2011 ADRL DRAGSTOCK - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - SATURDAY BRINGS NEW DAY AT ROCKINGHAM
One by one, the ADRL Extreme Pro Stock drivers rolled through the Rockingham Dragway starting line in a procession of honor while being towed by a golf cart. 
The first car was alone with no car alongside. Behind the single car, 11 pairs of Pro Stock followed through.
As they passed the Coors Light/Racing Radios grandstand on the right side, just past the Christmas tree, each driver either waved, held up a clenched fist in solidarity or saluted the family and crew of their fallen comrade – Bert Jackson.
A memorial service was held on Saturday morning to honor Jackson’s life.
Jackson, 51, an Extreme Pro Stock driver from Glen Allen, Va., was killed in a race accident during Friday qualifying at the Dragstock VIII event.
Jackson’s fellow racers had staged a grounded “missing man formation” similar to the aerial tributes honoring fallen military pilots. The last known drag racing version of the missing man tribute came in 1985 during the NHRA Gatornationals following Lee Shepherd’s death in a testing accident.
Enoch Love, team owner, believes the tribute by Jackson’s fellow competitors, said a lot about the character he exemplified.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” said Love. “I know that Bert would have been overwhelmed with the admiration and love. But that’s the kind of guy that Bert was. He never met a stranger.”
Brian Gahm, a multi-time champion in mountain motor Pro Stock competition, participated in the tribute.
“It was tough,” said Gahm. “Words cannot describe what was going through my heart at that moment. It’s very sad. It gives you a reality check. We get up and go out there to do this, day in and day out, and then it hits you.”
Dean Goforth was the No. 1 qualifier headed into Friday evening’s third session. He was sitting in the staging lanes behind Jackson and witnessed the action.
For Goforth, he witnessed the death of driver who was rapidly becoming a good friend.
“He and I were working on a big friendship,” said Goforth. “Real friendships aren’t what you build at the train terminal. We’ve been real buddies for the last few years.”
Goforth said it didn’t take much time with Jackson to realize the kind of person he was on and off of the track. He believes the moments he spent with Jackson helped him to become a better man.
“Bert and I never discussed his religious beliefs,” Goforth said. “I could tell you that Bert was a Christian and he didn’t need to tell you. You saw it. He lived his testimony. He showed it every time he was around. I’m a Christian man but you have to ask me, I didn’t show it as well as he did.
“I’m not the type who will step up and proclaim someone is a good ‘ole boy after they’re gone. But I will tell you, sure as I am sitting here, he was a good ‘ole boy. He didn’t have this status just with me, you could have gone into any pits of any of his fellow racers and they would say the same thing. He was as calm as any man could be. If he was having a bad day, you never knew it.”
Goforth said he believes one of Jackson’s daily goals was to make those he befriended smile. He wanted everyone to feel special.
“He called me on the phone and didn’t ask for Dean, he said, ‘Hello Driver,” Goforth said. “When he first did that I took it as a compliment and thought maybe I had been driving better. Later I found out I wasn’t so special. He calls everyone driver. I thought he was putting me on a pedestal and come to find out; he was putting everyone on a pedestal. That’s fine with me. That’s just how he was … making others feel good about themselves.”
If anyone could attest to Jackson’s character, Love could. Love believed Jackson was so much more than a driver to him.
“He was just like a son,” said Love. “He was family. He could take the bad side of me and make it good. We balanced one another. He was a one of a kind. They don’t make any more Bert Jacksons.”
Love confirmed he plans to attend the remaining ADRL events in 2011, parking the trailer in the pits as a tribute to a person he called friend, adopted son and driver and rolled up into one.
“Bert will be with me in spirit, I promise you,” said Love.
TAYLOR GOES MADMAN ON SCRUGGS - “I figured I had to do whatever it took to put the win light on,” Frankie “Mad Man” Taylor declared after mounting a 
come-from-behind charge in his 2005 Corvette over Jason Scruggs for the Pro Extreme (PX) win at Dragstock VIII in Rockingham, North Carolina.
“I went in a little deeper than I’d really wanted to, but it looks like I needed it,” he added about deep-staging prior to posting a .082 light against an excellent .016 by Scruggs. “I think I stared at the tree too much. I went in first and I was a little hyper saying, ‘C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,’ but I must’ve blinked or something right as he staged,” he reasoned. “I actually thought I had a pretty good light, but I think I stole a little ET from (crew chief and brother) Paul; it should gone a .60 or maybe another .59, but I guess it don’t matter now.”
