2009 ADRL HOUSTON - SAME DAY COVERAGE
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FINAL - Tutterow, Allen, Glidden, Prophit and Kirk Win in Houston
Houston Raceway Park hosts largest drag racing crowd in history
Todd Tutterow (Pro Extreme), Stan Allen (Pro Nitrous), Billy Glidden (Extreme 10.5), Charlie Prophit (Pro Extreme Motorcycle) and Doug Kirk (Extreme Pro Stock) took home the Minuteman in their respective categories.
Tutterow mowed down a tough Pro Extreme field, using seven 200+ mile per hour runs throughout the weekend to score his first career Pro Extreme national event win. The North Carolina-born Tutterow defeated reigning two-time Pro Extreme champion Jason Scruggs in the final round with a 3.925 seconds - 201.46 mph to Scruggs' 4.241 - 136.41.
Ironically, winning the race wasn't the original reason the veteran racer from Lewisville, NC brought his family and his race team to Baytown. It was for the chance to win the $5000 bounty put up by Flowmaster for being one of the first three drivers to exceed 200 miles-per-hour down the eighth-mile in a Pro Extreme car. That goal was accomplished earlier, as Tutterow shattered the mark during qualifying, joining Scruggs and Bubba Stanton as members of the ultra-exclusive club.
"This is like a dream come true," said Tutterow. "When I won the $5000, I thought that would be enough. But to come here and race in front of 50,000 fans and then take home a Minuteman – it's still hard to believe."
Tutterow had run over 200 mph in testing at the end of last season, so entering the weekend's competition, he was confident it could duplicate the feat during a national event.
"I worked on making the car consistent," said Tutterow. "We struggled like everyone else at the low-end of the track this weekend, so I worked on making it up on the top end. The speed is there, the ET (elapsed time) will come around."
He entered eliminations qualified 13th after struggling in qualifying.
Allen admitted that his poor qualifying performance was primarily due to persistent clutch problems that kept the Bankston Boyz crew searching for answers.
"We were just trying to find some consistency and not make mistakes," said Allen, from New Iberia, LA. "We knew eventually that if we could get the clutch to work like we wanted it to, the track would come to us."
In the final, against two-time national event winner Jim Halsey, Allen gave up a slight starting line advantage but when Halsey lost traction, Allen drove past him to take the win light with a 4.134 – 168.81 to Halsey's losing 4.203 – 149.18.
In Extreme 10.5 the Glidden juggernaut continued as defending world champion Billy Glidden scored his fifth national event title.
The second-generation racer from Whiteland, Indiana hadn't been the star of the class heading into eliminations. That distinction went to Todd Moyer, who not only qualified No. 1, but claimed $5,000 in cash from Flowmaster for being the first Extreme 10.5 driver to run faster than 185 mph. Moyer easily accomplished the feat during qualifying with a run over 187 miles-per-hour.
However, during eliminations, Moyer fouled out during the second round, clearing the way for Glidden.
"We weren't the fastest car here this weekend, but we were when it mattered," said Glidden, son of drag racing legend Bob Glidden. "I was just doing my job. When we don't win, I don't get paid."
Glidden used a string of four - 4.1 second performances to claim his Minuteman, beating Jake Carlton in the final with his slowest pass of eliminations, a 4.143 – 175.23 mph to edge out Carlton's 4.194 – 175.98 mph.
Glidden commented afterwards that a repeat title isn't going to be easy.
"Everyone here has stepped up their game," said Glidden. "It's getting harder to see the win light every round. You have to be completely prepared and get everything just right every time you pull up to the starting line."
The Pro Extreme Motorcycle final was a family affair between the Prophit brothers – Charlie and Matt. Having qualified on opposite sides of the elimination ladder, talk began almost immediately in the team's pits about a brother vs brother finale.
"I was 0-1 going into the finals against Matt," said race winner Charlie. "As kids, he was always beating me. It's nice to even the score."
Charlie Prophit entered eliminations qualified 4th while younger brother Matt was qualified 7th. As they both worked their way through the field, it soon became apparent that indeed it would be an intramural final.
In the final, Matt left early lighting the red light and handing older brother Charlie his second career Minuteman, breaking his own world record (4.240) in the process with a very quick pass of 4.237 – 168.75 mph.
The debut of the Extreme Pro Stock class in National Guard ADRL competition concluded with a final round battle between two long time friends and rivals, Brian Gahm and Doug Kirk. Gahm entered eliminations as low qualifier with a 4.105 second elapsed time at 176.51 miles per hour. Kirk had qualified third with a 4.119 second effort.
Throughout the day, these two racing veterans had put on a great show, playing the kind of psychological mind games this class if
In the final round, the mind games continued as each man took his time rolling into the staging beams.
