National Sand Drag News - TVSD BAD Nats June '12 Race Recap

Thunder Valley Sand Drags in Grain Valley, MO played host to the BAD Nationals, which also served as Race 2 of the 2012 Mid-America Sand Drag Series. The TVSD track has always been known as a track with a ton of hook, and it was once again “on kill” on this particular June weekend. With the weather cooperating, and rain clouds breaking up as they neared the track, this would be a great weekend of racing. Here are the highlights of the weekend.

Top Eliminator

With no Top Alcohol class on this weekend at Thunder Valley, the Top Eliminator class became the headline show. A great mix of Supercharged V8’s & turbocharged entries showed up to battle on the 2.95 Index. When qualifying ended, it would be Oklahoma’s Mike Smith leading the pack with a 2.958 in his Turbo 4-cylinder Dragster. The #2 qualifier would be the screw-blown BBC-powered Dragster of Oklahoma’s Marc Luce, who ran his first ever 2 second pass with a 2.961. The rest of the field saw a great mix of racers with Jack Monroe (2.99), Jeff Sieg (3.03), Russ Payne (3.11), and Terry Glasscock (3.21) rounding out the qualifying order.

Round one started off with a key points match up as second place Jeff Sieg battled with fourth place Russ Payne. The team cars put on a good show with Payne giving the win away with a 2.89 break out, advancing Sieg on to the semi-final round. In the other pair, points leader & Atoka winner Terry Glasscock cut it close in winning a close race over Jack Monroe with a nearly perfect 2.951. Mike Smith recorded a solid 2.99 on his bye run.

Top qualifier Smith lined up with Race 1 runner-up Sieg in a classic V-8 versus 4-cylinder battle in the first pair of the semi-finals. When the tree dropped, Smith took a slight starting line advantage, and didn’t look back as he took the win with another 2.99. The next pair would see #2 qualifier Luce in his V-8 powered dragster line up against the Corvair-powered entry of points leader Glasscock. Terry would get a little antsy & leave too soon turning on the red bulb, and handing the win to Luce’s 3.06.

This would set up another classic 4-cylinder versus V-8 final round. On this night, the 4-cylinder power would be too much as Smith left first .116 to .159 and held on for a 3.03 to 3.08 TE victory. This tightened up the Mid-America Series points race with Glassock retaining the lead by just five points over Jeff Sieg with Luce, Smith, and Payne all within striking distance with two races to go.

Mike Smith

Marc Luce

Jeff Sieg

Terry Glasscock

Pro 1 Cars (MASD Point Series)

The Pro 1 Cars class had a stellar 17 car field for Race 2 of the 2012 Mid-America Sand Drag Series event at Thunder Valley Sand Drags. This night would be all about a repeat winner to start the season. The semi-final round started with Texas race John Acker lining up against KC local Dennis Burrows in his 4-cylinder powered Buggy. Burrows would leave first by a slim .001 margin, but he would manage to take too much stripe and break out with a 3.747 (3.75) handing Acker the win. This would set up an all V-8 final round between Acker & local racer Gary Mullikin. In this race, both racers would go .04 over their dials, so the win would be decided on RT and it went to Acker .029 to .101. This would be John Acker’s second win of the 2012 MASD season and gives him a strong points lead over Tim Feuerhelm heading into Race 3.

John Acker

Gary Mullikin

Pro 1 Quads (MASD Point Series)

Pro 1 Quads had a nice turnout at Thunder Valley with many of the Atoka locals making the trip to Missouri. When the semi-final round came around, just one out of town racer remained. Charlie Curtis would take the win to advance on past John Butler in the first pair while Texas racer James Martin defeated Darren Dockins. This would set up a great final round. Heading into this race, James’ son Luke was the point series leader. Advancing to this final round, gave him a big chance to tie his son for the points lead. When the tree fell, it would be Curtis with the big starting line advantage where he held on for the win with a 4.248 (4.16). After two races in the MASD series, Luke Martin holds a five point advantage of his father James, Danny Travis, and Charlie Curtis with Darren Dockins and Nick Allen just two more points back. It’s really anyone’s game heading into the second half of the series.

Charlie Curtis

James Martin

Saturday Bracket Classes

Saturday night at Thunder Valley Sand Drags saw some great racing action in all of the classes. In the Pro 2 Cars class, Randy Michaels defeated Don Hatfield in the final round. Jamie Winsor continued his winning ways in Pro 2 quads riding his Motorcycle to the win over Rick Lovelace. David Risher won the Sport Comp class with his Altered over Brad Buxton’s Dragster. Craig Burgess topped a tough Sport ATV class over Brian Beck. Ashley George (Juniors) and Hunter McKown (Peewees) were the Youth class winners.

Friday Bracket Classes

TVSD’s Friday night program was filled with all of the normal bracket classes run on Saturday night as well. The Pro 1 Cars class saw Bill White continue his winning ways by taking a close final round win over St. Louis area racer Ed Bunch. Oklahoma’s Rick Lovelace walked away with the Pro 1 Quads win over James Martin, who also finished as runner-up on Saturday night. Rick Hatfield took the Pro 2 Cars win before experiencing a wild ride on Saturday where his Dragster ended up hooked into the cable that holds the win lights above the finish line. David Risher also won the Sport Comp trophy class on Friday night defeating Ed Bunch, who took his second runner-up finish of the day. William Austin did a masterful job of taking two class wins on his RZR, winning both the Pro 2 Quads & Sport ATV classes on the night.

Bill White - Pro 1 Cars Winner

Rick Lovelace - Pro 1 Quads Winner

Rick Hatfield - Pro 2 Cars Winner

William Austin - Pro 2 Quads & Sport ATV Winner

David Risher - Sport Comp Winner (Friday & Saturday)

Photos Courtesy:
Lonestar Graphics - www.LoneStarGraphics.com
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