Race Recap Heads Up Madness 9-6-2008. Saturday September 6th was the fifth completed race in this years series sponsored by Autoway Chevrolet and Performance 2 way racing communications. Autoway had several cars on display at special sale prices.
7.50 Index
The 7.50 Index class is new to the Heads Up Madness racing series, brought on this year in part to reduce down time between late rounds. Initially met with whining from some heads up fans as being slow and boring, it never the less has grown to have the highest participation, bringing in some cars normally reserved to the test and tune session on Wednesdays, and of course, bracket racers. This month was no exception with 23 cars in the field and Friday night regular CJ Cigarran taking the win over Jon Seigel.
This awesome Pontiac powered Catalina runs the 7.50 class. The 455 ci engine was built by Ken Keefer, owner of Ken’s Speed and Machine in Brooksville Florida.
BJ Bianchi and Jon Seigel in qualifying.
7.50 class winner CJ Cigarran
6.50 Index
The other index class really evolved from the crazy ET’s in Stock Suspension and is always filled with tight racing. Notable participants include Nicole Markwart, Bill Lee Jr, Roel Rios, Mario Barabara, John Morrell from RMP Automotive (Real Street Sponser) “Pontiac Dude” Ken Keefer and Keith Alvarez who recently had his clean Pontiac featured in High Performance Pontiac magazine. Saturday’s race would come down to former event winner Nicole Markwart and Goodtimer’s crew member George Barnett with George getting his first win this year. Congrats George.
6.50 and bracket racer Nicole Markwart.
Pontiac Dude Ken Keefer heats ‘em up.
The new bullet in Keefer’s ride. Yes it looks strange for a Pontiac. These heads are new to market and Ken is one of two currently racing with them. Based on the Ford Cleveland design with canted valves they should produce plenty of power.
Keith Alvarez is always good for some wheels up action in the LS powered Firebird.
Class winner George Barnett form the Goodtimers camp.
Mafia Motorsports Real Street
Mafia Motorsports Real Street saw five cars in class this month, four of them Mustangs, with Rodney Ristau holding fort for the Chevy Guys in the Camo wrapped 55 Chevy, and new guy Jerry White taking the number one spot in qualifying with a 5.63 @ 125. This is Jerry’s first race since buying the car back from Kelly Lonon who had campaigned the car previously.
Real Street had some drama this night with former winner Mike Burkhart passing up the scales in round one after breaking the throttle cable in his first qualifying attempt, giving the round back to Chris Patchen, after a nice 5.58. White ran 5.56 on a single pass. The guys at Real Speed updated Mike’s car to 25.5 spec and added a custom cowl induction hood since the last time out. Aaron Gramer ran 5.89 on an opponent broke bye for Capt. Rodney Ristau, who’s transmission broke during the burnout. This set up round two with Gramer vs number one qualifier White.
Captain Rodney Ristau in the Camo wrapped 55 Chevy
I know Gramer has the power to keep up, testing recently in the 5.40 zone, but it was not to be his with an off pace 5.91 @ 124, to White’s 5.60 @ 126.
Next race Chris Patchen had a single to the next round, only for him to fall victim to burnout breakage as well, leaving the win to Jerry White and the FordSpeed Racing crew. Aaron got a test pass next to Jerry in his final round appearance, though still no match for White’s 5.60 @ 126.
Mafia Motorsports Real Street winner Jerry White.
Stock Suspension
Stock Suspension had eight cars show to try and knock team Pirez off their three in a row streak. Will Stevenson with the Procharged Camaro laid claim to the number one position @ 4.99, with Pirez taking second with a 5.08, and friendly rival Tony Ridenour sitting in third with a 5.25. Tony recently made the switch to Procharger power and has been struggling with new combo issues. Chad Opaleski brought the 66 Chevelle down and took fourth spot in qualifying. Archie Marasco was off pace and having wheelie issues with his recently reconfigured SBF turbo powered Mustang out of the Real Speed camp. Other cars were Pete Chevere, Donny Burton and Bobby DeBalsio in the notorious “Blue Bomber” shoebox Nova.
The “Blue Bomber” is a staple of Florida Stock Suspension racing being formerly owned by Robert Coady of Category 5 Race Cars.
First down the track in round one saw DeBlasio up against Chad Opaleski, taking the win over Chad’s off pace 5.88, setting Bobby against Stevenson in round two. Will had single due to opponent no show. Ridenour picked up to a 5.05 @ 150 taking out Pete Chevere’s Nova in the process.
Round two will see a tight race for Pirez and Ridenour 4.96 to 5.00 respectively, and Stevenson trouncing DeBlasio with top event ET and MPH 4.94 @ 150 setting up a Prez/Stevenson final. When the lights flashed it was Pirez out first with two hundredths in the bag, and good thing as he needed every bit of it to overcome Stevenson’s hard charging, and quicker 4.949, matching last rounds nearly 151 MPH to his 4.951 @ 149.08 taking the stripe by just .014 seconds. Awesome close racing !!
Bobby DeBlasio puts some heat in the tires in the BBC nitrous powered shoe box Chevy II.
Will Stevenson and Tony Ridenour go at it. Thats about 4000 horsepower right there.
