Tony Pontieri said he plans to campaign in the National Hot Rod Association in 2010. And he delivered an impressive calling card Sunday from Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
 
The Canadian veteran from Bolton, Ontario, won the Lend America Pro Mod Blown class and picked up $20,000 with a solo pass of 5.914 seconds at 246.26 mph. Final-round opponent Kevin McCurdy's beautiful purple and silver entry broke and was pushed to the side before staging.
 
McCurdy, of Hamburg, Pa., received $2,000 as runner-up.

In Jim Halsey's case, a No. 2 rating for Old Bridge Township Raceway Park was about the highest honor he could bestow after his repeat victory in the Speedtech Pro Mod Nitrous class.
 
The owner of Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, Md., Halsey said after easily beating Gary Courtier in the final for a $20,000 payoff, "I'd like to say this place is my favorite track, but I own one. So this is my second-favorite track. You got a killer race track here today," he said.

Mike Janis certainly is glad he changed his plans for this past weekend and decided to compete in the new Barwa 1/8-Mile Challenge. It added $20,000 to his bank account, as sailed to the final-round victory over disabled Dwayne Wolfe.
 
"We hadn't even planned on coming, because the weather didn't look so good," Janis said. "After the season we had -- we had some ups and downs -- now to end the season like this . . . it's great to be here."
 
He was No. 1 qualifier with a 3.926-second, 192.85-mph performance and had his Jan-Cen Racing '68 Firebird hooked up all weekend. But he was fortunate that Wolfe, of Moorefield, WVa., was unable to overcome the transmission trouble he experienced with his Pontiac at the end of his semifinal victory over Mike Stawicki in a battle between the Nos. 2 and 3 qualifiers.

The hallmark of promoter-racer Dave Hance's Shakedown at E-Town, Northeast drag racing's doorslammer showcase, is outlandish drama.
 
And this "Al-Anabi Racing Shakedown at E-Town 7 powered by New York Motorsports" remained true to event history.
 
Racers tried to outrun Old Bridge Township Raceway Park's 7:30 noise curfew as much as each other Sunday. And a vicious-looking wreck by Outlaw Heavy Street winner Mitch George in the final round -- one in which his opponent nearly crashed and was disqualified --  only heightened the frenzy.

As Shakedown founder and promoter, Dave Hance was shredded in more different directions than most people can fathom or appreciate. The upheaval included first a three-week delay because of the weather. Then he learned that several headliner cars would be absent because they were taken to Qatar for the start of the season there.  Once he had a respectable car count that approached 200 entries,  he had to deal with a rash of ugly accidents.  Joe Newsham's came during qualifying and several more -- along with massive clean-ups -- happened during eliminations.

Add to that his concerns about his own '93 Mustang as he competed in the Pro Torque Converters Drag Radial class.
 
Yet Hance looked like a cool customer throughout the weekend, qualifying No. 1 (with a 7.103-second E.T. and 217.88-mph speed) and blazing through the field Sunday, sharing the class time record with Alex Vrettos and rewriting the speed mark.

Anyone who might have been tempted to dismiss the Mickey Thompson Tires Outlaw 10.5 class because he thought it would be a yawner, another Tim Lynch-Chuck Ulsch duel in the final round, missed out on some crazy racing Sunday during the Shakedown at E'town event in Englishtown, NJ.
 
Lynch did reprise his role from so many previous Shakedowns as the No. 1 qualifier and did it with theatrical flair in his twin-turbo Mustang, recording a 6.400-second E.T. that no one touched for the rest of the weekend. And Ulsch complemented that with his top-for-qualifying speed of 227.38 mph. (Canadian Jerry Mitrovich highlighted his first Shakedown appearance by taking the meet's top-speed honor at 227.42 mph in his Mustang.)
 
But neither Lynch nor Ulsch was around by the final round.

Both Canadian John Carinci and local driver Mitch George were safe after their bizarre and scary final round in the K&K / Advanced Door Technology Heavy Street class. And it continued a dubious Shakedown tradition of using up every second before the noise curfew takes effect.
 
Carinci, in the left lane, wrestled with his '70 'Cuda by midtrack. However, it drifted too far to the left and touched or crossed a white boundary line just inside the guardwall for an automatic disqualification.
 
George's Monte Carlo then got out of shape near the top end because of fluid on his tires, and the car barrel-rolled into the left lane, frighteningly close to Carinci's car. But officials determined that George crossed the center line after traveling past the finish line. He was declared the winner, because Carinci committed his infraction first (triggering the so-called "first is worse" rule).    
 

In his wild first-round Pro Mod Nitrous pass during the Shakedown at E'town event, John Bartunek posted a 6.123-second elapsed time that trumped Steve Cossis' No. 1 qualifying time of 6.232 but ended on fire against the guardrail.

Like opponent Joe Dunne, he experienced tire shake but stayed with it and hung on for the incredible E.T. But something flung his '68 Camaro to the left and into the wall. It went airborne and flipped, then slammed to the pavement. Bartunek, of Pearl River, N.Y., was unhurt -- just angry when he climbed from his car.

Joe Newsham, hospitalized since his Saturday crash with a fractured vertebra and injured feet he referred to as "ground up," said he was trying Sunday morning to get doctors to release him from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital so he could return to the racetrack and watch eliminations. In a phone interview from the New Brunswick hospital, Newsham, 40, said he was dragging around "a lot of sore muscles" as doctors were "making me try to walk softly."

Miraculously, no one was injured as No. 8 qualifier Jeff Rogers' Executioner '04 Mustang detonated on the starting line as he prepared to race Pro Mod Nitrous rival Robert Nicola during the Shakedown at E'town event on Sunday in Englishtown, NJ.