Sunday, Sunday, Sunday is eliminations day for the third annual Yellow Bullet Nationals under a threat of rain. We will be running things quickly to get things done and hopefully we will get the race finished up.
Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels, who allow us to make our coverage happen! For all of your wheel and tire needs, whether it’s your race car or your pickup truck, look no further than Mickey Thompson.
I spoke with Ainsley Jacobs this morning about Precision's new prototype Pro mod Gen II turbos. They use a billet one piece center section and back plate to improve reliability and safety. They also feature redesigned wheels for improved aerodynamics. The exhaust housing is stainless steel with provisions for cross bolts to improve wheel retention in case of failure, a carryover from diesel tractor pulling turbo technology.
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Jamie Stanton has recently made the move to 275 drag radial racing from NMCA Extreme Street to switch things up and race again some different people and have the opportunity for more events. The car was built in house by Jamie and Jake Holdridge and switched over to stock suspension. They had some issues and burned some pistons yesterday and spent several hours last night making repairs.
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Tim Lynch has struggled a bit this weekend after running well in testing Thursday. They were able to put together a clean 4.19last night to ease into the number four position in Outlaw 10.5.
Sometimes being on the bump pays off. Dave Camp had the honors in 10.0 index and wound up with an Easy Plate system gift certificate, a very good thing since he struggled slowing the car down this weekend. he runs a 68 Nova out of New Jersey with a 421 small block Chevy by Danny Smith and help from All Out Automotive.Due to breakage the 275 Drag Radial ladder is significantly changed, this is the correct version.
I have most of the round sheets from round one eliminations which catches us up with he exception of Ultra Street which will be up shortly.
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One of the Ultra Street racers lost a transmission line dumping synthetic oil on the starting line. It was about a 50 minute delay getting the track back to racing condition.
Kenward's Mustang set low ET for round one in Ultra Street with a 5.200 @ 139.72 MPH.John Snyder runs this clean Pontiac powered 65 GTO out of Middleton, Delaware. Originally built for the now defunct Ram Racing series he is happy Ultra Street now allows naturally aspirated big blocks to compete. The engine is from BES running Tiger heads with a best ET of 5.32. It's got a TH 400 trans, PTC converter and a ford nine inch rear with ladder bars.Lee Sebring presented a Holeshot Racing Wheels trophy to Monty Mikho for Moderator of the year.
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Richard Sexton wound up with a single after Candido Sanchez had issues staging the car and got loose just after mid track and tagged the wall moving across the track. He was out of the car quickly ,the car caught fire after he exited and is OK, the car however isn't.
We are moving into round three in several classes and the finals in Top Sportsman. There some great runs put up in Outlaw 10.5 with Tim Lynch setting low ET last round with a 4.15 @ 185, just ahead of Billy Gordon’s 4.180 @ 189 for hi mile per hour. In Outlaw Drag Radial Frank Soldridge set low ET with a 4.41 @ 180 with his best pass ever, just behind him Scotty G ripped off a 4.399 @ 170 with his nitrous sniffing Camaro which will be a track record if he can back it up. In 275 Drag Radial Martin Connelley is on a roll with his nitrous big block running another 4.65 just ahead of Bruder’s 4.66 @ 158, Connelley will not make the next round sadly. Eric Kenward and Larry Rhodes lead the field in Ultra Street with a 5.16 and 5.18 respectively. Tom Romeo is going to the final in Outlaw Big Tire against John Cerbone.
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4.39 @ 170 for Scotty G in a win over Tim Johnson's twin turbo Mustang, Tim had the wheels up a bit too long and lifted, a wise move give all the action today and he will go home in one piece.Jamie Stanton has run some consistent 4.80's, he got the win over Craig Wells with a 4.87 @ 141.
Semi Final Results
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Chuck Ulsch and Billy Gordon matched up for the quickest side by side run in Outlaw 10.5 history, Gordon took the tree and had the better ET with a 4.160 to Ulsch's 4.165. Lynch went .044 against Charlie Dolbin taking the win with a 4.23 @ 166 lifting early.
