Patterson Back in Pro Mod Challenge Winner's Circle

For Texas racer Thomas Patterson, his second AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge presented by TLR event this season in his home state turned out about 180 degrees different than his first.

Patterson erased much of the sting from a disappointing DNQ earlier this season at his hometown race in Houston by coming from the No. 13 qualifying spot to win the O'Reilly Fall Nationals title Sunday in Dallas, sealing the deal with a final-round win over Steve Engel, who left before the Tree was activated. The win was the second on the Pro
Mod Challenge tour for Patterson, who also claimed the 2002 Bristol title. Patterson also tied an AMS/TLR series record by winning from the No. 13 spot, which had only been accomplished once previously (Glen Kerunsky earlier this season in St. Louis).

Patterson's weekend in Dallas continued a second-half resurgence for the PMS Excavation team, which had struggled to make an impression in the early part of the 2005 season. Patterson is the only driver to win at least one eliminations round in each of the past seven Pro Mod Challenge events, a span in which he's also moved from ninth place to fourth in the AMS/TLR Cup points standings.

At the top of those same standings, Mike Ashley came close, but could not quite clinch his second consecutive AMS/TLR Cup world championship. Ashley, a first-round loser Saturday at the Fall Nationals, leads second-place Jay Payne by 591 points heading into the season-ending ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals in two weeks, with a
maximum of 716 points available to either driver. Payne lost his bid for consecutive Pro Mod Challenge event wins when Patterson beat him by .007-second on a semifinal-round holeshot.

Ashley claiming his second title, though, is likely nothing more than a formality, as Payne faces two huge obstacles: first, he would need for Ashley to either DNQ or suffer another first-round loss; second, even if Ashley were to skip the Las Vegas event, Payne would need to set at least one half of the Pro Mod Challenge performance record at a facility considered to be an "altitude track" (Las Vegas Motor Speedway is 2,100 feet above sea level). Without setting at least one record, the maximum number of points Payne could earn in Las Vegas would be 516, or 76 points short of the minimum number needed to pass Ashley.

O'Reilly Fall Nationals eliminations results (winner on top)

T. Patterson 6.119, 231.79
Doug Palmer 6.308, 225.33

Glen Kerunsky 6.133, 229.31
Mike Bell Red-light

Steve Engel 6.213, 233.08
Mike Moran 8.533, 117.52

Jay Payne 6.073, 236.88
Brandon Pesz 6.242, 226.20

Semifinals

Steve Engel 6.210, 233.12
Glen Kerunsky 9.835, 90.13

T. Patterson 6.112, 232.67
Jay Payne 6.087, 236.38

Final

T. Patterson 6.537, 160.58
Steve Engel LBT

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SUNDAY NOTES - New Winners, weird problems, no surprises

Engle on a tear – Steve Engel has been running hard since Indy. After making a tire brand change at that race the car has responded well.

Engel had a career best of 6.14 coming into this weekend, but he bested that on Saturday with a 6.13/232.05 pass. The team has made its way into the semifinal round here in Texas.

Engel’s 1963 Corvette has always been consistent, but previous to Indy it was not consistently fast until recently. Engel will face Glen Kerunsky in the semi-final round.

Turbo es no rapido – Mike Moran had a chance to make history again today in his second round match up with Steve Engel. The car left well, but was lazy through three hundred feet and never really made up the gap with the strong-running Engel.

The turbo car did win a round here in Dallas, and it must have been a valuable weekend of data gathering for Moran, who rarely has the chance to make five passes during a two-day period in competition.

Only time will tell if this weekend pays any dividends for the team and their unique combo. Everyone seems to be in agreement, though. When they get that thing figured out it is going to be very tough to stop.

Last hope for a five dashed – Just because you’re the quickest does not mean that you’re the best. That’s what Jay Payne found out in the semifinals.

Despite laying down a blistering 6.08, 236 pass, Thomas Patterson beat him off the starting line and his slower 6.11/232 was good enough to take the win by just a couple of thousandths of a second.

Payne was the odds-on favorite to run the vaunted five-second pass during this event, but since he is out, it would seem that the last opportunity for the milestone to be achieved has gone by the boards. Maybe someone will be an able to pull a “five” out of the hat when the tour winds up in Vegas.

Thomas Patterson and Steve Engel in final round – This is the first final round for Steve Engle in the AMS/TLR Series. He and his underdog team have really been consistent this weekend. They have not bee the quickest qualifier, or even the quickest of any round, but they have been good on the starting line and making enough power to win.

Thomas Patterson will be up for his first win of the year as well. The laid back driver of the colorful 1941 Willys is looking for his first Golden Eagle trophy of 2005.

Patterson has shown flashes of brilliance this weekend. He has been masterful on the starting line and earned his berth into the finals on a hole shot against Jay Payne.

It is going to be the consistent Engel taking on the streaky Patterson for a prestigious first victory of the year.

