Once again we are under a rain delay this morning after a shower put a stop to round one eliminations after a delay getting started. We will be here providing our same day coverage through to the finish tonight so stay tuned for the latest track and pit updates.
Bradenton, Florida based Wesley Lee gets the “Boondock” award for the weekend being the last car in in the pits on the top end of the track. He has been racing “The Pineapple” Mustang for about 6 months after swapping the engine from his S-10 pickup and was entered in 10.0 index before losing a close match in round one this morning.
Open Comp racer Alex Couret is based out of Margate, Florida running this 1969 Plymouth Valient with a 358 cubic inch NASCAR based small block Mopar built by Danny Glad running in the mid 9’s at 142 MPH. He has been in Florida for about fifteen years after moving from The Bronx, NY. The car is a converted grudge car that saw many street battles in the northeast back in the day. “ My best run this weekend was a 9.42 at 142, I’m just driving trying to have a good time this weekend and have a good time with my friends.” Alex Couret
The Voss Racing crew had to pull and engine swap this morning getting back to the track about 5:30 this morning from their shop in Live Oak. They grabbed their crew man Mike Murphy’s shortblock and threw the top end from the spare engine on it last night and set it back in PDRA Extreme 632 Champion Dillon Voss’ Suncoast Chassis Corvette this morning. “We had a good year with the PDRA winning three of four events and setting PDRA record with a 4.27. Crew chief Cory Voss is shown at left with brother and driver Dillon.
Long time Florida racer Randy Blackmon is here in Outlaw X632 with his home built Nova based out of Miami, Florida. Randy runs a Little Chief 440 cubic inch small block and is the former owner of the Popeye Camaro driven by multi time Pro Street and Pro Mod Champion Pat Musi.
The Daytona Boyz have a new car in the stable with Robert Padget here sorting out his new Outlaw X632 Camaro running a single stage combo in the class. John Townsend’s Red Rum Nova is the new number one on Florida’s Top Ten list which was contested here last weekend at the Stick Shift Mafia Cash Days event. Jeff Kittle’s Outlaw Racing Fuels is a big supporter of the team.
We got started with Extreme Pro Mod in the early afternoon with the invocation done by RFC Chaplins Jeff Berdahl and Jerry Grieninger with announcer Lee Sebring pictured at the left.
Round One Elimination Results
Billy Glidden and Chris Cline were the first pair out in Extreme Pro Mod with Cline going red by .006. Both cars went down in what would have been a good match with Glidden (near lane) coming away with the round win with his 3.840 at 190.
In a father vs son match George Williams III met up with his son George. Both racers were anxious and left early, a .004 to .007 with the younger racer earnign the win and running a 3.796 at 198 MPH to a 3.82 for his father.
Number six qualifier Chuck Ulsch was paired with Rick Hord’s Maximum Effort IV Corvette. Hord was away first with a .035 light running a 3.78 at 202 for his best run of the weekend to Ulsch’s 3.81.
Todd Tutterow matched up with Ken Lang in a blower battle with Tutterow earning a .010 advantage on the tree. He ran hard scoring a 3.74 at 199.17 to Lang’s 3.91 and will advance to round two. Crew Chief Brad Schmidt shown with Denise Tutterow.
The last pair featured Jay Cox and Colby Barber with Cox getting away first. Colby had figured the tune up last night and he was running hard on the top end scoring a nice 208 MPH run and best of weekend 3.88 but it wasn’t enough to overcome Cox’s 3.763 at 199.
Kristian Nystrom had the earned single in the Pro Mod B field and ran well to just past half track before lifting. Here car owner Adam Flamholc (center) directs the car back.
Wayne Smozanek was qualified ninth and had a single due to Ken Cruz not being able to make the round. He scored his weekends best run with a 3.95 at 184 MPH.
Scott Husted faced of with Tip Dotson in round one of Heavy Street laying down a 5.61 at 205 through the traps. to Dotson’s 6.91 at 152.
