Bourgeois Continues Dominance at JEGS.com Cajun SPORTSnationals

For the second year in a row Louisiana racer, Craig
Bourgeois was crowned champion in Comp Eliminator at the NHRA JEGS.com
Cajun SPORTSnationals held this weekend at No Problem Raceway Park.

Craig Bourgeois of Metairie, La., held strong in elimination rounds and
ran a final pass of 6.914 seconds at 179.25 mph to defeat David Rampy
of Piedmont, Ala. Rampy, a multiple NHRA National event winner, ran
7.36 seconds at 160.52 mph to finish as the runner-up.

Local driver David Strain of Kenner, La., defeated John Brimer of
Arlington, Texas, in the final round of Top Dragster with a pass of
7.090 seconds at 188.78 mph. Brimer’s pass of 7.199 seconds at 174.57
mph was not quite good enough to keep up with the stellar performance
of Strain.

Hometown racer, Britt Cummings of Hammond, La., found the winner’s
circle with a big win over Al Kenny of Kingston, Ontario in Super
Comp. Cummings stayed focused throughout the weekend to take the win
and finished with a final pass of 8.910 seconds at 151.22 mph. Another
Louisiana racer, Kevin Edmonds of La Place, La., took home a trophy in
Super Street defeating Jim Cappiello of Willis, Texas. Edmonds ran
10.866 seconds at 148.56 mph in a ’70 Camaro.

 EVENT PHOTO GALLERY 

Every
Friday, Torco's CompetitionPlus.com brings you our Feedback letters.
Read what our readers have to say about our feature articles and you
can even offer your opinions.

FEEDBACK FRIDAY - MAY 29

As our nation gears up for a new round of presidential elections
next year, there is much talk among the major parties and their candidates
about values; family values, social values, economic values, spiritual values,
etc. Being the certified political junkie that I am, I am always intrigued by
the various perspectives that people and political parties have on this
important subject. Some people want more values; some want less. What one group
embraces as relevant, another rejects as overbearing.
    
People may say that it’s not my business as a columnist to persuade you or
convert you to my personal value system (it doesn’t mean you can’t ask), but I
do want to make it my business to encourage you to at least think about your
personal values.
    
But what’s the big deal, anyway? Why are absolutes important in the first
place? Can’t a person simply decide to live without being ruled by values and
absolutes? Fair question. 

Laid back but
competitively driven, Clay Millican makes no pretenses about who is and where
he’s from.

“I’m a river rat, not a hillbilly,” the affable, 41-year-old Tennessean said
without hesitation.

Millican and his family live only a few miles from the Mississippi River, just
north of Memphis. It’s a comfortable spot for someone who prefers a slower pace
at home and an even business keel at his nearby garage.

But on selected weekends, the tempo shoots up, and Millican must do his magic
behind the wheel of his Top Fuel dragster.

Millican might hail from an ordinary place, but he is forever looking to
achieve big things on the national stage.

Eric Medlen was in Las Vegas.

You’d catch a vision of him out of the corner of your eye, but when you’d turn your head, he’d be gone.  When the fuel cars ran, you’d look at the people standing behind the starting line and see his slim figure, wearing a Triple AAA ball cap and black shirt, holding his ears as he blended into the crowd.  As you walked the pits you’d swear it was Eric, squatted down next to a little kid to have his picture taken, but when you looked again you’d see it was Morgan Lucas or J.R. Todd.

There’s a changing of the guard along the quarter-mile.  While seasoned veterans like Force, McClenathan, Herbert, Anderson and Johnson continue to be big time players, the young people have arrived.  There’s almost a schism of sorts between the likes of those mentioned and the kids – some of them not so young after all, but seemingly so.  The Brandon Bernsteins, Jack Beckmans and Dave Connollys are taking over the drag racing world – and that was the world of Eric Medlen.

NEVER LOSE YOUR TEMPER!  

           
Cory McClenathan was sporting a heavily bandaged
and braced right wrist in Las Vegas, the result of his having punched a wall in
frustration when things weren’t going well back at the shop.  Rather than slug something live, Cory decided
to vent his frustrations on an inanimate object.  Maybe he was figuring that the wall wouldn’t
hit him back, but it didn’t have to.  It
was hard enough to do damage without moving a single inch!

When asked how he was doing race-wise, he said,
“We’re just trying to go rounds.  If we
can get this car going just a little better we’ll be in a position to win
races.”

           
McClenathan was pleased by the fact that John
Stewart, late of Morgan Lucas Racing, had joined the team at least temporarily
to help with clutch management.  “I know
John’s looking for a full time position,” McClenathan said, “so he was going to
be here anyway, checking out the possibilities. 
He did a very good job for us.”

           
Stewart is unlikely to latch on to the team on a
full time basis, but he’s also unlikely to be sitting on the sidelines for
long.

Over the last few months
the pace of the “Northwind” Top Fuel dragster rebuild has picked up so strongly
that a place and time for the debut has been set. The fire-up will take place
at the NHRA Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals at Pacific Raceways (formerly SIR)
on July 20-22, 2007. It’s only fitting that the debut takes place in the
Northwest, as that was where the Drag News #1 spot in the nation was collected.
It was June 13th at Woodburn Drag Strip in 1965 when Ed “Ace”
McCulloch beat “Sneaky” Pete Robinson for the coveted title in this beautiful
gold car.

This weekend's Flowmaster American Drag Racing League event
has a new name and a new set of dates. Now all that's needed is some
cooperation from Mother Nature.

The ADRL returns to racing with the inaugural Shelor.com
Motor Mile Spring Drags, Friday through Sunday at Montgomery Motorsports
Park. The event
essentially replaces the ADRL's annual SpeedTech Winter Drags, which were
plagued by weather-related problems in each of the three years the event was
run. That included this year, when the Winter Drags, originally scheduled for
Feb. 16-18 at MMP, were cancelled in the week leading up to the event. That was
enough for ADRL President Kenny Nowling to decide to officially retire the
Winter Drags concept and begin anew with the Spring Drags.

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