ADRL SUMMER DRAGS - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - AN INCREDIBLE FINISH TO AN INCREDIBLE DAY
HAMSTRA 50-50 IN 2011 PX FINALS - Jason Hamstra won his second Pro Extreme race of the year July 16, in Martin, MI, after making it to the final 
round at four of five ADRL events held in 2011. He also won the season opener in March at Baytown, TX, against the same final-round opponent.
“It was pretty close, especially in the first half and looked almost even at half track, but I pretty much knew I had him at the end,” Hamstra said after leaving with a .032 starting-line advantage over Todd Tutterow, then winning with a 3.715-seconds pass at 207.05 mph to Tutterow’s 3.717 at 204.76 mph.
Hamstra ran 3.688 seconds at 208.54 mph in qualifying his Andy McCoy-built ’70 Duster second at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park behind only Joey Martin, who also has two wins in the class this year. Martin lost in the semi-finals to Tutterow.
“It’s great to get the win, but it also helps us in the points, too,” said Hamstra, who currently is in first place with Martin not far behind in second. “This is a big win for our team in so many ways.”
From Demotte, IN, Hamstra considers the Michigan event his home race on the ADRL tour. “If we could pick the one race to win, I guess this would be it because we had a lot friends and family up here with us and it feels really good to get the win with them here cheering us on. It makes it extra special,” he said.
Hamstra opened eliminations with a win over Mike Janis in a similar McCoy-built Duster, then beat 2010 NHRA Pro Mod champion Von Smith in round two before taking out Mick Snyder, a neighbor from just a couple of miles away, in the semis.
“It seems like we’re always racing the same guys in the final four,” said Hamstra, whose car sported a brand-new body with a distinct patriotic motif for the ADRL Summer Drags that clearly made it an instant crowd favorite with fans and competitors alike.
“The car’s getting a lot of attention, that’s for sure,” the 2009 ADRL Rookie of the Year said. “But I like it because it just performs so well. This body is about 45 pounds lighter than the old one and the whole car is just working so well. I’m already looking forward to getting to the next race.”
The ADRL returns to action Aug. 12-13, with the Speedtech U.S. Drags IV at Virginia Motorsports Park, near Richmond.
BREAKTHROUGH WIN - After posting first-place qualifying passes at four consecutive ADRL events, Doha, Qatar’s Mahana Al Naemi finally secured his 
career-first Pro Nitrous (PN) event win in this weekend’s ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI.
Al-Naemi is competing under the tutelage of legendary nitrous racer Shannon “Iceman” Jenkins, who serves as crew chief on the Al-Anabi Racing ’69 Camaro that Al-Naemi drives.
“Without Shannon I cannot do anything,” Al-Naemi said after cutting a stellar .007 light and running 3.882 at 194.54 mph to defeat the 3.948 at 182.47 by the current class champion Burton Auxier in the final round. “He gives me the best car and every pass it keeps getting better and better.”
Al-Naemi, who ran a track record 3.832 at 197.11 to qualify on top of the 16-car PN field, made a conservative 3.98 pass to defeat class newcomer Jackie Slone in round one, then stepped back into the 3.80s to take down heavy hitters Jim Halsey and teammate Mike Castellana, who beat Al-Naemi at the previous ADRL event last month in Topeka, KS.
“I am very, very happy,” he said in victory lane. “My crew, they worked very, very hard to get me this win and I want to thank them, thank Shannon Jenkins, thank RJ Race Cars, thank Reher&Morrison, and especially thank KH (team owner Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani) for letting me drive here in America. It is very, very special to me.”
A MAD MAN FIRST - Frankie “Mad Man” Taylor sent a strong message to the entire ADRL Extreme 10.5 (XTF) fraternity by setting low elapsed time (ET) in 
every qualifying and elimination round he entered—including the all-important final—at the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII in Martin, MI.
The message sending started early as Taylor’s screw-blown 2005 Corvette was the first XTF entry down the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park eighth mile and ran 3.889 seconds at 199.41 mph, an ET that stood up through four rounds of qualifying for the number-one starting position. Taylor and his crew-chief brother, Paul, opted out of the hot afternoon session on Friday afternoon, but returned that night to run a 3.90 that they said represented a good race-day tuneup.
They were right as Taylor had the only car to run in the “threes” for every pass, opening with a 3.952 at 198.64 mph in a first-round bye after he again sat out Saturday’s last-chance qualifying opportunity. Next came another unopposed run of 3.963 at 199.52 after Brian Carpenter rolled the beams against Taylor in round two, and then a 3.924 at 199.37 to beat Chuck Ulsch in the semis.
That set up a final-round match against 2008 XTF class champion Billy Glidden, who beat Kenny Doak, Eric Stubbs and 2010 XTF champ Dan Millen to get there. Glidden also is the winningest driver in the class with 12 victories to his name.
Regardless, Taylor led from stripe to stripe, leaving with a slim .008 holeshot, but dominating by putting together a 3.914-seconds pass at 199.33 to Glidden’s game 3.995 at 182.72 in his nitrous-boosted 2010 Mustang.
“I’m a little disappointed at not getting to 200 mile an hour, but nobody else did either and I’m pretty proud of running low ET of each round,” Taylor said later. “And we finally did it; we got our first number-one qualifier and won our first Extreme 10.5 race, so it’s good to get those things out of the way and they’ll make the drive back to Texas a lot more fun.”
