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Sections News
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Gator Bites - 2003 MAC Tool Gatornationals Sportsman Report 3/28/03 I knew before I left for the airport that the 34th edition of the NHRA Gatornationals would be a weird one. NHRA announced two days before the start of race that due to the fact that half of the pits were either under water or at the least a mud bog, the Sportsman portion of the race (Super Stock, Stock and the 0.90 classes) would be contested at “nearby” Orlando Dragway. Well, my definition of nearby and NHRA’s is a little different. Orlando SpeedWorld was by my calculation (really the rent-a-car’s odometer) 147 miles from the Gainesville track. It’s like saying “I had a room in New York City and my girlfriend stayed in nearby BALTIMORE! Mark my words the heading for this week’s National Dragster will be something like “A Tale of Two Cities”. You heard it here first. The original plan was to run the Sportsman on Friday and Saturday at Orlando until they got the fields down to the final 16 or thereabouts. Then the show would move up north to Gainesville on Sunday for the finals. More than once on Friday I heard talk that the racers had taken a straw (?) vote and if they had their druthers, they would just be as happy to run the entire event in Orlando. When I left Orlando on Friday night I spoke with two NHRA division directors and coordinators and they assured me that the show would in fact move to the “Big” track on Sunday and to never listen to racers. I should have. In addition to the Sportsman change in venue, it was reported that some of the racers upon being notified that the race was in Orlando and not Gainesville, decided to skip the Gators altogether. One rumor circulating around the pits was that the high dollar Super Stock team of DeFrank and Sons had their driver turn the rig around and head back to California once they caught wind of the move. While the Super Stock and Stock classes were full of the usual suspects, the 0.90 classes were lacking with less than 60 Super Gas racers on hand and roughly the same amount in Super Comp. But the weather was great in Central Florida and I stayed at Speed World on Friday and shot qualifying and class eliminations. Midway through Saturday’s time trials for the Pros, NHRA Vice President Graham Light announced that the show in Orlando would stay in Orlando and the Sportsman racers would not be coming to Gainesville after all. Graham cited the 70% chance of rain as NHRA’s main reason for changing their minds and if you watched the local weather channels you could not disagree with their decision. As it turned out neither track had any appreciable precipitation and both shows went off without a hitch. The announcement did make for some NHRA photographers and writers heading south to Orlando at speeds that were probably a little over the posted 70-MPH on I-75. I have to confess that I really have no first hand information on the racing at Orlando on Saturday other than the fact that the track condition was not up to the liking of most of the Sportsman racers. While Gainesville had the usual NHRA crew keeping the track to tip top condition, the Orlando track was relying on the local track personnel. Dave Ley from the East Coast Stock Super/Stock Association was on top of the Orlando starting line crew all weekend making sure the track was being tended to. I can’t blame the SpeedWorld gang too much; they did not have the equipment or the rosin to keep the starting line up to the usual NHRA standards. Other than photographing the qualifying and class eliminations on Friday, my only exposure the Sportsman was on Sunday morning when the NHRA did bring the winners of the Sportsman race in Orlando to the for a photo shoot. It was too bad but NHRA really did not have an alternative other than canceling the Sportsman part of the show. And that would have gone over like you know what with the racers. Funny thing though, most of the spectators at Gainesville did not seem to miss the Sportsman. And most of the Sportsman racers I talked to were happy staying at Orlando. Wonder why? Maybe it’s a subject for a future Jeff Burk column. Meanwhile back in Gainesville After my leisurely (?) drive back to Gainesville Friday night I decided to stick to the Pros, Alcohol, Competition Eliminator and Pro Mod that was running up in Gainesville and not go back to Orlando since the Sportsman “Sweet 16” would be there on Sunday (or so I thought). Like I said before the NHRA did bring the winners of the Sportsman race in Orlando to the track on Sunday morning for a photo shoot, but that was as close as I got to the finals at Orlando. Reading the list of Sportsman winners and runner ups a strange pattern seemed to develop. Nearly all of the runner-ups were from the Garden State of New Jersey. In Super Comp it was Tommy Stalba Jr. from Williamstown. In Stock it was Lee Zane from Pittsgrove. Former World Champ Peter Biondo who lives in Mount Laurel was runner up in Super Stock. And finally in Competition Eliminator, Millville resident Doug Harris runner-upped to Charlie Westcott Jr. Top Alcohol Funny Car Alcohol Funny while not the stoutest field I have ever seen (only 15 cars bothered to show up). But what it lacked in quantity it made up in quality. Bob Newberry scored his third career Gatornationals win in Alcohol Funny Car and the 41st of his career by defeating the upstart Jeff Craig in the final. Jeff got out on Bob by a couple of thousandths but the Schenectady NY engine builder reeled him in 5.643 253.66 to Jeff’s 5.768 @ 250.69 Earlier in the semifinal round Craig used a holeshot aided 5.707 253.09 to take out the quicker Cy Chesterman’s 5.695 254.52 to get to the finals. In the other match Newberry laid a 5.650 252.59 defeating Chuck Cheeseman’s, 5.678 251.39 in what was one heck of round. Low qualifier was Newberry’s 5.618 and his 255.24 was Top Speed of the meet. Not in attendance at Gainesville was Lucas Oil World Champ Frank Manzo who is finishing up his new car. Also not making the tow was former Champ Jay Payne who appears to be snake