After securing the number-one starting position with the only 3.50 run of the event at 3.597 and 210.70 mph in Friday night’s qualifying session, Taylor ran 3.622 at 210.47 to edge out Scruggs’ 3.699 at 205.07 in the final, his “slowest” pass of the day.
Taylor, the defending PX series champion, got past Mike Janis, Alex Hossler and points leader Jason Hamstra (who redlighted by 4-thousandths in the semis), to reach Scruggs, who previously dispatched Quain Stott, Todd Tutterow and Joey Martin on his side of the ladder.
“Jason, he’s coming on strong now,” Taylor observed of the previous race winner in Virginia last month. “He was struggling for a while there and there were guys who wanted to help him and I kept telling them, ‘Man, if you all are gonna’ help that dude he’s gonna’ be like a cobra and strike back!’
“Everybody gave him little pointers here and there, and man, he’s taken all those little pointers and now he’s got a fast race car again, just like I knew he would once he got a combination figured out.”
Taylor also called the semi-final win over Hamstra “huge,” as it helped tighten up this year’s PX points chase with only two more opportunities left—in two weeks at Norwalk, Ohio, and late in October at Ennis, Texas—to help defend his championship.
“Hamstra there, he’s gonna’ be tough to catch, but we’ll give it everything we’ve got and see what happens,” Taylor said.
ALLEN RETURNS TO STAKE HIS PN CLAIM - Stan Allen never went away.
The veteran Pro Nitrous racer was always ready to shine his light in competition.
Lately, ADRL Pro Nitrous racer Stan Allen has been in the darkness. He’s been around this sport long to know that success comes in cycles. Saturday night before a capacity crowd assembled at Rockingham Dragway for the ADRL Dragstock VIII, Allen let his light so shine before the competition.
Allen beat first-time finalist John Decerbo in the final round.
“It felt really good to come out with a new car and become competitive immediately,” said Allen, who won his second career race. “It wasn’t that we weren’t competitive. We just weren’t at the level we needed to be. We have what we need.”
Allen entered Saturday’s final eliminations as the seventh quickest runner with the Bankston Boys’ new 1968 Camaro from David Janes. He opened eliminations with a victory over Todd Howard, and then beat Robert Raheim before beating Khalid Al-Balooshi in the semis.
“You just have to bide your time and drive a little harder than everybody else,” Allen said. “You have to do it because the competition level is there.”
Allen believes the new Janes-built Camaro actually upped his driving level over the course of the weekend.
“It has really taken a load off of my shoulders,” said Allen. “If I don’t have a .001 or .002 reaction time, on every run, it’s not the end of the world or in my case, the end of the day.”
Just as a stick and ball player finds their groove in a game, Allen didn’t have to wait until final eliminations to begin finding his. He began to start feeling good about his chances of winning the race headed into Saturday’s competition.
“We just stayed consistent,” Allen said. “I really believe we started building our momentum at the VMP event. We just got a handle on it and it kept flowing. The car just wants more. The more we put at it, the more it wants.”
And just like Allen, it wants to win, again and again.
MILLEN MAKES IT TWO IN A ROW - A rematch of the Extreme 10.5 (XTF) final from a month ago at Virginia Motorsports Park delivered the same result at 
Rockingham Dragway Sep. 10, as Dan Millen beat Chuck Ulsch for the Dragstock VIII title.
“You know going into a race like that, that the other guy is going to be even more amped up to beat you,” the defending class champion said after laying a .042 holeshot on Ulsch, then running a track record 3.855 at 201.46 mph to defeat Ulsch’s 3.915 at a track record 205.76 mph in the final round.
“Chuck is someone who can run as fast as us, if not faster, so he was definitely somebody I was worried about. I almost feel more pressure racing the same guy again after we won the last time because you know he’s going to step it up so I have to really be on my game. It turns into a kind of grudge race, but they’re all really great people and I love racing against those guys,” Millen added about Ulsch and his Gil Mobley-owned team from Maryland.
Millen qualified number-one with a 3.899-seconds pass at 197.94 mph in his screw-blown 2011 Mustang, leading Brad Brand, Ulsch, Frankie Taylor and Billy Glidden at the top of the 16-car list. Wayne Chambers anchored the second-quickest XTF field in ADRL history with a 4.361 run at 165.66 mph.
Chambers, however, was unable to start eliminations, allowing Maurice Bea in as an alternate, but Bea’s car broke on the line, giving Millen a free pass to round two where he faced chassis builder Alan Pittman in Terry Leggett’s supercharged ’09 Mustang.