Gary Gonzalez is running the East Side Performance 1999 Camaro this weekend getting things dialed in for Kaitlen Quartuccio who will take over driving the car this winter with plans to run in Outlaw 632 with her father Ken. He is qualified eighth in Heavy Street with the team focusing on Ken’s car in X632. The car is powered by a C&S built big Chevy with nitrous plumbed and set up by Richard Beaumont. His opponent Nick Bernardo jumped the start with Gonzalez car stalled as he mashed the throttle going on the trans brake. He got the lucky round win on the foul start after re-firing the car and taking the tree.
in the all green match up Eric Kenward faced off with Rick Prosspero’s RX7 with just .001 separating the two racers on the tree. They were side by side to the stripe with Prospero just edging out Kenward’s wagon with a 6.307 at 166 to Kenward’s game 6.315 at 165.
Chris Bruntz earned his way to round two over Devin Yankey’s box Nova running a 6.19 at 160.
Number one qualifier Ken Quartuccio got into a power wheelie and pedaled his way to a 4.36 on his earned single.
Robert Sellers was paired with Mark Hoagland who is here at his second race with the teams new car. Sellers would take the win with a 4.52 in the ARC sponsored Plymouth.
Jeff Ensslin was unable to engage reverse after the burnout in the Still Doin Time 37 Chevy allowing Dwaine Kessler to move to round two uncontested.
Ken Kershaw also had an opponent broke bye where he ran a 4.49 at 158 MPH showing he and Clayton Murphy are working things out int eh new car.
Dillon Voss ran well with the new engine going A to B with a 4.367 at 165.
Don Lamana scored his best of weekend run in Ol 10.5 vs Radial, a 4.15 at 184.
Jeff Miller played it safe on the tree against Ron Fisher scoring a round win with a 4.02 at 187.
Tony Alm faced off with Tyler Ronx in TRZ Ultra Street earning the round with a 4.75 at 147 as Ronx rode the ring gear to a huge wheelstand before smashing down hard and taking out the transmission pan oiling the track resulting in a long clean up.
Eric Kenward’s “Wheelie Wagon ” lived up to it’s name in round two of Outlaw 10.5 vs Radial as he put the power to it and rode out a big wheel stand. Miller would advance with a 4.04.
Hall scored a 4.022 at 177 for his effort in a semi final single.
Mike Freeman spun away his chances against Hannah Sanders (far lane) in round two of TRZ Ultra Street, she ran a 5.01 at 142 on the pass.
Tony Alm (near lane) went .013 against Brian Keep in the semi finals going a 4.76 at 147 to Keep’s 4.771 at a hard charging 148 MPH to earn the win.
Temple, Georgia’s David Reese was piloting this black Corvette and was sixth int he Pro Mod B field. He met up with Ruben T in the semi final and got a late sater at the tree. Bother racers were off pace with Ruben earning his way to the final with a 4.289 to Reese’s close 4.292, the pair were side by side but for the reaction time difference.
Wade Gullet qualified eighth in Top Sportsman and made it two rounds before running up against number fourteen Scott Kervin in the semi finals. He would play catch up as the faster car with nearly identical reactions it would be Kervin’s 67 Cuda to the stripe first with a 5.378 on 5.36 dial to earn the round.
Don Lamana slowed in his round two effort vs Mo Hall but only after breaking loose near half track as Wade Hopkins from Southern Speed Racing, Don and Matt LaRue had found some issues with the engine dropping cylinders on his earlier 4.15. He would be allowed a test pass later earning a 4.10 at 176 but still not a hundred percent.
Round two of Extreme Pro Mod had some interesting action with Adler jumping early against Williams and Salemi earning her way past Rick Hord on ET with a 3.7837 at 200 to Hord’s quick .011 reaction 3.77 at 203. Tutterow repaid the favor in the semi final scoring a 3.747 at 200 MPH win despite giving up .010 on the tree to Salemi’s 3.76 at 196.
Jay Cox faced off with Todd Moyer with neither having a clear advantage going by previous round performance. Cox improved some to a 3.74 earning his right to face George Williams III. Williams went .015 on the tree but fell off pace to an .85 and Cox took the win with his 3.73.
Final Results
In the final just two thousandths of a second separated the drivers with Cox kicking the tires hard just after the hit with Tutterow going on to a 3.75 at 200 MPH to earth the event title.
