15th Annual Peach State FFW Nationals
Story by George Klass
Photos by Brian Wood

Fun Ford Weekend's 15th Annual Peach State Nationals at Atlanta Dragway was certainly speed, speed and more speed. Maybe the weather helped too. It was a beautiful 75-degree weekend which brought out a huge capacity crowd of upwards of 25,000 Ford fanatics.

And what a show they saw.

Starting with the Mr. Gasket Pro class, the Atlanta FFW event featured a special purse, sponsored by AMP Performance out of Phoenix, AZ. Here is how the final qualifying went, with a great field of the quickest and fastest 15 Pro 5.0 racers ever assembled.

1. Mike Herring - 6.475, 214.89 (nitrous big block)
2. Doug Mangrum - 6.476, 214.79 (Procharger supercharged small block)
3. Richard Penland - 6.492, 214.03 (IHRA Pro Stock)
4. John Noble - 6.511, 214.95 (IHRA Pro Stock)
5. Tony Gillig - 6.534, 215.05 (IHRA Pro Stock)
6. Robert Patrick - 6.547, 215.62 (IHRA Pro Stock)
7. Chuck Samuel - 6.603, 217.60 (nitrous big block)
8. Dan Saitz - 6.624, 214.28 (turbo small block)
9. Ben Hopko - 6.633 (turbo small block)
10. John Gullett - 6.690, 217.02 (turbo small block)
11. Joe Dasilva - 6.778, 206.04 (turbo small block)
12. Randy Eakins - 8.498, 112.50 (turbo small block)
13. Chuck Simons - 9.217, 102.43 (nitrous big block)
14. Brit Floyd - 9.759, 100.80 (turbo small block)
15. David Hance - 31.999, no speed (turbo small block)

A couple of notes before we move on into the eliminations. During time trials, Chuck Samuel ran a 6.42, 220 in his new nitrous car. And during the 2nd round of qualifying, Chuck Simons got out of the groove, crossed the centerline just before the lights, spun around and just scraped the wall while literally flying backwards. It was scary but other than needing a new set of wheelie bars, and putting some skid marks on the paint, Chuck was ready for eliminations on Sunday. Great driving job by Randy Eakins who avoided Chuck's flying Cougar.

Here are the final-round results from Atlanta. Mike Herring and his nitrous big block (698 cubic inches) against Richard Penland's 812 cubic inch IHRA Pro stock Mustang. Mike squeezed out a better light by just a fraction (.086 vs. .111) and that was what it took. How about a winning 6.543 vs. a losing 6.548? The speed was pretty close too, with Mike's 213.72 vs. Richard's losing 213.67. And because Mike was also the #1 qualifier, he added another $1,000 from the Mickey Thompson Performance Tires Pro Challenge Lottery to the AMP $20,000 winners purse.

In the Procharger Street Outlaw catagory, Billy Glidden led a tough field of 8 cars, with a qualifying effort of 7.061, 196.29. In order after Billy, it was Jeff Tyson, Randy Levy, Travis Franklin, Tim Lynch, Dewayne Stiles, Jimmy Keen and Tony Watkins.

In eliminations, Billy held off all challengers and defeated Keen in the finals. And being the #1 qualifier also gave Billy an extra $1,000 provided for by the Aeromotive Outlaw Challenge Lottery.

In the Borla Street Renegade class, Dan Schoneck from Minnesota finally got his new Mustang finished, and what a car it was. First time down the track, Dan obliterated the record set by Joe Robinson just one race before, with a 7.816, 171.23. Dan is now the second member to be inducted into the UPR Renegade 7-Second Club. Blowers rule, according to some, and yet, in the finals it was all nitrous in both lanes, with James Black over brother Jimmy Black, 8.372, 167.59 to a losing 8.293, 168.19. Ugh, Jimmy, what's with that .213 light?

In the BFGoodrich Tires Drag Radial class, only three racers showed up. John Hewlett was on the pole with a 8.384, 178.89 qualifying run, and wound up winning the class over Chris Tuten, 8.571, 176.71 vs. a losing 8.603, 164.11.

The Edelbrock Street Bandit class had Matt Jones in the #1 spot on Saturday, 8.560, 160.22. And on Sunday, Matt took home the gold with a 8.598, 156.49 to Dan Bott's losing 9.300, 146.

The Blow-By Racing Street Warrior class is truly made up of "warriors". This is as hard fought a class as there is in the FFW program. John Scaro was on point during qualifying with a great 9.608, 139.38. Right behind was Darrell Peterson, the 2004 Champ (9.668, 138.78) and right behind Darrell was Jeremy Martorella, the 2003 Champ (9.763, 135.19). In the finals, Scaro ran a 9.653, 139.66 to Martorella's red light. The Street Warrior Championship for 2005 is probably going to go down to the final event.

Open Comp, FFW's newest class is sponsored by Ford Racing Technologies. As in the past, the #1 and #2 qualifiers both had the same names, Jon Pickering and Jon Pickering, father and son, or in this case, son and father. Twenty two cars made the field. The Atlanta O/C winner was Rodney Ward over runner-up Chip Leetch.

The Superchips Custom Tuning Street Stang class is starting to come alive. This class runs on a 12.50 Index. Darrell Lucas qualified #1 with a 12.556 and was the ultimate winner, over Mark Anderson, with a 12.546 against Mark's breaking-out 12.497.

In the Steeda / Hyland Mod Motor class, 30 cars made the qualified field, with the "coffee king", Joseph Decaria in the #1 spot. But in the finals it was Alabama's own Gary Youngblood getting the honors (and the money), with his win over runner-up Barry Burch.

In the JDM Engineering Tough Truck class, 16 trucks answered the call for the first round, led off by class sponsor and #1 qualifier Jim D'Amore himself (10.899, 124.39). But it's the last round that counts, and in the finals it was Micah Monteleone over 2004 T/T Champ Lacey Gassaway.

What about those Foci? In the JBA Headers focus Frenzy class, Owen Spry was in the #1 spot on Saturday, but on Sunday, Owen could only muster a runner-up finish against winner Mark Adkins (the #2 qualifier).

In the super popular Tremec Transmission True Street class, 110 participants went on the 30-mile cruise following the Banks County Sheriff through the Georgia countryside, and then down the track on get their 3-run back-to-back averages. The quickest average was Nick Yarber who set a record with an 8.625 average. Runner-up (and the quickest 9-second car) belonged to Tony Gonyon with a 9.343 average. Danny Williams had the quickest 10-second average with a 10.253. The 11-second winner was Harley Chapman (11.097 average) and the 12-second winner was Dean Lazzaro with a 12.012 average. We feel bad for Rob Roberts. Somehow one of his time slips got lost in the computer, and listed him as placing 80th, where as in actuality, his 3-run average should have put him in the 5th spot, with a 9.998 average. Sorry Rob.

The MM&FF Editors Choice award went to Kyle Yentzker. Owen Spry picked up the winners purse in the True Street bracket race on Sunday.

In the huge FFW bracket program, now sponsored by Compucar Nitrous Systems, the Saturday winners and runner-ups were as follows. In Fast Ford it was E. L. Smith over James Noel. In Quick Ford it was James Gagnon over Jamie Talbert and in Street Ford it was Josh Lashley over Davy Hartsell.

On Sunday in Fast Ford it was Will McKay over James Noel and in Quick Ford it was Jacob Ruttledge over Ron Williams and in Street Ford it was Marty Kennedy over Bobby McNair.

It was a super weekend with 724 race and show cars registered and a ton of happy spectators.   

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