The marathon 2015 edition of the Street Car Super Nationals here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is drawing to a close today; the heads-up cars will be hitting the track shortly and rolling hot and heavy all day long. We’ll be starting with the Pro-level classes (Outlaw Pro Mod, Pro Mod) and rolling down through the heads-up classes. Stay tuned all day; we’ll be back out on the starting line soon to capture more of the images you all love.
As always, thanks to our event sponsor, Comp Cams, for their support of Dragzine’s race coverage.
ELIMINATION LADDERS
Outlaw 8.5, Hot Street, 235 Limited, XDR
Quarter Mile 10.5, Quarter Mile Radial, Eighth Mile 10.5, Eighth Mile Radial
275 Radial, Turbo Pro Mod, Outlaw Pro Mod
Mark Luton has been on a tear all weekend in Outlaw 10.5 vs Radial eighth-mile, but no more. After a stout 4-flat single pass at 186 mph, some sort of fluid exited the car and got under the tires, sending him into the right-side retaining wall HARD, then spinning back across to the left-side wall…
Where the car burst into some serious flames. The LVMS crew was on the scene almost before the car stopped spinning to extinguish the flames. We have a report that Luton is out of the car and is OK, although we’re sure he’ll be sore tomorrow.
After Mark Luton’s wreck, we caught up with him in the staging lanes — he appeared to be no worse for wear, although he did mention that he was a little bit sore.
Tough break — literally — for #2 qualifier Roy Moznik in the Outlaw 10.5/Radial quarter-mile class, as the car wouldn’t fire before the waterbox and his crew had to push him off.
As if the Bad9er crew wasn’t already stacked with ingenious minds in Jason Michalak, Kyle Huettel, and Billy Stocklin, Frankie Taylor is here providing assistance to the boys.
This is easily one of the most beautiful cars on the property, owned by Doug Paddock. The car's been through some well-known hands; Billy Glidden and Dwayne James are former owners of the chassis, but Paddock has remade the car in his own vision, with the help of some serious players. The paint was handled by Paddock's partner -- none other than Krusty Ramsey -- with a chassis that's been massaged by Justin Kill of Overkill Race Cars, another business partner of Paddock's. Starting to get the hint yet? But wait...there's more.
The engine, originally built by Reher-Morrison, is one of two like it in the entire world, and Paddock owns both of them. This one was picked up from Grant McCrary and Rick Thornton, and consists of a 9.800-inch-deck, 4.900-inch bore billet block and cylinder heads that top out at 581 cubic inches. For this weekend, Paddock has outfitted the car with a pair of Precision 98 mm Gen 2 Pro Mod turbos, which he's never run before. They've been fighting to figure out the converter tuneup with the help of Marty Chance and transmission builder Mark Micke of M &M Transmission. Paddock doubled up in both the 10.5/Radial quarter-mile class and the eighth-mile class just to get as many passes on the car as possible. Was it worth it? Of course it was, as he dispatched none other than Roger Holder in the first round of the quarter-mile class with a stout 6.54 at 232 mph.
Doug’s confidence prior to his run with Holder. Maybe we’re a good-luck charm?
Not unexpectedly, Jason Michalak continues his roll through the eighth-mile radial field, as he’s put Steven Fereday and Taylor Lastor on the trailer on his way to the final round, where he’ll face either Paddock or Nick Yarber.
In honor of our friend — and announcer extroardinaire — Al Tucci, who didn’t make it here, this is one heck of a BEEEEEAUUUTIFUL SMOKY BURNOUT! We miss ya, Al!
A surprising early exit in the Outlaw/Radial eighth-mile class came for Rick Thornton, who lost fire on the starting line and couldn’t get the car restarted in time.
Chris Groves continues his run in the 275 class. Last round he had a single run when Lafayette Williams didn’t make the call.
There’s a little something for everyone here at the Street Car Super Nationals.
Three of the sharpest minds in the business — Mark Menscer (left middle), Rich Bruder (right middle), and Tom Kundrik (right) of Mickey Thompson Tires. Not sure who the guy in the red shirt is..maybe he was trying to learn something by eavesdropping?
Although he brought it here in a trailer, Darce Laws isn’t afraid to cruise this beautiful beast, as you might deduce from the windshield banners. Laws qualified 25th in the monster Outlaw 8.5 class with a stout 5.23 at 138 mph. Although he’s already out of competition after the first round, that’s a pretty stout showing for a real street car that sees hard miles. Who doesn’t love a 3,700 pound ’65 Oldsmobile 442 running this quickly? Someone who doesn’t appreciate drag racing, that’s who.