“They were all tough, but that round against Pittman, that was my most nerve-wracking,” Millen admitted. “I knew he’d be up for us and he’s been running really good, so I knew I’d have to be on my game.”
Only three-thousandths separated the two off the launch, with Pittman taking the slight advantage, but Millen’s 3.939 at 196.82 was able to get past Pittman’s best-of-the-weekend 4.010 at 192.28 mph. In the semis, Millen faced the screw-blown combination in Frankie Taylor’s 2005 Corvette, but a broken blower belt sent Taylor packing while Millen blazed a 199.91-mph path to the final in 3.867 seconds.
The win marked Millen’s third victory in the last four events and padded his 2011 points lead to an almost insurmountable level.
VOSE VICTORIOUS FOR SECOND TIME AT DRAGSTOCK - For the first time in 2011, someone beat runaway Pro Extreme Motorcycle (PXM) points leader Ashley Owens on the track. Former back-to-back series champion 
(2007-08) Billy Vose strapped a holeshot on Owens in the final for Dragstock VIII at Rockingham Dragway, giving him his second win in the ADRL’s oldest and most prestigious national event.
“You’ve got to remember, he (Owens) has had such a big performance cushion that he hasn’t had to push it on the tree much this year,” Vose said of his starting-line win. “But I guarantee you’re not going to see that again because he’s going to have to pick up the numbers.”
The victory also boosted Vose into eighth place overall and into contention for the special-event “Battle for the Belts,” to be held for the top eight qualifiers in each ADRL heads-up class within the season-ending event at Ennis, Texas, in October.
“I missed I think four races at the start of the year and this is only my second race on this bike, so this (win) was really important in our effort to get into the Battle for the Belts,” Vose said. “We’ve only got one more opportunity to gain points toward it (Sep. 23-24 at Norwalk, Ohio), so hopefully we can do good there, too, and maybe even come in at a higher position.”
Riding for team owner TT Jones, Vose qualified third at Rockingham, behind Ron Procopio in second and surprising newcomer Jeremy Teasley, who joined Casey Stemper in winning a Dragstock pole in his first PXM appearance. Teasley, aboard Rob Hunicutt’s bike, ran 4.044 at 174.96, while Procopio checked in at 4.053, followed by Vose at 4.056, Owens at 4.058 and defending series champ Kim Morrell with a 4.100 run.
Vose had a relatively easy win over Charlie Prophit in round one of racing and Travis Davis went red against him by -.036 in round two. Vose faced a tough semi-final, though, in meeting Procopio, where a solid .026 light helped to ensure his 4.065 at 173.54 would advance him past the 4.068 at 177.60 by Procopio.
In the final round, Vose left with a .018 reaction time to a .081 by Owens, allowing his 4.055 at 174.66-mph run to beat by 7-thousandths, a quicker and faster 3.999 at 180.12 combination. Though losing the race and breaking a 22-0 round-wins streak throughout this year, Owens’ final-round elapsed time backed up for an official class ET record the 3.964 he ran in defeating Teasley in the semis.
“My back-half time really fell off; with my front half I really should have went a 4-flat or a 4.01, so we just have to get some additional info, additional data, to know what it’s going to take. I’m sure I’m going to have to do the cylinders a little different, put some different pistons in it, because this is a plain-Jane engine, very basic off-the-shelf stuff,” Vose said. “We just haven’t had the time to do it yet, but it’s coming; it’s coming.”
HINTZ NAILS DOWN SECOND ADRL XPS TITLE - Scott Hintz understands his flying under the radar days might very well be over.
When you win two races in one season people begin to you very seriously.
Saturday, at the ADRL Dragstock VIII event in Rockingham, NC, Hintz decided it was time to let his presence known in the Extreme Pro Stock division for the second time since Topeka.
Besides, flying under the radar or not, Hintz was racing inspired. Friend and fellow competitor Bert Jackson lost his life in a racing accident during Friday evening qualifying.
He raced inspired on Saturday.
“This feels great, but I’m just glad I was able to do this for Bert,” said Hintz. “He was a great friend and competitor and he meant a lot to all of us.”
Hintz said in uncharted waters during the Rockingham event. It was the first time he’d lost a fellow racer during an event.
“This win will always hold a special place,” Hintz said. “It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever experienced. It was horrible and very tragic, and I’m just happy to get this win in Bert’s honor.”
