 American
DRAGCAR was back at Southwestern International
Raceway on March 7th for the Micro Import Service
Inc. Southwestern Championship Series Season IV Race #2. American
DRAGCAR welcomed a number of new racers and members at the
SWCS Race #2 and veteran member Jeff Morgan
showed up with his new rear engined dragster while giving
the altered a bit of a break, or was this just to throw off
the competition instead? After
two rounds of qualifying were complete, DRAGCAR’s
first and only 6 second car lead the field as Trish
Williams returned with her TD/Z8 dragster posting
a 6.946 new best ever DRAGCAR ET. That moved Geanine
Ballard’s 9.118 into the #2 spot
while Mark Ballard held
onto 3rd with a 9.184. Larry Cannon
was 4th with a 9.230 and Ron Shelly
rounded out the top 5 with a 9.585 performance. This officially
makes DRAGCAR’s quickest top 5 to date.
 To
start the excitement for 1st round, Ron Shelly and Joe Dominguez
opened eliminations with an all-out, heads-up, no-breakout
9.60 indexed Pro style drag race. Vega vs. Opel, big block
Chevy vs. small block Chevy. Both racers qualified with
9.58s but Ron took the advantage off the line with a killer
.007 light and stretched out his lead to more than a tenth
of a second with a 9.64 over Joe’s 9.75. Nick Micale
looks to finally be back from his long string of hard luck
as he knocked out an 03 light to get the advantage over
Marvin Wolfmeier and took the win by 5 hundredths with a
9.95 on a 9.90 over an 11.08 on a 10.95. Paul Polito then
took the win from Tim O’Moore with nearly identical
reaction times and a 10.757 on a 10.75 to Tim’s 9.857
on a 9.80 adjusted index. And the closest race of the day
came in first round when Trish Williams snatched the win
from Jeff Morgan by just 3 thousandths of a second as the
2 dragsters in the field faced off. Morgan took a decisive
reaction time advantage at the line but his 10.558 on a
10.50 adjusted index was not enough to hold off the charge
of Williams’ 6.941 on her 6.95.
Round
2 had Ron Shelly up against Geanine Ballard, and Geanine
left with a nice .035 light to give chase on the Vega but
Ron put up a performance that would be hard to beat on any
day as he ripped the tree out by the root with a double
O5 light and proceeded to clock a 9.601 on his 9.60 adjusted
index for a tight 6 thousandths package. Paul Polito then
followed with a double O7 light against Brad Hawk and took
the win with a 10.716 on a 10.75 over a slightly stronger
12.653 on a 12.70. Trish Williams then lined up against
Nick Micale and waited 3 seconds for her light as the 9
second Buick made it’s blast for the finish line.
Both racers had nearly identical reaction times and the
race was left all up to the machines as Trish managed to
take the stripe by only 2 hundredths of a second with her
6.924 on a 6.95 over Nick’s 9.848 on his 9.85 adjusted
index.
Round
3 was finally the end of the road for defending champion
Jeff Sefranek as Larry Cannon matched him for reaction times
and then ran down the little Ford to take the stripe with
a 9.268 on a 9.25 over an 11.39 on an 11.25 attempt. Ron
Shelly got a bit of a break after his Vega slipped the tires
off the line and could only manage a 9.69 on his 9.60 adjusted
index while Trish Williams drew the red light giving chase.
Paul
Polito came into the 4th round by way of a bye the round
before which left the possibility for a Vega/Vega final
round match-up as Ron Shelly was to get the bye in this
round. But Polito had to beat Larry Cannon and his excellently
performing Chevelle to the finish line first. Paul certainly
rose to the challenge as he hammered out a solid .029 RT
but something went wrong as the Vega-Saurus suddenly stopped
in it’s tracks before even reaching the 60’
clocks. Cannon likely watches all this happening yet still
knocked off a very nice .042 light of his own and ran it
out for a 9.277 @ 142 mph on his 9.25 adjusted index.
 So,
after nearly a half season absence from the track, Ron Shelly
was already rolling into the final in his first race of
the season against Larry Cannon in his first DRAGCAR race
ever. Shelly was certainly looking to start his season right
as he took a 1 hundredth reaction time advantage at the
tree with his .025 light. Then Cannon left the line less
than 4 tenths of a second later to give chase and as the
two crossed the finish line side by side 9 seconds later
at 140+ mph, it was Cannon’s Chevelle by 14 thousandths
of second with a 9.258 on a 9.25 over Shelly’s 9.634
on a 9.60 battle.
So,
Larry Cannon made his DRAGCAR debut in stellar style with
a perfect Annihilator Win and Ron Shelly not only came away
with Runner-Up honors, but also collected the Best Losing
Package award with his .06 final round package. Paul Polito
will then collect the Best Reaction Time of Eliminations
award with his .007 round two performance.
Q-Finals:
W: Paul Polito, Tucson, AZ. '74 Vega, Index: 10.70, RT:
.082, ET: 10.785
L: Bye
W: Larry
Cannon, Tucson, AZ. '70 Chevelle, Index: 9.25, RT: .056,
ET: 9.268
L: Jeff Sefranek, Phoenix, AZ. '65 Mustang, Index: 11.25,
RT: .054, ET: 11.392
W: Ron
Shelly, Phoenix, AZ. '74 Vega, Index: 9.60, RT: .159, ET:
9.694
L: Trish Williams, Tucson, AZ. '95 R.E.D., Index: 6.90,
RT: (-.208), ET: 9.929
Semi-Finals:
W: Larry Cannon, Index: 9.25, RT: .042, ET: 9.277
L: Paul Polito, Index: 10.70, RT: .029, ET: Broke
W: Ron
Shelly, Index: 9.60, RT: .164, ET: 12.223
L: Bye
Final:
W: Larry Cannon, Index: 9.25, RT: .038, ET: 9.258
L: Ron Shelly, Index: 9.60, RT: .025, ET: 9.635
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