Good morning race fans! We’re gearing up for eliminations here at Pomona, and looking forward to great weather and exciting racing. Due to an oildown two pairs into last night’s Pro Street Q3 session, we bumped up against the 7PM curfew, and the qualifying results after the second round will stand, with Joe Lepone atop the ladder.
In an interesting deja vu moment, just as he did in Bakersfield, Lepone suffered a bit of a nitrous sneeze at the top end of the track, launching another carb scoop into a suborbital trajectory. We’ll be checking in to see of the damage will keep him out of the hunt, or if once again it might be the lucky omen that presages a trip to the winner’s circle.
Keep it right here all day for ongoing updates to results, photos and news from the track!
Pit Notes:
Round One Eliminations
Garrett Turbo Pro Street
Round one of the pros started off with a messy matchup between Mike Bowman and Gary Ross, with Bowman coming out ahead in the Dance of the Smoking Slicks. Next up, Scialpi and Mihovetz paired up, and again violent tire shake was the norm, with Scialpi driving through the bone-jarring ride and Mihovetz shutting off. With Greg Seth-Hunter a no-show, Cremo needed to merely break the beams and take the green to advance.
The Walker-versus-Oksas pairing was a wild one – Walker hit the bars so hard that something broke, and dragged the damaged scaffolding all the way down-track but still ran a 7.468 at 122 with one parachute out from half-track, while Oksas put down a respectable 6.139, the quickest Pro pass of the round. Ron Weems, unable to make the call, gave Durden an uncontested drive into round two, running 6.355, and a heartbreaking -.005 redlight from Roubicek gave the win away to underdog Hammi. Finally, Scoopless Joe Lepone got another test and tune run when Patrick redlit, running 6.208 and demonstrating that the giant Pat Musi nitrous mill was unharmed during yesterday’s incident, and unhindered by his split Dominators hanging in the breeze.
Mickey Thompson True 10.5
Jimenez and Dow kicked off eliminations for True 10.5; The race was over before it started, though, with a teeny, tiny -.002 redlight for Jimenez, making three reds in a row for the snakebit left lane. Next up, it was Kuhls over Heck in a contest to see who could pedal their throttles more effectively, with that dubious honor (and the round win) going to Kuhls.
Mark Luton did some pedaling of his own to get past Coleman, who broke early and limped down track to a high seventeen, while Kyle gave the highlight of the round with the best pass of E1, running 7.223 at just over 200 while Henry struck the tires in the opposite lane. The odd car field meant top qualifier Rick Snavely needed to only see a green light to advance, but the team elected to try their luck in the less-favored left lane with a wobbly-but-informative half-pass, coasting to a 7.694 at 150.55.
Lucas Oil NA 10.5
The first pairing in the naturally-aspirated 10.5 class started out with a wheelstand by Valentino and a win light in Cobbett’s lane, but then things ground to an immediate halt to clean up fluid deposited on Valentino’s side of the track past the finish line. Once that was tidied up, the next pair matched up Randy Jones and Vic Brum, with Jones advancing 8.16 to Brum’s 8.32. The final pass for the first round was a single for top qualifier Aneian, who cruised to an 8.22 at 166.
That will pair Aneian and Jones in the semis to see who will meet #2 qualifier Cobbett (who gets a semi-final competition bye) in the final round.
ProCharger Drag Radial
The opening match in Drag Radial paired rookie racer (and my boss) James Lawrence against Armen Maghdessian, and despite giving up the holeshot, Lawrence made it up down track and moved on to round two. Next up were Mark Orban and Kevin Young – with Orban pedaling and Young on a pass, the race was decided in the first 330 feet. The final pairing in the six car field saw Jeff Young make two hard jinks right off the hit, and Artis Houston putting together his best pass so far this weekend. That allowed Houston to steal the number one qualifier bye, sending him straight to the finals where he will face either Lawrence, or defending class champ Kevin Young.
ARP Outlaw 8.5
In a late start, the first round of Outlaw 8.5 began with Ron Shaw and Matt Sendejas breaking the beams – Shaw rolled through early to a redlight loss, a gift for Sendejas, who backfired and stalled at the line and had to be pushed back to a hard-luck win. Keller advanced when McGhee hazed the tires on the hit, and Jones won fair and square against Carlstedt in one of the cleanest and closest matches of the round. Another good drag race between Raygoza and Van Tol saw Raygoza victorious.
Gustafson drove through a hard cut just past the tree to get past Wallace, with a fire at the top end adding insult to Wallace’s injury. That left just DJ Reid, who got a bonus single when Outland didn’t make the call, coasting to an easy seven second joyride into round 2.
Round Two Eliminations
Garrett Turbo Pro Street
Round two of the Pro Show offered some good matchups, starting with Bowman versus Scialpi. Bowman drove around a bit of a holeshot to set the new quick time of the weekend, running 6.04 to Scialpi’s 6.23 and securing the first spot in the semis. Cremo laid down a .006 light against Durden, but didn’t have a six in reply to Durden’s 6.35 – Cremo will be on the trailer, and Durden will have the opportunity to play giant-slayer against Bowman in the semis.
