Atomic Dog put on one of the biggest grudge races in Texas history along with some heads up classes.  The race was put on at San Antonio Raceway on August 21 to a huge crowd of race fans.  There were a couple of bracket classes, 5.80 and 7.00 index classes, a True 10.5 class and a Pro Mod class.  The turnout was very good for all classes outside of the true ten five class.  This is one of the first heads up events at San Antonio since Freddy Cruz took over and it looks like there will be more to come.

7.00 Index Class Highlights

In the first round of the 7.00 class 11 cars showed up with car number 77 getting the bye run.  Dyrenfurth was slow on the tree (.3476) and broke out (6.94) but got the round win anyway when Baker had a red light.  Gamez’s 7.56 took out the slow 8.33 of Washington.  Henderson laid down a 7.04 and a better light to take out Vontur’s 7.06.  Bill Buck is here racing the Fox body Mustang that is a project car for Popular Hot Rodding and the car is a little too quick for 7.0 class, but he is working with it.  Bill took out car number 6052 with a 7.06 to a losing 7.07 and Bill had a slightly better light.  BD had the best run in the first round with a 7.02 to take out Gonzalez who ran a 7.10

In the second round Dyrenfurth picked up on the light with a .024, the best in the round.  His 7.07 bested car number 77, who broke out with a 6.87.  Buck in the project car runs a 7.04 to take out Gamez who also ran a 7.04.  Henderson ran a 7.04 also to take out BD’s 6.98 to wrap up the second round.

In the semi finals Bill Buck took out Henderson and Dyrenfurth had the bye to the finals.  Buck ran a 7.06 on the brakes but it was a little too much because Dyrenfurth took the win with a 7.05.  This was a pretty impressive first weekend at the track for the Popular HotRodding project car.

5.8 Index Class Highlights

The 5.80 class brought out 14 competitors and the class was run on a sixteen car latter.  The first matchup was a tight one with Fields cutting a .037 light and running 5.83 to take out Snowden’s .035 light but running a too fast 5.77.  Diffy cut a .019 light and ran a 5.87 to take out car number 451J’s slow 6.22.  DeLeon cut a .059 and ran a 5.85 to take out the quicker Wilson who ran a 5.76.  Galbraith cut a round best .001 light and ran a 5.77 to take out the Allies Automotive entry of Michelle Kato’s slightly quicker 5.75. Lusk was slow on the tree and only ran a 6.0 but it was good enough to take out Sepericueta’s too quick 5.72.  Car number 3826 ran a 5.85 to take out Davis who ran way to quick with a 5.49.  Ross ran a 6.99 on a bye ran and LaFrance also ran a 5.35 on a bye run.

In the second round DeLeon cut a .088 light and ran a 5.82 to take out Diffey’s too quick 5.76.  After the first round things really started too cool off and the cars started to pick up.  Ross was slow on the tree with a .319 light and only ran a 5.92 but it was enough to put LaFrance’s 6.00 on the trailer.  Lusk was off with a .08 light and his 6.06 was not enough to catch Fields.  But Fields ran 5.79 and a tick under the index for the loss and Lusk moves on.  In the last pair in the first round we had a double red light with car number 3836 leaving first with a -.0012.  Galbraith was only -.0008 red and moves on with his 5.78.

In the semi-finals Deleon took out Ross and Galbraith got by Lusk to move on to the finals.  The final was over at the tree when Galbraith left too quick giving the win to DeLeon.  It hurt a little more when Galbraith ran dead on with a 5.80 to DeLeon’s 6.0.

True 10.5 Highlights

Only two cars showed up for the True Ten Five class which is kind of surprising since they get 6-10 cars for their monthly ten five races.  I talked with Chip Havemann and his car is down for some work after the NMRA Super Bowl race in Joliet last month.  Smiley Cordero showed up in the Lime Coupe owned by Alfred Castro, which is a car that had been laying down 7.70’s with ease the last couple of months.  And Angel “The Freakin Rican” Padilla brought out his red Mustang coupe for the first time since making some suspension changes.  Since they were the only two cars they decided to run a best of three match race, but it was over after the first race.

Smiley took the win with a slowing 8.0 over Angel’s lazy leaving 8.19.  After inspection back in the pit the Lime Coupe had torched a head and was done for the day.  They were a little puzzled since they had not made any changes.  They hope to have the car back together in a couple of weeks.  Angel made a couple more passes getting quicker each time down the track.  His second pass was an 8.0 and his third pass was a 7.80 at 180 mph.  These guys will be putting on a show when they are both sorted out along with Chip in the small tire battles at San Antonio Raceway.

Pro Mod Highlights

The Pro Mod had a turnout of fourteen cars and had a couple of cars that could not make it at the last minute like Frankie “Mad Man” Taylor.  Atomic Dog ran their Pro-Mod class a little different then most with two round of qualifying.  Then the top two qualifiers race for the class victory.  The class of the field was Doug Reister in his Pro Nitrous ADRL Camaro running 3.97 on his first pass and 3.94 on his second pass to nail down the number one qualifying spot.  Mike Murillo showed up in his NMRA Pro Outlaw car since this was a local race, but he was out gunned on his little tires and limited turbo size.  Mike had a little trouble getting down the first pass due to tire spin, but he came back up second round and laid down a 4.55.  That was only good enough to get Mike in the number five qualifying spot.

Kenny Hubbard was also there in a 2002 Camaro ADRL Xtreme Ten Five car but only got into the 4.40 range during qualifying.  The Tracy Smith had a little trouble on his first pass and only ran a 4.60, but he tuned it up for the second round and laid down a 4.29.  This was enough to put in the number two spot and into the final to race Reister for the money.  On paper it looked like Reister had this one in the bag, but the fastest car doesn’t always win.  Doug’s car died on the line and Tracy made it down for the win.  Doug re-fired his car and it died again and he tried one more time and kept it running.  They let him make a pass for the fans but the car got out of the groove and shook the tires and he shut it off.

I only got a couple of the grudge race matches with Rob “the gangster” Valden in the Malibu getting beat by a silver 69 Camaro.  Rob said they changed the converter and it really hurt the car so they were done for the night.  Kenny Hubbard and Mike Murillo also lined up in a grudge race.  Mike left on Kenny but tried to put too much power down and spun.  Kenny laid down a nice pass for the win.

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