As the lights turned green, Gahm's car took an almost immediate turn to the right and it was over. Kirk motored on through the eighth-mile for an easy win, scoring his first Minuteman with a convincing 4.165 – 175.25 pass.
"Brian and I are old friends and it's always great to beat him," said Kirk. "He's done it to me so many times before. It was nice to turn the tables on him."
Afterwards, Kirk said he was pleased with his first National Guard ADRL experience.
"This was just great," said Kirk. "The two-day program makes it a lot easier for us to get to the race and get home. And the crowds are just unbelievable. It's nice to come to the starting line and see the stands packed with so many people."
Gahm was smiling, but vowed revenge.
"We'll be at all the ADRL events this year," he said. "This is the best place to race. I had a lot of fun. I know I'll have several more opportunities to beat him (Kirk)."
In the Pro Junior Dragster final, Dillon Richards used a better reaction time (.020) and pure horsepower to defeat Chris Benham (.093) and take the win light with a 7.95 – 78.27 to Benham's 8.938 – 78.82 effort
An overflow crowd of over 50,000 passed through the turnstyles throughout the day, taxing the Houston Raceway Park facility's infrastructure to its limits. Shortly after 7:30 p.m. local time, after traffic had been backed up over three miles on the surrounding highways - forcing local law enforcement officials to close roads - HRP General Manager Seth Angel declared that the gates to the track would have to be closed and that those who were not already on the grounds would be turned away.
"I realize that there were still several thousand more race fans trying to get in, but my concern at the time was for those already here," said Angel. "This was undoubtedly the largest crowd we've ever had at Houston Raceway Park and I wanted to make sure that everyone here was safe, comfortable and enjoying the show."
The next stop on the ten-race National Guard ADRL tour is the ADRL Georgia Drags V at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Cecil, Georgia April 10-11.
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FRIDAY QUALIFYING -HERNANDEZ, SAVELL, GLIDDEN, GAHM, PROCOPIA LEAD DRAGPALOOZA V QUALIFYING
While others struggled with the tricky race track, local favorite Joshua Hernandez set the pace in Pro Extreme (PX) with a blistering 3.83 run in first round qualifying for the Safety-Kleen Dragpalooza V, round one of the ten-race National Guard ADRL tour.
Tim Savell, Billy Glidden, Ron Procopio and Brian Gahm also led their respective categories at the end of qualifying under the lights at Houston Raceway Park.
Hernandez’ stellar 3.83 – 199.02 run over the eighth-mile came midway through qualifying as most other teams were over-powering the race track. Hernandez said afterwards that going into the sole Friday night session he was confident his Jim-Oddy-tuned ‘68 Camaro would deliver a strong run.
“It was awesome, it really was,” said the Houston resident. “We tested last weekend in Georgia and saw we could make that kind of power. When I saw that big number come up I was really happy for the National Guard and everybody on the team.
“I was really surprised when the other guys didn’t step up. I thought the track was there and the weather conditions were there. These things are tricky and my guys just found the right combination so that it went right down Broadway.”
For Pro Nitrous (PN) racer Savell, his 3.99 – 185.89 No. 1 qualifier came with a brand new engine making its first full pass down the eighth-mile.
“It (his run) was really good for the conditions,” said Savell. “This is a brand new Reher Morrison motor and we don’t have any data. We just got lucky. It was just an awesome hit. The best part is that we finally got some data.”
Savell said afterwards that he was surprised that a good deal of the nitrous field had struggled during the session.
“Well, everybody here is just so good, I guess we just got lucky,” said the Terry, Mississippi resident. “That was the first 3.90 we’d ever run.”
Reigning world champion Glidden found it wasn’t easy to claim the top spot in the Extreme 10.5 (XTF) class despite a strong 4.185 – 173.45 mph run. Glidden’s nitrous-injected small block was just two-thousandths of a second quicker than ADRL newcomer Jake Carlton who ran a 4.187 – 174.80.
Many had expected Gary White to be the man to beat in XTF after running consistent 4.12s in testing here at Houston Raceway Park during last weekend’s Goodridge Spring Stampede. However, White lost traction early in his run and coasted to a 6.72 – 84.72.
Procopio led a tight Pro Extreme Motorcycle (PXM) qualifying session with his 4.27 – 175.14 run. His 175 mph mark would eclipse the current record (173.61 held by Nikie Corley) if he can back it up within 1% during competition on Saturday.
In the past, the PXM class would have been the first professional class to make qualifying runs, but with the addition of Extreme Pro Stock to the National Guard ADRL roster of professional categories, they now run second.
Procopio likes the change.
“It was a big plus for us,” said Procopio. “It used to be hard to go onto a cold track with a small tire.”
