Saturday

Tripp Carter has the newest FS/XX car out of Watson Racing camp and has been associated with the team for about three years. Tripp and Chuck Watson II got their competition licensees together at Joliet and campaigned a 2016 Cobra Jet a couple of years ago before selling it and commissioning a shootout car from Watson. A new 2019 Ecoboost model was sourced and delivered to Watson’s shop for the build. Carter has raced in several venues including motocross, offshore boats and has been drag racing for nearly ten years now. Carter owns Gus’s Friend Chicken based out of Memphis, which was founded about twenty years ago and now has 35 locations. “I’ve been working toward doing this for a long time and finally getting to enjoy myself, and Watson built me a killer car to go and do that,” Tripp told us. He picked the car up a week ago Friday and came right down to Florida to get some runs in and get acclimated to the car. He has been only 8.60’s prior to this weekend so the team is being cautious and creeping up on the tune, making quite a few partial runs as Tripp gets more comfortable. Tripp qualified last night with an 8.005 at 175 mph. Watson Racing has four cars in class this weekend and will field these and share data all year at NMCA and NHRA events. Those cars include Chuck Watson Sr, Tripp Carter, Paul Roderick Jr., and Gardner Stone. Tripp pictured at right with Chuck Watson II.

Bill Skillman and his son Drew set tongues a’wagging last night after putting up a pair of 7.70’s on the board in Holley EFI Factory Super Cars, making them the two quickest cars in the class’ history. Ray Skillman Racing was founded by Bill’s father, Ray who has drag raced since the 1950’s. When Bill was born he stepped away to start a family. Ray returned to racing in the ’70’s trying his hand at some asphalt circle track racing and then again in the 1980’s and raced in some different series: the K&N, All Pro Series and ASA, so the family has a long racing history. Eventually that morphed into Bill looking to order a couple of 2008 Cobra Jet Mustangs for his dealership but he was later getting in and the run was sold out for that year.

“So we ordered a couple of 2010 models and they happened to come in while I was out of town and when I came back they were gone.” Bill told us, “My father and son stole both cars and took them to the race track and that is how it all started.” The cars were both stick shift, one with a 4.0L blower and the other a 2.3L combo, so one ran in NHRA Stock and the other in Super Stock. Fast forward to 2018 and the team ran the black car a few times with limited success, winning a couple of rounds out of three or four events. Ford was at a power disadvantage with their small 302-inch engine and some changes were in the works with Ford and NHRA to allow some changes for 2019. The approvals added some stroke to the crank and a new, more more efficient supercharger with Skillman citing a significant drop in air intake temps compared to the older combo.

The car Drew drives is the 2019 number two Cobra Jet with Geoff Turk owning the number one car currently under construction at Watson Racing. The Skillman’s took the car and finished it themselves with a four week thrash to get down to Florida for NMCA season opener.

“We got after it last night” Bill said. “The weather conditions were good, Kurt does a fabulous job here. It’s like Disney World. You’re not gonna’ run these kind of numbers at an NHRA event with the totally different prep, it’s just not gonna’ happen, but even here with the little 9-inch tires we are getting wheel spin on the top end.”

Drew put up the quickest pass, a 7.704 at 176.29. We asked him about the run: “I was really surprised. I didn’t think the car ran that good. I knew we were on a decent pass, our fastest pass for sure, but that was only the third run on the car.” The 2019 model is a four link rear suspension and the black car has a three link arrangement so the chassis are very different to set up and doesn’t carry over from one car to the other but the engine, tuneup and gear ratios are the same. “It surprised us to run that fast … we were hoping to be somewhere under 7.80, so we didn’t think we were gonna’ run that fast,” said Bill. The previous best was a 7.81. Pictured from left to right: Drew and Bill Skillman.

Scott Libersher has three FS/XX cars on the team of five cars with his son Lenny in one and Dan Condon in the third car. The team has been in the sevens while testing and both Scott and Lenny made it into the Holley EFI 7 Second Club in last night’s qualifying session. Magnuson Superchargers, Mickey Thompson and VP Fuels are some companies involved with the hard working group which is looking for more partners to come onboard with the Joliet, Illinois based team. From right to left: Scott and Lenny Libersher. Libersher uses Ray Barton Racing Engines tuned by David Barton.

Lou Iacopetti tops the qualifying sheet for Edelbrock Xtreme Street with a 4.651 at 149 MPH, just ahead of Troy Pirez Sr. and is on-track for a record performance with an official backup. He runs a 522 big-block Chevy from Bill Trovato backed by Pro Torque and Proformance Racing Transmissions and topped with Nitrous Outlet Stinger 3 plate. Lou purchased the car in 2015 and has progressed in baby steps since then getting quicker every year, runnning around the Chicago area and some Ultra Street events. “The car has been working well and I want to give a shout to Kevin Stevens and my partner John Galloway, we’ve been baby stepping and got where we want to be right now.” Lou told us.

Longtime racer and NMCA/NMRA participant Tony Jarvis waved us over to show off his new car, a Cobra Jet Mustang he purchased out of Arizona. The car had never been raced and he put two laps on it right away and competed in the NMRA’s Coba Jet Showdown here last weekend. His best run was yesterday was an 8.78 at 154. Tony has a burgundy ’66 Mustang he has raced for years and let his friend drive here last weekend with everyone having a blast. His home track is New England Dragway where he has been running Super Street 10.90 or 10.50 Outlaw, and 6.50 index with that car here at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Jarvis has raced since the mid 1970s but took some time off for the family business, Jarvis Appliance, in 1981. He got married and had children before getting back involved at the racetrack in 2005. Tony’s father founded the business in 1957 which is now run by he and his sister.

Final Qualifying Results