Chad Opaleski’s beautiful 66 Chevelle mid burnout. Chad runs a 707 ci Nelson Competition BBC on bottle.
Archie Marasco hanging the hoops in the small block Ford turbo powered Mustang from the Real Speed Racing crew.
That’s four in a row for team Pirez. Can anyone stop these guys ???
OL10.5
Robby DeVane helps out the Hollingsworth crew with a third member change before the racing gets under way.
The burnout area of the track was scraped this week leaving some pretty fat slices of rubber.
I’ll just say right off the car count was down in Outlaw 10.5 due to ORSCA being at South Georgia Motorsports Park this weekend. Noticeably absent were Carlos Zaldivar, Bill Futch and Bryan Markeiwicz. Bobby Hollingsworth took the number one spot with a 4.80 driving “Fast Eddy” Johnson’s ’03 Mustang, with Rob Remek holding down second with his Nelson 632ci powered ’68 Camaro.
This is nothing new for Pat Adams with his sweet 69 Camaro. He runs a 561 ci BBC with nitrous.
Richard Ness got the diving duties in the Doc’s Garage sponsored 1967 Chevelle and was just behind Remek with a 4.91 holding the number three position.
Meanwhile, Scott Husted is finally getting some bugs worked out with his turbo powered entry running a nice straight 5.10 @ 146.
First round Hollingsworth easily dispatched the wheelstanding Bernardi’s “Old Yeller” 57 Chevy, 4.79 to 6.26, Ness runs an off pace 5.86 over Husted’s 5.23 and Remek running a nice 4.88 to Pat Adams always exciting 69 Camaro, often carrying the wheels 200 feet or better.
Glad the sun was going down to cool things off.
For round two Bobby Hollingsworth gets a bye, missing lane choice, and Remek takes an easy win over an apperantly broken Husted, getting lane choice in the process with a personal best and low ET 4.78 @ 153.
With the top two cars so close in performance all night the final was shaping up to be an exctiting matchup and it was’nt disappointing in that regard, with Remek perfect on the tree, to Bobby’s nice but too late .025, taking the holeshot victory by .014.
King of the Strip ProMod
Pro Mod had thirteen cars vying for the eight car field with “Fast” Frank Cersosimo earning the top spot with an awesome 4.18 @ 174 in an all nitrous field.
Two time 08 event winner Corky Markwart took the other side of the ladder @ 4.25 in the Motive Gear/Induction Solutions Mustang owned by Jimmy Barryand powered by Scotty’s Racing Technology.
Third position went to the Long/Rackley entry, in the gorgeous 2007 Mustang.
The other 2008 winner Russ Crump qualified in the fourth spot. Every race this year has featured either Russ or Corky in the finals.
First round saw the expected cars taking win lights with the exception of Erwin Rackley, who did his job on the tree, but got loose about 200 feet out and had to pedal, slowing to a 4.53 against Albritton’s 4.42. Markwart had a perfect tree on a single where Jimmy Stoupas didn’t make the call with his Firebird.
Round two saw Crump with a come from behind win over “Fast” Frank in the Pro Mod Avenger and Markwart over Allbritton, 4.26 @ 171 to Stanley’s lifting 4.55 @ 137 setting up another Crump, Markwart final.
Russ took the tree with an .046 to Corky’s .059 but it’s was’nt enough to overcome the out of shape Mustang’s 4.27 @ 170 to his 4.29 @ 171, that’s a margin of victory of only .004 folks, and the third win this year for Corky.
Open Outlaw
Some of you may not be familiar with Open Outlaw, and I gotta tell you the class name pretty much speaks for itself, with Larry Dripps’ Seminole Indian Casino sponsored blown alcohol dragster leading the field with a 3.95 @ 181, and TA/FC of Charlie Gambino taking the other side of the ladder.
Ron Logan’s T & A Racing 509 blown big block rail sat in number three @ 4.13. Series regulars Bill Herster and Matt Gilmore were joined by Stanley Albritton Jr. and Robert Bradley.
Bill Herster launching his way to a 4.89.
Another series regular is Samantha Neild from Jenson Beach Florida, driving an injected 23 T Altered. Samantha qualified seventh out of eight cars with a 5.07 @ 130. Good to see girls like to play hard too.
First round Gilmore takes out the T&A Racing digger driven by Ron Logan with a nice 4.01, Gambino has an easy win over Samantha Neild who had the wheels jerk in the air at the hit, forcing her to pedal the car to a 5.36. Allbritton Jr. takes his dragster to the win over Herster, and top qualifier Larry Dripps gets an opponent broke bye and pedals it to a 4.25 @ 132.
Round two pits the C&C Pumping Services TA/FC of Charlie Gambino against Matt Gilmore in the Keith Black Olds powered 32 Bantam roadster. With both cars out of shape and pedaling Gambino gets the win, 4.19 @ 157 to Gilmore’s coasting 4.77 @ 106. Albritton took the tree over Dripps but his 4.71 was no match for Larry’s event low ET and top speed 3.95 @ 181.
The final round would see Charlie Gambino get a single over Dripps, as Larry was unable to make it to the line. Charlie takes the go ahead win with a 4.27 @ 170. The next race for the Heads Up Madness series is October 4th.
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