Super Street Outlaw
Nitrous is king in the South. So far in 2006, Kentucky Sam Vincent hasbeen a crowd favorite at both Bradenton and Reynolds in Super StreetOutlaw. Strangely enough, he's won both events to give him a head starton points. With Matukas Motorsports Racecars on Sam's side, the NitrousExpress-guzzling small-block ride has been wickedly consistent, butduring eliminations at Reynolds he ran quicker each round after barelysurviving round one against A.J. Powell. He improved to run a 7.81against Crazy Phil Hines, then a 7.67 against Fluffy Imhoff. In thefinal against John Urist, Sam needed every bit of that 0.441 light tostay in front long enough to take home the victory.
John Urist sent the Reynolds crowd into a frenzy by qualifying with a196-mph trap speed in the right lane. When right-lane speeds werecompared with those from the left lane, however, it seemed the rightlane was seriously gracious. Furthermore, John's datalogger conflictedwith the 196-mph trap speed. Even so, John he flat out flyin' atReynolds in his ProCharger-equipped Super Street Outlaw ride. TheFireball qualified third with a 7.59 at 189 mph behind Zack Posey'sblistering 7.53/185-mph rip and Kentucky Sam Vincent's 7.55/183mphblast. In true Urist fashion, he chopped his way through eliminationspast Donnie "Burndown" Burton, Mike "Punk" Trimandilis, and theaforementioned Zack Posey with consistent 7.60s. Awaiting the Fireballin the final was Sam Vincent and even though John ran quicker (7.65 to7.67), Sam won the race with an ever-so-slight reaction-time advantage(0.441 to 0.463).
Drag Radial
In a heterosexual way (sure Johnson - Web Ed.), we love the Drag Radial class. The challenge ofthrowing down well over 1,000 hp to a pair of drag radials has usdrooling like an import driver at a discount parts store. One driver whohas been a quick Drag Radial study is Bob Kurgan, but he's been racingEFI Renegade-type classes since the early '70s (at least it seems thatlong), so it isn't like this stuff is new to him. Bob qualified in thefourth spot with an 8.32 at 165 mph, but he was only able to run in the8.40s during eliminations because of Sunday's warmer temps. He stillmade it past Tony Akins, defending Drag Radial champion Chris Tuten, andMauro Vitale to get a chance at Dave Hopper in the final where Daveredlighted, giving Bob his first Drag Radial victory. That didn't takelong.
With Mayor of Drag Radial Procopio Cusamano in his corner and a VortechX-Trim under the hood, Dave Hopper is becoming someone you must gothrough to win Drag Radial. At Reynolds, Dave and the Mayor were busychasing down a dreaded electrical gremlin during qualifying, which keptthe car from even doing a burnout. Thankfully, they discovered it was awiring problem just in time for Dave to go out and bust an 8.26 at 169mph, earning the top qualifying spot. Dave made it past Peter Champaniand then a squeaker against Chad Doyle, each round having a quickerreaction time. But in the final against Bob Kurgan, Dave's reaction timewas too quick, handing Bob the victory.
EFI Renegade
The EFI Renegade class is rough on transmissions. Case in point--Bob Cooksnapped an input shaft just before the Reynolds race, then hurt thetransmission again during qualifying. Good thing Harold from DynamicRacing Transmissions was at the race. He fixed up Bob's C4 so he couldcontinue on racing, and the hard work paid off. Bob qualified in thefourth spot with an 8.84 at 155 mph and snuck past Jay Mingolelli inround two via a holeshot. In the final against Brian Mitchell, he lostthe race at the finish line, but Brian came up 10 pounds light, whichhanded the win to Bob.
Brian Mitchell is threatening to be in the form that won him the EFIRenegade class championship in 2004. With a solid performance at theBradenton opener, he kept at it for Reynolds and qualified in the thirdspot with an 8.75 at 158 mph. He hurt an engine on Sunday and made a madscramble to replace the injured bullet in time to meet Bob for thefinal. He waited as long as he could, and Brian not only made the call,but he won the race. But he must've sweat off about 10 pounds during theengine swap because his car came up 10 pounds light upon post-raceinspection.
Hot Street
Charlie Booze Jr. was able to break the chains that bound him to theshop just long enough to make the trip to Reynolds. After doing theswitcheroo at Bradenton from the 399ci engine to a big-cube monsterbecause of breakage, Charlie and the crew had the engine back in the carfor Reynolds, and this time there were no issues. Charlie set a new HotStreet record with an 8.87 at 152 mph thanks to a backup 8.89 pass, andthe 8.87 also earned Charlie the number-one qualifier spot. But all thatdid was set the table for Charlie to work his usual magic througheliminations with consistent 8.90s, combined with lightning-quickreaction times.
Boy, was Hot Street tight at Reynolds. You had to go all the way down tothe 10th spot to get out of the 9.0s. Max Gross was smack-dab in themiddle in the fifth spot with a 9.02 at 146 mph. Making his way throughthe ultra-tough class, Max used stellar reaction times and 9.0s to earnthe right to face Charlie Booze Jr. in the final. But Mad Max will haveto wait until Maple Grove to get another shot at a Hot Street victory.
Real Street
With more dyno runs than maybe even Dyno King Robin Lawrence, BrianMeyer and crew have their Real Street coupe running 9s while others inthe class struggle to run low-10s. Racing out of the Anderson FordMotorsport camp, Brian qualified number one with a 9.93 at 135 mph. Butat the forefront of Brian's weekend was that his wallet was stolenduring Saturday's qualifying. The thief racked up $4,100 worth ofpurchases at Target, Wal-Mart, two grocery stores, and a gas station.The thief must've bought everyone at the station a tank of gas. Back tothe racing business at hand, Brian's 60-foot times were off duringFriday's testing and qualifying, but by Sunday the team was able to getthem back to normal. The Vortech S-Trim-motivated coupe ran the table onSunday for Brian's second victory of 2006.
Jim Breese, the second teamer from the MV Performance camp, wished hecould regain his '05 nickname "Captain 10.0." Those times would have himright in the thick of things. But with the rule changes, Jim is stuck inthe 10.20s most of the time with an occasional 10.teen thrown in themix. Even though he received a gift when Tim redlighted in the semis,Jim had nothing for Brian in the final.