Pro 5.0 - The race was like deja-vu for Walsh Motorsports. Donnie Walsh Jr., Crew Chief Chris Tumpkin, Mike Wesley, and DiabloSport's Chris Johnson returned to the KCIR winner's circle (Don won Pro 5.0 at last year's event) with a wire-to-wire performance that included a win over Wild Bill Devine and victory in a bumper-to-bumper slugfest with Dave Schorr's Escort ZX2 in the final. On the whole, and despite having to repair the Bruno/Lenco transmission in his Mustang after it rolled a sprag in round two of eliminations, Don said his weekend was great and the win was a badly needed morale booster for his team. "We lost in the semifinals at Reynolds and in the first round at our home event (Martin, Michigan). It doesn't matter who you are-when you're working with different combinations like we were doing for those races, unfortunately, you wind up getting pushed back a few steps at the same time you're trying to move forward. On the way to Kansas City, we talked about how important a win would be for our position in the points standings and our quest for a third-straight Pro 5.0 championship. This victory has me confident that we are once again going in the right direction."
Pro 5.0 - Appearing in the final at his first NMRA event, number-two qualifier (6.86/203) and hometown favorite, Dave Schorr, knew what had to be done for his showdown with Don Walsh, but it was a certain "look" that his wife gave him prior to the final that left no room for discussion about the tune-up call. Dave's '04 Escort ZX2, carrying 135 additional pounds and sporting levers for the first time ever on his Lenco five-speed (to comply with NMRA rules), showed a significant horsepower gain in qualifying after Job Spetter Jr. had a look at the engine data, then made a few adjustments to the FAST program. On race day, after deciding to run with the new tune-up and a few changes he hoped would work, luck got Dave the win in a tire-shaking first round, when Tom Jacobs redlighted. After staying with the hotter program and blazing the tires again in a semifinal bye, "my wife came into the trailer and just looked at me-no words. I said, I know, I know, I'll put it [the original tune-up] back," Dave said. He came up a little short against Don, but the ZX2 did get down the track on a rail. We [us guys] hate to admit it, but sometimes they [our wives] really do know what's best.
Super Street Outlaw - Celebrating the return of Pat "Feeemurrrr" Speer (a Team Buginga crew member who managed to break the femur-the largest, strongest bone in the body-in his left leg, when a tree grew in front of the quad he was riding) to NMRA action, Manny "The Terror" Buginga continued with his winning ways in Super Street Outlaw at the Aeromotive NMRA Ford Nationals. Manny's Job Spetter Jr.-tuned, '91 LX coupe paced the 12-car field with a 7.67/184.69 qualifying effort, and, as he'd done so often, proceeded to run the table (defeated Jarrett Halfacre and Phil Hines) to an eventual meeting with John Urist in the final. Despite what many fans have called "dominance" in the class in the first half of the season, Manny B noted the importance of each event with regard to championship points. "Every race holds points implications," he said. "So to come out of this race with a win, despite the heat and track conditions we had to fight all weekend, was very big for us going into the Chicago race."
Super Street Outlaw - John Urist was among the several racers who put in overtime at KCIR. During most idle moments throughout the weekend, when crews were trying their best to keep cool, John and his girlfriend, Amy Lynn, were at their pit fixing broken parts on the Fireball's '00 GT. "We tested on Thursday and hurt a transmission," John said. "With help from ProCharger employees, we got it fixed and replaced that day." But the broken tranny wasn't his only major mechanical problem. In the second round of qualifying, a bolt from one of the rocker stands pulled up from its thread, causing significant damage to the cylinder head. With help and parts from fellow SSO racer Mike Young, John completed the repair Saturday night. On race day, he marched to the final by overcoming Zach Posey's holeshot in the opening round of eliminations and also driving around Don Shobe in round two. A little luck was also on Fireball's side; had Marty Chance not experienced a problem during their semifinal clash, John's absolutely comatose .258 reaction time probably would have blown his chance of getting to the final.
Drag Radial - Chris Tuten used a number-three qualifying spot to his advantage since a nine-car ladder meant that reaching the semifinals would give him a bye into the final, and bagged his first win of the season. But the road to victory wasn't easy. On Friday, Chris and his crew chief, "Big Mike" Coleman, discovered their '87 LX might be saddled with 200 additional pounds, after measurements taken on their 82mm turbo's inlet showed the opening was slightly bigger than the maximum diameter permitted to race at 3,100 pounds.
The team used a strip of 200-mph racer tape and a tube of super glue to make a reducer of sorts that downsized the inlet (see arrow on photo). "Nobody thought the fix would work and it did," Chris said. "They all thought there was no way the tape would hold and that it would end up getting sucked into the turbo." The win put Chris about 200 points back from first place, but with a lot of racing remaining in the '05 season, he hoped to be in line for a Top-5 finish.
Drag Radial - "Amazing" is the only word we can use to describe how Chris "Noodles" Hemmeter was able to regroup from Saturday (see sidebar) and reach the final round at KCIR. Chris' 8.74/164.92 qualifying shot put him in the second spot in the stout Drag Radial field, and he somehow managed to campaign his '93 GT through eliminations with a hurt cylinder that progressively got worse. "In the final against Chris, we had the biggest band-aid we could have on the motor," Noodles said. "We ramped the boost in really slow, knowing there was a good chance we'd spill water again. At 200 feet, the head gasket let go and water came up through the shifter area, the windshield, and around the fenders. I stayed in the throttle [and hazed the tires beyond half track], but I couldn't catch Tuten."
EFI Renegade - Testing during the hottest part of the day for three straight weeks leading up to the Kansas City event helped Bob get a grip on hot-weather tune-ups for his '86 GT. The effectiveness of those test sessions was evident by his 8.88/156 performance in the brutal heat during qualifying. However, a mistake when changing some tune-up settings just before the final could have cost him the race. "My fat fingers punched an incorrect number in my VE table, and when I went to go on the 'brake it flooded the motor," Bob said. "By the time I lifted to clear the motor, Swill had gone red and I automatically won." Bob didn't get the "all-Bob" final he had hoped for since Bob Cook lost to Scott Lovell in the semis, but with the way this victory was won, we're sure it's more meaningful than racing the other Bob would have been.