A special thanks to Comp Cams and the entire Comp Performance Group, the presenting sponsor of our same day event coverage throughout 2014!
Sunday A.M. Update: As the weatherman predicted, rain showers have moved into the area as we were in the midst of index eliminations this morning, putting a halt to the racing action. We’re expected to have a several hour window to get some racing completed this afternoon. Track drying is underway with hopes of getting back underway in the next couple of hours.
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After a several hour rain delay, racer are beginning to unload their machines with plans to get back underway at around 1:30. Not long after we got underway with bracket action, this Dodge pickup absolutely obliterated a transmission right at the drop of the green, sending shrapnel through the floor and dash of the truck and striking the driver in the leg. As you can see in the images below, there’s quite a mess on the starting line, which will take some time to clean up.
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Team Green team owner Dan Green and his son, Josh, will lead the Pro Mod field into eliminations for the first time this afternoon, thanks to their stout 5.93 blast on Friday evening.This is certainly no routine maintenance this afternoon, as Brandon Carter’s team is doing some extensive work to replace a broken lifter before Street Outlaw eliminations begin.
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 Six hours after the planned start to heads-up eliminations, we’ve (finally) completed the first round just before 7 p.m. here in St. Louis.
Josh Green laid down low elapsed time of the opening round of Pro Street on his competition single, carding the only five-second pass with a 5.99.
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Jason Hamtra (left) ran a 6.19 to dispose of Jennifer Green, and will meet Jeffrey Cummins' '67 Shelby in round two. Cummins will have lane choice, after he threw the kitchen sink at it and went a clean 6.16. Billy Glidden (right) made his best run of the weekend with a 6.04 to take down Clint Hairston, and will meet Bob Rahaim (who went 6.00 in his first round win) in the next round. In a battle of the Don’s, Don Baskin ousted Don Bowles on a holeshot in the first round of NA 10.5, his 8.36 defeating the quicker 8.34. Michael DeMayo had low elapsed time with his 8.10 and will meet Baskin in the semifinals. Dwight Ausmus advanced with an 8.19 and will take the bye into the final round.
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David Hutnick (left) went 7.92 in his opening round Xtreme Street win over Alton Clements and will meet John Warren in the second round. Steven Wardlow (right) put together a strong 8.02 to oust a slowing Bill Trovato, and will meet Dewey Bastin in the next round. Eric Kenward kept his class-leading pace going, running 7.94 on his competition single. Dwayne Barbaree and Phil “Corndog” Smith will meet in the final round of Street Outlaw this evening, Barbaree taking lane choice with his 7.110 at 199 to Smith’s 7.39.
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Mike Hupp (left) punched his way into the second round with a 4.52-second defeat of Willard Kinzer in Radial Wars, and will take on Keith Berry, who went 4.32 on his opening round shot, in the next round. DeWayne Mills (right) went 4.44 on his break single and will take a competition single into the semis later tonight.
Round Two Updates:
Pro Mod
Jason Hamstra (6.83, 170 MPH) def. Jeffrey Cummins Jimmy Keen (5.98 236 MPH) def. Steve Summers (6.22 243) — Summer is all over the race track but hangs with it Bob Rahaim (5.96 240 MPH) def. Billy Glidden (6.02 230) Jeff Naiser (6.06 236) def. Josh Green (5.97 239) on a HUGE holeshot
Nitrous Pro Street
Don Baskin 7.28 181) def. Kevin Parent (7.51 184) Skip Baskin (7.28 189) def. Andy Vogt (7.39 189)
Street Outlaw – final
Dwayne Barbaree takes the Street Outlaw hardware back to Arkansas, blasting to a 7.13 at 198.70 MPH as Phil Smith is dead-late and just cruises off the starting line to an 11.86 elapsed time.
Radial Wars
Mark Woodruff rolls to another 4.2X, going 4.25 at 185.33 MPH to oust Brand Carter, who blew the tires off at the hit and we never in it Mark Micke cards a 4.317 at 184.60 to take the growling ProCharger Mustang of Enzo Pecchini, who went 4.50 in the other lane Dwayne Mills is straight and true to a 4.354 at 189 MPH on his competition bye Keith Berry takes out Mike Hupp, 4.326 at 182.16 to Hupp’s 4.649 at 145.64.
