Good morning race fans! It’s time to wrap things up on the 2013 NMCA West championship season, and we’ll be getting things underway shortly here at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California. Be sure to check out the complete qualifying results and photos posted on the following pages, and check back throughout the day as we update results.
Saturday Qualifying Gallery
Sunday Pit Notes
We have an update from Drag Radial racer Artis Houston on exactly what happened in test-and-tune on Friday that put him into the wall:
“Something locked up in the drivetrain during deceleration and it took control of the car and I was along for the ride. [I am] Thankful God allowed me to walk away from this. I have never experienced complete silence in the car so fast, which kind of tells me the rear tires were airborne… further explaining why I had no control of the direction the car was going before impact. With that said, I am truly blessed and fortunate to be typing right now, WITHOUT ANY PAIN WHATSOEVER!”
He went on to add that his Racepack data showed that the engine decelerated from 8147 RPM to 1404 RPM in .7 seconds. Ouch.
Elimination Round 1
Pro Street
The first heads-up race of the day paired the mid-pack qualifiers Greg Seth-Hunter and John Durden. When the tree dropped, Durden grabbed the holeshot with a .009 light, but had to pedal almost immediately, while Seth-Hunter made a clean 6.37 pass into the second round. Next up were Mike Bowman and Wayne Schott, but when Schott didn’t show it gave Bowman an extra practice run – fortunate, as he shook at the 100 foot mark and rode it out to a high eight second pass.
The third pair out of the water box was top qualifier Scott Oksas and number ten on the ladder, Enrique Soto. Soto never took a green in qualifying, and was laddered as a provisional entry, making for what you would expect to be a very one-sided race. But anything can happen in eliminations, and Soto went all the way in immediately, complicating Oksas’ staging and boost-building routine. At the hit, Oksas came up hard on the bars, carried the tires, and had to pedal twice, but still ran a winning 6.80 versus Soto’s off-pace 7.72.
Next up were John Scialpi and Robert Costa. Scialpi had a half-second advantage in qualifying, but the elimination pairing was a close one. Costa had a tenth lead at the tree, but down track Scialpi reeled him in with a 6.24 to 6.36 victory at the stripe. Finally, Lee Smith and Joe Lepone faced off. With lane choice due to his qualifying status, Lepone was the only Pro Street racer to choose the left lane over the right, and it turned out to be a good decision. Smith, losing grip and pedaling a bit at the 60 foot mark, struggled to keep pace with Lepone but was left playing catch-up and ran a losing 6.65 to Lepone’s 6.14.
The second round will pair Lepone with Scialpi, Bowman and Seth-Hunter, and Oksas with the first competition bye.
True 10.5
First out of the staging lanes were Al Jimenez and Bert Heck, and the race went to heck immediately in the figurative sense – he went up on the tire and lifted, while Jimenez just drove away to a 6.99 victory. Roger Holder and Allen Stewart were next, and Holder had issues even before staging, having to re-fire the car while Stewart waited, then came up on the tire and had to lift just off the line. Stewart’s 7.44 pass, two tenths quicker than qualifying, would take him into round two.
Third up were Jermaine Boddie and Chris Kephart. Kephart, who struggled all through qualifying, had no better luck in eliminations, watching Boddie get small in the distance as he ran a 9.62 to the winning 7.35. The following matchup between Kelly Henry and Neil Richards was close for the first hundred feet or so, but Henry pulled away on the top end to take the win, 7.02 to 7.83.
Mark Luton and Jeff Kyle paired up fifth, and it was an ugly race. Luton looked like he had no boost off the line, while Kyle pushed down-track with his engine banging and popping through 7.86 agonizing seconds. Luton put on a push once his combination finally hit, but just ran out of track to catch Kyle. Finally, Rick Snavely and Steve Kuhls closed out the True 10.5 class, and in an upset, Snavely struck the tires and had to lift, losing 11.50 to 7.77 and ending his bid for the 2013 championship.
In the second round, Jimenez will race Kuls, Stewart will race Kyle, and Henry will race Boddie.
275 Drag Radial
The first round in DR was also the semis, thanks to the four-car field. James Lawrence and Chico Coleman were first – a violent, crossed-up launch ended the race early for Coleman, while Lawrence powered through to a 7.44 at 186 MPH. Then, it was time for Kevin Young and DJ Reid to meet. Again, trouble off the hit sealed the deal, with Reid having to lift and Young cruising to another 7.44 with 189 MPH through the traps.
