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| NHRA
Northern Sportsnationals
SUNDAY - Biondo, Ashley star in SPORTSnationals finals (7-31-2005) - The following are Sunday's final results
from the NHRA Jeg's Northern SPORTSnationals:
SUNDAY NOTES - It's hotter than a mutha here, Famous Cars and Hot Air Balloons(7-31-2005) - Scorching Sunday – A cloudless sky and projected temperatures in the 90 degree range will make the final day of the Jeg’s Northern SPORTSnationals a warm one. Action began with Stock eliminator at 9 am this morning. Pro Mod eliminations kicked off at high noon with a track temperature of 130 degrees. Quotable #1 – We overheard a fan asking what the Comp part of Competition eliminator stood for. The person he was speaking with said, “Complicated I think. I have no idea what’s going on out there.” Quotable #2 - At the conclusion of today's racing an NHRA official entered the pressroom and told the group of reporters to "mention him fondly in our stories." One enterprising journalist replied, "Is there a hyphen in assh*!e?" And they say we’re crazy? – There were a couple of hot air balloons floating through the Ohio sky this morning here in Hebron. Undoubtedly, the balloon riders would deem drag racers crazy people, hurtling down the quarter mile at break neck speeds. Yet they are in, what is essentially a wicker basket, suspended below a big rubber bag, with no steering or landing gear….we are not the crazy ones. I can assure you of that.
Opposite day – A great stock match up in round one was the big block Chevy powered SS/DA Camaro of Brian Oakes working against the SS/O, 283, 4-speed Impala of Richard Feldman. It seems that the big block should belong in that big hunk of Impala, not in the svelte Camaro, but Feldman took care of business, retiring the strong running Oakes to advance to round two.
Multiplying like rabbits -- From what we're hearing, the NHRA is seriously looking for a place to hold the SPORTSnationals in the western states. Apparently they are looking for a track other than a current national event track. A Fall date is being considered. Biondo wins two finals– Peter Biondo has won both
the Super Stock and Stock final rounds. He and his C/SA Camaro were staged
up next to Jim Boudreau’s 1969 C/SA Camaro in a heads up match.
Boudreau went red. Biondo won the Super Stock final where his GT/FA Pontiac
squared with James Vester and his SS/CA Camaro. Biondo's bracket racing
pedigree took him to the winner's circle. His feat is extremely impressive
considering the depth of both categories at this event. SATURDAY - Westcott sweeps SPORTSnationals Hemi Challenge event
SATURDAY NOTES - Beautiful weather for Saturday(7-30-2005) - Oh, the weather outside is – Absolutely fantastic. Another day of meteorological bliss here in Hebron, Ohio greets the fans and racers at National Trail Raceway. The day’s events will begin at 10 am with class runoffs in the stock categories. Holy Hemis! – Round 1 of the SS/AA Hemi Shootout kicked off at 12:30. Charlie Westcott again proved dominate, going low for the round 8.80 at 143 mph. Unless Mr. Westcott runs into a problem or everyone else figures out how to pick up a tenth (or in some cases two) it’s going to be a one man show. The War Fish is set to make this look like the Germans taking over France…no contest. Super Stock Class Eliminations – Heads up, first to the finish line wins, Super Stock class racing is the stuff that good times are made of. The greatest muscle cars ever produced in Detroit squaring off and let it all hang out to get that important class victory. Badillacs – Since I’m the resident Cadillac freak on the eRaceFuels Comp Plus staff, I feel compelled to recognize the stellar performance of at least one Caddy racer this weekend. The SS/PA class winner this weekend Don Carpenter pilots a Coupe De Ville to 12 teens all day long. Not bad considering it weighs roughly the same as the expansive timing tower here at National Trail. Missed it by that much – Well here’s the story with Stock eliminator. There were 129 tech cards collected for a field of 128 cars so that means someone made the trip here to Hebron Ohio, from god knows where, and is headed back there right now. When we find the name of “Mr. or Mrs. Irrelevant” we will make sure to call his or her family and make sure they lock the knife drawer. 2 thumbs up from the Sportsmen – Reaction in the pits has been very positive about this race and the way it has played out. Dan Mistrada, a super stock racer from New England had this to say about the race, “This has been one of the better races we have traveled to and if everything goes according to plan we will be back with the car next year.” Baughman and Westcott to meet in SS/AA Final – So it comes down to this. Steve Baughman and Charlie Westcott will meet in the finals of the Hemi Shootout here in Hebron. Westcott showed some chinks in an otherwise impregnable armor in his semi-final bye run. The War Fish put up a tire-spinning 9.12 at 142 miles per hour, but Baughman was able to run a clean 8.97 at 147 mph. The final should be interesting! All the super classes have been halved – Round
one has been completed in Super Gas, Super Street and Super Comp. Trailers
