 American
DRAGCAR's Race #3 of the AZ Differential Specialists
Central State Championship Series on Saturday, May 2nd at
Wild Horse Pass started off the night racing season.A special
event was set to take place at this race during qualifying
which involved a DragCar formulated index match race between
Jeff Sefranek’s XP/D1 11.20 indexed Mustang and Willie
Wray’s MS/C2 10.30 indexed Camaro. These two were
the quickest DragCar Eliminator qualifiers at the CSCS Race
#2 only a hundredth apart from each other so this match
race was planned as an introduction to the DragCar Eliminator
truly all-out format.
As it
turned out, the match was less than spectacular as Willie
Wray drew the red-light in the first 2-rounds awarding Sefranek
with the match win and the $25 per round prize money. But
it’s not to say that it was not a good match-up. In
fact, it was to be an awesome match as in the first round,
Sefranek ran an 11.02 on his 11.20 formulated index while
Wray ripped off a 10.11 on his 10.30, one hundredth of a
second better than Jeff. But in round 2, Willie's car went
quiet at halftrack as he lifted due to what he thought was
a persistent tire shake. As it turned out, it was a broken
crank that was rattling his cage so Wray was done for the
night.
With
25 entries again laddered up in DragSport Eliminator, the
Fast Five had a Downing in the #1 slot as Austyn Downing
clicked off an 8.836 in the family rear engined dragster.
That left Mark Ballard to pick up 2nd with his 9.147 while
Geanine Ballard took 3rd this time with her 9.169 performance.
Nick Micale made the 4th place spot with his 9,929 and Ron
Shelly once again closed out the 5 with a 10.076 effort.
New
member Donald Goodlue provided for some excitement in first
round of qualifying as his TC/B8 Camaro ended up against
the wall due to a front brake failure but fortunately the
damage was primarily cosmetic and Donald was physically
uninjured. Donald says he’ll be back out for the next
race and we certainly hope to see him make it back out.
In addition
to Willie Wray and Donald Goodlue’s no-shows for first
round of eliminations, Scott Gibson broke a rear-end in
his Mustang, and Lewis Higgins’ motorcycle suffered
failure also, making for 5 single runs in the round as Mick
Sramek drew the laddered bye-run. Then, red-lights plagued
nearly every other pairing in the round as there were only
2 actual races to be witnessed. Neva Wray fell to Chris
Holbrook as the two had nearly identical RT’s but
Neva’s Nash ran an off pace 11.94 on her 11.85 while
Chris’ Mustang hit an 11.72 on his 11.70 adjusted
index. Then Rochelle Smith showed her continued improvement
as she went double-O7 for a nice holeshot advantage against
Geanine Ballard and ran 12.067 on her 12.10 against Geanine’s
strong 9.165 effort.
Second
round opened with Gary Navis announcing he was up for the
best RT award as he went double-O5 against Mark Ballard
in their rematch from last race. This time it was actually
a dead heat decided solely by RT’s as Navis ran 10.160
on his 10.15 over Ballard’s 9.160 on a 9.15 adjusted
index. A.J. Crader then took out Jeff Sefranek in the same
manner with a double-O6 while holding of the charge with
a 13.83 on a 13.75 over an 11.07 on an 11.00. Then Underdog
Racing teammates Chris Holbrook and Thom Fitch paired off
in the closest race of the round as Fitch put up a solid
.012 RT to Holbrook’s .074 but was unable to hold
on as he ran 10.614 on a 10.55 to Chris’ 11.649 on
an 11.70.
Third
round saw Bill Matchette then take out Chris Holbrook with
a clean 2 hundredths RT advantage paired with a 13.108 on
a 13.10 over Holbrook’s 11.69 on an 11.60. A.J. Crader
got the better of Rochelle Smith as she drew the red-light
and Ron Shelly got past Mick Sramek with a healthy RT advantage
while Gary Navis earned the bye-run for the round.
The
semi-finals had Bill Matchette on his 13.10 adjusted index
paired with Gary Navis on a 10.15. Matchette took his tree
3 seconds ahead of Navis but Gary left too soon and turned
on the red-light as Bill cruised through with another nice
13.12 performance. Ron Shelly then took pleasure in disposing
of the lone Ford left in competition as he took a healthy
RT advantage with his .019 light and followed through with
a 10.00 on his 10.05 over Crader’s 13.80 on a 13.75
effort.
So the
final had Ron Shelly on a 9.95 re-adjusted index up against
Bill Matchette on his 13.10 adjusted index. Matchette’s
tree came down over 3 seconds before Shelly’s but
Ron picked up a 4 hundredths advantage as his front wheels
left the ground in chase of the big Mopar. And it was the
Chevy at the stripe first for the win with a 10.01 over
the 13.16 runner-up effort. Ron
Shelly incredibly picks up his second win in a row after
3 consecutive final round appearances and charges right
up the CSCS points standings to now sit in 3rd while Bill
Matchette moves into 2nd.
Race
#4 of the AZ Differential Specialists Central State Championship
Series is next on the calendar for May 30th 2015 at Wild
Horse Pass Motorsports Park.
Results
- American DRAGCAR, Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, AZ / May
2, 2015
Quarter
Finals:
W:
Bill Matchette, Glendale, AZ., '69 Coronet, Index:
13.10, RT: .054, ET: 13.108
L: Chris Holbrook, Chandler, AZ., '66 Mustang,
Index: 11.60, RT: .077, ET: 11.697
W: A.J.
Crader, Glendale, AZ., '01 Mustang, Index: 13.75,
RT: .219, ET: 13.831
L: Rochelle Smith, Glendale, AZ., '69 Chevelle,
Index: 12.05, RT: -.021, ET: 12.100
W: Ron
Shelly, Phoenix, AZ., '74 Vega, Index: 10.05, RT:
.052, ET: 10.206
L: Mick Sramek, Glendale, AZ., '72 Cutlass,
Index: 12.95, RT: .373, ET: 13.079
W: Gary
Navis, Scottsdale, AZ., '67 Camaro, Index: 10.15,
RT: .298, ET: 10.852
Bye
Semi
Finals:
W: Bill
Matchette, Index: 13.10, RT: .093, ET: 13.129
L: Gary Navis, Index: 10.15, RT: -.172,
ET: 10.230
W:
Ron Shelly, Index: 10.05, RT: .019, ET: 10.006
L: A.J. Crader, Index: 13.75, RT: .104,
ET: 13.807
Final:
Win:
Ron Shelly, Index: 9.95, RT: .033, ET:
10.016
Runner-up: Bill Matchette, Index: 13.10,
RT: .078, ET: 13.164 |