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In 275 Drag Radial Sean Ashe struck the tires on a single running 5.04 @ 147. Dean Marinis and Rich Bruder were paired up with Bruder just edging out the win. .045 to .046 lights, advantage Bruder, 4.65 @ 158 to Marinis' personal best 4.666 @ 153 in the quickest 275 race ever. Ashe and Marinis are shown, the final will pit F1-x against F1-x
In Outlaw Drag Radial it was Scotty G and Scott Bitzer paired up with Scotty striking the tires early in the run allowing Bitzer to go on for the win. Eric Kenward matched with Larry Rhodes in Ultra Street but popped through the exhaust about 100 feet out and pulled the car into the middle as Rhodes took the win. The other pair was Marc McCloud put sent Jason Shiflett home with a 5.20 to Shiflett’s 5.40.
Top Sportsman final will be Vonnie Mills vs. Bob Phillips after Mills got the win over Tony Arcuni.
Outlaw Big Tire has Tom Romeo defeating Adam Cohen meeting up with John Cerbone who got the win over John Schroeder, 4.46 to 4.53.
Final Results
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PA Healthquotes.com and Marketing sponsored the 2012 bBest Appearing and Best Engineered awards. Jason Enos was picked as Best Engineered for his 1967 Outlaw 10.5 Shelby Mustang built in house at Victory Racecraft. Best Appearing went to Frank Pompilio out of King City Ontario, Canada. Frank also runs Outlaw 10.5 with a 67 Mustang twin turbo Proline bullet. This one is maintained by K & K Racecars. His crew is his father Ernie and cousin Danny Colavecchia. Sponsors are T Melfer Mechanical Torbear Contracting. Sean Walsh aka "Skinny" and long time friends and 5.50 Index racer Billy Pedus took home the win in the golf cart race running a 4.65 330'. They threw the cart together in about 3 weeks with Billy handeling the welding and fab using a spare GSXR 1300 engin from "Skinny".
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Erika Colman won Pro Street with her 1968 Camaro over Carlton Thompson, seen pictured with David Coleman Dan Walleigh out of Reading PA got the win over fellow PA resident Dustin Morgan with his Trail and Error old school wagon in Pro Dial. Shown here with Monty Mikho.
11.50 Index winner Carlton Thornton hails from Richmond Virginia running a 79 Chevy Malibu over wayne Roatche.Harry Welch won 10.0 Index after a foul start by Keith Ries Jr. At the stripe is was 10.050 to Reis' 10.003.
Angelo Valla took the tree and the stripe with a 8.535 to Zach Obert's 8.57.Marc McCloud swept Ultimate Street with number one qualifier and the win with his Naturally Aspirated 88 Monte, he runs a Steve Schmidt Racing Engines 632 backed by Ultimate Converter Concepts into a Rossler Trans. Rhodes Automotive also supports his program. Larry Rhodes was off pace and late on the tree, still a win of sorts for the Rhodes Auto crew.
Rich Bruder does it again taking the win with low ET, a 4.62 @ 158.89 MPH blast despite the switch this week to a cast intake to comply with the new rules. Runner up Sean Ashe also has the dreaded F1-X Procharger bolted up to his ATF sponsored ride. The big block nitrous cars of Dean Marinis and Martin Connelley we also running mid 4.60's.Vonnie Mills took the Top Sportsman win over Bob Phillips with her 2006 Jerry Hass Cobalt. with a 632 from Mark Benston. Vonnie said to thank everyone here this weekend including Top Sportsman organizer Ed Foley.
John Cerbone took the win over Tom Romeo in Outlaw Big Tire with a 4.52 to Romeo's 6.98 after he clicked it early.
