After a delayed qualifying session on Saturday we had to finish up qualifying for Top Sportsman and Top Dragster, Pro Jr. and Top Jr. We are getting ready for eliminations with Pro Extreme up first. Today’s weather forecast is good but will have temps in the high 80’s
Larry Obrien has NHRA Pro Stock driver Vincent Nobile driving for him this weekend sitting in for Mark Martino in the Bear’s Performance Extreme Pro Stock 2010 Dodge Avenger. This is Vincent’s first time racing at an ADRL event but he has been at several races in the past as John Pluchino is his uncle and also races in XPS. With two qualifying runs in the car his number six position in the field is good for the team. Bears Performance makes aftermarket components for a variety of application including the block and heads for this car and other engine designs. Jon Kaase builds the engines for the team. “It’s definitely different, something to get used to with the big power in these mountain motors. I’ve got a few laps under my belt now; I’m getting a little bit more comfortable. I’m really thrilled that Larry gave me the opportunity to be here this weekend” – Vincent Nobile.David Elsberry is the LowMad car owner driven by Joey Martin. Martin who is the current Pro Extreme point’s leader by 90 over Jason Scruggs. He made a jump after taking Scruggs out in round one in Cordova but they struggled in qualifying and sit thirteenth and will face off with Scruggs in round one today. After teammate Brandon Snider had good luck with the Goodyear tires they are running them here this weekend.Kevin Fiscus qualified fourth in Pro Drag Radial with a clean 4.38 @ 182 MPH. The track came around in the second session though Kevin kept a conservative tune in the car that got him in the field. Sponsors on the car include Proformance Transmissions, PTC converters, Racecraft Inc. Holeshot Wheels, VP Fuels, Mark Menscer Motorsports, Pro Line Racing and his own company partnered with Ruben Tetsohvili in Pro Lite Batteries. “We are extremely excited to be here at the ADRL this weekend for the debut of Pro Drag Radial I’d also like to thank my crew this weekend with Chris Heffner, Dave Klaput from Proformance Transmissions helping out” – Kevin FiscusSpeedtech nitrous has developed a new water injection system that is here on display this weekend. The display model is a plate system and they also have a manifold spray bar design for sheet metal style manifolds. Using water injection helps to control detonation and slows the burn rate down some allowing the engine to use more timing.Shannon Davis’ Davis Technologies is here with a display this weekend. He manufactures several traction control devises depending on your level of competition and a Bump Box that allows a driver to be on the trans brake and use a button to “bump” the car into the beams. The box is adjustable allowing it to be tuned to the combination putting the car in the beams much more consistently than a driver would be able to do. Originally designed for turbocharged applications due to the difficulty staging while on boost, the device has now found favor in the bracket racing market.
Image/s missing.
Top Dragster, Top Sportsman and the Jr. Dragster classes had to finish up qualifying this morning.
Image/s missing.
Round One Results
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Final Results
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Saturday is qualifying day at the ADRL Simply Phones US Drags VI. Tropical Storm Andrea finally cleared out this afternoon but not before dropping some more rain, delaying our start time over three hours till near 3 PM this afternoon. This event is the debut of the new Pro Drag Radial class which has 22 cars teched in so far, though there may be a couple more cars when it comes time for the first session. They will be the first class out today.
The ADRL Squad 660 track prep team of the Traction Twins is busy re prepping the track after Friday’s and this morning’s rain washed it off. The twins are regarded as the best in the business and their dedication to the sport shows in how they go about the procedure of getting it right. Competition Director Bubba Corzine took a walk out to see the progress.Pro Mod racer Dan Stevenson is running this weekend, when I stopped by this morning Charles Carpenter was going over the valves on the Reher Morrison 872 which is fed by a Switzer Dynamics nitrous system.Chris Powers is here running Top Dragster with a new car powered by a 930 cubic inch Sonny’s Hemi. The car is a 262 inch swing arm design built by S&W and painted by Koreck Design. This is Powers’ first ADRL event and the car should by a contender for best appearing this weekend.
