, Jr. off the line, but with Lepone’s Camaro trailing expensive smoke from before half-track, it was all over long before the finish line. The semis paired Burbage with John Mihovetz to see who would get to take on Maggio, and Mihovetz was late on the tree, then rattled the tires to boot.

That set the final round, and on paper it looked like a gimmie for Maggio – carrying more than a tenth over Burbage, it should have been a done deal. But when they paired up, Maggio hit the snooze button when the ambers flashed, and left with a .240 light, while Burbage went for broke and cut a .020, his best reaction of the day. Maggio’s Camaro still had a six-oh in it, and Burbage was on a six-teen pass, so everyone held their breath until the scoreboards lit up with the stunning news; Burbage had won the race at the tree, with Maggio’s quicker 6.014 at 244.47 MPH not enough to get around the Corvette’s 6.131 at 236.46.

As a post-script, after both cars were scaled and cleared tech, there was some question about activity by crew members caught on one of the on-board video cameras. PSCA officials immediately impounded (for lack of a better word) Burbage’s car, inspected it for loose ballast, and re-weighed it, finding that it came up the same as it did the first time and nipping any potential controversy in the bud. Congratulations to Burbage and his team on the win, and kudos to the PSCA organization for working diligently to ensure both the fairness of competition and to protect the reputations of racers when a question arises.

Outlaw 10.5

Rick Snavely was the only Outlaw 10.5 racer with a six next to his name in Saturday qualifying, and that trend would continue on Sunday. But as they say, pobody’s nerfect, and after the first round against a sleeping Mark Lutton (who pulled a .330 light to Snavely’s .028), the team discovered they’d hurt the rear gears in the Garret Mustang. While Bothwell Motorsports doesn’t exactly travel light and had a spare set to swap, they still only took a leisurely 10-second pass in the ladder bye their number one qualifier spot had earned them in the semis, saving their mojo for the final round.

Meeting Snavely there would be number two qualifier Ron Weems, who had gotten out of the first round race against Deron Growe where it looked like both drivers were competing to see who could see the most green – Weems’ .486 was slow, but Growe’s .513 was slower. Chris Kephart was next in round 2, but even though he tree’d Weems, .072 to .121, the big red Goat pulled around on the top end and Weems won, 7.028 to 7.270.

In the money round, Weems got it together at the tree, gaining a slight .022-to-.031 advantage on Snavely, but even Weem’s second-best pass of the weekend, 7.006 at 194 and change, wasn’t enough to hold off Snavely’s 6.820 at 215.79.

Extreme Drag Radial

Xtreem Drag Radial (or XDR, as I will shorten it to so as not to have to type “Xtreem” again) came down to number one versus number two in a battle of second-gen Camaros. Top qualifier Brant Campbell earned a first-round bye, then knocked off fifth-qualified Jeff Longden in the semis despite giving up a .293-.143 holeshot. Number two on the ladder, Al Jimenez, had no trouble at all getting out of the first round when his opponent Steve De Young sat for a full four and a half seconds looking at the green bulb, then got another no-contest win when Terry Barkley limped to a 19-second pass in the semis. The final round in XDR was a little more exciting, with near identical reactions off the line and an honest race to the finish. In the end, Jimenez simply had more left in the tank, running 7.589 at 193.93 to Campbell’s 8.442 at 183.37.