are beginning to trickle out of the gate as some of the further reaching
competitors that are no longer in the program head for their homes. Several
of the stock and super stock racers have also packed up after class racing
was finished today. FRIDAY - Jeg’s Northern SPORTSnationals qualifying continues(7-29-2005) – The 500 plus racers who made the trip to National Trail Raceway have completed two days of qualifying and time trials in the inaugural Jeg’s NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals. Friday’s racing was highlighted by two qualifying rounds of the AMS Staff Leasing/TLR Pro Mod Series. Currently, Josh Hernandez of Conroy, Texas leads the 16-car field with a run of 6.24-seconds of in his supercharged ’57 Chevy. Columbus native Troy Coughlin, driver of the Jeg’s Mail Order ’67 Mustang, is second with a 6.28 effort. Pro Mod drivers will have two more qualifying runs scheduled for today at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Allyn Armstrong continued to lead the pack in Comp Eliminator with his four-cylinder powered L/A Opel GT. Armstrong, of Kingston, N.S., ran a 9.09 on Thursday and improved to a 9.03 yesterday to cement his hold on the top spot with one qualifying session remaining Saturday. Kerri Voges, of Findlay, Ohio captured the top qualifying spot in Super Stock yesterday with a run of 11.28 in her SS/NA ’88 Oldsmobile. Voges leads fellow Ohio racer Dave Layer of Dayton, who is second with a best of 10.17 in his SS/JA Camaro. Thursday’s leader, Brian Oakes of DeBary, Fla., dropped to third. A pair of former NHRA national champions head the qualifying list in Stock eliminator at Tex Miller of Fayetteville, Pa., took over the top spot with a 10.989 in his F/SA ’71 Mustang. Miller is just ahead of two-time champ Keith Lynch of Mount Ayr, Iowa, who is ranked second. The top eight qualifiers in Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street were invited to participate in a special race held Friday. John Stover claimed the win in Super Gas while Rose Richardson and her son, Dustin, shared the winner’s circle with victories in Super Comp and Super Street, respectively. Each of the Super class winners received a $300 bonus. Tomorrow’s schedule will include two more rounds of Pro Mod qualifying, class eliminations in Super Stock, and Stock, and the highly anticipated Mopar Performance SS/AA Hemi Challenge. Thursday was also busy day for the members of Team Jegs. In addition to his two qualifying runs in Pro Mod, Troy Coughlin also made two time trial runs in the team’s Super Gas Corvette. John Coughlin is currently ranked fourth in the Super Stock field, and Mike Coughlin prepared for eliminations with two more time trial runs in his Jeg’s Super Comp dragster. Racing at the inaugural Jeg’s NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals will continue Saturday at 10 a.m. FRIDAY NOTES - Day two underway
Hey welder guy --- Brady the welder guy on duty here at Columbus has been a busy man in the pits today. The Barklage brothers have given him the most business. He helped repair the wing damage to Cody’s car and then was pressed into service welding an oil tube in Zack’s motor. He has also repaired several sets of headers for sportsman racers today. He said, “They’ve been keeping me busy today, mostly small stuff like header and tabs and stuff.” Brady has been coming to the track since he was knee high to a grasshopper. Sweet home Kenosha --- The American Motors brand is represented well buy a couple of strong running AMX models. The SS/IA red, white, and blue entry (a la Pete’s Patriot) of Garrett Ghezzi is currently qualified in the 100th spot. The car is running six tenths under it’s index (10.38’s on 11.00). The second a SS/C entry of AH Adkins is qualified 80th running almost 8 tenths under (9.50’s on a 10.35 index) No Loitering – If you are from the Hebron area and you happen to be cruising down Refugee road (the infamous thoroughfare that crossed the end of the drag strip here in Columbus) keep on truckin’. The deputies that normally are stationed down there for the national event are not on duty today. The Fish-er King – We know, we know, enough with
the stupid fish references. At the end of super stock qualifying Charlie
Westcott is the quickest of the AA cars with an 8.76 at 149 mph. He experienced
problems on his last run of the day and at the time these notes were being
written we were unable to track Charlie down to get some answers. We will
follow up and we will get the answers for you! You’re all wet – Normally a division director’s job is hard enough. Trying to please the racers, keeping things on the up and up and all the while someone invariably has complaints. It’s not like people are throwing things at them, well, that’s not true because last night here at National Trail Raceway, they were. At the Jegs’s Racer Appreciation picnic the division directors got in the dunk tank. Apparently there was no shortage of people who wanted to send them into the drink. An “anonymous” Division 1 racer had this to say, “We put Bob (Lang) into the tank once or twice, I sure hope he doesn’t recognize me today because there will probably be a tech inspector over here with a magnifying glass.”
