US Nationals Friday Coverage

[Chevelle Rob]

It’s Friday here in Bradenton and the first qualifying session will soon be under way. First round is scheduled to start at 3:00 PM and there is one round today, and two rounds of qualifying on Saturday.

The weather has been great all week though it was very cold the past few days, today it’s warming up with the sun high overhead there are no clouds to be seen.







The big news of the day is Dave Hance is officially the first Drag Radial car into the sixes. David will be competig in the Pro Mod 57 Chevy after his engine let go on the record setting and history making pass. Thanks to Alan from BMP for the photos.



Spiro Pappas is here with the Hemi car.



Big Dog Carlos Zaldivar is on hand giving help to Bill Futch and Mel Nelson. Speaking of Bill Travis Quillen had to weld up his intercooler after his pass this morning shook the tires.

Rob Wells New Car Debut

Rob Well’s from Ford Speed Racing Debut his new Outlaw10.5 car.



Steve Drummand is driving Mike Bradford’s new car. Steve is also the car builder. Steve is from Delaware while the rest of the crew hails from Maryland.



Mickey Thompson is here providing on site support.



Matt Scranton is here driving the Tial Motorsports sponsored Mustang in Drag Radial. He ran a 4.93 during testing this morning after breaking the driveshaft on the first pass.



Tony Ridenour in the house. Tony runs a Nelson Competition Procharged BBC on alcohol.


Eric Kenward and ther TRZ Motorsports crew are here for the Real Street class debut at the US Nationals this year. Real Street is a lower budget class designed around the 275 series radial tire. Cars are limited to a single bar plate system, 76 mm turbo or equivilant blower and run in the low to mid 5 second zone in the 1/8th.

See you after first round.

[Chevelle Rob]

First round qualifying sheets

[Chevelle Rob]

In Pro Street Pos Chiquite Aruba resident Trevor Eman piloted his 06 Ford Escort to the top spot, followed by Tony Christian, Mike Hill and Jake Carlton, all in the 4-teen zone.







Brad Brand took the number one spot from Bill Futch with a killer 4.37 @ 182 pass to Bill’s 4.41 @ 177 in Outlaw 10.5. Craig Pio from Oceanside NY is third with Rob Wells fourth and Wild Man Jimmy Lee Hall taking fifth.





Gary White was off pace a bit running a 4.30 @174 for sixth.















Radial Tire has the expected man on top, Will Stevenson, 4.74 @ 155 for a new personal best. John Kolivas is number two. Third is Tony Ridenour with top MPH @ 161.



Ritchie Stine stayed over after the Tomato Nationals for this race and is currently fourth.



The cowbell match race with Pirez and Hance didn’t happen as Dave hurt the motor earlier. Pirez is sixth with a 4.90 @ 149

Only three cars in Heavy Street today with Mike Schmidt on top of the field. 4.89 @ 147





Real Street has 8 cars so far. Clint Lonon is currently number one running a 5.33 @ 133, followed by Rick Losee. Clint and Rick finished 1-2 last weekend in Immokalee.



Aaron Gramer is third in class running a 5.54 @ 128



Troy Pirez Jr. is running Real Street this weekend as well, 5.68 @ 125 in the first session

[Chevelle Rob]

During testing Mel Nelson cracked another head at the outside bolt. This is the third head that has cracked in a similar area. They had another head delivered from home and are busy repairing the car.





Chuck Ulsch broke a rod bolt during testing this morning, they are also attempting to fix the car for tomorrows session.





Walter Drakeford broke an input shaft and converter on his first qualifying pass this afternoon.



Steve from CRT Transmissions is repairing the transmission and Walt is borrowing a converter from Rob Wells.



Candido Sanchez broke a trans as well today. His crew is making repairs.



During testing this morning the cams broke in the Titan Motorsports Scion 10.5 car. They replaced the engine and made first round. It drove through the clutch a bit and still ran 4.30 @ 168. They are running in Pro Street this weekend.



Brad Brand is on top of the 10.5 field so far. Brad is happy with the MPH and feels they need to improve the front half. This is the first runs this weekend with a fresh engine, a 667 ci Big Block. Believe it or not they used to run more cubic inches. Brad said they are going to loosen the converter for tomorrow, one of the benefits of using the Neal Chance bolt together converter.

Ray Schuler had some problems with the converter to flex plate bolts coming loose. It did not cause any significant damage and they are making repairs. The owner of Bradco converters is here helping out on the crew.





Dwayne Schultz (Dspeedracer on yellow bullet) is herewith his LSX powered drag radial car. He runs a twin turbo 388 ci engine by Billy Briggs.





During qualifying today he got into a wheelie right off and pedaled the car to a 5.48 @ 137.



Skinny Man Matt Mugall had his best run in the car so far for ET. They are going to try and step it up tomorrow.