ADRL Kansas National Guard Drags 2011 Same Day Coverage

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The ADRL Returns to Heartland Park Topeka for the ADRL National Guard Independence Drags. KH Al-Thani returns to competition this weekend to defend his Independence Drags event title in the Pro Extreme category. This weekend should continue to provide the great action we’ve come to expect from the ADRL. Stay tuned to DragZine all weekend for the coverage!

Special thanks to our event coverage sponsor Mickey Thompson. You can check our their fine line of wheels and tires at www.mickeythompsontires.com

Jim Laurita's crew stayed busy overnight working on their Reher-Morrison 860 ci power plant. Laurita will be looking to pick up from their 12th place qualifying effort of 4.22 seconds at just 166 mph.

The father and son duo of Mike and Aaron Hodges had a late night as they thrashed on the Hodges & Son Racing '63 Corvette's transmission. The team is qualified 15th going into the final qualifying hit this morning.

Todd Tutterow's crew made some minor changes to the motor last night and will be attempting to improve. The team is qualified fifth currently with a 3.73 second pass

John Montecalvo grabbed the top spot from Cary Goforth in the final qualifying hit for XPS. Montecalvo posted a 4.12 for the top spot and will be your top qualifier for XPS.

Joey "Hero" Martin qualified his '55 Nomad Wagon at the top spot of the Pro Extreme qualifying order. Martin's 3.65 at 204 mph took the top spot away from Gaylen Smith's 3.685. Frankie Taylor qualified his '05 Corvette third.

A very noticeable miss in the qualifying order is Todd Moyer. Moyers '63 Corvette missed the eight car Extreme 10.5 field. The 4.69 qualified Moyer in the tenth and final position in XTF.

Stan Allen's Bankston Boyz '68 Camaro got a bit out of shape during his burnout on his final qualifying attempt.

Also a surprise miss here at Heartland Park Topeka, in the Pro Extreme Eliminator is Von Smith. Smith qualified 24th with a best effort of 5.03, missing the 3.92 second bump.

Larry Jeffers also missed the show in his '70 Camaro. Jeffers posted a quick time of 4.30 seconds in his first outing in the Pro Extreme category. Jeffers struggled early in the weekend with his Camaro lifting the front tires to monster wheel stands, forcing Jeffers to lift.

Though this appeared to be a burnout for John Stanley, it was infact his final qualifying attempt. Though, on this pass it did not appear Stanley broke anything else in his motor, as the team was struggling with motor problems most of yesterday.

Dan Millen reset the track record for XTF in the final round with a 3.92 second pass at 195 mph. Lamar Swindell Jr., however has the fastest pass of the weekend in XTF with a 204 mph pass on his 4.00 second effort.

British Columbia resident, Terry Schweigert, took the top spot in PXM with a 4.16 second lap at nearly 170 mph. Noticeably absent in the 12 bike PXM field is Schweigert's teammate, Ashley Owens.

Both these drivers, David Schorr, near lane, and Ron Miller, photoed left. Schorr has taken the last two years off of racing and returned this weekend near untested. Ron Miller in the forlane just missed the bump by a margin of seven thousandths of a second. Miller's '07 Cobalt featured the first Chevrolet "Wedge" motor in the ADRL XPS field. Miller's goal this weekend, but he should be happy putting together that close of an effort with no testing on the new motor.

Mike Recchia, qualified 8th, in an upset victory defeated JR Todd. Both cars ran into shake and were forced to peddle, but Recchia won with a 4.00 second lap.

Terry Legget had an exciting run in the first round of Pro Extreme as his Ford Mustang darted from the left lane to the right and crossed the centerline. Leggett was able to get the car back under control and only faced disqualification for crossing the centerline with no other consequences.

Todd Martin in a major upset defeated KH AL-Thani. Both cars ran into tire shake, which has been very consistent in the first round of PX eliminations.

Gaylen Smiths motor let go and it appears the car got into its own oil and had a small fire and also made contact with the left wall.

This is where the Jimmy Dean themed '59 Corvette of Smith came to rest. Smith is out of his car under his own power and appears to be OK.

Racing is back under way, and we're into Top Sportsman, after just a few pair we will be moving into the Extreme Pro Stock Eliminator.

Gaylen has confirmed that he is mostly OK, though he did admit to having the wind knocked out of him and that initially it rung his bell. The team is going to evaluate the car when it is back in the shop and is going to evaluate whether or not the car will be ready for the next ADRL race which will be held in Martin, MI.

Trevor Eman with the drive of the weekend! Eman was racing Dean Goforth in round 1 eliminations of XPS, he got a large holeshot, but fought the car from then on. Eman's Mustang shot right towards the centerline, and he muscled the car to keep it from crossing and get it back to the groove. Then the car slide left and crossed the stripe with a 4.29 for a holeshot win over Dean Goforth.

Round one of XPS featured just the one upset of Trevor Eman over Dean Goforth. All of the other pairs of round one were taken by the top qualifier.