Taylor also is the defending ADRL Pro Extreme world champion and continues to compete in that class with a second Larry Jeffers-built ‘05 Corvette. He qualified the PX car fourth in Michigan and was looking good in eliminations until the semis when Todd Tutterow took him out with a holeshot—again.
“Ol’ Todd, he’s got my number,” Taylor admitted. “When we get down to eight cars or less he’s beat me four out of five times when we met this year. So I owe him one, or four, or five!”
Taylor took the opportunity of his XTF win to thank ADRL staffers and in particular, series owner Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani, for all they do to provide him and others a safe, worthwhile place to race.
“I really don’t think a lot of people realize just how much he (Al-Thani) does for us here. The purses, the tracks, the people that run this thing, that’s all his doing,” Taylor stated.
THE DOMINATION CONTINUES - Few drag racers of any discipline have enjoyed the kind of dominance Ashley Owens currently enjoys in the ADRL’s Pro 
Extreme Motorcycle class. He’s qualified on top at each of five races this year and won three of them, though he’s yet to lose an elimination round in 2011 aboard his Fast by Gast Suzuki.
The May event in Reading, PA, was canceled by curfew just as Owens was about to enter the final round there and he and team owner Paul Gast opted out of attending last month’s ADRL tilt in Topeka, KS.
He got right back on the winning trail, though, this past weekend in Martin, MI, where Owens again qualified number one before running the quickest pass in class history while winning the final for the ADRL Ford Drive One Sumer Drags VII against Eric McKinney.
“Honestly, we didn’t expect it to run that hard,” Gast admitted after Owens blistered the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in 4.009 seconds at 178.39 mph. “We expected it to go faster, maybe 4.02 or .03, but everything just came together almost perfect.”
Almost perfect; that’s what Owens has been all year. At Martin, he was fifth on the qualifying sheet with a 4.20 pass after one round was completed on Friday, but that was attributed to a soft tune-up for a brand-new engine. After sitting out the hot mid-afternoon session, Owens came back Friday night to take the top spot with a 4.117 pass at 174.69 mph.
Owens again opted out of Saturday’s last-chance session, but his time held up for first place, though McKinney got close in second with a 4.126 at 171.45 on a brand-new bike he debuted at the Martin event.
Once eliminations began, Owens ran 4.145 at 176.98 in getting past TT Jones, then made a big improvement to 4.081 at 174.99 in beating Casey Stemper. An almost identical 4.082 at 174.93 followed in the semis against Canadian rider Terry Schweigert before Owens stepped up again for the final.
McKinney did all he could once there, leaving with an almost perfect .001 light that led into a 4.120 pass at 171.46 mph. But Owen’s 4.00 would not be denied.
“I was a little nervous because I know Eric is so good on the tree, so I had to be careful,” said Owens, who posted a .035 reaction time before winning the 12th ADRL event of his career and tying Billy Glidden with the most wins for any series competitor. “We swapped around a lot of stuff and made a lot of changes, but it worked out great. It responded even better than we thought it would.”
And that’s more bad news for the rest of the PXM field.
WE PRESENT TO YOU, THE POINTS LEADER ... Cary Goforth arrived at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI, trailing leader Pete Berner by a slim 
seven-point margin in the ADRL Extreme Pro Stock (XPS) championship chase, but after beating Berner in the semis and going on to win the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII, the lead has changed hands.
“That’s what we came here to do,” Goforth declared after going 4.116 seconds at 175.44 mph to edge out defending class champion John Montecalvo, who ran 4.120 at 176.30 in the final round. “I’ve said all weekend that we’ve got to start helping ourselves to get past Pete and this win was a big part of that.”
The win also came in Goforth’s ADRL debut of a brand-new Jerry Haas-built 2010 Pontiac GXP, which made just its 17th full pass in the Summer Drags final round.
“We were out here testing with it a couple of weeks ago, but the car has a 100-percent win ratio right now. Maybe I should just retire it,” Goforth joked. “Really, it’s working perfectly. There’s always a few little things to get used to whenever you switch to a new car, but it’s so comfortable it’s like sitting in an easy chair at home. I love it!”
Goforth ran 4.119 at 176.92 mph on Friday to qualify on top of the largest number of mountain-motor Pro Stockers ever assembled at an ADRL event (25), gaining the position over his father, Dean, who ran an identical ET, but went .17 mph slower. He also set low ET through each round of eliminations in taking wins over Bob Bertsch, Scott Hintz, Berner, who went red by .014 in the semis, and of course, Montecalvo.
“When you go to bed at night and dream about winning races, this is what you dream of, but that’s usually all its is, a dream,” Goforth said in victory lane after backing up his season-opening victory from March at Baytown, TX. “I came here to win this thing, but at the same time it’s always so hard to do, especially against guys like Pete (Berner) and John (Montecalvo), that sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s actually happened.”
A HISTORY LESSON - Let the record show that Glenn Butcher of Doylestown, OH, is the first winner of Top Sportsman (TS) as an official class at an ADRL 
national event—and he couldn’t be happier about it.
“Incredible, incredible, incredible,” Butcher gushed in victory lane at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI, after beating Spencer, IA’s Charley Whittenburg in the Top Sportsman final for the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII.
Butcher dialed in at 4.24 seconds for the final and after posting a .007 reaction time he ran 4.250 at 168.48, while after a .021 reaction Whittenburg went 4.185 at 171.72 against a 4.19 dial. When asked by ADRL announcer Bret Kepner during winner’s circle celebrations to describe how close the finish was in bracket racing terms, Butcher answered, “D*** close!”