Hintz didn’t kid himself headed into the final round against John Montecalvo, who was also racing inspired. The defending Extreme Pro Stock series champion from New York’s Long Island, raced from the No. 1 qualifying spot with graphics on the side of his Chevrolet Cobalt honoring the 9-11 Victims.
Montecalvo was also a close friend to Jackson.
“John’s a great competitor and you just have to go up, do the best you can do and see what happens,” Hintz said. “We’re getting (to that elite level). We’re making some gains, but we like flying under the radar.”
CLOSE CALL FOR STANTON – In one of the most impressive displays of driving ever seen in the ADRL, 2006 Pro Extreme World Champion Bubba Stanton saved
his ’68 Camaro from certain doom while racing Terry Leggett in round one of eliminations for Dragstock VIII.
Stanton left with a .042 advantage in the right lane and was leading as he approached half-track when things started going wrong.
“The car felt good low, but I guess it went out there a couple hundred feet and it took the tire off. I felt it shake and then it knocked the tire off and when it did that it just came around on me,” Stanton recalled. “I saw the starting line at one point. That was a bad sign. I had the chutes pulled and that helped the car get back straight and I tried to actually soft pedal it a little bit to help get it straight.”
Stanton knew he’d got out on Leggett, but said he was worried about a collision as his car turned toward its left and crossed the center line as he fought for control.
“That was definitely on my mind. I wanted to make sure I stayed away from him because I didn’t want to hurt him.”
Though Stanton describes the incident with the cool, detached manner of a professional, to the tens of thousands of fans packed into Rockingham Dragway, it was a save of legendary proportions.
“That was amazing! You need to enter this guy in a drifting race,” one enthusiastic supporter told team owner Roger Henson. “I’ve never seen a car get that turned around and still go down the track!”
Regardless, Stanton took little personal credit for his success.
“It was just instinct from me having driven before; it wasn’t anything about thinking. It was just me trying to get the car straight and the Good Lord riding with me,” he said. “I’m just glad to have it still in one piece; a lot of times you don’t see things come out that way.”
UNLIKELY TOP QUALIFIER – Pro Extreme Motorcycle points leader Ashley Owens opted out of the ADRL race at Topeka earlier this summer, but of the races he’s attended, for the first time this year another name is in the number-one position after four rounds of qualifying.
Even more surprising is who took the lead into eliminations: first-time ADRL entrant and first-time PXM rider Jeremy Teasley of Orient, Ohio, aboard Rob Hunnicutt’s 1800-cc 2010 Hayabusa.
“I made two test passes up in Maryland last Sunday, but that’s it,” Teasley said after going 4.04 seconds at 174.96 mph to secure the top spot in the third qualifying session on Friday night.
“The bike is set up great so it’s very smooth, very fast. It’s over before you know it; you click through the gears pretty fast,” he added. “I couldn’t ask for more. That bike is nice; Rob’s got it set up perfect, almost too smooth, if that’s possible.”
WELL, THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT SO WELL -- The most compelling match in the first round of Extreme Pro Stock eliminations had to be between former teammates Cale Aronson and Richie Stevens. The burndown began even before either driver pre-staged, until Aronson actually shut his car down, then refired and suddenly rolled forward and lit the pre-stage and stage bulbs almost simultaneously. Though he could have waited as long as he liked, Stevens quickly rolled in and promptly strapped a .027 holeshot on Aronson, then outran him with a 4.133 at 175.80 to 4.141 at 174.47 mph.
MOTORCYCLE MOMENTS -- Ashley Owens may have slipped to fourth in qualifying, but reasserted himself as the class of the Pro Extreme Motorcycle field by running low ET of round one with a 4.072 win over Matt Smith. Meanwhile, class newcomer and polesitter Jeremy Teasley left .047 after Paul Gast, but overcame the gap to win with a 4.107, his quickest pass of the weekend to this point. Also quick was past two-time PXM champ Billy Vose, who also ran 4.07, but 7 thou slower than Owens in his first-round win over Charlie Prophit.
LEFT, NOT RIGHT – Every one of the eight winners in round one of Extreme 10.5 racing came from the left lane at Rockingham Dragway, with six of the right-lane runners-up smoking the tires like fuel cars shortly after launching. Of course, Rick Thornton’s .579 light after engaging in a little staging duel with Chuck Ulsch didn’t help any. Ulsch headed into the quarter-finals with low ET and top speed of the round at 3.936 and 200.65 mph. The only other driver in the 3s was Brad Brand with his 3.972 at 199.49 mph against Kenny Kneece.
