Brad Thompson and the GL Bless team celebrate a hard fought win.

 

SACRAMENTO RACEWAY PARK - The 38th edition of Sacramento Raceway's Governor Cup did not get a pardon from Governor Schwarzenegger from the strange and unpredictable weather that has been plaguing the United States this year. The calm and warm temperatures that had been a daily occurrence in the Sacramento Valley the week preceding the big event was rudely swept away when a cold front brought its accompanying inclement weather into the area on Saturday. Although Friday was benevolent as predicted, Saturday had to be called off when the showers started in the morning and continued throughout the day; the first time in the event's long and illustrious history that a day of racing had been canceled. But, with mixed sun and clouds and temperatures in the 70s predicted for Sunday, nothing in the program was forfeited-just moved back one day. Sunday was kind of a Pandora's Box with the sun playing hide-and-seek with the fans. A few showers anointed the track now and then, but nothing so serious to keep the entire program from getting completed on time.

For those lucky fans that did spin through the turnstiles, and the weather did have an affect on the attendance totals, they saw a show that was simply superlative in all classes: from nostalgia top fuel dragster all the way down to big bucks e.t. and the motorcycle racers. With a corrected altitude hovering just around 1000' all weekend, the air was ripe for quick times. That became readily apparent when Rod Burbage came out Friday afternoon during test-n-tune and laid down a stout 6.50 with his Pro Mod Corvette. But, the clarion call to the tuners really went out when Rick White and Jim Murphy came to the line for the first round of NTF qualifying Friday at 6:00 p.m. Although they were the first pair, both blistered down an accommodating track with Rick's 5.81-249.11 edging out Jim's 5.98-244; Rick's 5.812 would stick as low elapsed time for the race.

 

Story & Photos by Stephen Justice - Photos by Brian Ellis and Jason Ellis

Bill Dunlap getting comfortable in Brendan Murry's NTF; the normally potent Arias seemed to be under the weather early on, but rebounded in round #1 and gave Adam Sorokin all he could handle.

 

What a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde weekend for Brad Thompson and the LG Bless team from Visalia. From pathetic in qualifying to "Mr. Universe" in eliminations-must have went to the gym for top fuel dragsters.

 

 

TEST N TUNE

In addition to Q1 and Q2 scheduled for Friday afternoon and evening, respectively, the track was open to all entrants for practice laps from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The Birky Bunch, Champion Speed Shop/ RB Entertainment, and Brendan Murry all made passes just to see what the track would "hold".

 

Don't know what kind of statement Bobby (McLennan) wanted to make, but it was too bold and the track said "no"; at least Adam had fun knocking some of the cones around.

 

 

 

This is not a very happy Arias as Bill Dunlap awaited the final signal to stage; but, the 6.96 was better than either of their two qualifying attempts.

 

 

 

Mark Malde in Arnold Birky's car.

 

Arnold has added some enhancements to the system through which his 430 cid Chevy motor gets its nitro; made a half pass just to see how it would respond-the launch told the story.

 

 

QUALIFYING

Although (3) sessions were scheduled, Saturday's rain out limited the teams to just Q1 and Q2 on Friday. Jason Richey did get down the track on Saturday, after which drizzle forced a staged Pete Kaiser to shut off. Even at that, six cars dipped into the esteemed five second zone after the conclusion of Friday's two sessions, highlighted by Rick White's booming 5.812 in Q1. As would be the pattern all weekend, it was "feast or famine" for the top fuel dragsters -- something special or a real stinker.

Rick White heats the tires in the Neal & White flyer out of San Diego.

 

 

Was this car on a rope or what? A 5.81 right out of the gate and a total of (5) runs in the 5.8s. In Friday's late session, they ran 5.91 at 243.20 in the left lane -- a point in time when hardly any other car could make a complete lap.

 

 

 

 

 

It's been a while, but the Bill Schwartz Racing entry finally has their new car finished; driver Rick Williamson followed White down the right lane in the very next pair with this wheels up 5.95 at 244.02.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Go immediately to jail…do not pass GO…do not collect $200.00"; the beginning of Brad Thompson's run of bad deeds -- two broken rods on the burn out meant he could only coast harmlessly down the track.

 

 

 

The engine swap and the scary moments surrounding it allowed Thomson to make the second session Friday night.

 

 

 

Mike McClennan in Mike Fuller's hot rod.