As one of the drivers who participated in the ADRL’s introduction of Top Sportsman as a four-car exhibition class in May at Reading, PA’s Maple Grove Raceway, Butcher also was the first from his class to have attended multiple ADRL events. A six-car exhibition followed in June at Heartland Park Topeka before the ADRL added Top Sportsman at the Martin event as its first-ever doorslammer bracket racing class.
Nineteen entries made laps toward qualifying for the 16-car TS field, with Mark Malcuit placing first with a 4.173 at 171.72 mph pass in the opening session on Friday. However, Malcuit unfortunately was forced to withdraw after damaging the engine in his ’68 Camaro, making Michael Standley II the first alternate ever added to an ADRL Top Sportsman field.
Don Klooster qualified his ’63 Vette second at 4.212, followed by Whittenburg’s ’68 Camaro at 4.214 and Butcher at 4.243 in yet another ’68 Camaro. The ’67 Nova of Livonia, NY’s Mike Guenther secured the 16th and final spot for racing with a 4.869 run at 144.35 mph, but he also had to withdraw, inserting Mike Kintz as second alternate.
Butcher said his Garret-built car was “on a string all day” and credited his Holbrook engine, Abruzzi transmission and converter and Hoosier tires for helping secure the historic win. He may also need to add a duct tape supplier to his sponsor list after using a considerable amount to repair the legs of his ADRL Minuteman trophy that were broken by “over-exuberance” in his team’s top-end celebration, Butcher said.
QUICK HITS, RACE REPORTING IN RAPID FASHION
PRO EXTREME
FIRST ROUND
Joshua Hernandez has won the previous three ADRL Summer Drags at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park and got his 2011 quest off to a good start with a win over a tire-smoking Quain Stott. After a rare DNQ at the previous race in Topeka, Von Smith started 10th in Martin and beat number-7 starter Mike Recchia in the opening round. Jason Scruggs then got a free pass when Terry Leggett banged the blower at the start of his burnout and Todd Martin gave away his chance against Todd Tutterow with a red-light start.
After breaking into the field with his fourth and final qualifying run earlier in the day, Chris Russo lined up against reigning PX world champion Frankie Taylor, who promptly set low ET of the round so far while Russo rattled the tires early. Brian Robbins immediately went into a huge wheelstand against Mick Snyder, who had traction trouble of his own farther down track, but recovered in time to preserve the win.
Jason Hamstra made a nice, straight pass to beat a tire-shaking Mike Janis, and top starter Joey Martin made short work of sending Duane Rister home early.
QUARTER-FINALS
CORVETTE FEVER – In a battle of ’63 Vettes, Jason Scruggs got away first, but tailed off to a 4.072 pass while Mick Snyder ran 3.750 at 204.75 mph to reach the semis.
THE STREAK IS OVER – In a nice display of sportsmanship, after completing his burnout Joshua Hernandez waited for Joey Martin to get his car fired up. His reward after winning the Summer Drags for three years running, was to finally came up short in eliminations as his 3.811 at 198.84 fell to the top qualifier’s 3.710 at 205.71 mph.
COME FROM BEHIND – Von Smith left with a great .009 reaction time, but his second-straight 3.80 at 201.19 wasn’t nearly enough to deny Jason Hamstra’s 3.753 at 203.31 mph effort.
NOT AGAIN! – That has to be Frankie Taylor’s sentiment after Todd Tutterow beat him with a holeshot for the third time this season. Tutterow left with an excellent .008 reaction time while Taylor had a dismal .100 leave that negated his quicker and faster 3.690 at 206.65 against Tutterow’s 3.745 at 202.41-mph pass.
SEMI-FINALS
NEIGHBORLY RIVALRY – The Battle of Demotte, IN, raged on as neighbors Jason Hamstra and Mick Snyder faced off once more. It was over at the start, though, as Snyde left two thousandths too soon, while Hamstra streaked to his fourth final this year with a 3.713-seconds pass at 205.30 mph.
WORTH THE WAIT – Todd Tutterow had to wait a little after his burnout was complete for Joey Martin to get his car started. Martin made it to the line and staged quickly after an abbreviated burnout of his own, but wasn’t so quick off the line, posting a .276 reaction time that essentially negated his 3.746 pass at 202.92 mph. King Tutt, meanwhile, left with a solid .011 light and ran a quicker and faster 3.731 at 204.22 that also eared lane choice for the final.
FINALS
HAMSTRA WINS - Showing tremendous consistency throughout at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Jason Hamstra wrapped up his magical day by going 3.715 at 207.05 miles per hour to beat Todd Tutterow in the finals of the Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII.
“All of our friends and family drove here, and it feels good to get this win in front of them,” Hamstra said. “If you’re going to pick one race to win, this would be it. You can’t ask for a whole lot more.”
Hamstra added a second victory to his 2011 season, extending his points lead in front of a packed crowd at U.S. 131.
PRO NITROUS
FIRST ROUND
Jim Halsey opened the round with an on-and-off-the-gas solo pass after Jim Laurita broke on the line; Ed Burnley scored an upset win over Rickie Jones; Jeff Naiser outran Dan Stevenson, and Khalid Al-Balooshi scored a predictable win over Pat Moore, who got in as an alternate to number-12 qualifier Robert Mathis.
