FRIDAY
TESTING
The first car
on the track was Jim Murphy in his NTF car. Jim and his WW2 Racing
team were on a mission testing new parts/ideas. They made several
shots over the weekend.
Another Top Fuel
car out testing for the upcoming CHRR was High Speed Motorsports
with Bill Dunlap in the seat.
Tony
Foti B/G
Bill
Wood out of Fresno
Jimmy Morosan in
Chuck Bayuk’s car.
Wes Anderson
NE
Terry
Ruckman testing his Big Show Alcohol Funny Car.
Brad
Thompson in his Jailbreak was the first NFC to test the hot track.
Bob Godfrey
in his Burnin' Money entry.
Robert
Overholser in the California Hustler.
Donnie
Watkins in Thunderstruck
TAFC shoe Shane
Westerfield, who was upgrading his license in the Worsham Big
Show car, was a no-show on Friday, so Del took the seat for a
330’ squirt on Friday afternoon.
Rod &
Melynda Burbage’s Camaro
At 5
pm Murphy came back for his second squirt of the day.
Another
Big Show Alcohol Funny Car testing was Mike Drake.
Don Hudson
in the new "Beachcomber" Cuda.
Geno
and Harley overseeing the pits.
Troy
Ferry ProMod
Erratic
Behavior ProMod
You take a large
container, construct an enclosure on top of it and you have a
new timing tower. This will give the announcers and track officials
a much better view of the entire track and staging lanes. Its
due to be race ready by the CHRR in October. (note- actually
it is a pair of containers in tandem, side by side)
One of the great
features of the Saturday Night Nitro events is all the other
nitro teams doing test and tune runs. Terry Cox made a heat of
the day pass of 5.94 at 241 with Gary Ormsby Jr and Gary Beck
helping back the car up! Ron August had an anxious moment when
the cowl popped up just off the line in the Mike Fuller entry,but
he got it shut down safely. The always colorful Adam Sorokin
looked good with passes of 5.88 and 5.99 shutting off early in
the sleek Champion Speed Shop car. Rick Williamson had a nice
5.81 at 242 and a 5.89 252 to his credit. Dusty Green was in
the Circuit Breaker and hit an afternoon 6.32 at 153 shutting
off way early. Bill Dunlap ran a 5.89 at 213, and Rick White
ran a 5.90 248. With Frank Ousley assisting, Jim Murphy clocked
a 5.93 at 234, and Rick McGee shook down the new Tedford-McGee
car to a 6.18 at 193.
SATURDAY TESTING
Danny
Gerber
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Saturday saw
the debut of the new Tedford & McGee fueler with Rick McGee
in the seat. Here is its brief history as told by Darrell Tedford.
"This car
was built by Dave Uyehara in 2010 for Bartone. After a few hits
and one race (Boise) Tony didn't like the car, ill handling he
said. I fixed that problem. I think when they painted the car
they switched the mounting brackets on the front wing. After
we got it home I was lookin at it from the back end and thought,
the front wing looked OFF. Sure enough, I put a tape from the
motor plate forward and Voila, a full inch off. I switched the
mounts from side to side and it came in straight. BIG SMILE.
It also had slip tubes on the bottom frame rails ( I welded them
up ) and put more tubing in the floor K member, from the motor
plate back. I also took some of the diagonals out of it plus
3 bays up front.
I told Rick I
think this car will steer a little quicker than the old car,
sure enough it dose. The second pass it went straight as a string.
Rick really likes it . We still need to paint it, can't afford
it right now so it'll be black for a while."
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Next out was
top fuelers a pair. Jim Murphy and Bill Dunlap. With only one
photog, its hard to get both cars.
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Westerfield showed
up Saturday and made the three run attempts this day. First was
at 12:30PM (shown here), second try was at 3:45 but they were
shut off at the line due to a leak and then the third attempt
Saturday night.
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Dean
Oberg in the Holy Toledo Jeep for his first test.
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Rick
Williamson was on hand in Mike and Kathy Craig's Top Fuel car.
Rafael
Quiroga AG
Something for
everybody, the Fitzgerald and Bennett AA/FA. Jeff Bennett clocked
a 7.60 in this new Pure Heaven, but a 'mysterious lean condition'
forced an evening shut off on the line.
Yet another Top
Fuel car getting ready for the CHRR was Adam Sorokin in the Champion
Speed Shop entry of Bob McLennan.
Ron August trying
some changes in the Mike Fuller "Forever Young" entry.
There were more Top Fuel cars here testing than went through
the gates of the New England Hot Rod Reunion.
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Rick Rogers in
the Fighting Irish Camaro and Rian Konno in the Kazanjian Lemon
Konno Mustang got their test runs in.
-v-Ri.jpg)
Don Hudson
had a bit of a problem backing up the Beachcomber.
Brad
Thompson took another swing.
Mike Smith in
his Crower sponsored digger. Rumor has it that Eily Stafford
will be the new shoe in that car (formerly with Gruzen, Bayuk
before that). Eily did backup girl duties at this SNN .
Richard
Townsend for his first test run.
Dan Horan
Jr.
Murphy
was back for his third shot.
Terry
Cox in the Cheetah IV got some track time.
Clayton
Zulim A/FD
Ron August
again with Donny Couch looking on.
Sorokin
and Williamson paired up.
Although this
was just for fun, it was one hell of a drag race. The match with
was won by Adam by 3/10,000 of a second.
