WEST COAST HOT RODS – FINAL RACE OF THE SEASON.
With the West Coast Hot Rod Association/Summit season finale off to a good start, gremlins suddenly struck the track computers mid-afternoon Saturday and shut down the 1/8th mile timing lights in the AutoClub lane. While this is an inconvenience to quarter mile racers it makes racing impossible for the three classes of cars that run heads-up for an 1/8th mile. After repeated attempts to exorcise the gremlins and a 1-1/2 hour delay, the decision was made to run 1/8th mile classes down the Budweiser lane and determine qualifying based on times. Unfortunately the shutdown occurred as a large contingent of heads-up cars were in the lanes and the delay and subsequent rearrangements pushed racing well into Saturday night. By Sunday the Famoso crew had repaired the computers and with the gremlins sent elsewhere the event finished nearly on time Sunday afternoon.
West Coast Hot Rods raced three heads-up classes on the 1/8th mile: Outlaw 8.5, True 10.5 and Limited 10.5; with quarter mile classes running in Open Comp (a dial-in class) and B, C, D, and E Gas, (index classes). For the first time a Top Doorslammer class was added running on dial-ins of 6:60 to 7:59 with qualifying on reaction time. The heads-up, Open Comp and the Top Doorslammer classes ran qualifying on Saturday and finals on Sunday. The Gassers ran qualifying and eliminations both days. B and C Gas classes were combined and D and E classes were combined.
Summit ran dial-in classes: Sportsman, Pro, Super Pro and Motorcycle. Summit ran qualifying and eliminations both days.
On Saturday WCHRA racer Mike Williams took home the trophy in B/C Gas and Sabrina Capps was the runner up; and, in D/E Gas Steve Barta finished first with Josh Conrad in second. Summit Sportsman racers Pam Hulse and CW Hoefer went to the finals with Hulse winning; in Super Pro Steve White the #1 qualifer won over Greg Tremain the #6 qualifier; in Pro James Kirkman took the win after James Alexander red-lighted; on the Motorcycles Anthony Delatorre came in ahead of Terry Rollin.
Mike Williams – B/C Gas – winner of Saturday race
Steve Barta was the Saturday winner in D/E Gas
Sunday started with an early morning non-denominational service and the cars began filling the lanes at 8:30 a.m. About 200 racers were in the pits racing in 11 classes including the new Top Doorslammer class fielding 10 cars.
Below are all the Sunday winners.
SUNDAY FINALS – West Coast Hot Rods:
B/C Gas: Two B Gas Camaros met in the final round which pitted #3 qualifier Ashley Deuschle against #2 qualifier Tom Fowler. Fowler had a reaction time of .003 to Deuschle’s reaction time of .015 but, Deuschle took the win when Fowler ran a 8.598 on an 8.6 index. Deuschle ran 156.84 mph and Fowler topped out at 151.78 mph.
D/E Gas: #1 qualifier Josh Conrad and #6 qualifier Steve Barta, both running on the D Gas index of 10.60, staged for the finals. These two were also in the finals on Saturday when Barta prevailed. Sunday, Conrad came out on top with a reaction time of .018 running a near perfect ET of 10.605 at 129.65 mph. Barta broke-out with a too quick 10.573 ET.
Top Doorslammer: This first-time-ever WCHRA class qualified on Saturday with Keith Morovich qualifying #1, Brenden Frye #2, Frank Merenda #3, Scott Loomis #4, Steve “Flattop” Faller #5, Jim Data #6, Tom Huggins #7, Gary Wake #8, Tom Mettler #9 and Ray Padgott #10. In the semi-finals on Sunday, Tom Mettler in his 2001 Dakota P/U got the bye while Steve Faller in his 1963 Corvette ran against Keith Morovich in a ’67 Nova. Morovich took the win to meet Metler in the finals. In the finals, Metler took home the money with a reaction time of .026, ET of 7.522 on a 7.45 dial-in going 181.62 mph. Morovich had a reaction time of .059 and ran an ET of 7.601 on a 7.56 dial-in going 174.08 mph.
Open Comp: Dustin Lee in a ’53 Ford won the race over Lori Dodes in her 1997 Chevy S10. Lee had a reaction time of .084 to Dodes’ reaction time of .427. Lee ran on a dial-in of 11.60 and an ET of 11.645 going 102.17. Dodes had a dial-in of 10.46 but her ET was 10.446.
Limited 10.5: This heads-up class pitted Mike Salki the #3 qualifier against #1 qualifier Allen Gadberry. Salki in a Camaro ran the ladder to sit at the lights in the finals. Salki posted a reaction time of .091, ET of 5.279 and mph of 133.08 to take the win. Gadberry ran an ET of 5.242 and mph of 134.56 on a reaction time of .133. Although he didn’t win the finals Gadberry was the #1 qualifier, had low ET of 4.564 and top speed of 134.56 for the race.
Outlaw 8.5: The finals found DJ Reid and Ryan “Toaster” Jones side-by-side at the lights. Reid’s ’68 Camaro crossed the finish line first to take the win. Reid with a reaction time of .097 ran an ET of 5.383 at 133.07 mph. Toaster Jones came in second with a reaction time of .048 an ET of 5.514 at 147.37 mph. Toaster was the #1 qualifier, ran the race low ET of 4.945 and top speed of 155.38 mph.
True 10.5: Norman Chang and Jeff Kyle, the #1 and #4 qualifiers respectively, were in the finals. Kyle broke at the line giving Chang the win. Chang had an ET of 9.486 on at reaction time of .256 traveling at 68.85 mph.
SUNDAY FINALS – Summit
Pro: After 5 rounds of elimination CW Heofer, the #1 qualifier met Mike Beckwith, the #5 qualifier, at the line. Hoefer was first off the line with a reaction time of .027 to Beckwith’s .208. Hoefer running a dial-in of 12.38 ran an ET of 12.509 at 100.08 mph to Beckwith’s 115.51 mph and an ET of 11.708 on a dial-in of 11.69.
Super Pro: Larry Rosenbaum in Altercation sat next of Greg Tremain, the #1 qualifier, in the finals. Rosenbaum, the #6 qualifier, beat Tremain with a reaction time of .053 an ET of 8.321 on a dial-in of 8.27 at 159.63 mph. Tremain had a reaction time of .063, an ET of 7.715 on a 7.67 dial-in at 164.63 mph.
Sportsman: CW Hoefer, in his ’87 Firebird was back in the finals of this class after winning in Pro. Hoefer met Sacha Nettles whose ’91 Firebird broke giving Hoefer the win in two classes for the week-end. On Saturday Hoefer was runner up in Sportsman but went out in the first round of eliminations in Pro.
Motorcycle: The finals found David Looney, of Looney Tunes Racing, running against Manny Taylor. Looney took the win on a reaction time of .020, an ET of 9.477 going 137.50 mph. Taylor broke out with a reaction time of .039, an ET of 9.199 on a dial-in of 9.21.
Also running with WCHRA/Summit this week-end were the Super E racers.
Once the flag came down and the timing lights were put away — it was over.
This was a full week-end of racing. Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to all the racers for providing all the action.
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SATURDAY
West Coast Hot Rods and Summit are racing this week-end at Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield. Joining them are and SuperE and Top Doorslammers. Sunday will be the last race of the season for West Coast Hot Rods and we will have photos and an article posted Monday evening. Below are some photos taken of today’s racing.