bit in his 2003 Championship bid and decided to stay home and regroup. Top Alcohol Dragster Top Alcohol Dragster or A/FD eliminator as some were calling it, boiled down to the injected fuel cars of Manhasset NY’s Tony Bartone and Division Three hitter Bill Reichert. T-bone was off the line first and never looked back taking out the Bars Leak dragster of Reichert, 5.351 to a way back there 5.524. Reichert was low qualifier with a great 5.284 and later reset the track record to a 5.255 at 274.05 during eliminations. Although only five A/FD’s made the field, the final four were all Nitromethane burning. Bartone, World Champ Art Gallant, Reichert and NED regular Richard Bourke in Michael Bartone’s A/FD made up the semifinal round. The fastest blown car in the field was the B/AD of Marty Thacker. Thacker carded a career best 5.328 @ 263.69 in his Hadman car to grab the # 4 spot but went out in the second round. Thacker laid a great 0.014 light on World Champ Art Gallant but the one time Pep Boys sponsored A/FD reeled the blown dragster in with a 5.334 to Thacker’s not too shabby 5.484. Competition Eliminator
Thankfully in the final the red light did not have a bearing on the outcome but a terrible reaction time by Harris did. At the green Doug cut a terrible 0.174 light in his PST/A S-10 while Charlie was off the line with a good 0.061 reaction time. At the stripe it was Westcott Jr. by a couple of car lengths with a 0.572 under 9.55 to Harris’ 0.515 under 7.785. Low qualifier in Comp was the ’32 Bantam A/EA of David Rampy. David ran 0.665 under the 8.03 index and lasted until the third round losing to the B/A of Jerry Hemmingson when Rampy ran a slowing 7.672. The highest qualified NED Comp car was Kevin Houghtaling from Ashland VA driving his '91 Calais F/SM Kevin qualified in the # 6 spot with a 8.973 -0.577 under his index, but lost in the first round to the A/ED of Robert Bailey. Only 31 cars showed up for the 32 car field and since everyone was assured a qualifying spot, the NHRA cancelled the third qualifying round that was scheduled for early Saturday. I don’t know if it was the long wait but the first round of Comp looked like the first day of Drag Racing 101. There were so many red lights and miscues it looked like a circus. The red monster decided six first round matchups. One dragster did a dry burnout that took the car down past the 1/8-mile mark. Division One racer George Vignogna, from Mahopac NY driving his, '97 Sebring, B/SMA had an oil line come off during his run and nearly put the Mopar into the wall as the car was sashaying down the track. It was a wild round. Back to Orlando and Super Stock
The point is that Monty ran the Gators field like a bracket racer. His lights were unbelievable. Monty cut lights (now get this) between a 0.001 in the fourth round, a 0.002 in the quarters, and a 0.007 in the semis beating NED regular Mark Alvey. And then in the final mows down the tree one more time with a 0.008 to take out NED favorite son Peter Biondo. Biondo had a decent 0.029 light and ran a great 10.265 on a 10.26 dial but with .021 in the bank Monty only needed (?) a 9.163 on his 9.14 dial for his Gatornationals win. With Biondo, Alvey’s GT/CA, and Dean Ribeiro’s ’85 Firebird GT/HA, three of the four semifinalists were from Division One. Close but no winner for the NED. Low qualifier for Super Stock was the 1990 GT/GA Cavalier of Dave Layer from Dayton OH with a 1.169 under 10.031. Stock Eliminator
In a day where it’s rare to see a stick car in the finals let alone win the race, Walther did the near impossible winning in a double breakout final. Walther’s Camaro ran under the 11.27 dial with an 11.254 but Lee Zane was going deeper and ran out with an 11.906 on his 11.93 index. Lee had just won the LODRS one week earlier at the same track and it would have been great for Lee to win back to back races. Low qualifier was the C/FIA Firebird of Floyd Russo from Gonzales LA with a 1.316 under 10.684.Ninety four cars made the first round bell on Saturday morning. Super Gas Super Gas was the only Sportsman class that did not feature a racer from the NED in the final. Bryan Robinson driving his beautiful 1963 Valvoline Corvette won a double breakout race over the neat 2002 convertible Mustang of Steve Matusek 9.867 to Matusek’s 9.853. The deepest any Northeast racer got in Super Gas was Duane Lafleur who went all the way to round four losing to eventual winner Robinson on another double breakout. This time Duane ran a way under 9.827 to Robinson’s 9.887. Super Comp The NED had a great chance to redeem itself in Super Comp with 2002 Division Champ Tom Stalba Jr. in the finals up against the door car of Florida racer Corky Markwart. Tom was making his National event debut with his brand new 2003 Dragster Chassis car and was having a great day. But so was Corky. Corky’s 2002 Cavalier ran a right on 8.900 in the quarterfinals then won on a double breakout in the semis over the dragster of Richard Puertas. Stalba defeated the dragster of Arnold Reed in the semifinals on a holeshot. Tom ran a 8.923 to the 8.913 of Reed’s to earn the right to race Markwart for the gold. In the final Markwart had a 0.012 reaction time to Stalba’s 0.042 and hung on for the win with an 8.914 to Tom’s breaking out 8.893. Corky and his Cavalier are no strangers to fast bracket racing as he competes regularly in the Division Two Top Sportsman division. As it turned out both the Orlando and Gainesville shows can be judged successes for the racers and fans alike. I would like to thank Budget Rent a Car for having unlimited mileage on their rentals. Also I would like to thank Sonny’s Real Pit Barbecue for raising my cholesterol level over 1000. But a serious boo/hiss to the owners and operators of the local Gainesville hotels. They just didn’t gouge the racers and fans with their three times double room rates. They insisted on a three-night minimum too. Nowhere on the tour do you have to pay so much for so little as at the Gators. I need to get a Winnebago. Next race: Delmar Pepsi National Open March 28-30, Delmar Delaware. |
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