2009 Event Coverage > ADRL VMP Event Coverage, July 24-25
ADRL-VMP Weekend Coverage
Mark Walter:
Pro Extreme
The stories just keep on coming for the 6th installment of the 10 race ADRL series hosted by the fine folks at Virginia Motorsports Park. Before I get into the biggest story of the weekend, we'd like to congratulate the team of Stanley and Weiss for a great 3.797 blast to qualify #3 for the race. This was the fastest time the team has ever run in it's many year of competition in the fast door car world. Look for these folks to be a player during the rest of the season!
The top story of the weekend has to be Jason Scruggs encounter with the wall in his record setting Camaro during professional testing on Friday morning. I know of no other team that would have even attempted what these guys did, less alone make it work! After hitting the wall, they called home to Saltillo Mississippi, just outside Tupelo, to have there 2007 and 2008 world championship winning Dodge Stratus brought the 786+ miles to Dinwiddie in hopes of making the 2nd round of qualifying. The car arrived at 3:20 am Saturday minus motor, transmission and rearend center section. In the 5 hours between arrival and my walking into their pits, they had the car ready to run. I can not recall ever seeing anything as impressive as that in my entire 35 years of drag racing! It gets better...they fired the car, did the burnout and qualified #2 with a 3.765! How's that for dedication?!
The finals of Pro Extreme would pit Bubba Stanton against '200 MPH' Todd Tutterow. Stanton would take the win despite a slower reaction time with his 3.808 to Tutterow's 3.823.
Stanton's round 1 opponent was Alex Hossler 70 1/2 Camaro. Hossler would put up a good fight by leaving first with a .039 light to a .056. However he couldn't hold off the hard charging Corvette's 3.823 run to his 3.879.
Stanton's round 2 competitor was none other than Jason Scruggs. When Scruggs had to swap motors after the first round, Stanton waited, yes I said waited, until Scruggs could make the call. Stanton would take a holeshot victory over Scruggs when his nearly perfect .007 light and 3.778 run would beat Scruggs' .074 reaction time and quicker 3.769 elapse time.
The semi finals would pit the LeeBoy paving Corvette of Quain Stott against Stanton. Reaction times where identical .031 with Stanton taking the stripe with a 3.792 to Stott's 3.828.
Tutterow would get an easy win in round 1 when Dan Bandish had to peddle his Camaro and slowed to a 6.933 to Tutterow's 3.843.
Round 2 saw Tutterow defeat John Stanley on a holeshot. His .028 3.851 to a .043 and quicker 3.849 of Stanley.
Semi final action for Tutterow was against the winner of the last race in Topeka and the #1 qualifier at VMP, Mike Janis. It was Tutterow from start to finish winning easily with his 3.793 run to Janis' 4.105.
Mark Walter:
Pro Nitrous
The biggest story in Pro Nitrous is centered around an engine builder and his customers. Known for dominating in NHRA Pro Stock a few years back, David Reher of Reher-Morrison has turned his sights on the ADRL Pro Nitrous class. Reher has teamed up with Shannon Jenkins at SpeedTech Nitrous Solutions to start his move towards dominating this class. The top 3 qualifiers would all run his motors and hail out of the Al-Anabi Awesome Motorsports camp. At the end of qualifying on Saturday, Mike Castellana, Shannon Jenkins and Kahlid Al-Balooshi would sit 1,2 and 3 in Pro Nitrous.
There's only one problem with this scenario, seems somebody forgot to tell Jim Halsey's Gene Fulton powered Camaro who was sitting atop the Pro Nitrous heap at VMP. He would meet Al Anabi's Awesome Motorsports team member Kahlid Al-Balooshi in the finals. The race was won on the starting line when Halsey moved first with a .029 light over Al-Balooshi's .074. Al-Balooshi would make it close on the other end when he ran a loosing 3.908 to Halsey's 3.900.
Halsey would defeat veteran racer Charles Carpenter in round 1 with a 3.929 to an out of shape and lifting 6.320.
Round 2 Halsey would defeat the Corvette of John Deflorian with a 3.906 over an off pace 4.626.
In the semi's, Halsey defeated another Al-Anabi team member, Burton Auxier with an off pace 4.080 to a slowing 4.696.
Kahlid Al-Balooshi would meet Travis Harvey in round 1 and defeat him soundly with a 3.952 to a 4.046.
Al-Balooshi's round 2 opponnent was Stan Allen. He took the round win with his 3.941 to Allen's loosing 4.011.
The semi finals would match Al-Anabi teammates Jenkins and Al-Balooshi. Al-Balooshi would take a holeshot victory over Jenkins when his 3.894 would beat the quicker pass of 3.880 of Jenkins.
Mark Walter:
Pro Extreme Motorcycle
The stories from this race just keep coming. Lance Hines from Macon Georgia did something that I would term as spectacular. On Monday of last week, his team had the raw material for the makings of a new bike. An unpainted frame sat on the shop floor with no motor, body, wheels or controls. The team worked tirelessly over a 96 hour period to assemble the new bike so they could make it to the race and hopefully qualify. The first pass was less than stellar when the team forgot to turn on the nitrous. The 2nd pass was good enough to qualify the team #4 with a 4.252. Not only did they take a bike and qualify #4 on it's 2nd run, the team would take the new mount all the way to the winners circle when they defeated Eric McKinney in the finals! It was no walk in the park either. Hines would narrowly defeat McKinney with a 4.229 to a 4.233. Margin of victory was .008
In round 1 Hines out paced Jack Young with a 4.328 to a 4.350.