Ashley’s not crowned yet – Mike Ashley is very close to clinching his second championship in the AMS/TLR NHRA Pro Mod series, but it is not definite yet.

Ashley’s failure to stage the car in the first round threw a bit of a hiccup in his quest for a second championship. He could have clinched if both Josh Hernandez and Jay Payne had lost in the first round. Hernandez did, but Payne made it to the semifinal round.

Will Ashley lock it up in Las Vegas? Most likely, but since the check isn’t signed yet, anything can happen.

The sting of de-bees – As if it wasn’t bad enough for Chip King when he went red in the first round against Mike Moran, it got worse when he looked at his tow rig today.

A whole bunch of bees decided that they really wanted to live in the bumper and grill of the big rig and they made a nest to achieve that goal.

Chip isolated the problem with lots of crime scene tape and a good pair of eyes to avoid being stung by the angry swarm of yellow jackets. He said, “If that red light didn’t sting enough, now I have all these bees.”

Patterson earns first win of 2005 – Thomas Patterson captured his first victory of the 2005 AMS/TLR season this weekend when his competitor Steve Engel turned on the red light in the final.

Patterson’s run was a less-than-stellar 6.53, 160 effort. We suspect that Patterson may have been a bit distracted by the long-awaited win light.

This victory is event sweeter for Patterson because just a couple of weeks ago he was involved in an accident at a match race in Kennedale, Texas.

The team had been working very hard to get the car back into shape for this event and they were able to kill the field with consistency on race day, but their car was all over the place during qualifying.

“We have a brand new motor combination and that’s what gave us so much trouble in qualifying,” Patterson said. “Man, this really gets your blood pumping and gets us ready for Las Vegas. It has been a while since we’ve been here - it feels great.”

Patterson’s best pass of the weekend before the start of eliminations was a 6.53. That’s not even in the same zip code of what the top qualifiers were running. This once again proves that anything can happen in Pro Mod and these teams will fight until their absolute last breath.

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SATURDAY - Payne Just Misses 5-second Run

(10-8-2005) - It's official: the first Pro Mod driver to post a run quicker than Jay Payne's lifetime best elapsed time will also become the first to ever reach the 5-second zone in sanctioned competition. And, at the rate he's going, that driver is likely to be Payne himself.

Payne's awe-inspiring weekend at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals continued Saturday with a No.1 qualifying finish and an easy first-round win in AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge presented by TLR competition. But it has been Payne's numbers from his Valvoline '05 Stratus that have left onlookers searching for adjectives. One day after becoming the first Pro Mod driver to record a 6.01 E.T., Payne went a step further with a 6.000 at 239.23 mph in the third qualifying session, then followed with a 6.011 in his first-round win over Harold Laird.

The 6.000 and 239.23 are both Pro Mod Challenge records (and both figures already have the required 1-percent backup run for validation), meaning Payne is in line to receive 200 bonus points regardless of his performance in Sunday's three remaining eliminations rounds.

Those points will also come in handy if Payne is to pull off a minor miracle and catch Mike Ashley for the 2005 AMS/TLR Cup points title. Ashley, a first-round loser Saturday following a starter-wire problem, will still be the odds-on favorite to claim his second straight Pro Mod Challenge title when the 14-race series ends in two weeks in Las Vegas, but every point Payne earns in Dallas will make his job that much more difficult. Entering Sunday's action at the Fall Nationals, Ashley has 4,344 points, while Payne has moved into second place with 3,653 (including his bonus points) and can earn as many as 300 more points for winning the event. Pro Mod Challenge drivers receive 100 points for qualifying for eliminations, 100 points per round-win, and between one and 16 points for their final qualifying position.

All other drivers have been eliminated from title contention, including Joshua Hernandez, who entered the Fall Nationals in second place but finished as another of Saturday's first-round victims. Hernandez, though, will enter the FLOWMASTER Pro Mod CLASH bonus event in Las Vegas as the top-seeded driver, having finished as the series' most consistent qualifier over the past 14 events.

Other highlights Saturday at the Fall Nationals included Mike Moran's first-round win over No. 2 qualifier Chip King, the first round-win for a turbocharged car in Pro Mod Challenge history. Brandon Pesz also won his first career round in the AMS/TLR series; he faces Payne in Sunday's quarterfinals.

O'Reilly Fall Nationals eliminations results (winner on top)

First round
Brandon Pesz 6.190, 227.08
Zach Barklage 7.318, 140.17

Steve Engel 6.075, 235.60
Troy Critchley 16.890, 46.85

Mike Moran 8.754, 111.81
Chip King Red-light

Mike Bell 6.116, 234.21
Frankie Taylor 6.175, 224.32

Doug Palmer 6.246, 227.54
Joshua Hernandez 6.623, 202.94

Thomas Patterson 7.281, 128.92
Mike Ashley Broke

Glen Kerunsky 10.396, 82.61
Annette Summer Broke

Jay Payne 6.011, 238.51
Harold Laird 6.466, 206.23

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SATURDAY NOTES

Number two Blue Max – Del Worsham is not the only one celebrating the storied history of the famed Blue Max name this weekend. Roy Hill’s Mustang is sporting the Blue Max scheme as well.

