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14 th Annual Buckeye State Fun Ford Weekend Nationals
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Norwalk Raceway Park , Norwalk , OH , July 9, 10 & 11.
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By George Klass, photos courtesy of Fun Ford Weekend |
When you hear the PA announcer calling up the bracket cars for time trials, and stipulating that only cars with an “even number” at the end will be permitted in the lanes, you know that you are at a FFW event at Norwalk Raceway Park . If all of the bracket cars tried to get into the lanes at the same time (and Norwalk has a dozen lanes), the lines would extend out the pit gate and half way to Toledo . While we are on the subject of the Roush Performance bracket classes, let's talk about the King Ford event which takes place on Sunday. This is a special race for the winners of Saturdays and Sundays Fast Ford, Quick Ford, Street Ford and the Nostalgia Ford participants. The winner gets a nice “trophy”, a brand new 2004 Mustang GT. This little carrot pulls in a lot of rabbits and here are the results.
In round #2, it was Lauffer over Garceau and Best over Glenn. This set up the finals with Lauffer's 1984 T-Bird running Best's 1988 Mustang convertible. And the keys to the new GT went to Todd Lauffer. This was Lauffer's 3 rd time in the last 6 years that he was able to drive home in a new GT after the Norwalk event. Ford Motor Company would be ahead if they sent Todd off to Hawaii every year on the same weekend as the Norwalk FFW event, just so someone else would have a chance.
In the Mr. Gasket Pro class, we had six cars entered. Qualifying #1 was Chuck Samuel at 6.530, 215.34. Just behind Chuck was Randy Eakins at 6.551, 212.33. Next was Jason Collins with his IHRA Pro Stock Cougar at 6.581, 207.24. Next up was Carl Baker with his Summit sponsored IHRA Pro Stock Cougar at 6.593, 212.59. Joe DaSilva qualified #5 with a 6.715, 217.53 and on the bottom of the ladder with a 8.357, 121.38 was Chuck Simons with his nitrous big block Cougar. Chuck wasn't going to enter into competition, as he was de-bugging his new engine set-up. As you will see, lucky for him that he stuck around on Sunday. In eliminations, in round #1 Simons unleashed a 6.857, 209.33 to take out Collins. Carl Baker took out Chuck Samuel with a 6.676, 210.73 over Samuel's losing 7.008. And Eakins was on a roll with a 6.634, 196.90 win over a shutting-off DaSilva.
In the ProCharger Street Outlaw class, it was Billy Glidden qualifying #1 in a field of 11 cars. Billy ran a 7.139, 193.02 to sit on top of the ladder. Chip Havemann was next at 7.435, 187.60. Frank Soldridge was in 3 rd place with a 7.580, 184.98. In the finals it was Glidden with a 8.042, 171.12 win over 5 th place qualifier Duke Alley. Duke qualified with a 7.662, 165.90 and was off the pace in the finals with a 9.071 at 122.66. Other than the final run, Glidden was running like a bracket car with his worst pass a 7.266. In the ProCharger Street Renegade class, perennial nice guy Manny Geno qualified #1 with his nitrous coupe at 8.336, 165.17. Renegade had a field of 7 cars. At the bottom of the field lay Joe Robinson with a 13.358. However, in the finals it was Robinson who picked things up, but still came in second to eventual winner, Manny Geno. “It's about time”, said his number one fan, his mom.
The Edelbrock Street Bandit class was the usual dog fight between the “regulars”. Ken Compton qualified #1 with a 8.733, 153.93. Then, of course, came the rest of the pack with Matt Jones, Rod Houck, Cale Aronson and Cory Roth, in order. In eliminations it was Compton (8.822, 153.04) over Jones (8.802, 154.38), with Kenny getting a little jump at the start (.421 vs. .530). The Probe Forged Piston Street Warrior class is truly turning into a killer class. It is going to take only the quickest car these days to have much of a chance. Darrell Peterson qualified #1 with a 10.062, 132.06. Other qualifiers included Rich Groh, Jeff (2-pedal) Chambers, Robert Mollet, Gene (he's my brother) Hindman and John Scaro.
What about the “new” Superchips Street Stang class? Well, the 12.50 Index class was taken by a Mustang that never went quicker than 12.660, during eliminations, and that was Jeff Schmer. Jeff qualified #1 with a 12.617, 109.48. In the Vortech Focus Frenzy class, eighteen cars lined up for the Sunday eliminations. Brandy Burd had her Focus on the money all weekend with deadly lights, and finished on top over Owen Spry, the #1 qualifier. The JDM Engineering Tough Truck class is always a knife fight, right to the end. Out of the sixteen qualified trucks, the win was taken by Robert Burcharan over James Keyes.
In the UPR All-Ford car show at Norwalk , some of the best looking cars in Ohio (and some neighboring states) come out every year. This year, the car show had 190+ cars in attendance. It's a shame that every one of them couldn't get an award. Just looking at the cars in the UPR Car Show would be enough reason to make a trip to a Norwalk event. But, someone needs to take home the gold, so the Best Engine award went to Michael and Teri Yakubics, the Best Paint award went to Robert Springer. Troy Zam took home the Best Interior award and Fab Fiucco was voted the Best Mustang. And the Best of Show award went to Jim Matzke.
All in all, Norwalk was Norwalk , with about 1300 cars on the premises in competition. A ton of people, a huge Manufacturers Midway, and great weather. Other than the problems with the computer during True Street , another great event is in the books. And now, it's time to drop down South a little, to Bristol , Tennessee , for the 13 th Annual Thunder Valley FFW Nationals on August 6, 7 and 8.
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In round #1 of the King Ford Eliminations, the Saturday F/F winner Chris Garceau was the winner over the Sunday F/F winner, Ron Barnhill. The Q/F winner for both Saturday and Sunday, Todd Lauffer made a bye run. In Nostalgia Ford, the Saturday winner Chuck Glenn beat the Sunday N/F winner, Brian Merrick. And in Street Ford, the Saturday and Sunday winner was Jeremy Best, who made the bye run. 
Now, let's move on to the FFW Showdown Classes. 
In the Semi's it was Simons (6.962, 204.85) over Eakins and Baker on the bye run. In the finals, it was Ohio 's very own, Carl Baker with the win, 6.662, 208.46 over Chuck Simons valiant 6.940, 205.41. Still a pretty successful “de-bugging”, right? 
In the BFGoodrich Tire Drag Radial class, it was another loss for the D/R champ, Big Daddy. Big stayed home with some wounded parts which allowed Shane Hill from Midland , Texas to take home the winner's purse over Timothy Huspey. 
In eliminations, Peterson clicked off a 9.961, 133.42 to take the win over Rich Groh's 10.210, 130.83. It wasn't long ago that a 10.21 would have taken the Street Outlaw title. My how things have changed. 
The Steeda / Hyland Mod Motor class is always one of the most difficult to win, for two reasons. The M/M class has the best foot-brake drivers and the most rounds of competition. Norwalk was no exception as Robert Hindman took the win over Lupe Davila, out of a field of 49 entries and six rounds of competition. 
The Tremec Transmission True Street class had about 160 cars, with mostly Mustang's but also a few Mercury Marauders in the field too. A lot of cars and some serious computer glitches caused problems on Saturday. Everyone made at least two passes, however, concern about the validity of the second round ET's caused that round to be dumped. Greg Laboint ran the quickest round with a 8.704. The runner-up was Bill Klien with a 9.184. This was one of the quickest fields of True Streeters ever, as you would need to count down 30 spots to get to the first car slower than 11-seconds.