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The throngs of members and the fearless leader of the internet’s most famous drag racing message forum return this weekend to Maryland’s Cecil County Dragway for the now annual happening known as the Yellow Bullet Nationals. A special thanks to Fuel Air Spark Technology, whose support makes our coverage possible!
Bruce Maichle from High Horse Performance is here to debut his new car built in house at HHP. Power comes from a BES built LS based 427 topped with All Pro Heads and force fed by an F1X Procharger with Fuel Tech engine management. Power is transferred rearward via a PTC converter and ATF Transmission. He has been testing for a couple of months working the bugs out of the new car and will be in full race mode this weekend with Mike Cerminaro driving.
High Horse Performance will debut their new cast aluminum New Gen Chrysler Hemi block this weekend in Rob Goss' Dodge Challenger. The new piece saw some dyno time in a naturally aspirated combination making just over 700 horsepower though the one Goss has is solid version. The project took about two years to come to fruition with a planned first production run of 25 blocks with both water jacketed and solid versions. Goss put up a 4.79 at 153 in last night testing.
Ron Rhodes ran a 4.41 at 158 MPH here last month earning a small block nitrous record and new personal best. The team has been making changes to the car through the year which have finally paid off and will be looking to defend his 2015 YB Nationals X275 Championship.
Mo Hall put up a 4.12 on one pass earlier in testing Friday but suffered some engine damage later in the session losing a piston and damaging the intake when the engine backfired. The team has won the last two events here at Cecil County and is just behind Mike Decker in OL 10.5 points. Mo Hall, Steve Berger and crew will be working hard to make it three in a row this weekend.
Team Jet Blue and Scotty G is running Outlaw 10.5 this weekend in his first time on slicks in over five years since running Radial vs the World with the Camaro. With that class getting “out of touch” according to some racers Scotty moved back to OL 10.5 this weekend and is looking to run Outlaw 275 next month at No Mercy down in Georgia. He made two promising hits Thursday and will look for some full passes in testing today.
Jesse Lambert purchased this car here in 2015 from Steve Gorman and recently made the switch to methanol. He has been learning how slicks and wheelie bars work after racing in drag radials exclusively in the past. The car uses Big Stuff engine management with an AMS 2000 boost controller with a Davis Electronics Profiler collecting data but not currently integrated with the engine management at this time. A Bruno/Lenco transmission and Coan converter harness the power from the Steve Merckel built engine with a new bullet underway by Joe Newsham.
Fiscus Klugger Racing has both their cars here this weekend with “The Flash” assigned driving duty for both. Rumors are swirling about future plans after the teams Drag Radial car went up for sale recently. We will see if we can pry a scoop out of them before the weekend is over. Routine maintenance found the axle splines twisted a bit on the radial car so new pieces are going in and they will start testing on Friday.
Joe Albrecht drives for car owner Eddie Whalen's Al-Lee Motrosports and has the new car here this weekend scoring a 4.14 at 187 on just his first full pass Thursday. The Vanishing Point Race Cars built 2006 GTO features a screw blown BAE Hemi tuned by Resolution Racing's Jon Salemi. He is running Outlaw 10.5 this weekend on drag radials and also has the box Nova here running in Ultra Street with new power from Scotty's Racing Technology.
Michael Decker had trouble last night losing a connecting rod in the OL 10.5 Decker Salvage Corvette. The team was preparing to install another engine into the car but has not made the decision to race their Vette or the Camaro still in the trailer. Plans include making laps on both cars today as of Thursday night so we will see what bears out today.
Gary Naughton in back in the seat after taking a year off to regroup and get some updates done on the car. We will have more on the team later today.
John Sears was getting folks teched in yesterday and will be working hard again today ensuring the entrants are class legal. Here he checks the blower inlet on Rob Goss' Mopar. There are several specialty tools used in the process for assorted blower and turbo sizes.
Friday’s race schedule ran testing to right at 4 PM and we are just about to start round one qualifying with Super Street out first. The run order will be the same every day with Pro Street next, then 10.0 Index and Pro Dial. This super clean 70 Monte Carlo is entered in 8.50 Index and is arguably the most unassuming car on the lot racing this weekend.
This is the first on camera carnage of the weekend running out the last car in Ultra 275, Rexx Holler who lost an axle at the hit making for an interesting "Caption This" shot.
Here is Gary Naughton’s GXP in the daylight. He ran it out to a 4.06 at 193 MPH testing this afternoon.
Brian Shaw has his new car on the property with James Hancock behind the wheel this weekend. They were working with the Fuel Tech engine management yesterday and didn’t make any runs. The car looked strong to half track on this run, clicking early to a 4.50 at 136.
Ron Rhodes wheelied some but pedaled it down saving the run and the car. He clicked it early for a 4.70.
Cecil County track owner Jim Halsey is racing Pro Mod this weekend. He shook quite a bit on this pass but drove through it to a 4.32 at 139 shutting down just past half track.
Mark McCloud (left) and Mike Barry are two of several naturally aspirated racers in Ultra 275 here this weekend. The weather forecast is looking better today and the cooler air will help these guys out against the boosted cars in class.
Troy Pirez Jr made the trip up from Florida again scoring a 4.90 at 134 on his second pass of the weekend after gremlins on his first attempt this morning. Troy posted “We have a good car for Q1 this evening” to his Facebook making note he shut it down early.
Dean Maranis is pulling double duty driving in two classes this weekend in X275 and Pro Mod. He put down a 4.32 at 176 in the Vette.
Shawn Pevlor ripped of a nice 4.79 on his test run.
Round One Qualifying Results
Dean Marinas scored top qualifier this session with a 3.784 at 199.52 MPH in beautiful Marinas/Pappas Corvette.
Kevin “Flash” Fiscus sits second in Pro Mod with a 3.78 at 210.11, good for high MPH this session.
Joe Albrecht sits number one in Outlaw 10.5 after the first session with a 4.01 at 190 MPH making the team very happy with the performance so far this weekend with the new car.
Mike Decker Jr. attempted to qualify both the team cars landing third with a 4.04 at 189 in the 1968 Camaro after the Vette lost a blower belt at the hit early in the OL 10.5 session.
Joe Newsham put his 1992 Mustang in fourth position so far earning high MPH for the session with a nice 4.085 at 198 MPH blast.
Scotty Guadagno did well today scoring tenth spot with a 4.14 at 174 including a 1.01 60′. This should please the crew a lot as their first time back on 10.5W’s in some time. Look for the team to add some power down track tomorrow as they will sure be looking to improve on the .14.
The man to beat so far in X275 is Ron Rhodes who was just off his record pace with a 4.42 at 157 in the first session. Rich Bruder sits second. just .006 off Rhodes pace at 161.13 MPH.
High MPH for the session went to Robert Babtista in his 2002 Camaro with a 161.88 MPH run, good for fifth so far with thirty four cars making attempts for the 32 car qualified field.
A 4.700 at 150.25 landed Shawn Pevlor number one in Ultra 275 after one round of qualifying.
George Farkouh and the American Racing Headers team made the trip tot he YB Nats this year and has run well so far landing fifth in class with a 4.81 at 147 MPH.