SPECIAL PASSENGER FOR MARTIN - Pro Extreme team owner Toney Russell lost his long battle with cancer Aug. 23, but his spirit lives on at Dragstock VIII 
with his “Lowmad” teammates led by his son, Paul, and driver Joey Martin, who built the fan-favorite ’55 Chevy station wagon late last year.
Just four days before entering the hospital for the final time, Russell got to celebrate in victory lane at Heartland Park Topeka as Martin drove the car to his second ADRL race win of the year.
“When we were in Topeka, Toney sat in the car for the first time since it was built and said, ‘Man, when I get to feeling better, I’ve got to make a pass in this thing,’” Martin recalled. “So, come to what happened, Paul came to the idea that it would be good for me to carry him along with me the rest of the year.”
Russell’s wife and their three children each had pendants made before his death and wear the jewelry with some of Russell’s ashes enclosed in each. Martin is now racing with one of those pendants hanging in the car with him.
Also recovered by Paul Russell from his father’s cremation are titanium rods, a pin and “a bunch of screws that look like you could put a deck on your house with them,” Martin said. He said they are considering making a part for the car out of them, perhaps a parachute handle, but no decision has been reached yet.
“This car was so important to my dad that I think he’d like to go on every pass it ever makes,” Paul Russell said. “He loved it.”
WELL NEVER FORGET - John Montecalvo can’t help it. Every time the Long Island, NY-based drag racer thinks back to September 11, 2001, his eyes fill with tears.
This weekend, the defending ADRL Extreme Pro Stock series champion has a decal on his Chevrolet Pro Stocker honoring the victims of the day terrorists hijacked airplanes and flew them into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“Just talking about getting the decal made up, brought tears to my eyes again,” said Montecalvo, who had raced an IHRA event the weekend prior to the attacks. “It's just a very emotional thing. I think it's a very emotional thing for anybody in this country.”
Being a New Yorker, and seeing the destruction daily, wore on Montecalvo even though the nearly 3,000 victims weren’t close friends.
For Montecalvo’s wife Lois Ann, it was a different story. Her boss’s best friend was one of the victims. Montecalvo didn’t need to know him personally to experience the pain of the loss.
“He had called the office to say that he was there, the plane had hit the building and he was going to find a way out,” Montecalvo said. “They waited for his call all day long and it never happened.”
He knows there are many survivor stories, but a story he watched on television the other day, is one he cannot seem to forget.
“This guy worked in the building and was leaving as the firemen were coming in the building,” Montecalvo said. “The guy was saying to them, "good luck, good luck" and no sooner had they gotten out of the building than the building collapsed.”
Montecalvo said September 11, 2001 will forever be a part of his life.
“I don't think we will ever not think about it,” Montecalvo said. “You know it might pass our mind. We had Hurricane Irene last week and that was the thing of the day. You get busy at work and it escapes you for awhile, but somehow or another it always come back.”
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - A GOOD DAY AT THE RACES ENDS IN SADNESS
WE HAVE LOST A FRIEND - Bert Jackson, an ADRL racer competing in the Extreme Pro Stock division, died in a racing accident Friday night at the Dragstock VIII event in Rockingham, NC.
Jackson lost control of his Pontiac GXP just shy of the eighth-mile finish and impacted the right-lane guardwall. The throttle stuck on the car and the car traveled to the end of the track.
Jackson, 51, of Glen Allen, Va., is survived by his wife Vaness.
The accident happened during the third qualifying session.
Jackson was transported to First Health Richmond Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead by a medical examiner from injuries sustained in the crash.
Racing was delayed for nearly two hours while race officials extracted the car from the woods, and repaired a damaged guardwall. ADRL officials cancelled the remainder of the session and all runs completed during the session were nullified.
Jackson had been the driver for Enoch Love’s team since 2004. The ADRL’S sixth-ranked Extreme Pro Stock driver had reached two semi-finals this year. He reached one final round, in 2006, while racing in IHRA competition, finishing runner-up to Tony Gillig.
"The entire ADRL community is deeply saddened by Friday’s incident and offers its most sincere condolences and prayers to Jackson’s family, teammates and friends," said Jeff Fortune, Executive Vice President of the ADRL. "Jackson was a passionate competitor, a kind-hearted human being and he touched the lives of many during his drag racing career."
According to ADRL officials, a memorial service will be held at the track on Saturday morning prior to qualifying.WHEN HISTORY MEETS ROLE PLAYING - His name might not be as household as Ronnie Sox or Rickie Smith, but when it comes to Rockingham Dragway, Tommy Mauney has his place in the track’s history.