Lots of iPad video shooters this weekend.
Yet another show-stopper we found is this cross-breed ’93 Fox Body/LS combo owned by Brian Brooks from the Denver area. This weekend is the maiden voyage for the car, which took Brooks and his crew the last year-and-a-half to build.
Brooks is part of the Paddock/Ramsey crowd (Ramsey painted the car) and has outfitted it with a 448ci, Paul Klyczek-built LS engine that's topped with a set of All Pro heads and pumped up with a ProCharger F-1X supercharger. He didn't even arrive on the property until Saturday, as weather in the Denver area turned him around and prevented him from getting here on Thursday. The chassis was originally built by Steve Matukas, then updated by Chris Lunsford at Lunsford Engineering. In the interest of speeding up the line-out process, Brooks has the Bruder Brothers here to assist with tuning. He's already advanced to the third round, where he'll face Jacky McCarty.
Not only did he sponsor the event, but Troy Coughlin took home the big prize over Andrew Berry in Outlaw Pro Mod. We’d bet there will be expensive cigars turning to ash in the Jegs pits tonight.
Tony Aneian used a monster holeshot to take out Dwight Ausmus in the final round of Hot Street tonight.
Art Williams owns this fun little ’63 Nova, which was driven this weekend in Outlaw 8.5 by Chris Kephart. Yellowbullet members will better know Kephart as AJ’s dad. The Nova is motivated by a 406 small-block Chevy topped off with a set of Airflow Research cylinder heads, and is filled with a Scat crankshaft and connecting rods along with Ross pistons.
Believe it or not, the car is still street-legal, and Williams drives it to local shows regularly. Kephart and Wiliams are longtime friends, and Kephart was behind the wheel this weekend as Williams is scheduled for neck surgery. The car runs in 235 Limited with extra motivation from a 200-horse shot of Edelbrock nitrous. Caltracks bars and a Mike's Trasmissions Ultimate Turbo400 are also onboard. The team battled through ignition problems all weekend, ultimately using three different ignition boxes before finally sorting out the problem. Williams has crewed in the past for Kephart and also Ryan 'Toaster' Jones, and the knowledge he's gained as a result has been invaluable. A cool budget ride that's bound to be a monster once it's all sorted out and they can put the full load of nitrous to it.
It appears that Clint Hairston’s team has gotten a handle on the consistency of the Quick Drive setup with their turbo car. Hairston ripped off a 5.75 at 253 mph in the semifinal round of the Turbo Pro Mod class to take out Troy Coughlin Jr.’s 5.87, then came right back up and turned in an identical pass in the final round –5.75 at 253 mph — to send Kevin Fiscus back to Florida and claim the big trophy, and plenty of promoter Mel Roth’s money along with it.
From number-one-qualifier straight to the winner’s circle; Jim Tanner outlasted the rest of the ProCharger 235 Limited field to take home the prize.
Jason MIchalak put on a clinic this weekend in the Outlaw 10.5 vs. Radial eighth-mile class. Although he was scheduled to race against Nick Agostino in the tire vs. tire final round, Agostino had the rods exit the engine in the 10.5 final against Dean Bettenson and couldn’t make the call. Michalak, true to form as the radial badass, made the decision to put on a show for the few fans left and make a single hit. Congrats to the Bad9er team on their performance!
Not only did he take home the win at the St. Louis Street Car Super Nationals earlier this year, Jason Collins doubled up with a victory here tonight over Anthony Smith on a holeshot, .050 to .099. At the stripe, Collins’ 4.89 at 142 mph was just quick enough to put Smith’s quicker 4.85 at 150 onto the trailer.
This guy just wins, everywhere he goes. The final round of Xtreme Drag Radial saw John Urist’s Fox Mustang up against the blown combination of Roger Rydell. At the end of the track, nearly identical elapsed times — 4.399 for Urist, 4.392 for Rydell — appeared, but the difference was on the starting line, as Urist simply chopped the tree down and left it in Rydell’s lap as he streaked to the win.
Jacky McCarty made the trip back to Virginia a very happy one when he took the win in 275 Radial over Chase Driskell, when Driskell didn’t move off the starting line. McCarty hammered the track, crossing the stripe with a 4.85 at 153.37 mph.
With track temperatures dropping quickly, and the amount of runs that were put onto the Outlaw 10.5/Radial quarter-mile machines, Steve Nicholson and Doug Paddock decided to play rock/paper/scissors to determine the runoff winner, and Nicholson came out on top.
The whole reason we’re here until 1AM on a Sunday night. We hear there’s some cash attached to each one.