The bike field which had initially only qualified 12 motorcycles was drastically shorter by the first round of eliminations. Four bikes were unable to return to competition due to parts breakage. Top qualifier, Terry Schweigert, elected to pass on the first round pass as his competition, Blaine Hale, was among those who were unable to return to first round.

G-Mac Grant McCrary lost round one in XTF, but he can leave with his head held high after posting a 4.07 at 189 mph. Not too bad for the cars first competition passes. McCrary was taken out by Lmar Swindell who posted a 4.02 second pass. Swindell will be joined in round two by the other top four qualifiers, Dan Millen, Frankie Taylor and Billy Glidden. McCrary's Stratus also won the Best Engineered award here in Heartland Park Topeka.

Rickie Jones defeated Aaron Hodges in a peddlefest during round one eliminations. Both cars were off the throttle by the 330 foot marker. Jones got back in the throttle quicker and will advance into round 2.

John Montecalvo advances to the semi-final round in his quest to become the first no. 1 qualifier in XPS to get an event win. Montecalvo defeated Tony Gillig with a 4.155 at 173 mph. Montecalvo will be lined up against Scott Hintz in his next run.

Kim Morrell stepped up again in the second round to run a 4.17 second pass to bring her within a hundredth of a second of Terry Schweigert. Schweigert has a bye to the finals, while MOrrell has to face Carlos Wilkerson in the semis to get to the final round.

Dan Millen squeaked out a win over Billy Glidden (pictured above) in the semi-final round of XTF. Glidden had the holeshot, but with a puff of smoke the motor went silent and Dan Millen took the win with a 4.03 second pass.

Mike Castellana (picuted in the far lane), defeated Jeff Naiser in the second round of Pro Nitrous. Castellana posted a 3.85 to go low for the round. The ultra-competitive Pro Nitrous category had an average winning ET of 3.87 seconds in the second round.

Odessa, TX., resident, Scott Hintz has advanced to his second final round appearance in the ADRL XPS category. Hintz ended John Montecalvo's attempt to win the event from the no. one spot. Hintz will meet Pete Berner in the final round of XPS..

We will see a rematch of the PBIR final round in Pro Extreme as Joey Martin in the "Lomad" take on Jason Hamstra's Plymouth Duster. Hamstra defeated Frankie Taylor, who ran into traction issues, with a 3.74 at a track record speed of 206.20 mph. Joey Martin defeated Mick Snyder in a close race, Martin posted a 3.67 at 203, while Snyder posted a 3.68 at 204.

Mike Castellana will meet Mahana Al-Naemi in the final round of Pro Nitrous. Al-Naemi defeated Burton Auxier on a holeshot with a margin of victory of just six thousdanths of a second, with both drivers posting 3.84 second laps. Auxiers 3.840 was slightly quicker than the 3.846 of Al-Naemi, but Al-Naemi had a .010 advantage on the starting line. Castellana defeated Rickie Jones by an even slimmer margin, two thousandths of a second. Castellana trailed by .028 on the starting line, but ran .030 quicker with a 3.814 second lap to the 3.844 of Jones. We have seen some great races in the semi finals and the finals certainly look promising!

Terry Schwiegert defeated a red lighting Carlos Wilkerson in the final round of PXM. Schweigert lifted to a 5-second pass while Wilkerson posted a 4.27 that was all for naught because of the red light start. Schweigert's win marks his first ADRL win in his 5th ADRL final round.

Scott Hintz defeated Pete Berner in the final round of XPS. Hintz posted a 4.14 while Berner left before the tree was activated. The win marks the first for Hintz.

Dan Millen collected his first ADRL XTF win over Lemar Swindell Jr. Swindell may get the nod for ride of the weekend as the car darted towards the centerline. Down track the car finally overpowered Swindell and quickly crossed the centerline, collecting both 1/8th mile timing cones. Swindell was very close to Millen, but the drivers avoided contact and Millen advances to victory lane with a 3.95 second pass at 195 mph.

Joey Martin defeated Jason Hamstra in a very tight final round in Pro Extreme. Martin's "Lomad" posted a 3.65 second et at 206.98 mph to defeat the 3.736 second lap at 204.94 mph of Hamstra. The result is the same as it was in PBIR for the rematch with Martin taking the win for his second event win this season.

Mike Castellana won the Al-Anabi affair that was the final round of Pro Nitrous. With Shannon Jenkins standing on the guardrail between two cars that are both tuned by him. Castellana was slow out of the gate with just a .133 reaction time, but Muhana Al-Naemi got out of shape down track, but still driving hard and never lifting, ran a 4.05 second elapsed time at 192 mph. It was not enough, however, to defeat the 3.83 second pass at 194 mph posted by Castellana.

Well ADRL's Brian Olsen has moved to the winner's circle (seen here interviewing XTF winner, Dan Millen) so that means we have officially ended this race weekend. It's been a great weekend of close racing and new event champions. ADRL is back on the track in Martin, Michigan July 15 and 16.

About the author

Sam Martin

Growing up in the Midwest, Sam was always around various types of motorsports. While attending Lindenwood College, he followed his passion and interned at Gateway International Raceway before it's unfortunate closing. Today he can be found covering and shooting photography for various dirt and drag strip events.
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