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We got started at 9 Am this morning with Open Comp before resuming heads up eliminations with Outlaw Drag Radial. The weather was a bit warmer but with more cloud cover keeping the track temps down fro the 140 degrees we saw on Saturday. Thanks to the folks at Fuel Air Spark Technology, we’ll be in the house once again bringing you all the news, notes, results, and hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos to keep you up to date on the biggest drag race of the season!
Tipp City, Ohio based racer Darren Hilterbran took top honors in Nitrous X with his record setting 4.673 at 151 MPH. He is a consistent top runner in the class and took out David Braxton this morning in round one with both cars striking the tires early.
Dave Harmer is based out of Michigan with this 1971 Nova running Outlaw 632. Harmer runs assorted drag radial classes back home at their home track Milan, Columbus or down at Kilkare. This is their first time here and running Outlaw 632. Power comes from a BES 605 topped with two stages of nitrous from Induction Solutions backed by an Abruzzi Glide and NCRC Converter. The car was built by JR Racecraft. Harmer purchased the car when he was 15 and was his high school ride, graduating to bracket racing before mover to heads up outlaw events. The team from left to right; Ron, Raymond, Ed Textor, Jeff Rolfes and Dave Harmer.
Ken Quartuccio is a top runner in Outlaw 632 scoring number one qualifier this weekend with a 4.420 at 163. On his earned single this morning he let it rip to a 4.41 in the C&S Performance Camaro He runs Kenny Lafferty's Cold Nitrous with a Wilson fogger system with Proline Racing's Jamie Miller tuning. Ken and Denise brought several of their children this weekend as good luck charms, so far so good. From left to right. Kyle, Kaitlin, Kelsey, Maris, his wife Denise and Ken Quartuccio.
Al Dito advanced to round two with a career best 2.96, 4.52 at 159.5 MPH running a 588 conventional head big Chevy with single stage progressive, Induction Solutions/Kenny Lafferty Cold Nitrous, ATF Transmissions combo and is also tuned by Trimaldi. Scott Rigg is the between round maintenance guy with Jim Thompson handling crew chief duties and cooking. Dito is running a new ATF converter this weekend with good results and low slip through the lights.
Jason Michalak set a new official record here this weekend running a 3.876 besting his own record by .001. They have torn up a fair share of parts this weekend including four transmissions, one engine and a set of heads. “We are tearing up some stuff but that's what you have to do to stay out front here. I have the best crew in the world, everybody is pouring their hearts and souls into it this thing weekend, all the glory to them cause I have the easiest job when they give me a good hot rod. Hopefully we can make it work this weekend but it's going to be an uphill battle with the adversity we faced with Kyle's wreck and all the parts we have torn up.” - Jason Michalak From left to right, Mick Snyder, Frankie Taylor, Jason Michalak, Billy Stocklin and Jeff Pierce.
The date for No Mercy 7 with be October 6-9 so go ahead and book your rooms now and get here early for good seating.
Keith Haney took out Shawn Ayres in a good match in round two of Radial vs the World. Haney took a .040 reaction time advantage running a 4.03 at 190 to Ayres game 4.09 at 201.
Chad Opaleski was paired with Rick Thornton in round two earning the win after Thornton timed out running a 4.41.
Nitrous Outlet has a couple of new nitrous plate products here on display, the Stinger 3 and an SVI plate designed by Paul Klyzek from PKRE which is being marketed through Nitrous Outlet. The Stinger 3 has a spacer under the plate to drop the cone lower in the plenum and is designed for intake manifolds that have an extended top so the nitrous/fuel mixture doesn't blow into the manifold sides and goes into the runner in a concept similar to their puck system. It also features directed orifices instead of the previous radial spray pattern.
Mark Menscer Motorsports is here providing parts and racer support in conjunction with Afco. Seen here working on a spare struts for Robert Rogers is John Mellon who came on board about two weeks ago. “To good to be true to be with Menscer Motorsports now, it’s a dream come true, career and life changing opportunity and I am in for the long haul” John Mellon.