Frank Soldridge and the PSI Motorsports crew are doing work recently with several recent wins stacking up., tonight against Scott Bitze's Procharged Malibu. He earned the track record in the semis against Kevin Fiscus with a 4.41.2 to best Paul Major's effort set at this race last year.Team Lynch struggled this weekend, worked hard and took home the win, besting 37 other cars trying to qualify for the 32 car field with a 4.158 after qualifying fourth. Runner up Billy Gordon set low ET of the event with a 4.155 and was on point with a .001 light but lost traction and shut it down early.
It’s day two here at the Yellow Bullet Nationals. We are under cloudy overcast skies which is keeping the track temps manageable. Though it’s a bit warm there has been some very good runs today.
Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels, who allow us to make our coverage happen! For all of your wheel and tire needs, whether it’s your race car or your pickup truck, look no further than Mickey Thompson.
Mike Doak with K&K Race Cars has recently purchased T.J Caspers 8.50 Index Mustang and is here this weekend getting his feet wet in the class. Casper won multiple championships with the car. Tom Casper and Steve Tesluk are part of the crew. The engine is a 398 Ford small block from Scotty Merkel with an Applied Nitrous fogger.This beautiful Corvette is owned by Billy Mitchell and features a 620 ci BBC with twin 91 mm pro mod Precision turbos backed by a Rossler transmission. Painted in house at The Repair Shop. Mike Shapano updated the chassis which is tuned by Hank Hill's Hooked up and Gone Race Cars out of Florida.Buddy Tippet runs out of Loveville Maryland with his 89 Mustang in the Outlaw Drag Radial class. He runs a 640 cubic inch big block with the engine and car built in house using two Fulton Nitrous foggers. This is a father and son effort with his son Rickey. The traveling crew consists of Steve Montgomery and Phil and Trent George, also father and son. Buddy has been 7.30 @ 198 with a plate system. Their home track is MIR and they run this event and Donald Long's No Mercy in the fall.Jimmy Sugan Jr. runs this third gen. Bickel built Camaro. The car runs in the 7.50 range with a BES 672 ci. big block Chevy in Top Sportsman. He's had the car 10 years and has been sponsored by Hooters and Mickey Thompson for the past seven years. The team consists of Jimmy Sugan, his father Joe and John Langer.
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Robert Hoffner hails from Strasburg Pennsylvania and is here with the old school Chevelle to run the Pro Dial class running around 11.9 to 12.00. He has had the car about five years and just recently purchased a new 427 SBC engine that will be installed soon. He currently runs a little 355 that came with the car which hasn't been apart in 15 years.
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They are running a 50/50 raffle here for Mike Romeo this weekend and have plenty of donated parts and other goodies to give away in the drawing. Mike was very popular in the area and the local race community is coming together to help out the family after his recent passing.
Steve Jackson just got into the wall after qualifying number one last night in Outlaw Drag Radial. Word is some oil got on and under one tire sending him sideways and across the track. He is out of the car and OK thankfully.
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The aftermath of Steve Jackson's crash shows the car took a hard hit into the wall. He was out in just a few seconds but they will have a lot of working getting back to race condition.
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John Iannuzzi has a new car running out of Macdonna, Georgia in Outlaw Drag Radial. The 2002 Camaro has a 762 Fulton motor, Neal Chance converter and Sid Neal transmission with recent updates from Sheppard Race Cars. He has about 15 runs on the car since purchasing it about a year and a half ago. John has been a Limited Street racer since 1998 and has about 4 runs on radials so far with good results. He did well earlier this year at Silver Dollar and decided to make the trip up Maryland for some fun and good racing.
ROUND TWO QUALIFYING RESULTS
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John Sears has his tent set up selling X275 swag this weekend with plenty of gear and accessories for the family and race crew.The final four cars in OL 10.5 were matched pairs for some grudge racing. Richard Sexton was paired with Tony Johnson. Johnson lifted early while Sexton went on to take the top qualifier with a 4.166 @ 185.36.
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Harold Caldwell and Michael Martin were the final pair with Martin getting into a wheel-stand and going over backwards then rolling over into the wall just behind Caldwell's 4.25 bumping him up to ninth position in the field. Martin is OK thankfully, in situations like this that all we can ask..