“We brought a car we haven’t run very much, got a blower from Al Biles, it was the first time running that and we didn’t have the overdrive gearing we wanted for it here, either too much or not enough, so we went with not enough made some good runs. I had a lucky run with Billy in round two, he red lit and I had to abort after getting close to the wall. We expected Jay would be .71 or .72 for the final but he had a nitrous malfunction and spun the tire hard. We had Brad here and my son Ty, Kevin Rivenbark flew in and was good to have him here with Mr. and Mrs. Wells, a great way to finish the season off with a win.” – Todd Tutterow
Scott Husted met Austin Stephens in the Heavy Street final in a blower vs turbo battle. Stephens knew he had to push the tree for a shot at a class win and went .014 read against Husted who recorded a 5.68 at 190 on his event winning run. Scott is a repeat class winner here with his Camaro several year back now before moving over to Drag Radial and building this car.
St Pete Florida’s Austin Stephens is the Heavy Street Runner up driving the families 68 Chevy C10 long bed. The truck is a fifteen year project started by his father at their shop NBS Race Cars in Pinellas Park.
Bruce Thrift had a great weekend scoring a his first three second run this weekend to qualify number one in Top Sportsman and making it to the final with Scott Kervin. Both racers were quick to react with Thrift scoring a perfect reaction to excellent Kervin’s .004, forcing Thrift to push it towards the stripe. He would go 4.002 at 180 on his 3.99 dial earning the event win in a great match up.
Ruben Totsoshvili earned the Pro Mod B class win after struggling in qualifying and swapping to some Garrett turbos and finding the tune up. He went .057 on the tree in the final vs number two qualifier Chuck Hicks scoring a 3.925 at 203 on the victory lap.
Number two and six qualifiers met in the TRZ Ultra Street final with Tony Alm taking the starting line advantage by .043 over Nick Bernardo. Bernardo had improved every round and earned his best in eliminations 4.92 at 144 in a game effort against Alm's winning 4.743.
In a rematch of the ODRC 632 final it would be Dillon The Kid” Voss vs Jordan Ensslin with Voss playing it safe on the tree with a .069 light. Both racers slowed in the final with Voss earnign the win with his 4.33 at 166 to Ensslin’s 4.40 at 159.
Dillon Voss Outlaw X632 Winner “The engine we swapped in this morning ran great all day but I fought driving the car all day with a front end issue, it was a handfull for sure but we made it work. We got it fixed for the finals and went straight to put the Voss Racing, Suncoast Race Cars Corvette in the winner circle.” – Dillon Voss
Jordan Ensslin, Outlaw X632 Runner Up.
Outlaw 10.5 vs radial Winner Mo Hall
“We were trying for threes every run it just wasn’t the weekend for it. The track was way better than we thought it would be and we needed more time testing on a tight radial prep track..I run a Fulton 903 with Switzer Dynamics nitrous, Jim Halsey helps a lot with tunes and chassis tuning, Brandon has done a lot of work with us this year too, he’s put us in another zip code with what we are doing, I gotta thank Henry Fryfogle at HFR Fabrication for a great chassis too, I’ve been using him for about ten years now and he always does great by me. We had a really good year, about the only race we really lost was to my good friend Mike Decker at the Shakedown.. been here six or seven times from 2000 or so trying to win so this one is very sweet.”
John Carinci Outlaw 10.5 vs Radial Runner Up improved to a 3.930 at 202 to back up his 10.5 record in the semi final with Jeff Miller who was away first at the tree running a 4.05 at 187 in a game effort. He went .006 to Hall’s .008 reaction but slowed to a 4.80 at 111 in final
Troy Pirez Jr was entered in two class this weekend running 10.0 Index in the trusty shop Camaro and the NT Shootout in the General Lee. The Off the Trailer Mafia crew put in work and planned to test the Mustang but entered the NT shoot for a shot at some money. He was lucky pulling chips scoring two bye runs and facing Rob Brazeal’s Granny int he finals of the shootout. Both racers spun making it a pedal fest with Troy coming away the double up victor this weekend.Troy is using the new BX4 Alcohol carb on 10.0 car and BX4 Extreme 4150 carb on the Mustang along with PTC converters, Diamond Pistons, Upper Limit Performance and Racing with special thanks to Eric Edelmann and to Big Joe at the Mons.
Arthur Spells 10.0 Index Runner up from Ft. Pierce, Florida
Open Comp Winner Bobby Taylor Jr.
