It’s a great day for racing here in Bradenton. We have a tight X275 field and a 4.07 bump in Outlaw Pro Mod. The track is going to run a second chance field for Pro Mod to be determined how many cars will participate in that. In X275 Eric McMillon is out after touching the turbo wheel last night on his 4.82 run. Limited Street has two cars out with Futch breaking a rocker arm and Tedeschi struggling building boost so they are sitting out as well leaving the only pairing for round one Phil Hines and Scott Husted.
Special thanks to our event coverage presenting sponsor Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels. Check out Mickey Thompson for all your high performance racing and street wheel and tire needs!
Tony Ridenour ran a 4.39 last night for a new personal best. The Goodtimer Racing team has run every combination in the car, finally making the jump to twin turbo power with excellant results. They are figuring out the suspension tuning to keep the front end down and looking for some low .30's. Maybe not this weekend but it's coming, no doubt the car has the power now.John Lastinger is all buttoned up for first round today where he will face J.R. Atkins' 93 Mustang based out of Lakeland, Florida. It should be a good match provided Lastinger gets the set up right with no testing.
Round 1 Results
Round one X275 pit number 4 qualifier Sean Ashe against Justin Swanstrom. Swanstroms Fat Boy Racing entry had yet to make a good hit but they found the tune up this morning running a 4.83 @ 148 to Ashe's 4.821 @ 146 for the holeshot win.Ziff Hudson set low ET with a 4.801 @ 144 to get around Troy Fredrickson who has been off his normal pace this weekend.
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John Fernandez stood it up against David Acker who made the trip down from Levittown, PA with his 1983 Capri.
Tampa based Rick Griffen has his 93 Chevy 1500 working better recently. He ran it out after an opponent red light to a 5.41 @ 129.Neal Watkins took the win over Calvin Hornes Sr. in the tightest race of the round in 5.50 index with a margin of victory of just .002 with both drivers running identical elapsed times @ 5.549.
Scott Husted and Phil Hines were the only pair in Limited Street. Puddin' is down visiting and lending a hand to Scott and Jill Husted staging the car. Hines went red and Husted drove down to a 4.65 @ 171.
The Ridenour Rocket had low ET with a 4.45 @ 176 on a single. Chad Opaleski will take the winner of Ridenour and Husted in the final but is at a disadvantage as he did not get a good pass on his opponent broke bye over Chris Tedeschi.John Lastinger made the call and a nice run with a 4.76 @ 151 against J.R. Atkins but it wasn't enough as Atkins stepped it up to a 4.66 @ 147 in his stick shifted Mustang.
Number 5 Outlaw 10.5 qualifier George Williams IV put up a 4.59 @ 154 for a bnig improvement over his qualifying 4.91 to take the win over Robert Abbott.Rob Wells made an easy run with a 4.32 @ 189 setting low ET for Outlaw 10.5 in round one.Pete Farber put up a 3.95 @ 192 over "Fast" Frank Cersosimo who took the beam after hurting the engine last night.
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Adam Flomholz and Jason carlton were paired up for round one of Outlaw Pro Mod. In an interesting near mishap Carlton got sideways on the burn out and crossed over the center line behind Flomholc stopping in the center of the other lane. Flomholc's crew ran down track to stop him from backing up into Carlton.
The second chance Pro Mod class has 6 cars ready to race with Toney Curry running a 4.54 @ 138 on a single over Pat Queesenberry.Bill Heister and crew stepped it up running a 4.29 @ 162 in a loss to Mark McElwee's 4.04 @ 139.Matt Gilmore squeeked in his match with Bob Bridges who left way early running a 3.69 @ 177. Gilmore improved on his 4.24 qualifying ET with a 3.90 @ 183.
Eddie Careceia heats up the tires before his match with Ken Wells. Wells went .026 on the tree to Careceia's .356 but was no match for the 3.87 @ 189 MPH blast.
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Round 2 Results
Troy Pirez had a beam tripper under his bumper that did not extend in front of the bumper. It was made aware to tech and everones min height was checked with several racers madking adjustments to their cars to come in compliance with the three inch minimum. Pirez cut his shorter. Ashe sawed off the rear portion of their bumper. I don't know about other races. After round one this morning Little Country was the only car not at minimum height. Sean and Justin agreed to re run the round and Ashe won that match after both cars struck the tires. All cars were measured on the scale this morning after round one.
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Round 3 Results
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Final Results
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Final round results for all classes.