N/A 10.5
The all-motor class kicked off with Mike DeMayo versus Vic Brum – while it was a clean race, Brum just didn’t have the juice to keep pace with DeMayo, who clocked an 8.02 at 167 to Brum’s 8.41. Joe Keurjikian and Matt Funkhouser were next, and when Funkhouser didn’t show, Keurjikian ran his surprise single out to an 8.36.
In the matchup between Tony Aneian and “Gypsy Mike” Valentino, the defending champ Aneian took a big lead at the start and never looked back, despite two big bounces from the front tires, winning 8.54 to 8.60. The final pair in the N/A class were Bryan Cobbett and Ryan Bell, but another no-show from Bell let Cobbett make an unopposed 8.39 pass into the semi-finals.
In the semis, DeMayo will face Keurjikian and Aneian will race Cobbett.
Outlaw 8.5
Another four-car class, Outlaw 8.5’s opening round was also the semi-finals. First up were Dan Hale and Eric Carlstedt, and when the tree dropped there was just .015 between their reaction times with the slight lead going to Hale. Down track, Hale stretched that to a solid win, running 5.13 to Carlstedt’s 5.57. On the other side of the ladder, Ryan “Toaster” Jones got an unexpected gift when Ron Shaw was a no-show, running the broke single out to a lightning-quick 4.87.
Post-1st Round Elimination Pit Notes
Elimination Round 2
Pro Street
Round two of Pro Street kicked off with Oksas’ competition bye run, which he used to see how much the track would hold and was rewarded with tire smoke and a 9.20 into the semis. Next, Bowman and Seth-Hunter took the tree, and it was a close race stripe to stripe, with Seth-Hunter ahead at half track as Bowman pedaled a bit, but with a 6.04 to 6.17 win for Bowman who was trailing heavy smoke, with a scant .06 second margin of victory at the finish.
Finally, Lepone and Scialpi paired up to determine the final entry into the semis, and it was all Lepone, running 6.15 at 217 to Scialpi’s lifting 8.89.
True 10.5
Jimenez and Kuls led off in True 10.5, with a clean match that ended with Kuls on the losing end of a 6.88 at 207 from Jimenez, putting the defending champ straight through to the finals on a competition bye. On the other side of the ladder, Henry ran against Boddie in another good, clean race, with Henry clocking a winning 7.03 to Boddie’s 7.33. Stewart was back to face Kyle, and again the black Mustang popped and banged its way down the track but still ran a solid 7.09 to edge out Stewart’s 7.39.
In the semi-finals, Kyle and Henry will pair up to decide who gets to run Jimenez for top 10.5 honors.
N/A 10.5
The second round would be the semi-finals in the all motor class, and first up was a Mustang versus Firebird match between DeMayo and Keurjikian. DeMayo continued his eight-flat pace from the first round with an 8.01 at 169, simply outrunning the Pontiac’s 8.35. On the other side of the ladder, it was Aneian and Cobbett, with Aneian double-bulb staging and Cobbett going wheels-up at the green. Down track it was all Aneian, 8.11 to 8.31 to get the chance to try to take DeMayo down in the finals.
Elimination Round 3
Pro Street
The PS semis began with Bowman just firing the car long enough to get a green at the tree, then pushing back through the cloud of oil smoke to head back to the pits to attempt repairs before the finals. Oksas and Lepone lined up to see who’d face him there, and the big purple Duster grabbed a huge lead at the tree, with Lepone holding on at the top end to edge out the hard-charging Oksas, 6.08 to 6.17 but also trailing smoke. The finals may very well be decided by who got banged up the most on the way there…
True 10.5
Al Jimenez didn’t hold anything back in his semi-final bye, running a full steam 6.88 at 208. Kyle and Henry matched up to see who got to run Jimenez in the money round, and it was an exciting race, with the cars welded door-to-door all the way down the 1320. In the end, reaction time decided the pairing, with Kyle taking a 7.08-to-7.06 holeshot win.
Finals
Pro Street
With both cars hurt, race officials stalled for as long as they could before putting Bowman and Lepone back on the dragstrip, but the moment Bowman fired up his Chevy, the twin plumes of smoke from the exhaust bullhorns gave notice that the clock was ticking on what little remained of that engine’s lifespan. The burnout produced even more, and Lepone joined in with a petrochemical haze of his own. The pair staged up and brought their engines up to full song (or as close as they could) and then, as seems to have been the case so often this year, weirdness ensued.