The Blue Max wrap that appears on the car answered the long-standing question about the cryptic “It’s Coming” message that was scrawled on the quarter panels of the Mustang for several weeks.

It is interesting to see the Blue Max name re-enter the popular lexicon after lying dormant for so many years.

Raymond Beadle’s contributions to drag racing were many and varied. Certainly his performance as a driver and team owner set a standard for many of the drivers and owners we followed, but his business approach to the sport was revolutionary for its time.

The beauty of the Blue Max logo and name really is the fact that it became drag racing’s first real marketing coup. By making t-shirts with the logo on it and selling them by the tens of thousands he opened up a revenue stream that has helped so many teams during the course of the last thirty years.

“We were the second car to ever run in the fives,” Beadle said to ESPN following Del Worsham’s 5.97/244 mph pass in the car. “It is a real thrill to see the car back out here, especially for all the old timers out there.”

So close we could taste it – It’s a pretty safe bet that Jay Payne will be the first driver in America to run a five-second pass in Pro Modified competition.

During the morning qualifying session, Payne’s supercharged Valvoline Dodge Stratus went up in smoke at roughly 300 feet and it seemed that the guy with the best shot at the big number was going to have to dial it back and get ready for round one.

The second qualifying session of the day was a completely different story as Payne ran a stunning 6.000/239.23 mph pass to become the pilot of the quickest and fastest doorslammer in the land.

The team added a wing on the rear deck of the car at the U.S. Nationals and it marked a new beginning for the Stratus. “The wing makes the car act like it should,” Payne said. “Before we had the wing on the car it was really all over the place. It would dart left to right. Now that it is running straight, we can really get the power to the ground.”

One is better than two -- It appears that the Barklage family’s decision to concentrate their efforts on one car instead of two has paid off as Zack ripped off an impressive 6.14-second, 231-mph pass in the second Pro Mod qualifier.

Due in part to a strange decision made by the NHRA at Indy, the family has parked the 1937 Chevy that Zack normally drove and have concentrated their efforts on the 2004 GTO that his brother Cody had been shoeing.

“The 6.14 was a personal best,” Barklage said. “The car is working really well and we have that Brad six motor in there. We are making a lot of horsepower with the car and things are working well.”

With Zack behind the wheel of the more modern and far more aerodynamic Goat, the team seems to have found their legs. It would be great to see the young phenom make some noise here in Ennis.

Mean, green machine – Call Chip King’s new Dodge Daytona what you will, but it has been hauling the mail as of late. Normally a 6.09/234 mph run would nab top honors in most any field, anywhere in the country, but not in Ennis this weekend.

King’s car has been the subject of some controversy with its long factory overhang, but the car has already established itself as a fan favorite.

If King wants to grab the number one qualifying spot away from Jay Payne, he is going to need to make the quickest run in the history of Pro Modified to do it. Does the neon doorstop have another nine hundredths in it today?

Glenn Kerunsky and Steve Engle were the other two guys who rumbled loudly in the second qualifier. Kerunsky went down with a 6.095/232 mph pass while Engle went a 6.13. It should be noted that Kerunsky runs a wedge motor, not the Hemi that most of the blower entries use.

“We’re not doing so great right now,” Kerunsky said. “We hurt the motor bad enough that we have to change it and I do not know if we are going to have time.”

We’ll always have Paris – No, not Paris, Texas. Troy Coughlin is not at this race because he is with his family in Paris, France, on vacation. Like many racers, the plans were set long before the reschedule date for this race was announced, so that is why we only have 16 cars in Pro Mod here.

Some teams are racing at other commitments this weekend. Some have broken equipment and others have just decided that they could not make the long tow to Dallas.

Chuck Ford, crew chief for both Mike Ashley and Troy Coughlin is not complaining though. His workload has been cut in half because of Coughlin’s absence.

Chuck’s boss Ashley knows the double duty scenario all too well. He is driving the Funny Car and the Pro Mod this weekend. Multi-tasking is becoming more and more a part of drag racing every season. Especially with the number of racers who are now trying their hands in more than one class.

Turbo 2 go – Yes - it’s true. The first-ever round win for a turbo Pro Mod was cemented today when Chip King red-lighted against Mike Moran, giving him the win.

The red light was unexpected, as Moran’s car had been having trouble getting down the track all weekend. A sub-par reaction time would have provided King with a victory as Moran again got sideways and coasted through.

“Well, I think we got one there,” said Larry Larsen who is crew chief for Moran’s car. “We have been pulling clutch out of it all weekend but we are still trying to fight the tire shake in second gear. It is really nice to be out there running tomorrow though.”

FRIDAY - Payne Powers to 6.010 at 238.38