Outlaw Pro Mod winner Tommy D'April qualified number three driving for Al Billes this weekend. The team won the Citrus Nationals last week in Palm Beach for back to back wins.Outlaw Pro Mod runner up Adam Flomholc improved on his performance through three rounds to a 3.97 @ 190 MPH in the final round but fell to D'Aprils 3.904 @ 195. He has three runner up finishes here in three events. The 2011 Snowbirds, 2012 US Street Nationals and today. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
Candido Sanchez pulled out a win over number one qualifier Rob Wells. A 4.281 in the semi final over Tony Johnson gave him lane choice over Wells who did his best to drive through tire shake in the final slowing to a 4.91 @ 121. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Rob Wells - Outlaw 10.5 Runner Up. Wells was set to run the table in Outlaw 10.5 but sucombed to tire shake in the final round. This fall he won the Shakedown at E Town and the ODRC here in October, this final round appearance makes for a good ending to a good year for the Ford Speed Racing crew especially after running a personal best 4.11 during testing Friday.Outlaw Pro Mod B Winner Andrew Handras hails from Bethpage, New York. He ran a 4.12, 4.15 and a 4.13 in the final to earn the win in the inpromptu add on class. I hope we see this many Pro Mods at the US Street Nationals at the end of January.
Toney Curry is the Pro Mod B class runner up. His luck was good today after have two singels into the final against Andrew Handras. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Melissa Hutson earned the win in Open Outlaw over Jason Hamstra with a 3.78 @ 188. Hamstra had lane choice going into the final but fell off pace a bit slowing to a 3.84 @ 197 MPH. Hamstra had high MPH of the event with a 200.22 MPH blast in qualifying.
X275 Winner Ziff Hudson rolled down from Concord, North Carolina and took number one qualifier and low ET running a 4.764 in the final against Troy Pirez. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.X275 runner up Troy Pirez Sr. Troy had best MPH of the event with a 152.54 run over Barry Mitchell in the semi finals. Photo Courtesy Bryan Epps.Limited Street winner Tony Ridenour ran the table in class meeting up with Chad Opaleski in the final. His 4.67 @ 171 was good enough as Chad struggled today after qualifying with a personal best 4.51. Ridenour's 4.39 in qualifying was also a personal best for him. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
Limited Street runner up Chad Opaleski set personal best ET several times this weekend culmination in a 4.51. Since Rob Zarcone has come on board tuning the car the teams has made steady improvements to the program along with some new upgrades by Dan Neumann Race Cars. At the ODRC in October they incurred blower damage to the F3R 136 so were running the older 139 this weekend. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
Outlaw 632 Winner Brett Newell earned hit first class win today against Robert Briscoe. The Lake Wales racer has improved his program and is certainly a contender to win with solid mid 4.6x performance. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Outlaw 632 Runner Up Robert Briscoe has been a top contender from the start of the class and set low ET with a 4.611 and high MPH with a 157.83 blast. The team thrashed to get the car repaired and painted after blowing the hood scoop off here in October in the final. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
5.50 Index winner Dave Marcus Jr. was half an all Sarasota final with Jim Walter. Walter left way early with a -.195, both racers deserve credit for wading through five rounds of competition. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.5.50 Index Runner up - Jim Walter. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.6.50 Index Winner Kyle Fawcett met Bill Lee Jr. in the final putting up a .013 light getting way out front early. Lee' ran under with a 6.464 trying to catch up after an uncharacteristic .097 reaction. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.6.50 Index runner up - Bill Lee Jr. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
7.50 Index Winner Robert Wilson lives just up the road in Parrish, Florida and is a regular racer here in 7.50 and brackets.7.50 Index Runner up - Billy Hamilton. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
Bracket Race Results
Super Pro Winner - Paul Rebis. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Super Pro Runner Up - Terry Norton. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Sportsman Winner - John Siegel from Bradenton, Florida. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
Sportsman runner Up - Tim Butler also raced and won here Friday night. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Pro Cycle Winner - Roy HagadornPro Cycle runner Up - Luc David. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Harley Winner - Donnie Huffman. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.Harley Runner Up - Wesley Lee. Photo courtesy Bryan Epps.
We are looking forward to an exciting session of qualifying, match racing and exhibition runs today here in Florida. Several personal best ET’s were run yesterday along with some track record runs with Rob Wells blowing up Outlaw 10.5 with a 4.11 @ 192 MPH blast.
Special thanks to the presenting sponsor of our same day event coverage, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels. For all your racing and high performance wheel and tire needs, visit Mickey Thompson!
The Bad Ass Bus is owned by Larry Jeffers and was built in house at Jeffers Pro Cars and driven this weekend by Outlaw 10.5 racer Steve George. He is running exhibition here this weekend. It’s powered by a screw blown BAE Hemi.James Linton rolled down from Goose Creek, South Carolina with his 1970 Outlaw Pro Mod Duster. The Andy McCoy chassis has a Roger Byers drive train with a Brad 5 engine. This is the teams first time racing here in Bradenton.Fat Boy Racing and Speed365 Racing crew this morning getting ready. Seidle Race Engines just did some work on the heads for the team car driven by Mike “Shakeand Bake” Wacaser with a 13 hundredths improvement and a 4.90 best ET last night.There was a driver meeting this morning to discuss running Ultra Street here in Florida. Results of the meeting are Bradenton will run the class under John Sears rules for 2013 in the Heads up Madness series.