Hines made another great run in round 2 when he took out James Helton with a 4.243 to 4.317 blast.
The semi's found the team making it's fastest pass of the weekend when there 4.218 handily defeated the 4.349 of Mantez Thompson.
On the other side of the ladder, McKinney would take out Ricardo Knights with a 4.266 to 4.364 in round 1.
His opponent in round 2 was Monte Campbell whom he defeated with a 4.257 to a 4.258!
Semi final action place Ronald Procopio against McKinney. This race was another close one with McKinney taking the victory in the 4.252 to 4.263 contest.
Mark Walter:
Extreme 10.5
If there is one category this weekend with multiple stories that speak to our sport, it's Flowmaster Extreme 10.5. I think John Force put it best, "Drag racing is the only place you can go from hero to zero over night." Jeff Paulk is living that quote after finishing as the runner up in the last 2 ADRL events and then not qualifying at the VMP race! Can you imagine...
Dedication and perseverance will often get you closer to a goal than anything else in life. Unfortunately, even with all their efforts to qualify for this event after a fire that would have sidelined almost any other competitor in the Extreme 10.5, Spiro Pappas' crew would have another fire and miss making the cut. To add insult to injury, on their 1 and only run Saturday, the timing equipment malfunctioned giving them erroneous results!
Talk about tire wrap!
To top off a very interesting weekend of extreme 10.5 racing, the world record would get reset and then reset again almost immediately when Gary White ran a 4.072 in round 2 to back up his 4.056 from Friday's qualifying session. His rein as the record holder would last exactly through 1 pair of cars. Right after Carlton and Naiser paired off, Chuck Ulsch would stand everything on it's ear when his 4.041 2nd round blast would back up his 4.010 from Friday night! We are literally a breath away from the first 3 second run in the history of Extreme 10.5 racing!
White and Ulsch would meet in the finals with Ulsch winning by the slimmest of margins. His 4.032 was nearly eclipsed by a hole shot (.160 to .123) from White who ran a 4.070. Margin of victory, .001 of a second.
White would beat Randy Matlock's 57 Chevy after Matlock got loose on the hit. 4.186 @ 177.04 mph to a 10.262 @ 70.76
Round 2 saw White take on New York Motorsports' very own Dave Hance. This was Hances first venture into ADRL Extreme 10.5. Hance told this reporter prior to the run he had reset a few things so the car would really hit it hard at about the 330 mark. He felt if the track was there, he'd have a shot at taking out the resurgent Scion of White. Unfortunately Dave had tweaked it just a little too much and would spin the tires mid track, slowing to 4.736 @ 121.32 mph. White would run a stellar 4.072.
In the semi's White faced the beautiful 2006 GTO of Joel Bayless. Bayless would improve on his 4.364 qualifying run with a 4.34. However, it would not be enough for the consistency the mighty Titan team had found with another 4.079 run.
Ulsch would take on the beautifully prepared 1972 Nova of Randy Hoffman in round 1. Ulsch took a commanding victory with his 4.089 189.60 mph blast.
In round 2 action, Ulsch took command of the event when his 4.041 record backing pass would eliminate Sandy Wilkins 4.411.
The semi's would see another close race for Ulsch. His 4.040 nearly lost to Jeff Naiser's 4.069 when Naiser left first with a .040 to .065 holeshot. Margin of victory for Ulsch .004 seconds!
Mark Walter:
Wow, what a weekend we had at the NationalGuard.com US Drags II at VMP! With a record setting number of cars (151 at last count) this deal was just a little more than any of us expected. We saw exceptional performance in every category, both on and off the track. I don't think anyone thought we'd see the rocket ship runs we witnessed at all, less alone in the heat of the day. It was simply incredible.
In order to make the 11 PM curfew, the ADRL wisely canceled the 3rd round of qualifying before things ever got under way Saturday morning. Good thing they did. We finished the 2nd round of qualifying at 3:30, just in time to give the first call for Extreme Pro Stock. To put an exclamation point on the night, the Jet car shut the throttle at the end of his pass just before the 11 PM witching hour!
Saturday's Photo Gallery - Click Here
Extreme Pro stock
Brian Gahm would face off with Cary Goforth in the finals of Extreme Prostock. Gahm would be the winner in a very close race with his 4.140 173.00 mph run to Goforth's 4.147 172.10 mph pass. Total margin of victory .006th of a second!
Gahm would beat Ned Katyran in round 1 with a 4.147 to 4.258.
He'd take on XPS points leader John Montecalvo in round 2 and win a close race 4.143 to 4.147.
The semi's would see Gahm take on Steve Boone's 2006 Cobalt. This was another close battle, Gahm's 4.113 over Boones' 4.120.
Cary Goforth's march to the final round would start with a victory against his Dad, Dean Goforth, in round 1. Dean's car would loose fire on the launch handing an easy victory to the younger Goforth.
Round 2 Cary would take out Doug Kirk on a holeshot when Goforth's slower elapse time of 4.164 would beat Kirk's 4.142.
In semi final action Wilson Manifold's Matt Hartford would go read by .009, handing an easy victory to Goforth.
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