Final Qualifying Results
There was a very good crowd today here at Cecil County, I even met some folks from Australia yesterday evening.NMRA 10.5 racer Jim Monson is running good this weekend with his little small block single turbo Mustang but just made the field with a 4.568. he is set to face Sexton in round one but lost a head gasket in the final session. Repairs should be routine pending tear down inspection. There are several alternates available to fill his spot if necessary.Frank Pompilo made the trip from King City Ontario, Canada with this beautiful twin turbo 67 Mustang. he sits in 29th position and is paired up with Tim Lynch for round one. Lynch ran a 4.11 testing but lost a turbo on Friday, they are easing back into the tuneup managing 4th with a 4.19 @ 185 MPH.Rich Bruder has been the center of controversy for months with his 400 cubic inch F1-X Procharged Mustang. The Bruder Brothers Racing team was running a billet head and sheet metal combo allowed under X275 rules and put the car in the 4.50's. That combo has been banned from Cecil rules recently and will be for X275 in 2013. They are none to happy about that but played by the rules and had John Marcella whip up a cast intake for them in time for this race. They qualified number one with a 4.641 @ 157.3, also earning top mile per hour in the process. Ft Lauderdale, Florida based Sean Ashe also runs the F1-X and just switched o a power glide style two speed trans and rear gear set up for eighth mile and got a personal best 4.71 @ 151 for third spot in the field with his ATF sponsored ride.
Number two man Martin Connelley runs a nitrous big block running 4.65 @ 155, he skied it in the final session forcing him to pedal the car to set it down.With Steve Jackson out after his crash today Kevin Fiscus is the quickest car in Outlaw Drag Radial with a 4.43 @ 181 MPH, just ahead of recent Cecil County winner Frank Soldridge. Kerry Anne Beebe sits on the bump with a 4.997 keeping the 16 car field in the four second range by just three hundredths.
The rules for Ultra Street allow naturally aspirated big blocks to compete and there are several here this weekend. This super clean Malibu belongs to Todd Geisler who sits in fourth with a 5.24 @ 131.
Final Qualifying Sheets
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Ladders
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Just an FYI, Chris Evans and Mike Cerminaro are broke and this 275 ladder will have some changes posted in the morning.
It’s that time of year again, door slammer fans, as the most raucous drag racing message board on the internet collectively ditches it’s keyboards and computer mice and descends on the Cecil County Dragway in Maryland for the third running of the Yellow Bullet Nationals! This year’s race will again feature all of the nation’s heaviest hitters in Outlaw 10.5, Outlaw Drag Radial, 275 Drag Radial, Outlaw Big Tire, Ultra Street, 8.50 Index, and a slew of other exciting categories.
As we have each and every year prior, Dragzine will be in attendance all weekend long bringing you the news, notes, stories, and photos from one of the most talked-about drag racing events all season long.
As always, we must thank our presenting sponsor, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels, who allow us to make our coverage happen! For all of your wheel and tire needs, whether it’s your race car or your pickup truck, look no further than Mickey Thompson.
Also check out the live feed at Motormaniatv.com
Today at the third annual Yellow Bullet Nationals we have full sun and plan of cars testing on the tricky track surface. Several racers I talked to this morning ran well testing on Thursday and are waiting until qualifying this evening to make any runs in better conditions.
The first incident of the day came just as I was setting up with Tim Lynch losing a turbo about half track. Last year he lost a turbo as well which resulted in a crash and a long rebuild, this is the first race back since then. Tim was a bit shaken up as one can imagine, the parts are here to make repairs though when I talked to him they had not made a decision whether to fix the car. We are just glad he is OK, there was only some minor damage and no oil on the track.Here is a shot of the damaged turbo. The latest word is they are making the repairs and in need of some 3 inch diameter silicone hose.
