Race RecapThe point races began to heat up at the fourth race of the National Sand Drag Association (NSDA) season in San Jacinto, CA May 18-20. The halfway event in the NSDA season produced lots of upsets and began to shape up the points battles heading into the final stretch of the season.
Top Fuel
Scott Whipple made it two wins in a row, backing up the Primm win with his third NSDA TF victory of the 2007 season. Scott definitely didn’t have an easy route to the victory in his Canidae backed entry.
Charlie Brown Jr. put his Team Extreme entry in the top spot with a 2.484 final session pass. Whipple put his car in the #2 spot with a 2.500 run followed by Keith Longerot’s 2.558 to round out the top half of the field.
Charlie picked up where he left off in qualifying with low E.T. of round one with a 2.586 on a bye run. Whipple also had a bye run while Keith Longerot defeated Mike Peasley and Dennis Rieck won a close race over Craig Brown. Round two featured a titanic match up between Keith Longerot and Scott Whipple. Keith would get the hole shot advantage, however he would have to lift early and hand the win to Whipple 2.537-2.827. The other side of the ladder would see Brown defeat Dennis Rieck in a close 2.600-2.630 decision. The final round race lived up to its hype as Whipple took the victory by inches on a hole shot 2.576-2.527.
Scott’s victory sets him in a great position in the NSDA TF point standings. He is currently 47 points ahead of second place Dennis Rieck with 4 of 7 events in the books.
Scott Whipple extended his TF points lead with his race victory.
Charlie Brown Jr. was the #1 qualifier and made it to the final round.
Dennis Rieck stayed in the #2 spot in points with his semi-final finish.
Keith Longerot qualified #3 and made it to the semi-finals.
Top Alcohol
Richard Montiel drove his “Top Dog” to his first NSDA Top Alcohol victory in San Jacinto. Montiel headed into Sunday as the top qualifier after a 2.580 qualifying pass put him on top of the field. Dan Allen and Shane Sanford both ran 2.599’s, however the tie was broken to the ten-thousandths digit with Dan ending up as the #2 qualifier and Shane #3.
Montiel led off eliminations with a first round 2.580 on a single pass as Pedro Villa could not make the round one call. Nick Januik took out Gary Mink in the next pairing 2.659-2.665. Number two qualifier Dan Allen red lighted away a 2.656 in the next pair; handing the win to TA newcomer David Morton, who advanced with a 2.787. The final pair of round one would be a huge match up between the top two in NSDA Top Alcohol points. Point leader Shane Sanford’s Frederosa Racing entry went up against second place points man Mike DeNunzio in the Canidae dragster. DeNunzio struggled in qualifying ending up in only the 6th position, but turned things around with a huge win over Sanford on a hole shot 2.691-2.659.
The semi-final round started off with top qualifier Montiel advancing after Januik red lighted. Montiel ran a 2.564 on the pass, which would give him lane choice in the final round. David Morton showed he was for real by defeating DeNunzio with a great 2.601/138mph pass to Mike’s 2.699. This set up a final round between two racers that haven’t been in a NSDA TA final round before. Richard lived up to his name as “Top Dog” taking the win with an impressive 2.513 to Morton’s game effort of a 2.611. Putting the run into perspective, Montiel’s final round 2.513 was faster than Charlie Brown Jr.’s 2.527 final round low E.T. in Top Fuel.
A tight point battle has emerged in the Top Alcohol class. Shane Sanford still tops the list, but is a mere 9 points ahead of second place Mike DeNunzio. Gary Mink sits third, but is only 24 points out of first while Dan Allen is in 4th place.
Richard Montiel took his "Top Dog" dragster to the Top Alcohol class victory.
David Morton had a strong NSDA debut running a best of 2.60 and reaching the final round.
Nick Januik had a couple of huge wheelstands during the weekend & made it to the semi-final round.
Mike DeNunzio ended up with a semi-final finish in TA and inched closer to the points lead.
Top Eliminator
DL King scored one for the 4-cylinder entries by taking the TE class win in the “Animal Control” dragster in San Jacinto. Taylor Brewer’s “Bad News” dragster took the top spot in qualifying with a 2. Jeff Mamer’s “Sidewinder” ended up #2 with a 2.986 followed by Pete Schenk and Rick Morris in the top 4. The Top Eliminator field saw 19 entries vie for the 16 spots on the elimination ladder. Lori Ketron ended up on the bump spot in the class with a 3.368.
Round one saw a couple major upsets. The first one was point leader Jeff Mamer breaking out with a 2.921 against Paul Graham’s blown buggy who took the win with a 3.180. Next up was Mamer’s closest competition in the points hunt, Jim Williams, falling to Mike Rasmussen 3.128-3.178.
Round two started off with a staging foul taking out Taylor Brewer and giving DL King a solo victory. The next pair would see Tim Martin take out Paul Graham 2.972-3.134. Next up would be Pete Schenk coasting to 10.202 win over a red lighting Darrell Cypert. The final pair would see Rick Morris’ “Heavy Metal” Buggy take the win over Mike Rasmussen 3.016-3.138.
King opened the semi-final round with a hole shot win over Morris 3.105-3.026. Pete Schenk took it easy in the next pair as Tim Martin experienced problems and could not make it to the line. In the final, KIng took a starting line advantage over Schenk and forced a breakout decision victory 3.026-2.934.
Mamer’s #2 qualifying effort gained him a few points on second place Jim Williams as the gap opened up to 13 points. Third place Taylor Brewer is 30 points out of first while Terry Crawford sits in fourth only 14 more points back.
DL King took the TE class victory.
Pete Schenk backed up his Primm win with a runner-up finish at this event.
Rick Morris took his "Heavy Metal" buggy to the semi-final round in TE.
Tim Martin ended up with a semi-final finish in Top Eliminator.
Pro Bracket Recap
All photos courtesy C3 Productions - www.c3productions.net