Afco Racing Products has a marketing agreement with Menscer . We spoke with Eric Saffell the National Account Manager with Afco to get caught on the program. Saffell began the drag racing program at Afco back in 1996 after they had developed a good reputation in the circle track industry with their shocks, suspension and cooling products. Menscer Motrosports is a distributor for us and focuses on heads up outlaw style drag racing using their products to develop shock and struck packages being the go to guy for many top racers in the drag radial classes. For 2016 they have launched a 4 way adjustable shock which they put on Keith Haney’s number one qualifying Camaro in Radial vs the World this weekend clearly with excellent results. Eric Folger and Eric Saffell shown from left to right.
Don Burton is here this weekend with his twin Procharged monster Mustang. He put up a personal best 4.259 at 175 in a Pro 275 round two match with Eric Gustafson earning a spot in round three vs Steve Drummond but was not able to make the call.
We spoke with John Kolivas from KBX about Joel Greathouse who made the switch to Procharger for 2016. The car is running well so far with a best of 4.811 at 147 against Ronnie Rhodes in round three of Ultimate Street earning his was to the semi finals.
Hannah Sanders is at her second race with the new car out of Innovative Racecraft built by Troy Pirez Jr and her father Kirt Sanders. She runs a BES small Ford with PKRE Nitrous and snagged a personal best 5.09 at 138 in a loss to Fast Lane in round two of Ultimate Street.
Kenny Hubbard had a personal best this weekend running a 4.54 in qualifying with his Jeff Naiser built big Chevy. He took out Taylor Lastor in round one of X275 on a holeshot before falling to to Rich Bruder in round two after striking the tires. He was also entered in Pro 275 where he met with number two qualifier Barry Mitchel who laid down a 4.30 at 178 ending Hubbard's weekend in round two.
Final Results
Once we got to the semi finals of PTC Radial vs the World any Pro Mod chassis cars had been eliminated and Jason Michalak was paired with Steve Jackson and Keith Berry with Daniel Pharris. Berry adn Jackson would advance to the finals where Berry put a holeshot on The Shadow by .040 earning a the win with a 3.934 at 192.69 to Jackson's quicker 3.896 at 194.80. Once we got to the semi finals of PTC Radial vs the World any Pro Mod chassis cars had been eliminated and Jason Michalak was paired with Steve Jackson and Keith Berry with Daniel Pharris. Berry and Jackson would advance to the finals where Berry put a holeshot on The Shadow by .040 earning a the win with a 3.934 at 192.69 to Jackson's quicker 3.896 at 194.80. Keith is very happy with their performance after getting here a day late and with just nine passes on the car here at Lights Out 7. He uses a Proline Racing small Chevy with CFE heads with Fuel Tech engine management. My team is instrumental in the performance of the car this weekend, I have to thank Ryan Rakestraw, Joey Bell, Eric Dillard, Doug Patten, and all the guys at Pro Line, Corey Lee, Johnny Chrisifulli, Pro Torque, Mickey Thompson, Steve Petty, Mark Mickie, and Jack from Billet Atomizer and especially my wife Mindy for all the support and my son Tyler. - Keith Berry.
The semifinals of KBX/Precision Turbo X275 featured Rob Goss vs Jared Johnson and Ron Rhodes vs Tyree Smith. Goss lost an engine block in the lights slowing to a 4.52 to Johnson's 4.45 and Rhoded put up a clean 4.48 and .007 reaction to earn a spot in the final. Once there Rhodes went .026 on the tree going on to the win with a 4.44 at 158 after Johnson spun early in the run. We came from the number seven spot with a 4.45 and went round by round and make good calls all day. I want to thank my crew, Kimmie Weicker, Jeff Kinsler, and the companies I use Steve Johnson at Induction Solutions, BES, Santhuff, Hutch Transmissions, PTC, TRZ Motorsports, Mac Fab, Mickey Thompson, Devane Carburators, Ultra Carbon and Cal Tracs.
