ORTC - Drag Radial Championship 2009 in Bradenton

[Chevelle Rob]

Ok it’s Saturday here in Bradenton at the Outlaw Radial Tire Championships and we have blue skies and a slight breeze out of the west. Round two qualifying is set to start at 2 PM. I took a walk through the other side of the pits this morning to check out who is here running the index classes.





One new car I found is the Violent Tendencies Camaro owned by Troy Morgan from Lithia Florida. The car has a 504 BBC with Edlebrock Vic Jr CNC heads. He will be running the 6.50 class this weekend. Troy had the car out only one time before this with some BFG Drag Radials but had problems getting traction and has switched over to Mickey Thompson and is hoping for some better luck now.




More new arrivals this morning are the folks from All Out Race Engines in South Florida. They will be running a Mustang in Drag Radial. The South Florida based team is comprised of some former employees of Progressive Race Engines out of Miami setting out to start their own shop. I cought them checking out the qualifying sheets and getting their tech card.



Eric sherman and his son were taking a spin around the pits to check things out as well. His car is being driven by Troy Pirez Jr in Real Street.



Roel Rios and Shawn McNaughton are here running 6.50 and 7.50 respectively. They are regular racers at Sunshine Dragstrips Heads Up Madness series.



Eugene Rodriguez will be driving Bill Lilly's Mustang in 6.50 again after winning the class at the October heads Up Madness. (From Left to right, Eugene Rodriguez, Bill Lilly, Greg Stephens and Keith Alvarez.

[Chevelle Rob]

Mustang Mike Modeste showed up late last night and is warming the car up this morning. He is having great luck so far with the car and has allready been in the sixes at over 200. He will be a contender for sure this weekend.

[Chevelle Rob]

[Chevelle Rob]

Paul Major driving his 2001 Corvette currently holds low et. (4.61) and top miles per hour (172.7) in the Procharger Boost class.



Jason Black from Gastonia, NC has low et. with a 4.87 in the Induction Solutions Non boost, while Troy Pirez has top mph with 151.05

[Camaroguy327]

Mr. Tip Racing snapped all the lugs off the axle after his burnout. The team was able to fix the car for the third round but appeared to break something else while staging.

[Chevelle Rob]

[Chevelle Rob]

Tommy Brewer had bent a few pushrods last night and I didn’t get a chance for photos then, so here they are today. Brady said a rocker stand had come loose which they think caused the damage. Everything else checked out ok this morning so they should be good to go.





"Big Lo" Angelo Graham tore the plantaries out of the transmission Thursday night testing. They made the repairs this morning and were able to qualify the car in eleventh spot with a 5.09 @ 147.



Ali Belford was qualified number one early on the no boost side of Drag Radial. Jason Black bumped them to second.



Eric Dillard is driving John Carter's slightly controversial Corvette this weekend in the boosted class. He landed fourth with a 4.75.




Dustin Mewbourn has a heck of a time keeping this car on the ground. The last two races he has had the front in the air more than on the track andthis weekend was no exception.



Rick Carmody lost traction early in the second session then got back in the throttle. I don't want to bust on Rick, but let this be a lesson to the rest of us.

[Chevelle Rob]

Brian Goss (left lane) put his YSI blown Mustang in the top position in Real Street, which is sure to cause a stir among the nitrous cars in class.







Goss' team mate Mike Freeman is another car that like to hang the wheels, though that'sot the way to run fast, he qualified 16th.



Clint lonon took second spot, just ahead of Charlie Pixley winner of the last race at SGMP.

[Chevelle Rob]

John Vergate and Mike Stavrinos were top of the class in Automatic Pro Mod. Stavrinos has been driving the Motive Gear Mustang owned by Jimmy Berry and tuned by Steve Johnson. The all ford powerplant was built by Scotty's Racing technology.





This is the first time for Open Outlaw here at the ORTC and eight cars showed up to run with multiple event winner Ron Logan taking top position with a 4.12 ahead of Matt Wirth.

[Chevelle Rob]

Stavrinos also took top spot in Outlaw 10.5 with a 4.45, bumping Bryan Markiewicz in the final session after Markiewicz had allready went down.





John Schroeder qualified number one in Outlaw 632, just three hunfdredths ahead of Mike Schmidt. Mike has been consistantly fast here in the Florida races and done well. We'll se tomorrow if anyone has something for him.