Xtreme Street
Steven Wardlow makes his best run of the weekend with a 7.97 at Dewey Bastin hangs the nose WAY up there and nearly collects the wall after touch-down After being double-bulbed by David Hutnick, John Warren straps a holeshot on Hutnick’s Camaro and takes the stripe, 7.95 at 172 to a much quicker 7.88 174 Eric Kenward keeps the freight train rolling, running 7.945 as TJ Strange slows early in the run and can only watch
NA 10.5
Don Baskin is way late off the starting line and Michael DeMayo, who has been the quickest car all weekend, was not, and that’s all she wrote, as DeMayo runs 8.06 at 172 for the win and punches his ticket into the finals. DeMayo will face Dwight Ausmus with lane choice, as Ausmis shuts it down around 900 feet and coasts to an 8.62 at just 128 MPH
DeWayne Mills laid it down in the semifinals of Radial Wars, running 4.23 at what we’re calling an unofficial 202 MPH to take out Keith Berry and advance into the final.
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(Left) Jason Hamstra did his job on the starting line in the semifinals of Pro Mod, getting well out on Bob Rahaim, but he rattled the tires just past the tree and could only watch as Rahaim sailed to a 6.049 at a slowing 209 MPH. Rahaim's mount appeared to be eating itself up in the lights, so there may be some work ahead before the final tonight. (Right) Jimmy Keen uncorked his best run of the weekend, a 5.93-second shot, to take down Jeff Naiser, who got out of the groove but hung in there to the stripe with a trailing 6.03. Keen will take lane choice into the all-nitrous finale. In a matchup of good friends and Missouri residents, top qualifier Mark Woodruff cruised into the final with a 4.26, as Micke struck the tires early and slowed to a 5.23.
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John Warren and Eric Kenward will square off in the Xtreme Street final coming up a little later this evening, with Kenward taking lane choice with the quickest lap of the weekend, a 7.877. Michael DeMayo took down Dwight Ausmus in the NA 10.5 final, running 8.05 to Ausmus’ 8.10.In a father-son battle in the Nitrous Pro Street final, Don Baskin showed son, Skip, how it’s done, nailing him to the tree and taking a holeshot win, 7.33 at 190.32 to a quicker 7.29 at 189.60.
Final Rounds
Xtreme Street
With bracket-like consistency, Eric Kenward rolled to another identical 7.877 in the final round and was never headed by John Warren, who had problems and slowed before reaching the 100-foot mark.
Pro Mod
Jimmy Keen had trouble firing his ’63 Corvette in the Pro Mod final, and long after Bob Rahaim had done his burnout and backed up behind the starting line, Keen got the bright orange machine fired and performaned a short burnout, but when the tree dropped, Rahaim blasted into the darkness, running 5.952 at 242.63 MPH for the win while Keen never left the starting line.
Radial Wars
DeWayne Mills saved his best run for last in Radial Wars, blasting to a 4.171 at 194.91 MPH to take down Mark Woodruff and his 4.292 at 181.67 MPH in a spectacular side-by-side drag race.
Under cloudier skies and slightly cooler conditions, we kick off the second day of competition here in At. Louis, with three full qualifying sessions for the heads-up categories scheduled for the day, as well as class eliminations for the Dave Duell Classic Nostalgia Super Stock racers.
A special thanks to Comp Cams and the entire Comp Performance Group, the presenting sponsor of our same day event coverage throughout 2014!
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While bracket and index time trials are underway out on the track, the car show is picking up on out on the midway, with a host- of sharp-looking rides on hand.
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This heavily modified Chevy Silverado pickup is certainly one of the more interesting rides in the car show. With the help of turbo tuning magician Steve Petty, Willard Kinzer’s team is making preparations this morning to climb their way up the Radial Wars qualifying sheet after a slowing 5.32 last night in the opening session.
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Despite the impressive explosion that Bob Rahaim experienced at the stripe on his first qualifying shot last night, he told us this morning that no internal damage was done to the brand new Reher-Morrison powerplant. His few and race officials were able to retrieve ever piece of the splintered hood and hood scoop that landed on the return road, and with the help of the staff at Jerry Bickel Race Cars, the scoop has already been repaired and is on it's way back to the track. Interestingly, due to mechanical troubles with his toter home, Rahaim had to borrow the rig belonging to fellow racer Jim Laurita to come to At. Louis, and inside his toter back home was his spare hood scoop. Yes, that’s really a 427 SOHC Ford Cammer under the hood of Kurt Neighbor’s badass A/FX Mercury Comet. The massive powerplant is said to be one of just two in use in active competition today.In the first round of class eliminations this morning, Doug Duell shows the crowd why the Nostalgia Super Stockers are way cool.
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If you look closely, you can see Bill Lutz encountering some brutal tire shake just off the starting line in his twin-turbo Camaro. Look closer, and you might see his fillings rattling out.