In the second set of four pairings, Mike Castellana beat Steve Vick by a car length after both posted 3.99-second ETs; current class champ Burton Auxier manhandled Chris Juliano; local Michigan hero Bob Rahaim beat John Hall, and top qualifier Mahana Al-Naemi overcame a three-hundredths holeshot by Jackie Slone to move on.
QUARTER-FINALS
HOLESHOT MAKES IT HAPPEN – Ed Burnley is going to his first ADRL semi-final after posting a holeshot win over local hero Bob Rahaim. Burnley’s .034/3.963/191.97 package translated to a five-thousandths margin of victory over the .086/3.917/194.20 combo put together by Rahaim.
STRIPE-TO-STRIPE WIN – Mahana Al-Naemi left with a .024 advantage off the start and never looked back after a 3.887 run at 194.27 that beat Jim Halsey’s 3.954 at 189.64 mph.
TEAMMATES TUSSLE – Al-Anabi Racing’s Khalid Al-Balooshi and Mike Castellana went head to head and it was Castellana with the win after going 3.932 at 193.71 while Balooshi fell off to a 4.302 at just 165.80 mph.
BEST OF THE BEST – Jeff Naiser and Burton Auxier both made their best runs of the weekend, but Auxier’s 3.848 at 196.73 (not to mention his .006 light) was the best of the two compared to the 3.895 at 193.71 by Naiser.
SEMI-FINALS
MAHANA IS THE MAN – In a battle of Al-Anabi teammates, Mahana Al Naemi turned the tables on a loss to Mike Castellana in the PN final of the previous ADRL race at Topeka a few weeks earlier. With an uncanny .002 reaction, Al-Naemi got the holeshot win with a 3.885 at 194.22 that beat the quicker and faster 3.878 at 195.39 by Castellana.
AUXIER ADVANCES – Ed Burnley isn’t used to going deep in ADRL eliminations and it may have manifested itself in a -.005 red-light start against Burton Auxier, who would have been tough to beat anyway with a 3.840 pass at 184.99 mph.
FINALS
FIRST TIME WINNER - Mahana Al-Naemi sported a beaming smile after picking up his first ADRL win in the loaded Pro Nitrous class.
After becoming the No. 1 qualifier for the fourth straight race, the Al-Anabi Racing driver capped it off by going 3.882 at 194.54 mph in the finals against class standout Burton Auxier.
“I’m very, very happy. I tried many, many times to do this and to get a win is just great,” Al-Naemi said. “I think I’m getting better with each run, but when I saw the win light, I couldn’t believe it.”
EXTREME 10.5
FIRST ROUND
Top qualifier Frankie “Mad Man” Taylor opened XTF eliminations with a solid solo pass before Brian Carpenter scored an upset win over Jim Widener, but drifted left toward the wall and lightly sideswiped it just beyond the finish line.
After a very brief delay to move Carpenter’s car off the track, Billy Glidden and Kenny Doak lined up and though Doak left with a .002 light and Glidden lost fire before reaching the finish line, Doak couldn’t quite get it done and Glidden coasted into the second round.
Reigning class champ Dan Millen next made short work of beating Judd Coffman; Chuck Ulsch powered past Grant McCrary, and the turbocharged ’63 Corvettes of Eric Stubbs and Todd Moyer squared off with Stubbs advancing after Moyer’s chutes popped out on the launch.
In the final pairing of the round Lamar Swindoll Jr. was supposed to take on “Wild Bill” Devine, but Devine was shut off on the line with a fuel leak. Swindoll went on to make a wall-slapping solo pass, but did an admirable driving job to avoid further contact and roll to a controlled stop in the shutdown lanes.
QUARTER-FINALS
FREE PASS – Brian Carpenter made it back from his brush with the wall at the end of his first-round win, but rolled the beams against Frankie Taylor in round two and allowed Taylor an unopposed pass of 3.963 at 199.52 to advance to the semis.
NO SHOW – Lamar Swindoll Jr., however, didn’t show up after his high-speed, round-one contact with the wall right at the finish line, so Chuck Ulsch advanced with a 4.006 at 196.02 mph to meet up with Taylor.
EASY ADVANCE – Due to the ladder missing three entries for a 16-car field, whoever won round one between Dan Millen and Judd Coffman was guaranteed a freebie from round two into the semis and it was the current class champ that advanced. Once there, Millen laid down a solid 3.984 pass at 195.19 mph that gave him lane choice over Billy Glidden.
GLIDDEN GOES FORWARD – In the only heads-up race of the XTF quarter-finals Billy Glidden ran 3.999 at 182.52 to easily get by the 4.125 at 195.31 by Eric Stubbs.
SEMI-FINALS
BILLY BEAT DOWN – Billy Glidden led start to finish with a 4-seconds-flat pass at 181.99 over the 4.033 at 194.22 by current points leader and defending XTF champ Dan Millen.
THREE-PEAT – The threes keep coming for Frankie Taylor as he goes 3.924 at 199.37 mph to manhandle the 4.066 at an off-the-pace 176.99 by Chuck Ulsch.
FINALS
MAN MAN WINS - Frankie Taylor may be used to the ADRL winner’s circle, but he graced it for the first time in Extreme 10.5 after beating Billy Glidden with an impressive 3.914 at 199.33 mph.
“To get that first win in this class, it feels really good,” said Taylor, who also credited Mickey Thompson Tires. “My brother made great calls on the car all weekend and every pass we made was good. He had the car in bracket-racing mode.”