Before the tree could activate, Lepone was off and down-track, and Bowman, presumably not wanting to totally destroy his engine waiting for a green that would never come, followed a heartbeat later. Both cars trailed sickly clouds of oil smoke all the way down track, and when the scoreboards stayed blank, there was a momentary silence while everyone wondered, “OK, how does this work, then?”
In the end, the NHRA rulebook was consulted, and because Lepone clearly had the first LBTA, he was DQ’ed, giving the Pyrrhic victory to Mike Bowman
True 10.5
The True 10.5 final turned out to be one of the better races of the day – on the short end of the track, Kyle looked like he was going to give Jimenez a run for the money, with both cars side by side to the 330. But as the track unwound beneath them, Kyle started to lag while Jimenez’ Camaro just kept hauling the mail, running a winning 6.90 at 206 MPH to Kyle’s 7.41 at 170.
275 Drag Radial
The DR final turned out to be a good one – straight off the hit, Lawrence and Young were side by side, but at the 330 foot mark Young broke traction and had to dial it back to gather the car back up. That gave Lawrence daylight and he made the most of it, running the quickest DR pass of the season with a 7.35 at 189 to claim victory over Young’s 8.43.
N/A 10.5
Tony Aneian knew he’d need everything he had and more to overcome Mike DeMayo’s raw speed, and in his eagerness he lit the stage bulbs on his side of the tree before DeMayo had prestaged. Unfazed, DeMayo got staged up, the tree dropped, and the Mustang clicked off another bracket-consistent 8.00 run, while Aneian looked like he might hang but fell back on the top end, clocking an 8.39.
Outlaw 8.5
Toaster and Hale squared off to determine the Outlaw 8.5 champ and gave the fans in the stands some very good 1/8th mile racing – a clean run from both cars netted a 4.95-to-5.11 win for Jones, showing he is clearly the man to beat next year in this small-tire class.
Mustang Madness
Good morning race fans! We’re looking forward to getting started here in Bakersfield with qualifying rounds in just a few minutes, but before things begin, we do have one update from yesterday. In the final test & tune session, 275 Drag Radial racer Artis Houston had an incident at the top end of the track and contacted the wall. Per Houston’s Facebook post,
“Rough day for me folks. 160 +mph and into the wall. First and foremost I’m good. Wheels locked up and was nothing I could do. Im fine though. Thanks for checking everyone. Drag racing life can be tough.”
Truer words have never been said, and the important part is that the chassis and safety equipment did their jobs and kept him safe and uninjured. This greatly complicates the championship picture for the class, and since we have a dog in this hunt, we’ll be keeping on top of the situation.
Saturday Pit Gallery
Qualifying Round 1 Video
Qualifying Round 1 Results
Qualifying Round 2 Video
Qualifying Notes
Final Qualifying Results
Pro Street
Pro Street provided plenty of fireworks in qualifying, with Mike Bowman setting the bar in the first round with the initial five-second pass of the day, clocking 5.956, which Scott Oksas bested in round two with a 5.929. But the real surprise of Pro Street qualifying was Joe Lepone Jr. grabbing his own five, with a 5.996 pass in the final round under the lights tonight. To make things more interesting, Bowman shot blanks in rounds 2 and 3, and Lepone did harm to his nitrous-fed Musi mill with his balls-to-the-wall third round pass, so eliminations should prove to be interesting tomorrow.
True 10.5
The True 10.5 class proved to be a bit of a cipher in qualifying – in round one, Al Jimenez set the bar with a 6.923, but then came up hard and down even harder on his second pass, then was a no-show in the final qualifier. Meanwhile, Roger Holder busted out his True Kung Fu in the third round, running a blazing 6.925 and carrying more than 5 MPH more than Jimenez’ best through the traps.
Meanwhile Kelly Henry and Rick Snavely knocked on the door of the sixes in quals – with a 12 car field and four full rounds of racing, there’s plenty of opportunity for the frontrunners to make up ground on Jimenez in the championship chase tomorrow.