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Bill Trovato (left) improved a few numbers from his first round effort in Xtreme Street, going 8.47 in today's mid-day session. Friday's qualifying leader, Eric Kenward, meanwhile, went quicker than the existing national record in the class, blasting to a 7.880 at 172.67 to maintain his spot atop the field. Indiana native David Hutnick and his 532-inc Chevy Camaro hung right in there with Kenward in Xtreme Street, going 7.898 at a booming 176.60 MPH, nearly three miles per hour quicker than the existing speed record.
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Speaking of speed records...after his 253 MPH blast Friday evening in Pro Mod qualifying, Steve Summeres powered through some early tire shake to record a staggering 255.77 MPH in 6.05 seconds, good of fourth on the list. Keith Berry and the WOOO! Nation stepped it up a few numbers in Saturday’s opening session of Radial Wars, going 4.401 at 181.98 MPH to maintain his spot in third behind Mark Woodruff and DeWayne Mills.
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Mark Woodruff (left) struggled right at the hit and slowed, but still leads Radial Wars qualifying by a large margin, with DeWayne Mills his nearest challenger after knocking down a 4.33 in the second session. Brian Harrell (right) punched his way into the top five with his Mississippi-based Mustang, running a 4.56.
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Final Qualifying Orders (Minus Xtreme Street, which is still pending)
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This was the scene just as we headed into the final session of qualifying this evening, with a brief drizzle putting things on hold just as the Pro Mod field rolled under the tower.Dwayne Barbaree put a leg up on a new national record on the NMCA side in Street Outlaw in this evening’s final session, blasting to a 6.986 at more than 201 MPH to pace the field by a wide margin. Phil “Corndog” Smith is the closest challenger thus far, carding a 7.20 in the session to slide into second in the order going into race day.
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After a somewhat troublesome weekend to this point (despite running 5.96 on Friday night's destructive pass), Bob Rahaim had plenty to smile about after making a nice and clean 5.958, 240.98 MPH lap to close out Pro Mod qualifying in third. After running strong on Friday with a 5.99 in testing a class-leading 5.93 in the first round of qualifying, Josh Green struggled on Saturday, unable to put together another five-second lap. However, his potential national record run kept him on the pole going into tomorrow’s eliminations, where things are expected to return to the hot and sticky conditions Team Green excelled in on Friday.Mark Woodruff was unable to improve upon his 4.21 from Friday evening in the final session of Radial Wars under the lights, but he did remind the field he’s the man to beat on Sunday with a low-for-the-round 4.25.
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Keith Berry (left) threw a little power at the race track this evening and improved by a full tenth, running 4.30 at 182.97. Another local racer, Mark Micke (Center), from Jefferson City, Missouri, closed out qualifying in fourth with his 4.31 best, as fellow Jefferson City resident Troy William ended up 11th with his 5.48 best on the weekend with his crowd-pleasing '66 Nova. DeWayne Mills notched his best run of the weekend in the final session tonight, using a stout 4.25 at an off-pace 172.94 MPH to solidify his second qualifying spot in the Radial Wars order.Don Bowles and the rest of the NA 10.5 field are chasing Michael DeMayo, who could just as well double-enter in the bracket classes, having run 7.99, 8.00, 8.00, and 8.01 on his previous passes in qualifying and testing. Bowles heads into raceway fourth in the field with his 8.30 best, behind DeMayo, Dwight Ausmus’ 8.15, and Don Baskin’s 8.29.
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Eric Kenward rode out this monstrous 330-feet long wheel stand on his way to another seven-second lap, this one a side-by-side seven-second affair with David Hutnick in the other lane. The pair ended qualifying one and two, and Kenward, with his earlier
After a three-year hiatus, the Flowmaster NMCA Muscle Car Nationals Series returns to the Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis this weekend, bringing with it the all-new Radials Wars category, as well as the annual Dave Duell Classic for Nostalgia Super Stock racers highlighting the racing lineup. Dragzine will be in the house all weekend long bringing you all the news, notes, results, and photos from Gateway, so keep it right here.
A special thanks to Comp Cams and the entire Comp Performance Group, the presenting sponsor of our same day event coverage throughout 2014!
The annual Dave Duell Classic, held for many years at the NMCA event in Bowling Green, Kentucky, has moved back to St. Louis this year, and at last check, a staggering 66 cars have teched in to compete thus far, making it one of, if not the largest Nostalgia Super Stock events ever.