Oksas got an unexpected bye run when Hammi couldn’t make the round, and went for a full pull but lifted after a pop and a puff of smoke at half-track. That just left Scoopless Joe’s ladder bye run, which he hammered out to a 6.14 on his way to face Oksas next round.
Mickey Thompson True 10.5
The second round of TT5 only offered a single real pairing – Kyle, qualified second, took the green and idled away to cash in his ladder bye, while Luton got a broke bye when Dow couldn’t make the call. That left just Snavely and Kuhls, with the number one qualifier cruising to a one-second lead at the finish line. With the ladder bye in the semis going to Luton, that means it will be Kyle versus Snavely in a 1-2 qualifier battle to see who will face him in the finals.
ProCharger Drag Radial
The semis in Drag Radial witnessed a wiggle-and-lift from big block nitrous pilot Houston in his single pass, while James Lawrence just plain got beat by Kevin Young, lifting at half track and setting up a turbo versus blower final round.
ARP Outlaw 8.5
DJ Reid continued his quest for the winner’s circle with a second round win over Gustafson, who laid big smoke as he trailed the Afromaro. Keller pedaled twice trying to keep pace with Jones, and ran a quicker ET, but was asleep at the tree and couldn’t overcome Jones’ .005 reaction time. Finally, Sendejas spun off the line, giving the go-ahead to Raygoza, but Raygoza let out a few big pops before seeing the win light into round three.
Round Three Eliminations
Mickey Thompson True 10.5
The TT5 semi finals pitted Snavely against Kyle to determine who will meet Luton in the finals – Kyle double-pedaled looking for traction, but fell to Snavely’s bracket-consistent 7.11. Luton, in his single, ran it out in a hunt for lane choice, but started laying smoke at the 1/8 mile mark and lifted, possibly ending his hopes of a victory here in Pomona.
FINAL RESULTS
Garrett Turbo Pro Street
Controversy marked the conclusion of the Pro Street class, with a staging issue leaving the title in doubt until well after the stands had emptied and the fans had gone home. Setting the stage for the pending drama, in the semi-finals, Scoopless Joe Lepone had gotten past Scott Oksas, 6.243 to 6.493, when Oksas, behind the wheel of his new Camaro (which we understand was a former Mike Maggio chassis) gave up the leave and ran out of track before his turbo top end kick had the chance to catch the nitrous-fed Plymouth. On the other side of the ladder, John Durden laid down a spectacular .006 light against defending class champ Mike Bowman, but started laying smoke at the thousand foot mark, thus establishing the Lepone-Bowman showdown at sundown.
After the burnouts were complete, Lepone, in the right lane, moved up to stage first, but overran the staging beams and immediately backed out again. Bowman jumped forward to try to get his own prestage bulb lit before Lepone could get clear of the beams and trigger an autostart staging violation to earn an automatic win, but by the time he had moved forward Lepone was clear and all Bowman achieved was a “double bulb” on his own side of the tree.
With Bowman’s entourage already lobbying the starting line staff for a Lepone DQ, the Duster slid into the beams, the tree dropped, and both lanes got the green, with a two-tenths reaction time advantage going to Bowman. Down track, Lepone closed the gap, running 6.230 to Bowman’s 6.610 and triggering the win light in his lane.
Back at the starting line, confusion reigned – the fans in the stands, not understanding what had just happened, grumbled in displeasure, and the arm waving and harsh words between the lanes continued for a few moments before the PA announced that the win had been belatedly awarded to Bowman. That wouldn’t be the end of the story, though; after things cooled down a bit, and the NMCA staff and race director had a chance to review the logs, the decision was reversed and the original results were left standing.
Mickey Thompson True 10.5
Turns out that the smoke signals laid by Mark Luton’s Mustang in his semi-final single pass were indeed a message indicating he was done – when the call came for the True 10.5 finals, only Rick Snavely answered, turning the pairing into a 7.108-second victory lap for the Turbos Direct team.
ProCharger Drag Radial
The 275 Drag Radial class came down to blower versus nitrous in the finals, with defending class champ Kevin Young in his third-gen Camaro squaring off against Artis Houston’s Nova at the end of the day. For Young, it was a shot at redemption for kinfolk, as Houston had taken down Jeff Young in their first round pairing, and at the tree the pair were almost dead even, with Houston just seven thou quicker. By half track it was over, though – the Nova coasted through the traps with an 8.730 at just 132, while Young stayed on-pace with a 7.43 for the win and the Wally
Lucas Oil NA 10.5
ARP Outlaw 8.5
K&N Pro Comp
Hedman Hedders NSC
Burns Stainless Open Comp
Granatelli Mustang Madness
Edelbrock Super Quick
Calvert Quick Street
Bracket 1
Bracket 2