PRO EXTREME MOTORCYCLE
FIRST ROUND
After sitting out the fourth and final qualifying session on Saturday, points leader Ashley Owens had an easy win over TT Jones and Eric McKinney had an 
equally easy time against Charlie Prophit.
Casey Stemper beat Paul Gast with a holeshot as Gast wrestled with a very loose ride; a last-minute decision by Monte Campbell to install a borrowed engine from Jones resulted in a very close win over Mac McAdams; Dave Norris edged out Brunson Grothus; Travis Davis employed a holeshot to send Carlos Wilkerson back to the trailer, and close friends Dave Vantine and Terry Schweigert squared off with Schweigert taking the win after Vantine posted a perfect .000 reaction time.
After bouncing her bike off the left wall in Saturday’s final qualifying session, current class champion Kim Morrell came back to hand Rob Hunnicutt the loss in round one. Morrell’s motor backfired near the end of her qualifying pass and blew part of the header off, which she ran over and got sent into the wall.
QUARTER-FINALS
HITTING HIS STRIDE – The Ashley Owens phenomenon continued as he set low ET of the meet to this point with a 4.081 win at 174.99 mph over a red-lighting Casey Stemper.
CANADIAN CONTINUES – Canadian dairy farmer Terry Schweigert made a come-from-behind ride to beat Travis Davis. Davis left with a .013 light to Schweigert’s .065, but a best-of-the-weekend 4.110 at 172.92 by Schweigert translated to a five-thousandths margin of victory over Davis’ 4.168 at 174.70 mph.
McKINNEY IS McQUICKER – With his best pass of the weekend so far, Eric McKinney ran 4.100 at 172.92 to get by Monte Campbell, who also delivered his best effort at 4.131 and 174.04 mph. After hurting his own engine in Friday’s third and last qualifying session, Campbell was racing with a borrowed motor from TT Jones, installed late this morning just in time for eliminations to begin.
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY – Kim Morrell attended the pre-race ceremony with an ice pack on her left knee and her left elbow still aching after brushing the wall at the end of her final qualifying pass earlier in the day. The reigning class champ made it to the semis with a 4.134/172.06 winning pass over the 4.224/169.67 effort put together by Dave Norris.
SEMI-FINALS
REMATCH ROUND – In a rematch of last year’s PXM final that Terry Schweigert lost to a holeshot by Ashley Owens, it was all Owens this time as he ran a 4.082 at 174.93 that was almost identical to his round-two performance while Schweigert ran a game 4.113 at 172.70.
LUCKY BREAK – Despite slowing to a 4.575 at 117.29, Eric McKinney still made it to the final round after Kim Morrell’s inspiring ride came to an end with a -.009 red-light start.
FINALS
BIG WIN FOR OWENS - The win at the Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII for Ashley Owens against Eric McKinney was historic, as it gave him 12 for his career to tie Glidden for the most in ADRL history.
He also did it in fashion, running a 4.009 at 178.39 mph to make it the quickest PXM pass in ADRL history.
“I was getting a little nervous because Eric is so good on the tree. But everybody just did a great job and worked so hard to get this done,” Owens said. “We swapped around a lot of stuff and made a lot of changes, but it worked out great.”
EXTREME PRO STOCK
FIRST ROUND
Tony Gillig, Brian Gahm, Trevor Eman, Cale Aronson and Bob Bertsch all saw red in their first-round pairings, allowing Sott Hintz, John Montecalvo, Elijah Morton, Dean Goforth and Cary Goforth to advance unopposed at the top end.
Also going forward to the quarter-finals was Pete Berner, who overcame a holeshot by Bert Jackson, Brad Waddle, who made a solo run after Richard Penland was shut off with a leak on the starting line, and John Pluchino, who won a tight race against Richie Stevens Jr.
QUARTER-FINALS
NEVER LOOKED BACK – Brad Waddle left first with a .020 holeshot and got to the end first with a 4.172 pass against John Pluchino’s 4.203 to continue on to his first PN semi-final appearance.
THE CHAMP ADVANCES – Current XPS champion John Montecalvo overcame a slight holeshot by Dean Goforth to win by a mere four-thousandths of a second after posting a 4.157 at 174.94 mph.
SEEING RED – That’s what happened to Elijah Morton, who left .003 too soon to negate his 4.165 pass against the 4.186 at 174.98 by Pete Berner.
PICKING UP THE POINTS – Cary Goforth arrived at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park with a slim 7-point lead over Pete Berner and kept pace with his rival with a win over Scott Hintz, the most recent event winner on the ADRL tour. Hintz left first by .014, but his 4.159/174.25 was no match for the 4.134 at 177.43 hat also set low ET of the round.
SEMI-FINALS
NO CONTEST – Brad Waddle’s Cinderella story ended in the semis against the current class champ when John Montecalvo left with a .007 light and ran 4.151 at 175.60 mph against a sleepy .249 reaction leading to a 4.175 at 174.90 by Waddle.
GET THE POINT(S) – Major points implications were on the line when the current top two—Cary Goforth and Pete Berner—met in the semis. And a red light decided the outcome. Berner went red by .014, handing a 4.129 at 175.65 win and trip to the final to Goforth.
FINALS
GOFORTH WENT FORTH - Cary Goforth, the No. 1 qualifier in XPS, couldn’t have expected such a great start for his new Jerry Haas-built GXP, but it delivered all weekend, including a remarkable 4.116 – the quickest pass of the event – in the finals against John Montecalvo.