Ron Hamby and Barry Mitchell (near lane) met in the final of TRZ Motorsports/Holley EFI/MacFab Outlaw Drag Radial with both cars winning similar times in the semis with Mitchell having lane choice. Mitchell did his job scoring a .033 reaction and a significant head start. Hamby was on point performance wise scoring a best of weekend 4.199 at 178.14 but not enough to get around Mitchell’s 4.23 at 181. ” We got lucky after having some issues we worked though before putting the car on lock down, my team did a great job this weekend. Special thanks to my wife Heather and crew Robbie Kexiah, Nick Renoylds, Jack Beals, David Peters, Ziff Hudson and Wesley Robinson who could not come this weekend.
In TRZ/ATF/RK Racecraft Pro 275 the action was heavy with close racing for the debut class. Barry Mitchell was also entered here and doing well taking out Shawn Ellington's Murder Nova in the semifinals with a.008 4.22 at 181 to Ellington's game .010 4.38 at 177 best of weekend run. Steve Drummond had a single due to a missing David Pearson with Little Evil. In the final Drummond left first with an .011 to Mitchell's .035 but his 4.27 at 178 wasn't enough to stay in front of Mitchell's 4.207 at 181.
Number one qualifier Butch Kemp was very consistent with his Uratchko Racing Engines NA Mustang in Induction Solutions/Ultimate Converter Concepts/Hyperformance Motorsports Ultimate Street running a 4.84, 4.86, 4.83 and a 4.82 in the final against Joel Greathouse who was third on the ladder. Greathouse pulled off low ET and high MPH of the weekend in the final scoring a 4.761 at 149.10 taking the class win after a Kemp redlight.
Strange Engineering/Commando Racing Outlaw 632 had a good showing this weekend but several racers missed first round to do breakage. Ken Qualtuccio was number one qualifier and running well this weekend when he met with Bruce Johnson (far lane) from Jacksonville, Alabama in in the semi final taking a loos on a holeshot with Johnson’s 4.433 earning him lane choice in the final with Troy Blake who had been fighting tire shake and made several 4 link adjustments looking for the right set up with the tight track conditions. And grabbed a holeshot win over Dominic Augustine’s gorgeous 56 Chevelle SS. In the final it would be Johnson who left first with an .031 to Blake’s .040. Johnson put up a 4.434 at 161 for his efforts and it was just enough to score a win over Blake’s quicker 4.431 at 165.
Dale Arbogast runs his 1969 Nova in Leaf Spring with a 588 cubic inch engine from Motortech fed by an F3 Procharger a backed by a turboglide 2 speed automatic. He met with Chad Branson in Jason Digby’s 69 Dart in the semifinals driving by for the win after getting beat on the tree, a .026 4.592 at 162 beats a .104, 4.65 at 153. Bryan Marrow from Cammando Apparel was his opponent in the final but he was pushed back after the burnout giving the win to Marrow’s Fig Performance powered Procharger 1979 Camaro.
In Nitrous Express/Unlimited Products/ Ultimate Converter Concepts/Salvato Designs Nitrous X Darren Hilterbran scored top qualifier and was faster every round to the final where he met with number two qualifier and top MPH holder Tim Knieriem who took the holeshot at the starting line but fell off pace to a 5.07 at 123 allowing Hilterbran to drive around with low ET for the weekend 4.673 at 143.
Justin Shearer AKA Big Chief missed qualifying in Radial vs the World with the Crowmod but set up a match race with this two rotor Nissan after the finals. Shearer rolled the beams loosing the match but backed up and made a hit scoring a best of weekend 1.04, 2.77, 4.101 at 182.77 MPH for the Butler Performance powered Firebird impressing many skeptics with the performance of the Street Outlaws cars this weekend.
