Due to persistent rains in Southeastern Pennsylvania, The Geezers at The Grove Reunion has been pushed back a week.
 
The annual event will be run next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, Sept.
19-20.. Gates will open at 8 a.m. each day with racing beginning at 9.

In the final rounds of qualifying at Atlanta Dragway, Top Alcohol
Dragster pilot Duane Shields, Boulder City, Nev., and Top Alcohol Funny
Car driver Tony Bartone, Long Island City, N.Y., claimed the No. 1
qualifying positions in their classes. This weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil
Drag Racing Series event, which will wrap up tomorrow with
eliminations, is the fifth of six in Southeast division competition

After two qualifying passes, Shields was able to capture the pole with
a 5.377 second, 266.74 mph pass.  He currently has one division win
this season and is making a late push to grab the Southeast title,
sitting just eleven points behind the No.4 qualifier, Artie Allen of
Jacksonville, Fla.

Bartone, who races out of the Pacific division, grabbed the No.1 spot
from a very competitive field.  He wheeled his ’09 Mustang down the
track at 5.660 second, 253.52 mph in search of his first division win
of the year.

Qualifying is complete at Tri-State Raceway with pairings set for
Sunday’s eliminations.  This is the last of six events set for the
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series West Central division.  Top qualifiers
included Dan Kracht, Gretna, Neb., in Top Alcohol Dragster and Roger
Bateman, Calgary, Manit., in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

The top of the West Central division Top Alcohol Dragster points
standings couldn’t be any tighter as a mere two points separates three
competitors. Kracht currently sits in the No.3 slot, but can
dramatically help his situation with a win tomorrow. The division
leader, Richard Putz of Earlville, Iowa, is the No.6 qualifier and No.
7 qualifier Edwin Schmeeckle, Gothenburg, Neb., currently holds the
second spot in the points.

Bateman was able to hold onto the pole after two days of competitive
qualifying with his 5.684 second, 248.98 mph lap.  He has been
unbeatable at his last three events and is making a solid attempt at
defending his Tri-State Raceway victory from 2008.

Mike Kosky and Frank Manzo lead their classes this weekend for the NHRA
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Kosky, Cuddy, Pa., clicked off a 5.294 second run at 268.87 mph in Top
Alcohol Dragster for his second pole position of the year.  Dan Mercier
and Jon Finke sit second and third respectively behind Kosky with
Mercier, Montreal, Quebec, running 5.349, 266.37 and Finke, Selkirk,
N.Y. at 5.378, 270.54.

Manzo, who already has ten wins to his credit this year in defending
his national and divisional championships from a year ago, jumped to
the top of the Top Alcohol Funny Car field with a lap of 5.582 seconds,
259.81 mph.  The Morganville, N.J., racer is followed by Terry Munroe,
Beaver, Pa., running 5.639 seconds at 257.43 mph.  Manzo will face off
against Dan Pomponio of Berlin, N.J., in round one of eliminations on
Sunday.

All is well in Kenny Doak’s world.

The Extreme 10.5 racer from Pipersville, Pa., returned to competition
at Rockingham Dragway with a repaired race car and an overwhelming
desire to showcase the car’s potential. It was a bit of unfinished
business as Doak had qualified three weeks ago at the last ADRL event
in Columbus, Ohio, only to have a shutdown accident render his car too
damaged to race for the balance of the weekend.

Doak can thank chassis builder Gary Naughton for preparing the car for this weekend’s event.

“We had our work cut out for us that's for sure,” Doak said. “All new
wheelie bars, chute pack, rebuilt the wheelie bar holder … had to put
fresh tires on it, rebuilt the back of the car with the wing.  All the
front end damage and I did all the glass work.”

Roy Hill and Rockingham Dragway go way back. So far back, Hill adds, that Plymouth Dusters, Chevrolet Vegas and Ford Pintos were the race cars of choice.

Back in the day conversations always make the Pro Stock icon smile.

He reels off the names of friends no longer with us.

“Ronnie Sox … Don Nicholson … they were my heroes back then and they are still to this day,” Hill said.

The first time Hill played on the Rockingham drag strip was 1972.

For anyone who believes winning is easy for Extreme 10.5 racer Chuck Ulsch, he has some sound advice. Sometimes you can’t always believe what you see.

Ulsch entered eliminations at the ADRL Dragstock event as the No. 2
qualifier and worked his way past potent competition comprised of Todd
Moyer, Spiro Pappas and Jeff Paulk before taking out the No. 1
qualifier Gary White and his potent in-line six Scion.

“It wasn’t as easy the second time,” said Ulsch, whose Rockingham
victory marked his second since winning Richmond back in August. “It
was a lot of work and I had the best crew working with me to make this
happen. Everything came together and when I needed to drive well, I did
a pretty good job.”

If you’re looking to beat Pro Nitrous front runner Mike Castellana and believe that distracting the Westbury,
N.Y.-based veteran is the best plan, you might want to try something
else. Amidst a weekend filled with distractions and a near crash on
Friday at the ADRL Dragstock in Rockingham, N.C., Castellana not only
won, but did so in grand fashion.

Castellana beat teammate Burton Auxier in the final round of a race
where he made clean sweep of the competition beginning in qualifying.

What distractions?

The oddest thing happened in the Extreme Pro Stock final round in the ADRL Dragstock event at
Rockingham Dragway. Two cars burned out, rolled to a stop. Then as they
backed up, both cars swapped lanes as if their actions were
choreographed.

And, they were.

Doug Kirk and Brian Gahm understand that drag racing purists might have
opinions regarding their actions and that’s fine. They could care less.

On a run where points were as meaningless as who won the race, the
veteran Pro Stock racers and longtime friends deemed putting on a show
for the capacity crowd to be of greater importance.

Jason Hamstra believed running a Lenco transmission with a torque converter was something cool to do long
before the Pro Extreme competition did. Saturday evening, during the
ADRL Dragstock event, Hamstra provided an excellent case for why a Pro
Modified style car can win without having a clutch-equipped
transmission.

Hamstra defeated ADRL newcomer Ken Walsh to win his second career Pro Extreme national event title.

“We just tried to make consistent laps and the car is really fast,”
Hamstra said of his clean sweep victory from the pole position. “It
goes down the race track every time.”