“This went exactly the way you would want it to. I don’t know how it could have gone any better,” Goforth said. “We knew John was going to step up, but we’re just so happy with this. I don’t even know what to say.”
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FRDAY NOTEBOOK - IT'S A HOT FIRST DAY
THAT'S HOW HE ROLLS - His ailing team owner has a thing for all things “55,” the car he races is a ’55 Chevy “Lowmad,” and U.S. 131 Mortorsports Park is just off Exit 55 in the aptly 
named Martin, MI. So Pro Extreme driver Joey Martin figures success may be in the cards for him after taking the early lead in qualifying for the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII.
With team owner Toney Russell undergoing cancer treatments in Little Rock, AK, Martin made his first trips down the U.S. 131 eighth mile count with a 3.664 pass at 205.17 mph in the third and final qualifying session of the day, with one more round left to set the field for good on Saturday. It didn’t come easy, though, as Martin struggled to detune his car for what he called “the slickest track we’ve raced on all year.”
Martin opened with a tire-shaking run in the opening round, followed by a three-times pedaled 3.806 in round two before leapfrogging from fifth to first place in qualifying over points leader Jason Hamstra, 2010 ADRL Rookie of the Year Mick Snyder, defending class champion Frankie Taylor and 2009 PX champ Todd Tutterow, respectively.
“To be honest, I thought I was going to roll in here and make that last run straight off the trailer. I thought I would run a 3.64 right off the bat, then a .61 and finish off with a .57, but the track just isn’t there for that,” Martin said. “Instead I had to change this lion into a kitty cat. That last pass was the most detuned I’ve had the car all year, but you have to remember it’s a very small tuning window that we’re operating within.”
With a good starting position guaranteed, Martin felt confident enough to bolt on a pair of unproven, experimental slicks for Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying round. If not for a small Goodyear inventory control sticker attached to each tire’s face, there were no markings anywhere on the rubber to identify their origin.
“It’s a brand-new tire that Goodyear developed specifically for these high-horsepower converter cars. They’re four pounds lighter than the Hoosier tire,” Martin said. “Hopefully they’re going to be the key to the golden lock for us.”
IN LINE FOR A FOURTH - If his track record-setting Friday-night run holds up through Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying session for the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII, 
Mahana Al-Naemi will win his fourth consecutive Pro Nitrous top qualifier award. Al-Naemi drives a Reher&Morrison-powered ’69 Camaro tuned by nitrous racing legend Shannon “Iceman” Jenkins for the powerhouse Al-Anabi Racing team.
“Shannon stuck his head in the car and just told me, ‘Good luck and be careful’ before that run,” Al-Naemi said. “He also told me if the car starts to shake, lift, and we can fix it later.”
There was no lift involved, however, as Al-Naemi powered to 3.832-seconds pass at 197.11 mph to earn the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park track ET record and take over the provisional qualifying lead from Burton Auxier, who actually dropped to third when Bob Rahaim squeezed in just five-ten-thousandths of a second quicker.
“Always this car when it carries its front wheels up and down, up and down, I know it’s going to be fast,” said Al-Naemi, who despite his qualifying success is yet to win an ADRL race.
“Last race (in Topeka) I went to the final but I was not lucky,” he recalled. “The car shook and I had to lift. Maybe this time it will be different.”
At 4.084 seconds and exactly 181 mph, Jackie Slone held on to the 16th and final qualified position with five drivers hoping to break in on Saturday, including PN stars John DeCerbo, Stan Allen and Pat Stoken.
AND A MAD MAN LEADS THEM - As the first one out in the first Extreme 10.5 qualifying session on the first day of the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII, Frankie Taylor sent a 
first-place message to the rest of the Extreme 10.5 class with an outstanding 3.889-seconds pass at 199.41 mph in his screw-blown 2005 Corvette.
“We’ve been constantly swapping gear ratios, swapping converters, trying everything just to go faster, but this time we went back to our old setup, the way we were running the car in Qatar (over last winter) and it worked,” said Paul Taylor, Frankie’s brother and crew chief. “We kept beating ourselves trying to hit high 3.70s or low .80s, but we decided instead we’d better go for some consistency and try to get some wins.”
Taylor the driver said the 3.88 surprised him a little, only because they’d set the car up for a low 3.90s pass just to gain some data on the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park eighth mile.
“I guess everything we did worked because it went even faster, but that’s okay,” he said.
The Taylor team sat out Friday afternoon’s second session, but returned that night to run another solid 3.90 pass that convinced them they’re on the right path.
“I underestimated it a little that last pass,” Paul Taylor said. “But that would be a perfect setup for racing tomorrow, so I’m not too worried about it.”
Defending class champion and current points leader Dan Millen stepped up from 10th to second place with a 3.967 pass in the third round, while 2008 XTF champ Billy Glidden recovered from a loose wheel mishap in the opening round to post a provisional third-place 3.978 in Friday’s last session with one more opportunity to improve on Saturday before eliminations begin.
With 13 XTF entries at the Martin, MI, strip the class will run off a 16-car ladder for only the second time in five ADRL events this year, meaning the top three will receive first-round byes.
MIXED FEELINGS - For Cary Goforth the only thing that could’ve been better than placing on top of the Extreme Pro Stock (XPS) field after three of four 
qualifying sessions for the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII would’ve been for his father, Dean, to have beaten him.