275 Drag Radial
With would-be blocker Jeff Young out of the picture this weekend, and Artis Houston crashed out in test and tune, Drag Radial qualifying came down to just a question of whether defending champ Kevin Young or challenger (and our boss) James Lawrence would take the top spot. In order to take the 2013 championship away from Young, Lawrence needed almost every point left on the table, but couldn’t outrun Young’s 7.355 top qualifying pass. That means Lawrence will need to both win on Sunday and set an ET record, or settle for second place when the points are tallied.
N/A 10.5
Mike Demayo hit it hard in round one with a 7.972 – a would-be record ET that wouldn’t be backed up in rounds 2 and 3, while Tony Aneian struggled with a car that wanted to porpoise hard through the first half of the track in practice and the first round of qualifying. By round 2, he had gotten things settled down and clicked off a smooth 8.15, but the question remains as to whether either he or Demayo can dial things back enough on Sunday to avoid an unforced error, yet still be quick enough to fend off the rest of the pack.
Outlaw 8.5
Ryan “Toaster” Jones is going to be very, very hard to beat tomorrow, holding a two-tenths performance advantage over nearest competitor Dan Hale, who has his own two-plus tenths advantage over the bottom half of the field, comprised of Ron Shaw and Erik Carlstedt. But the thing about eighth-mile, small-tire racing is that pretty much anything can happen – applying a lot of power to a small footprint is hard to get right consistently, and a win will take as much luck as skill. Don’t count anyone out just yet…
The 2013 NMCA West season draws to a close this weekend at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California under clear skies and predicted temperatures in the low 60 degree range. We’re going to be on the scene all weekend long, and we’re not just bringing you same-day race coverage: We’re actually in the hunt for a class championship in the 275 Drag Radial class with LSXMag’s Project BlownZ.
Keep your browser pointed here all weekend long for updates, photos, and results!
Friday Pit Notes
We took a walk around the pits to see who and what was going on. Here are three cars that caught our attention.
The Championship Chase
Thanks to the short, four-race NMCA West season, the fact that competitors get to drop their worst race, and bonuses for participating in three or four races, the championship picture for most classes going into the final race is complicated.
In Pro Street, Joe Lepone Jr. has the lead with 1980 points, followed by Scott Oksas at 1805 and defending champ Mike Bowman at 1720. All three are on the property as of Friday, and the reality of the car count means that if Lepone qualifies towards the top of the ladder and makes it out of the first round unscathed, it will be very difficult for Oksas or Bowman to catch him, even with a perfect weekend.
The current True 10.5 standings are led by Al Jimenez at 1700 points, with Rick Snavely trailing by a full three rounds worth of points at 1400, and Mark Luton a distant third at 1130. While on paper that looks like a lock for Jimenez, there’s a catch – Snavely didn’t attend the season opener, and therefore will remain at 1400 points going in even after the drop, while Jimenez will have to discard his 200 points from round 2. That brings Snaveley within one round of the lead, so he doesn’t need much good fortune to close the gap.
In 275 Drag Radial, Artis Houston is the man to beat at 1550 points, and Power Automedia’s own James Lawrence is in second at 1325. Kevin Young rounds out the top three at 1225, and with a likely car count of less than a half-dozen, it will be very difficult to generate a significant swing in points. However, once again the drop will play a major role – Young gets to drop a missed-race zero, while Lawrence loses 250 and Houston 400, putting them at 1075 and 1150, respectively.
The Naturally Aspirated 10.5 class will come down to a battle between Bryan Cobbett, Tony Aneian, and Randy Jones, sitting at 1575, 1400, and 1225 points, respectively. Defending champ Aneian is the big beneficiary of the drop rule here, getting to discard the 50 points he earned in Vegas, while Cobbet will have to dump 225 and Jones will lose 200. That makes NA 10.5 anyone’s class to win this weekend.
Finally, the Outlaw 8.5 class is currently led by Ryan Jones, who holds more than 5 rounds worth of points in the bag over number two George Raygoza, and two more on Kevin Keller. Jones hasn’t lost a pairing all season, while Raygoza and Keller both have a runner-up finish apiece. Still, this is a well-populated class, and the drop will hurt Jones more than his competitors, so keep an eye out for a last-minute swing this weekend.
More to Come
The sun is setting, the lanes are closed for the evening, and we’re calling it a day, but we will be back again tomorrow with more photos and news, plus full qualifying results. Don’t forget to click through to our gallery page to see more shots from the track.
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