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Cherissa Smallwood is booked in for a match race with Bill Evans with The Black Pearl. Charissa’s Nitro and Lace.com ride is a 300 inch injected nitro dragster built by and powered by a BAE Hemi, Ron Griffis is the crew chief. Bill Evans drives the Black Pearl 2008 Spitzer chassis rail, also a nitro injected car. The team has two IHRA Championships in three years and has been over 280 MPH several times. Crew chief is John Oliver.
Team Lopez Racing is out this weekend with a swap to Big Stuff III fuel injection. The car is maintained and driven by John Fernandez from ACME Performance out of Tampa, Florida with a 434 ci small block Ford with Edelbrock GV2 heads built at Ford Speed Racing with Induction Solutions nitrous system on board.Scott Husted earned a new personal best last night in Drag Radial with a 4.60. He will looking for .50’s today, shown here pictured with his wife Jill.
Round 1 Qualifying Results
Concord, North Carolina racer Ziff "Outcast" Hudson leads the X275 fiels after one round of qualifying with a 4.79 @ 145 MPH with Troy Pirez in second with a 4.82.Jason Hamstra won Open Outlaw here at the ODRC in September and leads the field with a 3.758 @ 200.22 MPH drving the teams 2001 Spitzer dragster.Adam Flamholc leads the 30 car pro Modified class with a clean 3.95 @ 190 MPH while top MPH goes to Brad Personett, who sits outside the 16 cars qualified field with a 4.28 @ 193.46.Outlaw 10.5 number one qualifier goes to Candido Sanchez out of Miami, Florida with his twin turbo Camaro running a 4.31 @ 177. Tony Johnson's blown 69 Camaro is just behind with a 4.32.
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Round 2 Qualifying Results
The sheets from round two get us caught up to what’s printed. We are currently running the last few Open Outlaw cars in round two qualifying.
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The lovely Extreme Race Team girls Tammi and Chrissy are collecting money for a 50/50 raffle and donations for Everyday Heros USA.org, an organization dedicated to helping those who protect us through fundraising, counseling, job placement and a network of business and organizations that offer services and discounts to our Heroes.The Xtreme Machine Freightliner jet semi makes a run in the first session of exhibition today. These beasts will be a sight to behold under the lights tonight.
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Final Qualifying Results
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The big block nitrous cars are leading qualifying this weekend with Ziff Hudson on top of the X275 field with his Buck Racing Engines powered 1980 Zepher. Barry Mitchell and Troy Pirez follow Hudson with Sean Ashe's F1-R Procharged ATF Mustang in fourth. Eric McMillon and Vader round out the top five with the small block turbo combo.
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Another racer having good results so far is Mike Wacaser driving for Corey "Big Country" Swanstrom. before this weekend the best ET was in the 5.0's. How about a 4.84 @ 145? It looks like the updated cylinder heads are paying off big time.Eric Leeper thrashed to get his truck ready for X275 this weekend and is haveing good luck with hte bew set up. it was just finished recently at AC Carcraft and is running turbocharged Mod motor. he got a nice 4.94 @ 147 best run and sits eleventh on the ladder.Charles Manchester brought up his 1988 Porsche 928 for some 6.50 index action. He is on the bottom of the ladder with a 6.82 but this sure is a cool car, sure don't see many of these drag racing.
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Some surprising news is that two former event winners here didn't qualify today. Walt Drakeford is just back out this weekend after making repairs after an incident at Stingray Dragstrip in Lakeland and had some trouble keeping the front end on the track and didn't get a clean run. Kevin Fiscus was facing the same issue this weekend. having both of them sitting out is certainly unexpected.
Bill Futch did a great job behind the wheel in the final session with the front end coming up some down track. It's just coming up in this shot and Bill rode it out to near the finish line, and east 300 plus feet.Chad Opaleski kept getting faster and faster in his 66 Chevelle. He sits in third spot with a new best 4.51 @ 168 MPH.Tony Ridenour laid down a 4.39 @ 178 to top the Limited Street class, a new personal best for him after recently switching to a twin turbo combo.
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James Horvath leads the Outlaw 632 class with a 4.61 @ 153 with his SS Camaro. Rodney Campbell (green Camaro) and Robert Briscoe have the top three spots.
