A nice update from NMRA on Saturday's highlights:
We're sitting here at the track watching the radar, and while we're stuck in the middle of a band of showers, it looks like it's going to be clearing out around 11AM, and we'll be able to get rolling into eliminations. We've got some tidbits from qualifying, so read on!
Chris VanGilder has really stepped up his DiabloSport EFI Renegade effort this year, as evidenced by this crazy bumper-dragging wheel stand from the third round of eliminations yesterday. He currently sits fourth on the ladder with an 8.57 pass at 159 miles per hour.
Yesterday there was some hot action in Edelbrock Hot Street. When Max Gross, driving Team Powerhead’s “Evil 89”, fired the car right before the burnout box, a fuel leak caused the car to erupt in flames. Luckily Max got out of the car without a singe on him. When we left last night they were working hard to get the car ready for eliminations, and the car is still in the trailer this morning, so as soon as the rain subsides, we hope to see them getting at it.
There’s just something about this guy – he’s never off his game. John Urist, four-time ProCharger Super Street Outlaw champion, is back on top of the heap this weekend. During Friday night’s qualifying session, he was the only racer to put up a big number during the session of cool air. Once the weather front rolls through today, we’re expecting 60-degree temperatures, so we’re curious to see if he can improve upon that in eliminations.
Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5 star Dan Millen had his ’01 Mustang completely revamped at Skinny Kid Race Cars over the winter. The plan was to take a lot of the extra weight out of the car, to make the chassis more tunable and responsive to changes. Well, it must have worked, as Millen turned up the wick yesterday and qualified first in the field with a 6.88 at 202.21mph. Unfortunately, the car free-revved on the last qualifying pass and trashed the engine, so the team loaded up and was planning on heading home last night. We’re sure he’ll have it fixed in short order and be back for the next race.
After an incredibly stressful offseason, Dave Guy is here in his familiar red and white-striped hotrod. Dave decided he wanted to be a part of the madness in BFGoodrich Tires Drag Radial, so he built a brand-new combination centered around a GT47-88 turbocharger. Dave is running his familiar Modular engine, and running quite well. In only his eighth pass on the car, Dave managed to boost himself to a 8.53 at 175.32mph pass, giving him a solid seventh qualifying position. He's still sorting out the combination, obviously, and there's still a ton left in the car. We had the privilege of hanging out with him this past Wednesday night while he tested at Cecil County Raceway in Maryland, and he's quite optimistic about his chances in the class. We look forward to seeing him do well.
We know we told you all about Larry Hourcle yesterday, but we managed to catch him during some track cleanup time and got more information about it program. Larry ended the qualifying sessions atop the Diablosport EFI Renegade ladder, and did it with style – rolling on a 275mm-wide RADIAL tire to an 8.52 at 161.83mph. The tires are legal for competition, as they are well under the 28x10.5 go/no-go gauge used to measure the tire width. Now that’s impressive!
Partnered with George Seeger and Dave Guy, Jason Staub is the second “S” in SGS Automotive. He brought his Fox out to run in Steeda Open Comp, and ended qualifying yesterday at the top of the heap, taking the pole position with a .001-second reaction time. As a testament to the quality of the field here, the top five qualifiers in the class have all qualified with a .007 light or better.
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