Be careful around here – A local news report highlighted the fact that drivers headed the wrong way on the highway in Columbus have killed a dozen people in the last year. We’ve already taken care to give Roger Richards a quick refresher on the rules of the road. That happens here more often than anywhere else in the ENTIRE UNITED STATES. Yikes.
Shootouts Galore – Along with the SS/AA shootout the index categories are having their own. The top 8 qualifiers in each category will run off at the end of the sessions. A small purse is on the line today. Of more value will be the bragging rights and the potential mental edge going into eliminations tomorrow.
THURSDAY - Jeg’s Northern SPORTSnationals underway in Columbus(7-28-2005) - The inaugural Jeg’s
NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals is underway at National Trail Raceway in
Columbus, Ohio. Nearly 600 competitors are expected to participate in
the event, which began this morning and continues through Sunday, July
31. THURSDAY NOTES - We're underway with the time trials...
(7-28-2005) - It’s a beautuiful day in the neighborhood --- It’s in the low 80’s and a bit on the muggy side but the sun is shining brightly here in Hebron, Ohio. A sizeable field of Stockers and Super Stockers have made the tow to National Trail Raceway. The index categories are hovering at roughly 70 entries in each (Super Street, Super Comp, Super Gas). Long Haulers --- So far it appears that a number of New England based racers as well as some from Canada have come down. As is to be expected, the majority of cars are from the Mid-West.
Fish Stew --- The pits are buzzing about the SS/AA Hemi Shootout. There are a good number of SS/AA cars on the grounds (an exact count is not known as of yet) and all the “names” are here. It’s going to be a good afternoon of qualifying. How low can you go? --- Already there have been 10 stockers that have run at least 1 second under their index. That alone serves as a testament to the quality of the cars that are in attendance.
Comp Eliminator Qualifying Round 1 --- All kinds of wacky comp eliminator creations are shooting down the Columbus asphalt this afternoon. Think I’m kidding? How about a blown altered and a Sunbeam Tiger roadster, and no, I’m not on mind altering drugs. How can any drag racing fan not love Competition Eliminator? Personally, it appeals to my schizophrenic, psychopath side. If 2 is good 3 is better --- Competitors got 3 qualifiers
today (except Comp). Credit a smooth race day operation and minimal breakage
for that becoming reality. |
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Don’t
know much about history – The names Dave Strickler and
“The old Reliable”are ones that drag racing fans of yesteryear
remember fondly. Strickler’s name is one of the few from the 1960’s
Stock and Super Stock wars that can bring smiles to loyal fans of multiple
brands. Strickler raced Chevrolets out of the famous Ammon R. Smith dealership
in York, PA. He also raced Mopar products for a period during the 1960’s
as well. One of Stricklers cars is on the ground today running E/Stock.
It is a 302, 4 speed, 1968 Camaro Z/28, being driven by Jerry MacNeish
of Eldersburg, Maryland.
Half
a Hemi is better than a whole Chevy – Frank Aragona in
his Bantam bodied altered powered by a 220 inch “half a Hemi”
four cylinder retired fellow New Yorker Frank Affronti and his small block
Chevy V8 powered C/Altered in round one of eliminations for Competition
Eliminator. Is a V8 better than half a Hemi? Fugghetaboutit
(7-29-2005)
- Wagon Masters – Bert Morgan neat D/S1965
283 4-speed Chevelle wagon saw itself paired with Jim Gower’s T/SA
1975 Caprice Wagon which is a 350 backed by an automatic. The 4-cog car
got there first 12.50 to the luxo wagon’s 13.71 time trial.
Opening
Salvo – The “War Fish” has fired the first
serious round in the SS/AA wars this weekend ripping of an 8.76 at 149.77
mph in time trials this morning. A picturesque wheel stand is a good indication
of a nice starting line.
There
goes the neighborhood – Tony DePillo, the President of
the NSCA (National Street Car Association) and more importantly to nostalgia
racing fans “Ohio” George Montgomery’s neighbor in Dayton,
Ohio is here with his record holding SS/B Honkin’ Hemi Plymouth.
It is living up to its namesake running 9.12 on a 10.30 index. Oh yes,
that is a 4 speed car. 
Diversity
is the spice of life --- Is there diversity in stock eliminator?
How about a 98 cubic inch Ford Escort and a 425 cube Caddy running together
in qualifying, you just gotta love it!
Invasion
of the Coughlin Clan --- The entire Coughlin family (Minus Jeggie
of course) is racing here this weekend. We suppose that’s to be
expected when they are the title sponsor of this event. From the Super
Categories to Pro Mod, they are flying the yellow and black proudly.
© Competitionplus 2005
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