Phil "Tookie" Swales has a new car this weekend for OL 632. The 2000 Trans Am was found in a barn and needed a lot of work including wiring and fresh paint. Once he hets the set up dialed in he will be in a much better position to run well in the class.Rob Wells struggled some today, breaking the trans on his first run and sitting out the second session to make repairs. He was back on point in the final session jumping into number one position with a 4.15 @ 190 MPH.
Robert mathis sure did stepp it up taking top qualifier in Outlaw Pro Mod with a 3.86 flat @ 196 MPH, earling low ET and top MPH in the process.Pete Farber earned second spot with a 3.91 @ 192 in the Al Billes powered 1969 Dodge Daytona. He is just ahead of Tommy D'April who is driving for Al Billes in his 63 split window Corvette.Bill Heister is behind the wheel again this weekend driving the Neil and Parks front engine dragster to a 4.48@ 155. They made some headway after just making half track runs testing yesterday.
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Justin Carmak from Nelson Competition was in John Lastinger's pits just finishing up installing new pistons and rings after losing the ring land on a piston at Showtime Dragstrip. Sometimes you just have to get work done when you have the parts and time, this late session just happens to be at the night before eliminations.
While the rest of the racing world is in hibernation, the annual Snowbird Outlaw Nationals will heat up the state of Florida this weekend, featuring a plethora of exhibition vehicles, along with competition in Open Outlaw, Outlaw 10.5, Limited Street, Outlaw 632, X275, and some great index and bracket racing action. Dragzine will have same day coverage all weekend long from the Bradenton Motorsports Park, beginning with the scheduled testing on Friday and the qualifying and eliminations action on Saturday and Sunday.
Special thanks to the presenting sponsor of our same day event coverage, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels. For all your racing and high performance wheel and tire needs, visit Mickey Thompson!
Larsen Motorsports has two jet dragsters here this weekend for the Annual Jet Jam. Two jet semis are going to be here this weekend and six cars total for the show tomorrow.Jimmy Keene is back at it after a crash testing here in April damaged the car. A new body from Hairy Glass was sourced and the car was sent to Rick Jones Race Cars for repairs.Al Billes has here car here for the first time in competition with driver Tommy D'April. The team is fresh off a win last weekend's Citrus Nationals at Palm Beach International Raceway.This '62 Bel Air was built by Scott Brasket and owned by Toney Curry out of Columbus Ohio. Curry said he was inspired to build the car after seeing Tommy D'April driving Mel Bush's car here in Bradenton. Brasket also built the supercharged big block Chevy.
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Adam Flomholz is racing once again here in Pro Mod and is here with two cars, one being a recent purchase from Frank Manzo. Manzo is here helping out tuning his former Top Alcohol Funny car which Adam will take back to Europe to campaign. There are three cars in the Fat Boy Racing camp this weekend with Eric McMillen bring Vader down to test and race with the drive train from Swanstrom's white turbo car. "Skywalker" (center) formerly owned by McMillen was just purchased from Jeremy, aka Maxrider, on Yellow Bullet.com.
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Cody and Corey Swanstrom is a father/son racing team based in Zephyrhills, Florida. The car is powered by a small block Ford built by Chris Seidle in house at Speed365. I will have more on the new purchase and plans for 2013 coming later. Eric Kenward has a Ford small block back in the car after the sale of Robert Rogers 23 degree Chevy. The Nelson Competition built engine is owned by Bruce Roberts and Eric is working with TRZ Motorsports on a new car for Rogers.
Bill Futch is still behind the wheel of Mel Nelson's twin turbo Drag Radial Camaro. After swapping on a new pair of Garrett 94 mm turbos the first run was a 4.79 lifting at the shift.Eric McMillen rolled out to a 4.96 @ 144 in Skywalker's nemisis, "Vader".Scott Brasket got down to the tune of 4.05 on his first hit of the session.
Brad Personett at the hit. He struggled to keep the car straight and hooked up but managed a full run to the 1/8th.
Chad Opaleski ran a personal best today with a 4.53 @ 167, improving on his previous 4.59 ET . The Nelson Competition big Chevy is tuned by Rob Zarcone with chassis and fabrication by Dan Neumann Race Cars in Ocala, Florida.Troy Pirez showed the X275 racers how it's done with a 4.77 @ 151, a record for the new 2013 X275 rules which limit the big block nitrous cars to a -6 nitrous feed line and -4 to the fogger. Team Pirez freshened the engine just before this event.Dan Saitz has run two passes in the high 4.80's, including his first pass of the trailer today. two clean straight runs puts Saitz in a good position for qualifying tomorrow morning. The first session is at 11 AM.
Randy Van Raden made the haul to Florida for some X275 action. I caught him running a clean 4.99 as the sun was going down this evening.Eugene Rodriguez has two wins recently in X275 and a runner up here at Bradenton. He got down with a 4.96 @ 141 in the Pro Fab Performance Mustang.