 

 

OK, not everyone had an easy time of it in the right lane; Mike got precariously close to the K-rail and had to click it.

 

 

 

Adam Sorokin in the RB Entertainment - Champion Speed Shop entry.

Sorokin fell back in line with the other members of the "Right Lane 5 Second Club" with his 5.96-241.18; and, because the car initialed the lane with some wide SSSSs, probably could have nicked a few more hundredths off that time slip.

 

 

It was another all 5 second party as Jack Harris rolled up a 5.99 in the lane opposite Adam.

 

 

Troy Green in the seat of the potent High Speed Motorsports fueler.

 

Gadzooks!! The thing went "boom" down track, and the resulting carnage left the team no chance to repair the engine in time for Q2; their 7.11 put them in the bottom half of the ladder with precious little data to work with.

Note: They put a mild tune up in it and went to the starting line. The car left good and was on probably a low 6.0 run. But at 3.8 seconds into the run the car had a change of plans! Number 1 and 2 rods broke, shoving a piston into an intake valve, blowing the supercharger off and starting a fire. Troy Green coasted through the lights with a 7.11 at 111. After the safety crew put the fire out they headed back to the pits to begin a thrash. After swapping short blocks out, they decided to sit out the next session to go over things and try to determine what went wrong. With only 14 cars on hand for a 16 car field, they knew they would be in the show. After looking over all the broken parts, they came to the conclusion that it was just a parts failure.

 

 

Pete "Fritz" Kaiser in the Ground Zero car.

 

 

 

SESSION TWO

 

By the time the NTFs returned for Q2 at 8:20 p.m., the air temperature had dropped off dramatically and the race track became stubborn and irritable. Some teams simply decided to skip the session for one reason or another (including Green, Malde, Williamson, Shoemaker, and Richey), but, the remaining nine cars decided to challenge the "iffy" conditions knowing Q3 might not happen based on the prediction for Saturday. Even at that, both Mike McLennan and Rick White recorded clean, strong runs in the left lane - 5.96 and 5.91, respectively.

 

What started out promising for Bill Dunlap deteriorated down track and the team
had to settle for 12th place with their 7.51.

 

 

 

 

Mike McClennan heats the tires for his second try at the Sacramento track.

 

 

After a hard leave McClennan went on to clock a 5.986 at 241.97 which would land him in the # 5 spot.

 

 

Crew member attempting to out sprint top fuel dragster; actually, Pete did a laudatory job getting through the middle of the track but let go of the run when it got real "hairy" down at the end (6.35).

 

 

 

 

After installing a fresh bullet, Brad Thompson gave it another try and experienced more problems coasting through with a 8.254 @ 111.50. Needless to say his weekend wasn't looking bright at this point. Fortunately there were only 14 cars for the 16 car show so no matter what, they would be in.

 

 

Jim Murphy in the Tim Beebe tuned WW2 Racing TF car and Rick White paired up under the lights.

 

 

The word around the campfire was that Tim and Jim were looking for a 5.7. What started off
with a lot of promise ended up with a lot of smoke by the 60' clocks.

 

 

 

White had no problems at all clocking a 5.812 Sat 249.11 which would be good for the # 1 spot.

 

Rodeck-Harris tried to rotate the earth, too, but ended up with the same result as Murphy.

 

Adam Sorokin took advantage of the night air to go # 3 with a 5.965 at 241.18.

Mendy Fry in the seat of the "Nitro Kitty" 426 powered fueler out of Arizona.

Burn out looked good; clean launch; too much power, too quick-No Go Nitro Kitty (13.35).

 

 

 

Final Top Fuel Qualifying Order

1. Rick White -  5.812 @ 249.11 2. Rick Williams  - 5.959 @ 244.02 3. Adam Sorokin  -  5.965 @ 241.18 4. Jim Murphy  -  5.984 @ 244.57 5. Mike McClennan  -  5.986 @ 240.82 6. Jack Harris  -  5.997 @ 220.10 7. John Shoemaker -  6.263 @ 221.79 8. Mark Malde  -  6.303 @ 179.83

9.   Pete Kaiser  -  6.354 @ 176.23 10. Jason Richey  -  7.056 @ 232.16 11. Troy Green -  7.119 @ 111.68 12. Bill Dunlap -  7.515 @ 147.79 13. Brad Thompson -  8.254 @ 111.50 14. Mendy Fry  -  13.359 @ 42.29

 

Page 2 - Eliminations