Burbage gets final win of 2011 WCOPMA season and clinches 3rd championship
Courtesy of WCOPMA
Bakersfield, CA – In a points battle that came down to the wire, Rod Burbage was victorious and won his third West 
Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association championship (2008, 2009 & 2011) last weekend at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield.
Burbage, who was in first place going into the final event, had to go further than Marc Meadors and the Good Guys Racing “Pure Hell 2” Camaro who were right on his heels after closing the gap between #1 and #2 with their win at the Super Chevy Show event in Denver last month.
Through qualifying it was set up perfect as Meadors and Burbage ended up on opposite sides of the ladder, Meadors qualified #1 with a 6.03 and Burbage was #2 with a 6.09. #3 in qualifying happened to be Bret Williamson, with a 6.10, who also had a chance at the championship (a slim one) as he needed both Meadors and Burbage to loose in the first round. Jay Diedrich rounded out the top half of the qualifying order with a 6.14 and that set him up in the first round with the lone nitrous car of the event, Joe Lepone Jr., who was driving the D-D Racing 70.5 Camaro of Derrol Hubbard. Lepone landed in the #5 qualifying spot after setting a new WCOPMA nitrous ET record at 6.17. Sitting in 6th was Dan Nickelson with a 6.20, Dan Myers ended up 7th with a 6.55 and first time WCOPMA racer Scott Loomis landed on the bump spot with a 6.81. Sean Renteria, John Durdan and Scott Bailey landed on the other side of the bump spot.
Final Qualifying Order:
1) Marc Meadors – 6.036 @ 242.84
2) Rod Burbage – 6.097 @ 235.78
3) Bret Williamson – 6.105 @ 236.03
4) Jay Diedrich – 6.144 @ 231.00
5) Joe Lepone Jr. – 6.170 @ 231.54
6) Dan Nickelson – 6.204 @ 226.64
7) Dan Myers – 6.551 @ 172.87
8) Scott Loomis – 6.813 @ 203.57
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9) Sean Renteria – 6.819 @ 173.54
10) John Durden – 7.202 @ 189.91
11) Scott Bailey – 10.456 @ 81.35
When Sunday rolled around Scott Loomis had left the track and Sean Renteria was placed into the field as an alternate and would face off against Meadors in the first round, and that move was a game changer for the rest of the event. After fighting electrical issues and missing the first two qualifying sessions, Renteria ran the third and final qualifying session but missed the field by just 6-thousandths of a second. Then as an alternate in the first round matchup against Meadors they (Renteria Brothers) got their stuff together and took out the number one qualifier on a holeshot, a slower 6.04 by Renteria beat Meadors quicker 6.02. In the other first round pairs Joe Lepone Jr. got the win with a 6.56 over Jay Diedrich’s 6.82, Bret Williamson advanced over Dan Nickelson with a 6.73 to a 17.14 and Rod Burbage ran the first “5” of the weekend with a 5.98 win over Dan Myers’ 12.52. With that first round win and Meadors loosing, Rod Burbage clinched the 2011 West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association championship!
The second round would guarantee a first time WCOPMA finalist as Renteria faced off against Leopne Jr. and Burbage was paired with Williamson. It seemed as if everyone hopped it up for this round as three of the four cars had traction issues off the line. Burbage got the win with another solid 5.99 and took out Williamson who instantly blew the tires off and coasted to a 14.47. In the other pair Renteria would get the win over Leopne Jr. with a peddling 7.35 over Lepone’s coasting 12.15.
The Renteria Brothers went from the #9 qualifier, to the first round alternate, to the final round and would face off against the 2011 WCOPMA Champion, Rod Burbage, in what would be one of the most exciting and closest races of the entire 2011 WCOPMA season. In uncommon fashion, Sean Renteria was second to leave the line (Renteria’s .061 to Burbage’s .025) but would be quicker to the stripe with a career best 6.013 to Burbage’s 6.020. When the numbers were crunched and the lights lit up it would be Burbage getting the win on a holeshot with a margin of victory of .0296!
Everyone with the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association would like to thank all the racers that supported this association this season! You all make this association what it is…the quickest and fastest place to race Pro Mods on the West Coast!
We also need to thank all our sponsors for their support this season: Hoosier Tire West, RBS Superchargers, Red Line Oil, Spec Rite Torque Converters, Good-Guys Rod & Custom Association, Pacific Repair Services Int’l, Inc., Ramona Martial Arts, R.E. Borrmann’s Steel Co. and Brandt Racing Enterprises.
We finished off another successful season and are already working on the schedule for 2012 to make it bigger and better than ever! If you are interested in racing with the best in the west feel free to contact us at wcopma@aol.com for more information about the association. With the early commitments from tracks and racers, 2012 should be our biggest season yet!