He’s raced everything from a Super Stocker to a Pro Stocker to a Pro Modified. He’s had his highs and lows. Mauney has traveled through the trees on the left side of the track with an out of control Pro Stocker and returned years later to become a part of doorslammer history by winning with the first nitrous-injected Top Sportsman entry.
This weekend he’s breaking in a new car and all too happy to do it.
Mauney is racing in the ADRL’s Pro Extreme division this weekend at the ADRL’s Dragstock VIII event. His primary objective is to shake down a new 1969 Camaro that he’s driving for Bahrain’s B1 team and intended for Ali Aryan.
“Ali was supposed to come and race this weekend and was unable to make it to the race this weekend,” said Mauney, who built the car in his Spartanburg, SC-based shop. “[Crew chief] Rick Hickman asked me if I could come out and help them get data on the car.”
The new ride, purposely built for Aryan, Mauney said, is chock full of new features.
“It’s one of the newest designs out of our shop with newest 1969 Camaro. The car was built him and it is the first one built for him. Prior to that, the cars he drove were all built for other drivers.”
Still the more he looks at the Camaro, the more he sees the old D/Modified Production he once drove for Jimmy Holland.
“It sure does,” said Mauney, beaming a broad smile.
Mauney spins a yard about going through the gearbox at the famous track. He also spins a yarn about racing in the inaugural Dragstock event.
For Mauney, yes he shaking down a car but the history of this weekend’s event is not lost on him.
“You know, when we came to together for the first Dragstock, it was nothing more than an over-glorified Quick Eight,” said Mauney. “Now this event is big business.”
MEMORY MAKING - There’s something about seeing Top Sportsman cars racing at Rockingham Dragway that makes Terry Housley smile. The ADRL Pro Nitrous 
racer remembers competing in the 1986 IHRA U.S. Open Nationals as a Top Sportsman racer and during this event 25 years ago, officially clinched his first of two consecutive series championships.
Seeing the Top Sportsman cars racing in the ADRL only serves as a reminder of how far he’s come.
“I think seeing this class in the ADRL is a rightful home for the class,” Housley said. “It should have happened a long time ago. When you look at it, this is the class which is a rightful stepping stone into the kind of racing we do out here.”
Housley used the Top Sportsman class as a means of honing his skill. Top Sportsman was his kind of training ground … fast doorslammers, nitrous oxide and 200 miles per hour. It didn’t take him long to find a comfort zone. In fact, when he won his 1986 title, he won six races in a row, sweeping the entire month of July, and unofficially clinched the crown.
However, this comfort zone became uncomfortable as modern bracket racing technology made its way into the competition.
Delay boxes and electronic devices provided the impetus for his graduation into the Pro Modified division prior to the ADRL’s existence. When the ADRL unveiled Pro Nitrous, he’d finally rediscovered his comfort zone.
“Even though Top Sportsman isn’t my kind of racing, I still believe it’s a good thing for developing future talent,” Housley said. “I raced Top Sportsman for about four seasons and came back once in 1996 and won.”
Then Housley smiled, and offered his driving prowess in the victory.
“Without a delay box …” he said.
Housley believes his experience in Top Sportsman paved the way for his racing today.
“It was everything,” Housley said. “I learned how to race fast with a clutch in this style of racing. I learned how to tune from a computer. Best of all, I learned how to make a car run consistent and that’s very important. Running consistent in Top Sportsman taught me how to run consistent in Pro Nitrous. The racing is different but the driver’s demeanor has to be the same. Make it consistent – consistent. Make it consistent – fast.”
SWINDOLL CRASHES AGAIN - As Extreme 10.5 driver Lamar Swindoll Jr. dejectedly surveyed the damage done to his ’68 Camaro, team owner Todd Moyer tried to ease the tension by joking,
“I know I said I didn’t like that color, but I didn’t want to change it that way.”Just a few minutes earlier Swindoll sideswiped the left guardwall in his first qualifying attempt for Dragstock VIII at Rockingham Dragway.
“It started shaking, so I pedaled, but it didn’t help the situation,” the Baytown, Texas-based driver explained. “It just made an immediate left turn and hit so hard the first time that I don’t even remember it hitting the second time.”
Despite the steering wheel being bent forward in half by the impact, Swindoll said he was “a little sore,” but essentially uninjured in the wreck, though he did express some concern after undergoing surgery on his neck just three months ago.
