Pure Street - From what we hear (wink, wink), Grandpa Ron Anderson likes to run more gear than the usual pushrod-powered Pure Street racer. Supposedly, he likes to get out and going, and hope his competitor is unable to catch up. At Columbus, that theory worked, even with Ron himself working on the car, tuning the carburetor and changing plugs-stuff like that. Every other Pure Street racer knows when Grandpa's on the property, it's going to be a dogfight-er, shootout-we mean, it's going to be a tough race. However, with Grandpa down in seventh spot after qualifying in a tough Pure Street class at Columbus, it looked as though it was anyone's race. Looking like a baby Hot Street class, Pure Street racers we're separated by thousands of a second on the qualifying ladder. When the clutch smoke cleared, Grandpa's rockin' chair stood at the top with a victory over young whippersnapper Jimmy Wilson in the final.
Pure Street - As usual, Jimmy Wilson spent some quality time under his Pure Street car changing out clutches and transmissions. At Columbus, he swapped in a Hanlon Pro-Shifted T5 because he says it felt better than the one he had in it. With Pure Street points tighter than airport security, Jimmy was throwing everything he had at the car. Aside from the tranny swap, he added new lifters, but he says, "The car just doesn't want to do what it's supposed to." Jimmy planned to freshen the engine before the Bowling Green final because the car ran 10.20s back at the Reynolds race, but it's gotten slower so he thinks it might be getting tired. His '88 LX had enough to make it to the final against Grandpa Ron Anderson, but Pops reached into his bag of tricks for a 0.446 reaction time compared to Jimmy's 0.500 light. Grandpa's reaction time was just enough to keep him out front even though Jimmy ran a hair quicker with a 10.36 with a 6 compared to Grandpa's 10.36 with an 8.
Factory Stock - When Steve "The Farmer" Gifford ran an 11.32 at 118 mph in qualifying, a collective sigh from the rest of the Factory Stock class could be heard. Heads shook, chins hit the ground, and words unable to print were shouted about. Sure, our boy Eric Holliday ran 11.40s at Columbus in 2006, but 11.30s? We didn't think that was possible, but what we do know is that we weren't surprised to hear Steve spent some quality time with NMRA tech officials after that pass. His car was found clean, and he backed up the 11.32 with an 11.39 in eliminations on his way to winning the event over Jeffrey Schmell in the final.
Factory Stock - Jeffrey Schmell was the closest competitor to Steve Gifford at Columbus, but that was minimal consolation for the Mach 1 owner since the quickest he had run was an 11.49 during qualifying. Jeffrey was able to shoot down a couple of his pushrod-powered foes in Factory Stock in Louis Sylvester and John Leslie Jr., but Steve proved too tough in the final, even though he left the door open with a 0.600 reaction time. Jeffrey wasn't able to capitalize this time out.
Modular Muscle - When the Motycka brothers aren't riding around on their Bronco go-cart enjoying an adult beverage, they're racing, and doing it well. At Columbus, Tom Motycka won the Modular Muscle class, while brother Mike took care of the Truck and Lightning class. Both are brutal on the Tree, which helped them go rounds and win their individual classes.
Open Comp - Our boy Redline Randy Conway had an automatic in his '94 Cobra, which has really taken the car's consistency to a whole 'nother level. Randy had his dial-in at an 11.97, and he never wandered far from that number all weekend. Couple that fact with excellent reaction times, and you can call our fellow Cobra owner the winner at Columbus.