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Mike Martin is here with crew chief Dave Sealey for the Outlaw 10.5 class rocking fresh paint by long time friend Bobby Mayo from B&M Auto Repair. Martin holds the current record for a nitrous 10.5 car both in the quarter and eighth mile. He says testing yesterday went well and the car went straight. He has been out of action for a while after a crash in April. A new extender has Mike taking full advantage of the overhang rules. Joe Copson has his Billy Gilsbach built Camaro out for it's race debut. Gilsbach has now closed his shop and is working with Jason Enos and Jamie Miller at Victory Racecraft. Joe sends thanks to Wayne at Competitive Wiring, Joe at Hyperactive Solutions, Precision Turbo and Proline Racing Engines. They tested at Atco last week to a 4.50 and are looking to run similar numbers here for some data and step it up from there and get into the 4.30 range. Joe has been out of the scene for a few years taking care of business and spending time with his family after running a Buick and turbo Trans Am in the late 90's in the 7 second range.Firecore 50 wires' Rick Gorski is here supporting the race again this year, debuting his new Yellow Bullet edition "Get Fired" T shirts. I was the happy recipient of the first one. He has new LS plug and play coil packs coming soon with as well as 3 and 4 valve coil packs for Fords on the way with about 70 percent hotter energy. Recently Firecore 50 wires has had some very good success in Top Fuel and Funny Cars with top 5 cars running their product for two weeks straight .Steve Jackson had a nice 1.22 60' on his first run today, shutting it early to a 4.84 @ 132. He is shown here getting his shirt from James at Firecore 50.Chuck Ulsch just ran a 4.27 @ 185 MPH pass, not the best run but going from A to B is necessary for good data to work with.Florida has a few racers that made the haul, here Rob Wells launches his OL 10.5 twin turbo Mustang on what would be a straight clean run earlier this afternoon.A local father and son team run this "Draggin Wagon" Fairmont in the 10.0 index. They sport a Damcancer.org sticker on the rear window. The site and foundation was founded in honor of Denise Ann Magliocco, by her husband and racer Alfonse G Magliocco SR. and is dedicated to giving cancer patients and loved ones quality information, resources, and access to all of the alternative treatment options available today to fight this terrible disease.
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The Caspers have both cars here this weekend flying Mickey Thompson colors on the side. TJ made some exciting runs here last year carrying the wheels out past the 330' more than once and going some rounds in eliminations. Shawn Ashe is another racer from Florida, South FLorida actually. He teamed up with Jason Gatlin and sports ATF colors, he has had growing success with the F1-X in NMRA/MNCA 275 Radial class. He is running X275 this weekend and also help sponsors and competes in the class locally at Palm Beach International Speedway when time allows.
Round One Qualifying Results
Outlaw 10.5 had a full field of 32 cars go down the track in today's qualifying with Richard Sexton earning the top spot with a fine 4.17 @ 185 in the Mobley Racing 2006 GTO. Teammate Chuck Ulsch took third with Billy Gordon's 2004 Mustang sitting between them with a 4.19 @ 188.70 taking top MPH.Larry Woods got loose and nosed his Corvette into the left side wall hard throwing sparks everywhere, he was uninjured and the car was better off than one might think seeing the crash. Mo Hall also had a scare but appeared to be unscathed coming back up the return road.
Scotty Gaudagno was the first into the 4.40's today with a nice 4.49 @ 169 early in the session. Later Steve "Killin Time" Jackson laid down a 4.43 @ 181 for top qualifier.Frank Soldridge and crew have been working hard on their 2004 twin turbo Mustang and it's showing now as he took second spot in the the twenty three car field with a 4.45 @ 178. They will take the top 16 for Sunday's eliminations.
Ron Rhodes took top qualifier in Ultra Street with a 5.21 @ 132 MPH while Eric Kenward laid down a stellar 138.09 MPH taking top mile per hour by a wide margin.After qualifying Camp Stanley made a pass in his screw blown Pro Mod running a new personal best 3.75 @ 193 for the track record to go out on a good note for the day.