“I was actually hoping deep down that he would,” the younger Goforth admitted after his 4.119 at 176.92 mph got the nod over his dad’s identical ET just because he went .17 mph faster at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. “Really, we’re so close, though, that I don’t even feel like I beat him, I feel like we’re both in first place right now.”
Goforth’s provisional pole setter came in Friday’s opening session while his father’s best effort came in the third and last opportunity of the day with one more to go on Saturday before eliminations begin. Regardless, Goforth is convinced it will take a little more for either to remain on top.
“I think both of us can step up; we’re definitely going to be trying for a 4.08 or .09 tomorrow,” he said. “Plus there are several other cars that can do it, too, so we have to be on our game and not give away anything to them.”
Heading into the event after four previous races this year, Goforth led the class points race by just seven markers over Pete Berner, who finished Friday in fourth place.
“Pete’s a great competitor, one of the best ever in this class, but we want to show we can run with him and beat him, too,” Goforth declared. “I just feel like we’ve given away too much this year to him, even a race win, and that’s got to stop. We have to put some distance between us in the points and that’s going to take beating him in qualifying and eliminations in order to win the championship.”
In the biggest XPS field in ADRL history with 25 entries, Richard Penland made the greatest gain in Friday’s final session, coming from 18th at 4.197 seconds all the way up to third with a stellar 4.127-second pass at 175.70 mph. Rounding out the top five was Elijah Morton, while Doug Kirk held on to the bump spot in what would be the tightest XPS field in history with a .058 spread.
With a 4.184 run straight off the trailer, former NHRA Pro Stock ace Dave Connolly got bumped out of the qualified field in the third session to 17th place in his first experience behind the wheel of a mountain-motor XPS car.
OWENS ON TOP OF PXM ... AGAIN - With a brand-new engine between the pipes of his Fast by Gast Suzuki, Ashley Owens blasted his way to the top of the 
Pro Extreme Motorcycle (PXM) list with a 4.117 at 174.69-mph in the third and last qualifying round on Friday for the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII.
Owens opened with a 4.206 at 169.86 that placed him fifth after the first session, then opted to sit out round two in the heat of the afternoon at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI.
“Since it was a new motor we just took it easy in that first round,” said Owens. “Then me and Paul (team owner, Gast) talked about it and decided conditions would be better tonight, so they just let me sleep in the motorhome through that second round.”
Owens has qualified number one at every ADRL race he’s attended this year and hasn’t lost yet in eliminations, though he sat out last month’s race in Topeka, KS, to prevent a perfect record. He typically sits out Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying opportunity, but with Kim Morrell close behind with a 4.13 at 171.44 mph he may make an exception in Michigan.
“You’ll probably see me; we need the data on the motor,” Owens said.
Finishing Friday in third place was Canada’s Terry Schweigert, who dropped from first in the two prior sessions, followed by Eric McKinney and Travis Davis with Wes Hawkins holding on to the 16th and final spot in the field with a 4.687 at 151.52 mph.
ADRL CHANGES WEBCAST COVERAGE - The ADRL announced today it is departing from providing live Internet streaming video of Friday’s qualifying sessions at its national events in favor of compiling a one-hour highlights show to be Webcast before live streaming of all elimination rounds resumes on Saturday. The new schedule went into effect this weekend from the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI, and fan response was swift and scathing on several Internet message boards.
But ADRL Executive Vice President Jeff Fortune said the change reflected what viewership numbers from previous Webcasts warranted.
“To ask people to sit and watch two 10-hour days of drag racing is an awful lot, too much,” Fortune said. “So we are shooting all day today for an hour-long summary show on Saturday with Bret Kepner hosting, sort of like a Sports Center-like format.”
Fortune said the highlights show will include Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying session. Access can be gained through the official ADRL Web site at www.adrl.us and viewers can use ID# 35806 and Kepner’s e-mail address bret@adrltv.us to gain access.
“The one-hour show will set the ladders for all classes, present all the highlights and include interviews with some of the top qualifiers, and all in a concise package hosted by one of the best broadcasters in the business,” Fortune said. “Then it will lead into live, round-by-round coverage of eliminations that will continue right to the end of the event.”
tightened on the left rear wheel of past champion Billy Glidden’s Extreme 10.5 2010 Mustang prior to the start of his first qualifying attempt for the ADRL Summer Drags VII.Glidden headed toward the wall immediately off his launch from the left lane at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, but was able to gather up the car and grind to a stop just short of the eighth-mile finish line with the wheel firmly wedged sideways beneath the fender.
A rollback truck delivered the stricken ‘Stang back to Glidden’s pit, where the 2008 class champion immediately went to work repairing damaged bodywork and a broken brake rotor. As a precautionary measure he also replaced all five wheel studs and since the wheel was torn up around the bolt holes a new one will be in place for his second qualifying pass.
And you can be sure the lug nuts will be tight.
ADRL SUMMER DRAGS VII UNDERWAY - Promptly at noon, Top Sportsman racers Don Klooster (near lane) and Michael Standley II opened the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan.
After 19 cars made passes in the first “official” round of Top Sportsman qualifying within the ADRL, Mark Malcuit out of Strasburg, OH, led the way with a 4.17 pass at 171.72 mph and Flint, MI’s Standley held the 16th-place bump spot at 4.91 seconds and 149.09 mph.
MOYER NO LONGER IN A BIND - Since the ADRL season opener back in March at Baytown, TX, Extreme 10.5 star Todd Moyer has been battling a severe tire 
shake problem in his new twin-turbocharged ’63 Corvette. Making the problem that much more aggravating, teammate Lamar Swindoll Jr. has been shining all year in the ’04 Cavalier that Moyer won with last year.