Image/s missing.
Chip Foreman runs this Pat Musi powered GPS Race Cars built Camaro in Top Sportsman; this is his first ADRL event for 2013. Foreman is based out of Albright, West Virginia and has his two sons here Nick, (pictured) and Andy. Pro Drag Radial racer Frank Soldridge rolling in this morning and is stuck pitted in the back away from the other radial cars. The car is owned by Vinny Fiore with Frank’s PSI Speed Solutions handling the tuning and maintenance on the twin turbocharged Mustang.Steve Woolley is here with his 66 Chevy 2 Pro Drag Radial car for his third outing with the new car. His first event was at MIR where he took the win, then just last week at Cecil County he earned a runner up finish to Frank Soldridge. The best run with the car so far is a 4.42. The car has a twin turbo Chevy from Proline Racing displacing 596 cubic inches. The team gets a lot of help from Proline Racing and C&F Race Cars.
Image/s missing.
Brunson Grothus runs this beautiful Pro Extreme Motorcycle out of their own Grothus Drag Bikes shop in Davenport, Iowa. The best to date has been a 4.15 using a Ward cylinder head, Fast By Gast block, Bill Robinson Industries 5 speed auto billet trans with a MTC Engineering clutch on their own chassis built by his father Ed Grothus. Ryan Young’s Endocil Art painted this bike and two previous bikes for the team. Endocil Art is their main sponsor.
Image/s missing.
The bad bus is here this weekend with Steve George driving the Jeffers built ride. I caught up with crew member/cook Chad prepping a Boston Butt pork roast to smoke on the grill. You know I will be back later for a piece of that. After earning the Extreme Pro Stock win at the ADRL Springs Drag IV in Cordova, Illinois the Alltel sponsored Team Aruba took the car and engine down to freshen the engine and go over the entire car, doing routine maintenance and cleaning it from top to bottom.The Morning drivers meeting was packed with the addition of Pro Drag Radial to the series. Kenny went over starting and burnout procedures as well as announced the first two pairs out in each class.Keen Brothers Racing has three wins this year to date and a number one qualifier at the ADRL Georgia Drags VII. With the US Street Nationals in Bradenton, their Heads Up Madness event in May and just two weeks ago at Orlando Speed World running Outlaw Pro Mod the team is off to a good start for the 2013 season. They run a Reher Morrison big Chevy with Speedtech Nitrous. Crew members are Vick Keen, Tony Christian, Russ Sutherland and Jimmy’s wife Holly. They freshened up the engine after Orlando with new rods and pistons with Rob Wells from Ford Speed Racing honing the block for them. Sponsors include Reher Morrison and Hoosier Tires.
Image/s missing.
Team M&M is here with two cars for Pro Drag Radial, a 1967 Corvette owned and driven by Mark Woodruff and Jason Carter’s Malibu driven by Mark Micke. Woodrfuff’s Vette had a Sonny Leonard Hemi Chevy fed by twin 94mm Precision turbos on alcohol. Carters Malibu is an NMCA 10.5 car on drag radials for the third time this weekend. The car has been consistent 4.20’s using a Nelson Competition 548 wedge head Chevy big block on gasoline fed by a pair of Garrett GTX 88mm turbos out front. Sponsors on the Malibu include Garrett turbos, VP fuels, M&M Transmisions, Pro Torque and Mickey Thompson. Canadian racer Enzo Peccini made the trip down to Virginia from, he runs a Brad 8 Hemi with an F3R Procharger. Over the winter he upgraded the fuel system with new, larger manifolds and -6 line feeding 2 Mark Micke 550 injectors per cylinder. A new intake from CFE was installed after the Lights Out IV in February at South Georgia Motorsports Park.Paul Major rolled in yesterday with his somewhat controversial 2002 Corvette built by DMC Race Cars Inc. It has been updated in the off season with a switch from the rear mount turbos and a 580 ci, 5 inch bore space big Chevy from Joe Newsham’s J&E Racing. The team tested just the other day at MIR with good results, running a 4.53 then a 4.41 before a couple of minor issues ended their session. Sponsors include J&E Racing, DMC Racing, Rossler, Mickey Thompson and Pro Torque.