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After debuting his new Mustang a couple of weeks ago in the Pro Boost class at the PDRA event in Valdosta, Ed Rice and his driver, Alton Clements are taking on the Radial Wars class with the twin-turbo machine this weekend. The team went a best of 4.60 and 171 MPH in their debut, but Rice is confident the combination can dip into the three-second zone with the bigger tires on it. Ohio native Bill Lutz is among a rumored 16-plus Pro Mod cars on the property this weekend — a field that includes Bob Rahaim, the top qualifier at last weekend’s Throwdown In T-Town, Jeffrey Cummins, Jason Hamstra, and Jim Widener.Earlier this month, Dwayne Barbaree became first Street Outlaw racer in history to record a sub seven-second lap. After their history-making weekend in Maryland was cut short by tire spin, Barbaree and company spent the weeks leading up to this weekend’s event overhauling their Neal’s Powerglide transmission, switching out the low gear to calm down the violent striking of the tires they have been experiencing.Local boy Mark Woodruff, from nearby Arnold, Missouri, will have some stout competition this weekend in the Radial Wars category from the likes of Keith Berry, Dewayne Mills, and Mark Micke.Dwayne Barbaree sailed down the Gateway Motorsports Park quarter-mile to close the morning testing, going 7.13 at a stout 198 MPH.
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Dan Saitz and his turbocharged Ford Probe (left) and Ron Muenks (driving Dave Pierce's nitrous oxide-injected Camaro) are among the impressive list of entrants in Pro Mod this weekend. You could say there’s a couple Nostalgia Super Stockers here for the Dave Duell Classic.
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Willard Kinzer is certainly the elder statesman of the Radial Wars class, but he can still hang right in there with the young guns in the new class behind the wheel of his twin-turbo '98 Ford Mustang. The Kinzer Drilling team has opted to run the Mickey Thompson slicks to begin the weekend, believing them a better fit for the hot and sticky conditions expected this weekend. If you want to go radial tire racing, here’s a pretty good start….Jeffrey Cummins has his gorgeous new Jerry Bickel Race Cars-built ’67 Ford Mustang packing 872 cubic inches of Reher-Morrison power, backed by a four-speed Liberty Extreme transmission, here competing in Pro Mod this weekend, as he and his team work to gain grade points for entry at NHRA national events later this season. They will, of course, have to pack on an extra 50 lbs. when they do after the NHRA sacked the nitrous cars this week.
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Mark Woodruff (left) obliterated the Radial Wars field in the cooler conditions of tonight's first qualifying session, blasting to a new provisional national record of 4.21 at 188 MPH. Georgian Keith Berry, also in a Pro Line-powered Corvette, told us before the run he wanted to get a solid lap in on the slicks before trying the radials, and he did just that, going to No. 3 with a 4.445 at 178.33. DeWayne Mills and his twin-turbo ’68 Camaro cranked off a 4.407 at 181.84 to slide in second in the order, with twelve cars taking a lap in the opening session.Tell us where you’ve heard this before: a Pat Musi-powered car walking all over a field of Pro Mods. Illinois native Josh Green uncorked a 5.99 earlier in the heat of the day in testing, and then turned around and improved in the opening session when it counted, going 5.934 at 239.78 MPH for the provisional pole.
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The good news is Bob Rahaim cranked off a stellar 5.961 to jump into the second spot in the order, but you can see the bad news here, as a nitrous backfire in the lights sent the hood scoop and other bits and pieces shooting high into the St. Louis skyline. Don Baskin drove his ’87 Olds Cutlass, packing 688 inches of Chevy power, to the top of the order in Nitrous Pro Street with a 7.29, which paced his son, Skip, by a mere three-hundredths and change.Dwayne Barbaree unloaded on the Gateway Motorsports Park track surface this evening, hiking the front wheels and carrying the nose higher and higher before giving it a quick slap of the loud pedal to bring it back to earth. Despite the pedal-job, he still cruised to a 7.24 at 195.96 MPH to pace the Street Outlaw field with the only full pass of the session.
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Michael DeMayo (left) folioed up his earlier 7.99 in testing with a quick 8.00 at 168.11 MPH to lead the NA 10.5 field after one session. Don Bowles (center) took his '92 Mustang to an 8.33 to finish third, while Don Baskin and his beautiful Pontiac GTO slid in fourth with an 8.51.
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Eric Kenward (left) made the long trek from Vero Beach, Fla. worth it in the opening session of Xtreme Street, running 8.000 at 171.47 to lead John Warren (8.119), Steven Wardlow (8.123), Dewey Bastin (8.139), and Corey Stephens (8.563), all rounding out the top five. Bill Trovato (right), in his beautiful fifth-gen Camaro, ran off his usual pace -- his 8.60 only good for eighth.
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Jeffrey Cummins' Shelby Mustang slowed early, allowing everyone that much more time to fawn over the gorgeous new machine. (Right) Billy Glidden and engine builder Jeff Naiser both ran strong to 1,000-feet in their opening runs, Naiser clicking it off early and coasting to a 6.29 at just 180 MPH, while Glidden, likewise, pushed in the clutch before the stripe, going 6.37 at 191.24 MPH.