With each passing event crew chief Chad Rogers grew more anxious, concerned and confused as nothing he tried corrected or even seemed to improve the situation. So when he discovered a problem with the right rear shock after last month’s outing at Heartland Park Topeka it provided as much relief as revelation.
“I took the shock off, but when I went to put it back on it wouldn’t line up with the bottom mount. The mounting tab was a little off, so what was happening was when the car launched the shock extended and was binding under load and causing the tire shake,” Rogers explained. “The solution was to move the shock left a little with a spacer and we were out testing a couple of weekends ago at Houston Motorsports Park and that seems to have fixed the problem.
“Of course that wasn’t on a track prepped the way ADRL does their track, so hopefully it’ll work here, too,” Rogers added prior to XTF qualifying at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI.
If it does, there’s a bonus in store for Rogers and the “Junkyard Dog” Corvette.
“Todd didn’t want to put the wrap on until we solved the shake problem because that tears up the body, too,” he said. “So hopefully we’ll be able to get it over to Tony Baudier after this race and make it look pretty, too.”
‘RACING’S RACING’ TO RICKIE JONES - Eighth mile or quarter mile, it’s all the same to Pro Nitrous rookie Rickie Jones.
“No matter what distance it is you just do the best you can,” Jones said as he worked in the pits before this weekend’s eighth-mile ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan. “Racing’s racing and you always want to win—quarter mile you just have to hold on for a couple more seconds.”
Though a three-year veteran of the NHRA Pro Stock ranks, Jones recently found out what the quarter-mile felt like in a Pro Mod when he debuted in the NHRA Get Screened America series last month at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
“It was a little different running the quarter mile after getting used to the eighth with the ADRL and my dad (chassis builder Rick Jones) even told me after he set the wheelie bars, ‘Remember, Bud, quarter mile, run it out the back door,’” Jones recalled. “I’d been 6.50s at 210 in the Pro Stock and our first full pass in the Pro Mod we jumped right into the 5.80s and ended up qualifying second and we were absolutely thrilled by that.”
In an impressive race-day showing, Jones went on to defeat the supercharged entries of Pete Farber and Donald Martin before falling to eventual race winner Mike Castellana in the semi-finals.
“I was especially proud to have Summit Racing Equipment on board with us as our major sponsor for the weekend at the Summit Racing Nationals in our Pro Mod debut at Norwalk,” he said. “We have entered Pro Mod for Indy and Charlotte now, and whether it’s the Summit Camaro or the Quarter-Max Camaro we’ll just take it one run at a time and do the best we can.”
For this weekend, Jones is sporting a brand-new, 855 c.i. Reher & Morrison engine in his ’69 Camaro Pro Nitrous ride and is looking forward to the consistency it will contribute to the Quarter-Max Racing program.
“We’ve only done a couple of burnouts with it, but David Reher and his guys build a first-rate product that we know is going to perform,” said Jones. “And it’s identical to our first engine, so it’s nice to have a spare that’s exactly the same just in case we ever need it.”
And with the Martin track being the closest on the ADRL tour to Jones’ Galesburg, Illinois, home, he’ll also be entertaining and enjoying the company of several customers, friends and family members.
“It would be great to get the win here for Quarter-Max, Reher & Morrison and all our sponsors and friends,” Jones said. “We’ll see what happens.”
“It actually towed pretty good without it, but I guess we better fix it before we head home,” the reigning ADRL Pro Extreme world champion said as he attacked the problem with a hammer and chisel. “It looks like it’ll probably need a new axle—it definitely needs a new wheel!”
KEPNER GETS THE CALL - Race fans at the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VII are in for a treat this Friday (July 15), as noted drag racing historian, statistician and TV personality Bret Kepner will add his dulcet tones to the public address system when he joins ADRL announcer Brian Olson for the trackside call.
“With the live streaming going to just a one-day deal on Saturday it freed me up to help Brian out a little,” Kepner explained. “But I made it very clear that this is his show and I’m just there to do whatever he needs. I’m definitely playing second banana here.”
Regardless, with Olson and Kepner sharing the mic, it promises to be an entertaining and informative opening day at the races.
MUSTANGS IN MICHIGAN - The Ford Mustangs of Pro Extreme racer Terry Leggett (left) and Extreme Pro Stock’s Cale Aronson were on display Thursday afternoon just a couple of exits south of U.S. 131 Motorsports Park at Harold Zeigler Ford in Plainwell, Michigan.
SCRUGGS MAKES MARTIN RETURN - Former back-to-back Pro Extreme champ Jason Scruggs has struggled mightily in 2011 trying to get a handle on the new automatic transmission in his ’63 Corvette, with only one first-round exit to show for his efforts.
During a July 13 test session, at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, Scruggs delivered his best time of the year. However, as he ran 3.72 straight off the trailer, but slowed to 3.77 and then 3.81 as he and his father, Mitchell, backed down the power in a battle against tire shake. Still, the results were encouraging as Scruggs makes a return to competition after sitting out last month’s race at Topeka to concentrate on his family’s huge cotton farming operation in Saltillo, Mississippi.
“Hopefully we can get back to qualifying in the top few cars and going a few rounds,” Scruggs said. “We may not have a shot at the championship anymore this year, but maybe we can still win a race or two.”
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