“I’m okay, but something needs to happen, I just need to regroup,” Swindoll said. “I hate tearing up someone else’s stuff. I mean, if it was mine we could just take it home and it would sit there. I hate this.”
Moyer recently purchased the Jerry Bickel-built car from Robert Mathis as a replacement for the ’04 Cavalier that Swindoll had an accident with at Martin, Michigan, in July.
“That one in Michigan, that was not Lamar’s fault, that was 100 percent the car that caused that,” Moyer stressed. “This one, yeah, I’m going to give this one to him. But I don’t have to say anything. He knows.”
Despite cosmetic damage done from stem to stern along the car’s left flank, Moyer doesn’t expect its chassis was seriously tweaked. Still, its next stop will be Bickel’s shop in Missouri.
“The car was built in ’09, so Bickel will still have the jig it was built on and he’ll be able to see in a jiffy if there’s anything wrong. It’s obviously going to need some body work, too, but I think we can get it fixed in time for Norwalk (Ohio),” Moyer said, referring to the ADRL’s next race in just two weeks (Sep. 23-24), at Summit Motorsports Park.
MATT SMITH IS ON A MISSION - Matt Smith, the former NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champ and son of Pro Mod star Rickie Smith is at Rockingham Dragway 
this weekend determined to qualify Don Carter’s ’68 Camaro in the Pro Extreme class at Dragstock VIII.
“Don actually called for me to drive at the Topeka race (in June), but I had prior commitments then. With racing NHRA I just don’t have a lot of time to do extra stuff right now, but with this weekend off before we go to Charlotte next weekend, I’m at home anyway so I thought this would be the time to do it,” Smith explained.
“I’m trying to help Don out and see if we can get the car running a little bit better for him. We tested the other day at Piedmont and we got it better in the 60-foot, but the track just wasn’t there so it was shaking farther down the track. We’ll see what happens this weekend; this is my home track so I hope to be able to help out.”
The Jerry Bickel-built machine is just the third Pro Mod-style car Smith has driven.
“Of course I drove (Sheikh) Khalid’s car overseas with Frank Manzo tuning and that thing is just badass, it pulls a lot of Gs and it rolls; Dad’s nitrous car, it’s quiet and it’s smooth and it doesn’t accelerate like the blower car; and then I got in this car the other day and it was kind of sluggish, but Don’s got good parts and we’ve just got to get all the pieces to work together. It’s going to be a process, but hopefully we can help get them going in the right direction,” he said.
Realistically, Smith has set a goal of just qualifying the car and hoping to make it past the first round of eliminations.
“I fell like if we can get this car into the 3.70s, then it would be like they would have already won the race because they’ve never been quicker than 3.81 before,” Smith said. “So that’s our goal right now, to get this car into the .70s, get it qualified and maybe even get a round win. We just want to go in the right direction.”
And that would be mission accomplished.
WAITING FOR THE RIGHT MOMENT – Mike Castellana has a beautiful new 2012 Camaro SS built by RJ Race Cars in Galesburg, Ill., and while he’s got an overwhelming desire to hit the strip with the new creation, the timing just isn’t right.
Castellana is in the midst of championship battles in both NHRA Get Screened America and ADRL tours. A runner-up at the recently completed Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals with his proven 1969 Camaro validated his decision.
Don’t think for a moment the new Camaro hasn’t been on his mind. Like the Frankie Valli song suggests, “Though I never laid a hand on you, my eyes adored you.”
Literally, he hasn’t sat in the car, nor has he touched it. He’s only seen pictures on the Internet.
“Haven’t been down to the shop to see it,” said Castellana. “The part that struck me right off of the bat was how the car sat, the look the paint, everything. I fell in love with it right away and I haven’t even sat in it.”
Castellana has been burning the candle at both ends the last two weeks. He began qualifying at Indianapolis last Friday and concluded the event on Monday. He went home for two days before boarding a plane to the Rockingham event.
“Hopefully we can bring it out next week and test it,” said Castellana. “There just hasn’t been enough time to test it.”
Castellana estimates the new car should be ready in time for the ADRL event in Norwalk, Ohio.
It doesn’t get much better for drag racing fans than this, coming straight off the marathon that is the NHRA U.S. Nationals and straight into the sprint that will be 
the ADRL’s Dragstock this weekend (Sep. 9-10) at Rockingham Dragway.