Sorokin's
slower 5.88 at 205.76 nipped Williamson's 5.81 at 242.15.
With the relentless
sun starting to set, Dusty Green in Bob Richardson's "Circuit
Breaker".
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Dean
Lindsey A/G
Rick
McGee, second run on new car.
This is Alcohol
Funny Car standout Shane Westerfield upgrading his license in
Chuck Worsham's Big Show nitro car. He made this pass about 7:45
with some beautiful tall torches the entire way to a 5.26 at
225.
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Dan Hix
in the "Heatseeker" AA/FA.
Saturday
Evening - All Run For Spot in Quick 8
Saturday afternoon
was Test & Tune with a few fuel cars running in the afternoon.
All-run Funny Car qualifying began around 8:15 PM. The fast 8
then were slated to run at 10PM, but with delays, it started
around 10:40PM. There were test runs by TF and FC's interspersed
at random.
Starting off
with, everybody loves a parade. Donny Couch and Mike English
doing the intros.
QUALIFYING RUNS
The first pair
out was Donnie Watkins in the Thunderstruck Arrow alongside Rick
Rogers in the Fighting Irish Camaro.
Watkins seemed
to have problems staging,and left before the green,not receiving
a time, while Rogers, possibly distracted, also shut off early
to a 9.17 at 111.
Next up was Alex
Miladinovich in the Hot 4 Teacher Mustang and Rian Konno in the
Kazanjian-Lemon-Konno Mustang.
Konno charged
to a solid 5.97 at 240, while Alex,out of the seat for a bit,hit
a eased up 6.65 at 157.
Dean Oberg pushed
the popular Holy Toledo Jeep to a stout 5.91 235 while newcomer
Danny Gerber clicked it early to a 8.82 at 95 mph.
The always tough
James Day went low with a great 5.75 at 242 in the Gary Turner
owned Pedaler Challenger with Jack Wrights' Joker Challenger
hitting a 6.33 at 214.
Todd
Paton pushed the Crusher Camaro into the show with a 5.96 at
240.
After
his burnout, Brad Thompson shut off on the line with problems.
In a wild match
up, Dale Van Gundy slid around about the 700ft mark, eventually
scraping the wall in the Quarter Pounder, while Roger Garten
crossed the center line the in the Warhorse. Dale coasted to
a 6.30 at 178 while Garten hit a 8.97 at 100 mph.
Bob Godfrey
vs. Don Hudson
.
In the last pair,
Dan Horan jr charged to a 5.81 at 249 alongside Robert Overholsers'
Calif. Hustler at 6.25 at 235 to wrap up qualifying.
Qualifying-
Quick 8
James
Day 5.751
Dan Horan 8.818
Dean Oberg 5.910
Todd Paton 5.967
Rian Konno 5.970
Don Hudson 6.121
Robert Overholser 6.255
Bob Godfrey 6.289
TEST RUNS BETWEEN
FC ROUNDS
Mike
Ruggiero was out testing his Nitro Harley.
First
TF cars out after the floppers were Bill Dunlap and Terry Cox.
Next
out was Rick White and Jim Murphy
Rick
Williamson
Sorokin
lit up the night in the Champion car.
Boudakian
Racing AA/FA
Keith
Wilson spreading some nitro in his Witch Doctor AA/FA.
Adam
Wimberley AA/FA
Ron August
tried another lap but struck the tires at the hit.
QUICK
8 ELIMINATIONS
Rian
Konno ran a 6.43 at 179 on a single when Todd Paton failed to
fire.
Dean Oberg ran
a 5.965 at 232.23 which to everyone's surprise held for the low
ET of eliminations. Bob Godfrey was in the other lane (no time).
James Day shook
the tires and clicked it to a 10.83 at 77. Alex Miladinovich,
in for Overholser on break rule ran a 6.11 at 233.
Jack Wright,
in on the break rule for Hudson ran 6.136 at 212.33 in a close
victory over Dan Horan Jr who carded a trouble plagued 6.19 at
200.
Summary: Holy
Toledo with Dean Oberg at the wheel won the September edition
of Saturday Night Nitro with a 5.965 at 232.23. Alex Miladinovich
had the second quickest elapsed time of eliminations in his "Hot
4 Teacher" Mustang running a 6.118 at 233.08 while defeating
James Day.
The favorite,
Dan Horan got out of the groove, pedaled twice and ran 6.19 while
the other favorite Day shook the tires, pedaled then coasted
through. Konno had a single when Patton couldn't fire, car wasn't
pulling so Rian saved the parts.
POST RACE TESTING
Dan Hix
in the Heatseeker AA/FA
Near
the end of the night Murphy came back for yet another pass.
The final nitro
fix of the day came courtesy of Rick White in the Neil &
White entry out of San Diego.
PARTING SHOTS
- SUNDAY
Day 3
for the Murphy test marathon.
The other TF
car that stuck around was Mike Fuller. Ron August, his regular
driver had another commitment so he put Mike Irwin in the car
for the Sunday tests.
Kelly
Irwin
Vindicator
NE-1 from New Zealand.
Ray Padgett
vs Jim Data in A/G.
Adam
Wimberley
NEXT
STOP - 2014 California Hot Rod Reunion
FEATURING: 2014 NITRO ALUMNI AUCTION
TO BENEFIT THE
WALLY PARKS NHRA MOTORSPORTS MUSEUM
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