Snowbird Outlaw Nationals Same Day Coverage From Bradenton

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Round 3 Results

Final Results

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.