Was he confident he could reset the miles per hour mark?
“Well, it all depends on what the weather conditions are,” said Procopio. “But, yes.”
In Extreme Pro Stock (XPS), Gahm’s 4.10 – 176.03 run edged out Doug Kirk’s 4.11 – 176.42 for the top spot.
“It was a good run, a little loose in the middle,” said Gahm. “It’s just great to be here.”
While only five Extreme Pro Stock entries took qualifying runs on Friday it marked the debut of XPS as an official class in National Guard ADRL competition. More teams are expected to join the field for Saturday’s final two rounds of qualifying. Gahm is up for the challenge.
“I look forward to it,” he said. “We’re having a ball here.”
Pro Extreme driver Todd Tutterow became the third and final member to join the very exclusive three-man Flowmaster Pro Extreme 200 mph Club with his 201.43 mph run.
Tutterow said afterwards that breaking the 200-mph mark had been his team’s main goal going into the nighttime qualifying session.
“We knew we could do it,” said Tutterow. “The way the track was, we knew we would be a little slow at the front, but we knew we could run 200 miles per hour.”
In Pro Junior Dragster, Dillon Richards claimed the provisional No. 1 spot with his .015 reaction time.
Pro Nitrous driver Doug Riesterer suffered minor injuries during qualifying after his car crossed lanes just past the 100 ft. mark on the track and bounced off the right side wall and then careened across to the other side of the track, finally coming to a rest against the left lane wall at about half track. Riesterer, who credited the use of his HANS device with preventing him from more serious injuries, declared his car to be damaged beyond repair.
It’ll be a short weekend as well for Texan Don Wootton and his controversial nitromethane injected 1969 Camaro Pro Extreme entry. Earlier in the day, during a practice run, Wootton damaged the drivetrain, forcing his team to end their quest to qualify for the event.
“We knew it (the driveshaft) might be a problem going in,” said Wootton. “We know what’s wrong and how to fix it. However, we’ll not be able to repair it this weekend. Joe (Monden) and the rest of the team did a great job getting us ready for the weekend, despite all that went on this past week. We’ll be ready for (the next National Guard ADRL race) Valdosta (GA).”
Qualifying continues on Saturday with two sessions at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (local time). Final eliminations are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
Results Friday after the first of three rounds of qualifying for the ADRL Safety Kleen Dragpalooza V at Houston Raceway Park, round one of the ten race National Guard ADRL tour. Qualifying will continue Saturday (10 a.m. and 1 p.m.) with final eliminations at 4 p.m. (All times local)
Pro Extreme – 1. Joshua Hernandez, 3.831 seconds, 199.02 mph; 2. Jason Hamstra, 3.893, 194.77; 3. Jason Scruggs, 3.900, 197.13, 4. Todd Tuttterow, 3.945, 201.43; 5. Ron Muenks, 3.986, 194.80; 6. Ken Thomas, 3.996, 180.79; 7. Mike Neal, 4.057, 183.87; 8. Bil Clanton, 4.072, 180.65
Pro Nitrous – 1. Tim Savell, 3.994, 185.89; 2. Rickie Smith, 4.018, 188.70; 3. Keith Baker, 4.077, 181.79; 4. Steve Vick, 4.086, 180.52; 5. Josh Chester, 4.114, 178.78; 6. Jim Halsey, 4.119, 181.01; 7. Jackie Deaver, 4.542, 164.69; 8. John DeFlorian, Jr. 4.827, 108.39
Extreme 10.5 – 1. Billy Glidden 4.185, 173.45; 2. Jake Carlton, 4.187, 174.80; 3. Jeff Naiser, 4.211, 168.22; 4. Chuck Ulsch, 4.213, 182.35; 5. Michelle Wilson, 4.417, 169.40; 6. Ray Conover, 4.485, 166.89; 7. Steve Gorman, 4.523, 160.33, 8. Michael Neal, 4.984, 124.80
Pro Extreme Motorcycle – 1. Ronald Procopio, 4.277, 175.14; 2. Scott Gray, 4.313, 168.11, 3. Matt Prophit, 4.336, 159.72; 4. Casey Stemper, 4.341, 166.74; 5. Robert Hunnicutt, 4.392, 161.85; 6. T T Jones, 4.394, 168.89, 7. Darian Guillory, 4.413, 174.87; 8. Mac McAdams, 4.453, 158.82
Extreme Pro Stock – 1. Brian Gahm, 4,105, 176.03; 2. Doug Kirk, 4.119, 174.42; 3. Robert Patrick, Jr., 4.120, 176.81; 4. Matt Hartford, 4.124, 175.89, 5. Elijah Morton, 4.681, 115.91
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