American
DRAGCAR made its way back to Tucson to continue
the Season IV Micro Import Specialists Southwestern Championship
Series schedule at Southwestern International
Raceway with Race #3 on Saturday June 20th and
the excitement just picked up right where it left off
in March. The
weather this time was downright hot as racers were rolled
out of their boxes, and even as the Sun had set, temps
were still holding quite near the century mark, but the
racers were still ready to do battle.
Surprisingly,
even with a number of racers being absent for numerous
reasons including the weather simply being too hot, DragSport
Eliminator still had a first round ladder equaling the
size of the previous 2 races of the season so far thanks
to some new members and racers entering into the series
competition.
One
of those absent was “Lil” Trish Williams in
her Star Cruiser dragster who is distinguished as “the
fastest racer in DRAGCAR” but Kristen Stevens (pictured
right) in her 7 second dragster became the second fastest
racer in DRAGCAR with her #1 spot 7.719 qualifying effort.
Josie Vasquez took the #2 slot with her 8.548 blast while
Larry Cannon captured 3rd with a 9.284 performance. Geanine
Ballard held on to the 4th spot with her 9.316 while Mark
Ballard rounded out the Fast Five with a 9.350 charge.
That made for three of the four ladies in the field up
in the Fast Five! How about that?
First
round of eliminations started off with Kristen Stevens
taking a competition single as Ron Shelly failed to make
the call to the lanes but then things got hot and heavy
as Rochelle Smith put a 3 hundredths light on Joe Dominguez
and held on for the win with a 12.333 on her 12.35 adjusted
index over Joe’s 9.638 on a 9.65. Then it was Robert
Taylor upsetting Mark Ballard, making up a slight reaction
time deficit and taking the stripe with an 11.023 on his
11.10 over Mark’s 9.311 on a 9.35 adjusted index.
Next up, Marvin Wolfmeier took the tree first on his 11.15
adjusted index against Geanine Ballard running on a 9.30
adjusted index. Geanine got the advantage off the line
but at a hundred feet out, her transmission let loose
and The Wolf raced across the stripe unchallenged with
an 11.153 win. Tom Payton and Doug Woods followed in a
Corvette battle that was truly won at the tree as Payton
took a 2 hundredths reaction time advantage while giving
chase and crossed the finish line just over a hundredth
ahead with a 10.992 on his 10.95 over a 14.483 on a 14.45
adjusted index. Jeff Morgan overcame his late leave against
Paul Polito, running 11.468 on an 11.50 over Polito's
off-pace 10.865 on a 10.80 attempt. Scott Niles took the
reaction time advantage over Manny Lopez and then the
stripe as well with an 11.205 on an 11.15 over an 11.460
on an 11.35 adjusted index. Jeff Sefranek survived the
round with a slight reaction time advantage over Josie
Vasquez but not without a scratch as he went .052 under
with an 11.198 on an 11.25 adjusted index against her
8.567 on an 8.55 attempt. Chris Devaney then closed out
the round with another competition single as Larry Cannon’s
Chevelle suffered engine failure during qualifying and
he was unable to make the call to eliminations.
Round
2 proved a bit less exciting as it was mostly decided
by red light starts but the one green light race of the
round had Chris Devany taking the win over Jeff Morgan
by 5 hundredths after taking a full tenth of a second
advantage from the tree with a 9.514 on a 9.50 over an
11.419 on an 11.45 effort.
Third
round started off with the closest race of the night as
Tom Payton met up against Kristen Stevens and dodged a
bullet as she put a nice 5 hundredths light on the "Ol"
man but fell off pace with a 7.878 on her 7.70 adjusted
index and missed catching "Ol Red" by a mere
12 thousandths of a second as he tripped the clocks with
an off pace 11.063 on his 10.95 adjusted index. Next up
was Jeff Sefranek facing Marvin Wolfmeier in an 11.15
heads-up drag race but Sefranek was unable to back up
his first round 11.19 run-under in the previous round
and looked to be finished in this round. When the tree
came down, the two left nearly together as The Wolf took
a hundredth lead from the start, and he just stretched
it out from there running 11.166 for the win over a trailing
11.265 attempt.
The
semi finals had Marvin Wolfmeier on the bye while Tom
Payton would face Chris Devaney. Payton had started having
troubles running on his index but he made up for it with
his reaction time this round as he took a nice 6 hundredths
advantage at the tree, and then as Devaney left the line
to give chase, his Mustang fell flat and lost power allowing
Payton to streak to an unchallenged round win with an
11.054 on his 10.95 adjusted index.
So
there it was, "Old School" vs. "Ol Red"
in the final. Neither of the two had taken any run-under
penalties but Wolfmeier was looking to have a slight advantage
with his consistent dead-on runs throughout eliminations
while Payton seemed to be struggling for consistency.
Even so, Payton may have still been the odds-on favorite
as he is known for his box-like reaction times but as
the tree fell, it was The Wolf who had chopped it down
with a stellar double O6 reaction time. Payton was a bit
off that and it didn’t help any that he could only
run an 11.006 on his 10.95 against Wolmeier’s awesome
11.146 on an 11.15 performance as the little Vega took
the stripe more than a tenth of a second ahead of the
red car.
Congratulations
to Marvin Wolfmeier on his perfect Annihilator win,
and with that, he jumps into the SWCS points lead just
ahead of Mark Ballard. Larry Cannon holds the 3rd spot
just ahead of Geanine Ballard.
Marvin
Wolfmeier also captured the Best Reaction Time Of Eliminations
award with his .006 Final round win while Doug Woods collects
the Best Losing Package Award with his .106 first round
defeat.
Next
on the DRAGCAR calendar is the Micro Import Service Southwestern
Championship Series Race #4 on August 15th at Southwestern
International Raceway.
Results
- American DRAGCAR, Southwestern Int'l Raceway in Tucson,
AZ / June 20, 2015
Quarter
Finals:
Winner:
Tom Payton, Tucson, AZ., '57 Corvette, Index:
10.95, RT: .069, ET: 11.063
Runner-up: Kristen Stevens, Tucson, AZ., R.E.D., Index:
7.70, RT: .016, ET: 7.878
Winner:
Marvin Wolfmeier, Vail, AZ., '74 Vega, Index:
11.15, RT: .035, ET: 11.166
Runner-up: Jeff Sefranek, Phoenix,AZ., '65 Mustang, Index:
11.15, RT: .047, ET: 11.265
Winner:
Chris Devaney, Maricopa, AZ., '87 Mustang, Index:
9.50, RT: .474, ET: 14.477
Runner-up: Bye
Semi
Finals:
Winner:
Tom Payton, Index: 10.95, RT: .015, ET: 11.054
Runner-up: Chris Devaney, Index: 9.50, RT: .079, ET: 23.971
Winner:
Marvin Wolfmeier, Index: 11.15, RT: NA, ET: NA
Runner-up: Bye
Final:
Winner:
Marvin Wolfmeier, Index: 11.15, RT: .006, ET:
11.146
Runner-up: Tom Payton, Index: 10.95, RT: .084, ET: 11.006