The ADRL is fond of calling Dragstock its “oldest and most prestigious” event and with eight years in the books it’s finally starting to make sense. Consider the significance of Dragstock I at tiny Carolina Dragway, initially intended as no more than a once-a-year exhibition to showcase the NHRA Pro Mod stars of the day in a unique head-to-head, eighth-mile meeting with outlaw racing’s biggest names. John Lynam was the big winner on the track, but it was the promise of that 2004 event—measured not only by car count and fans in the stands, but by the genuine positive aura it exuded—that was of true significance, giving rise as it did to a new way of presenting world-class drag racing to the public.
Dragstock II also was staged in Jackson, South Carolina, as the fledgling series wound down its first full season of competition. The traditional Pro Mod class had been separated into the ADRL’s now preferred Pro Extreme and Pro Nitrous classes, leveling the playing fields for racers in both camps. And with minimal rules beyond safety requirements, the dividing of the class went farther toward eliminating the bickering and endless rule changes that had come to plague Pro Mod racing than any previous sanctioning body had ever even attempted.
Then, of course, came Dragstock III, the seminal moment in the National Guard ADRL’s growth. That year (2006) represented a real up-and-down period for fan attendance at ADRL events.
Coming off a particularly dismal turnout at Memphis, ADRL co-founder Kenny Nowling approached Rockingham Dragway owner Steve Earwood with the idea of moving Dragstock to the larger confines of his famous North Carolina venue, but just giving away tickets and trying to recoup whatever the pair could through nominal fees for parking, concessions and souvenir sales.
With 38 years in the business, Earwood said he’d heard these types of plans before and honestly, he figured it would be just another failed effort, so much so that he immediately nicknamed Nowling “Champagne Kenny,” full of dreams and promise. Still, with an open weekend on his track’s calendar Earwood made the go-ahead call.
That promotional risk taking ultimately led to a huge success for Dragstock III and demonstrated what’s come to be known as “The Rockingham Effect,” previewing the ADRL’s revolutionary and now often-mimicked complimentary ticket program. A crowd legitimately estimated at more than 30,000 jammed into “The Rock” that Saturday.
“We had a tremendous crowd, we ran out of parking and actually had to close the gates,” Earwood confirmed. “That was the first time in the track’s history and that includes the NHRA Winston Invitational, every race ever held and a Metallica concert; we’ve had some pretty big events here.”
While the first three editions of Dragstock lay the groundwork for what the ADRL would become as a series, Flowmaster Dragstock IV turned out to be the coming-out party that demonstrated the awesome capabilities of its racers, and most significantly those of Pro Extreme star Jason Scruggs.
After coming oh-so-close several times to making the world’s first 200-mile-per-hour pass in a door car over the eighth mile, Scruggs finally sealed the deal in 2007 at Dragstock IV, going 3.80 seconds at 200.86 mph with his ’63 Corvette in the first round of qualifying. He eventually left that weekend with official records of 3.70 seconds and 205.22 mph.
Dragstock V in 2008 also produced memorable results, highlighted by Billy Glidden running a then-record 4.14 in the Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 final and Andy Jensen upsetting the Pro Nitrous world by seizing the E.T. record in what turned out to be the swan song appearance for turbocharged entries in the class. Additionally, the debut of Puerto Rico’s Raymond Matos and Qatar’s Khalid Al-Balooshi in the Pro Nitrous ranks gave the event an international flair, with Matos even scoring the surprise win to write yet another storybook ending.
The next year, Rockingham retained its reputation as one of the ADRL’s fastest tracks. Dragstock VI produced the quickest fields to that point in Pro Extreme, Pro Nitrous and Pro Extreme Motorcycle, while just missing the quickest Extreme 10.5 field by a couple hundredths.
Extreme 10.5 star Chuck Ulsch made a little history of his own, however, as he ran a stunning 206.39 miles per hour in winning the final, marking the first time ever that anyone other than a Pro Extreme entrant left with top speed of the meet honors.
Additionally, 2009 saw “The Rock” again hosting record crowds.
“I can tell by the parking lots,” Earwood said. “We filled up the NASCAR track (across the street), which we’d never done before; we filled up our back 60-acre lot, which we’d never done before. Our front lot was full by 10:15 (a.m.) and that’s just never happened.”
Unfortunately, last year’s Dragstock VII became the first to be preempted by rain, as the wet stuff arrived just in time for Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying session, pushing eliminations for conclusion at the next event on the schedule at Norwalk, Ohio.
Regardless, it’s clear that though only eight years along, Dragstock has played a pivotal role in shaping the modern ADRL and already has become the one race every ADRL competitor wants to see his or her name written beside in the win column.