Image/s missing.
Round One Qualifying
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Pro Drag Radial was the first class up this morning with Kyle Huettel coming out strong with his Cypress, Texas based 2002 Fulton powered Camaro, earning top qualifier with a 4.280 @ 175 MPH. He was paired with Steve Jackson who struck the tires running a 5.64 @ 100 MPH.Number two qualifier after one session was Mark Woodruff with his Sonny’s powered 67 Vette. His 4.42 @ 183.22 MPH captured top MPH for the round.Many racers were off pace due to a tricky track surface despite the Traction Twins best efforts. Due to rain earlier in the day the entire surface had to be re-prepped and round one qualifying didn’t begin until around 4 PM, making the track temp soar to well over 100 degrees, not the friendliest surface for the Drag Radial tire. Frank Soldridge has run fairly consistent 4.20’s at several tracks but could only manage a 5.09 @ 169 for the round putting him in eighth spot of 23 cars.Lizzi Musi edged out Chuck Moan for number one qualifier in Top Sportsman after running identical 4.132 ET’s. The tie breaker was Musi’s faster 174.66 MPH which was also top MPH for the round.Eddie Careccia blasted the Top Dragster field with top MPH and low ET with a 3.97 @ 186 MPH pass.Scott Hintz (left lane) was another racer from Texas who took low ET and top MPH in Extreme Pro Stock in the first session running a very nice 4.108 @ 177.18 MPH.Trevor Eman is fresh off a win at Cordova and has run well this year. His 4.11 @ 175 was good for second qualifier.The Pro Nitrous leader was Jim Laurita from Morgantown, West Virginia. He runs Reher Morrison power with Switzer Dynamics nitrous.Steve “Killin Time” Jackson put up a 3.88 @ 182 to earn number two qualifier for the session.Due to the late start the sun was going down before even one qualifying round was completed. The twins prepped the track prior to Pro Extreme rolling out.Ales Hossler put the Al-Anabi Camaro on the poll running a great 3.594 @ 209.56.Jason Scruggs put his 63 Vette in second, just ahead of Tommy D’April with a 3.63 @ 208.04 MPH. Scruggs wears the 2 from last years second place finish overall.
Final Qualifying Results
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
Image/s missing.
The ADRL returns to the always-quick Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend for the sixth running of the U.S. Drags, and while the competition itself is plenty newsworthy, it will be the debut of the brand new Pro Drag Radial category that steals the headlines this weekend. Several of the biggest hitters in radial tire racing are expected to be on hand this weekend at what is one of the most anticipated races on the calendar this season. Keep it tuned right here all weekend as we bring you news, notes, and photos all weekend long!
After riding up all night with Kevin Fiscus and Chris Heffner, they prepped the car and were first down the track at 10 AM running a 4.48 @ 179 to set the tone for the debut of Pro Drag Radial here at the ADRL US Drags VI.
Image/s missing.
Tim Lynch and the Proline Racing crew are here with the infamous Corvette for the first racing stateside this year after a second place finish running OL 10.5 in Qatar. It took a couple of runs on the radials to get the car going A to B with a 4.43 @ 181 and a soft 1.28 60'. He got faster every pass winding up with low ET in Pro Drag Radial with a 4.32 @ 184 MPH. Brad Waddle is debuting a new car this weekend for Extreme Pro Stock fresh out of Jerry Hass Race Cars. I spoke with crew chief Chuck Lawrence, who also works at Jon Kaase Racing as an engine builder. This car replaces the previous car which was an older NHRA Pro Stocker and was sold the end of last year. An NHRA Pro Stock chassis is designed for the 500 ci engines used there and do not work as well with the mountain motor engines used in ADRL. His first full run on the car was a 4.16 @ 175 MPH.
Image/s missing.
The 820 cubic inch Kaase engine was updated over the winter and makes a bit more steam for this year. Hurco Mind Over Metal CNC came on board as a sponsor for this year along with Brad Waddle's Innovators West Inc. with the team based out of Salina, Kansas. Jeff Hoskins did a fabulous job on the paint. For yesterdays test session the Traction Twins had each lane prepped differently, the left side for the Pro Drag Radial cars, the right for the slick tire cars. The radial side was working well with several of those testing in the 4.4X range. Of course the other side was on point as well.Brian Gahm left hard on this run netting a 4.11 @ 175 MPH for the Extreme Pro Stock Racer.Mike Castellena made some test hits on Thursday, his first good hit was a nice 3.775, he came back later in the session and ripped off a 3.759 @ 198.47, his best run with the car in the US.Dave DeMarco rolled in with his legal NMCA 10.5 car sporting radials. He was at Cecil County recently but had little luck getting the car down the track his first time on the tire. They figured it out yesterday thanks in part to a good track and pulled off a 4.57 @ 155 despite the trans not shifting to high gear on several attempts. Hopefully they will get that issue straightened out for qualifying on Saturday.Steve Jackson will be pulling double duty this weekend driving in Pro Nitrous and Pro Drag Radial. He hurt the engine in Qatar earlier this year and had a last minute thrash session to get it back together after a parts delay held up getting the engine repaired until Wednesday.Dave Vantine finished number four overall in Pro Extreme Motorcycle for 2012. The longtime IHRA racer and former champion has struggled some this year. He ran a 4.13 earlier and is looking to get the bike back in the 4.0 range. He uses engines from Dan Wagner’s DTM Performance in a Walt Timblin chassis.Cecil Towner was doing the clutch maintenance on Jeremy Teasley’s bike when I stopped by their pits. Brian Schnitz is driving for Teasley during Thursday test session as he wont be here until Friday. The two bike team is based out of Orient, Ohio and uses Wizards of NOS Pulseoids developed by Trevor Langfield who is based in South Yorkshire, England
Image/s missing.
Steve Crisafulli purchased Dan Lowery’s Outlaw 10.5 car last year and recently had it updated for drag radial by Victory Racecraft. During testing on Thursday they had a bad injector which took a couple of passes to track down. He runs a 607 ci. 5 inch bore space wedge head engine from Proline Racing Engines with a pair Precision Gen II turbos. Kevin Scott is here driving for Todd Berry this weekend with a freshly updated car. They managed a 4.80 yesterday after struggling a bit with new car blues after some off season updates.Tommy Rainer is here this weekend spectating, he dropped his Limited Street/Drag Radial Camaro off at Teddy Houser Race Cars and is having him build a 2002 Camaro set up for Pro Drag Radial/Radial vs. the World and Outlaw 10.5.I asked him what he thought about the Pro Drag Radial “I love it, it’s a great opportunity, maybe everybody will not cry and be a whiner and leave it alone and lets run what you brung baby”I caught up with Adam Flamholc who runs Pro Mod at ADRL events. They were changing out valve springs on the blown Camaro. He is one point back from points leader Raymond Matos who is from Puerto Rico and runs a nitrous combination making the top two in Pro Mod and international affair. We will see if that changes this weekend.Raymond Matos sits number one in Pro Mod points with the Cuda formerly owned by Dennis Radford. They run an 860 cubic inch engine maintained in house with fuel injection from Pat Musi. I spoke with Rick Fogle about the car which is crew chiefed by Jim “Skid” Rowe. The car is owned by Ramond Matos Sr. and Jr. along with Carlos Colon based out of Puerto Rico.
