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NHRA Division Six Lucas Series Pacific Raceways
June 17-19, 2005
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Photos notes
Just a note to inform everyone how
our photo deal works. First, we are mainly a video operation so we often
don't even get photos of a number of racers who have asked us to video
them. Other reasons you may not see those worthy of inclusion here are
many. Maybe we tried and failed, or just flat screwed up and didn't
get one. Yes we often get more of some than others, but a friendly reminder
on your part very often will see us make sure your favorite racer shows
up in some future coverage. Often we attempt to at least get the finalists
one way or another by shooting them in the later rounds. We almost always
video the finals, so don't look for too many of those here. Yes, we
used to do a lot of video frame captures, but those are extremely time
intensive so unless it's something very spectacular we don't do many
of those any more. In the case of this race we shot over 500 photos
and six hours of video. We only have so much time to spend on this 'freebee'
web coverage so hopefully you'll understand.
Seattle report
Monday morning and after the three day (four fer some) marathon that
was the Seattle Lucas we welcome a seated position to begin this day
of work. Then again it could be worse...much worse, as our friend Rich
Carlson currently sits on a Seattle side street, a pool of red fluid
under his stationary motorhome.
We return from our first visit to Seattle in a year with many, many stories, photos and video. It was an event that featured another massive Saturday night crowd, 397 racers, veteran and rookie winners, and unfortunately a pair of guys going home with destroyed racecars.
On Saturday the familiar Top Comp Baretta of Scott Howell hit the top end wall, flipped, caught fire, but managed to climb out uninjured. Then Sunday another Top Comp incident at the big end resulted in Tom Koenen's dragster hitting the wall hard. He too was able to walk away and we all thank racecar builders who do such a good job.
We'll go over some of the stuff the other sites may not have covered, and remind you that all the numbers etc. are at the usual sites.
The Saturday night alky finals saw seven cars, all blown, show for round one of TAD with 2004 D6 champ Steve Federlin coming out on top over Brandon Johnson. It was a good race, with perhaps the highlight for the performance people a very nice 5.392 qualifying effort from the Johnson team who is rumored to be on the verge of a possible major sponsorship deal.
In Funny Car the biggest surprise was unheralded Forrest LeBlanc getting by a tire-smoking Bucky Austin in round one. From then on it was the awaited meeting of Brian Hough and Clint Thompson resulting in Thompson coming out on top with a great 5.77/249 after Hough went -.024 red. Hough had low ET and lead the seven car field at 5.756. One guy having a 'good-news-bad-news' weekend was Chilliwack BC's Tim Nemeth who was in the 5.8 zone all weekend then nailed a cone against Hough in the semis damaging the nose of his Camaro, proving that at 235 mph moveable Styrofoam beats stationary fiberglass every time.
An 18 car Comp field was lead off by Chuck Smithfield's BB/A Beretta at a -0.669 7.521, followed by the first 2005 outing of last year's Divisional Champ Gary Anderson driving his screaming 279 inch H/A '99 Firebird with a -0.651 8.769. The final featured Mike Pessemier's rocketship-fast B/Dragster against the new Neon of Dennis Meyer, and with the dragster sideways through the eyes on a 6.90 pass the Mopar went on to victory that featured the largest trophy pic crowd of the race. On a side note, number four qualifier Robbie Harrison went home Saturday after Igor spit out a rod and it was nice to see Jirka Kaplan and Brandon Hutala return to competition.
The grocery-getter did it to 'em all in Super stock with Federal Way's Troy Olsonawski taking his lumbering SS/NA 396 '66 Malibu to victory over the SS/CM Camaro of Jeff Davison.
In the Hemi Shoot-out portion of the program it was all West Coast Hemis with Jerry Jenkins taking his second such final of the season after his Las Vegas win. This one featured a lot of action with both Jenkins and Michael Ogburn on the bumper more than once, Harry Holton taking low ET on a red-lighting 8.61 in the final and in a cool effort from the team of Peter Wille some in-car video footage of both Peter and Holton that you'll have to see to believe! HH will have copies for our upcoming Hemi video.
In Stock we witnessed a simply marvelous performance from 16 year old rookie shoe Ryan McClanahan from Alta Loma CA. His win came in a new Mandella-built A/FIA '02 Firebird that had not turned a tire before Thursday. He not only took the all new car to victory but wheeled the family's wild, wheelstanding SS/HA Camaro to the SS semis! Easily one of the most impressive performances we've seen in a good while ...especially considering this kid was in a Jr. a year ago. Runner-up was the Worm himself Don Elgin.
Super Comp saw Mike Henderson run 8.92/8.904/8.901 before an 8.91 win over Emmot McKillop who also had a terrific string of numbers before his 8.93 final.
Ferd won in Super Gas over Curt Giese, Terry Reed took Super Street over over rookie Dick Williams, Anita Cunningham was victorious over Mike O'Leary in Motorcycle and a couple of former Super Comp guys, Mark Heritage and Paul Nowak met in the final of the quickest field in Top Comp history, Heritage taking it. Track favorite Bill Huntington won Super Pro over the seldom-seen Camaro of painter Ron Johnson.
In exhibition action Howard Anderson was clearly the class of the eight car AA/GS field after qualifying his Pro Mod-like wingless '38 Chevy at a spectacular 6.793 before marching through the field to defeat Ron Nahas in the final.
After all this it was perhaps in the Nitro Harley exhibition class where we saw science fiction numbers from a guy who came all the way from Palm Beach Florida. During qualifying in the cool night air Friday evening, Mike Lehman laid down a stunning 6.419...at only 204 mph! Stunning because this thing was traveling 208 at half track and lost a hole at about 1000 ft. Needless to say, next weekend's AHDRA meet here at Pacific will be one to see and rumor has it the CMDRA troops are campaigning hard to have Lehman...and maybe even some other major hitters at Mission July 2 & 3. Lehman backed up his performances with a 6.46 semi over Rob Smith and a 6.49 final round win over Joe Timmons. CMDRA champ Ron Houniet was number two qualifier with a nice 6.71 but he lost a close one to Timmons in the semis.
All this together with a spectacular 'track-lights-off' five second jet car show and Randy Bradford smokin' and flamin' AA/FA run at night and baby, there was something for everyone!
All-in-all it was a terrific weekend for us in Kent, HH thanks not only Russell Stevenson and Jason Fiorito, but the entire staff of Pacific Raceways for making our visit so nice. As well the help of the D6 Certification team, and the support of all our racing fiends especially Gary Howe & family who along with the Peck clan who laid out a feast Saturday night that was just awesome!
On a final note this event marks our final northwest event under the direction of Mike Rice. After seeing those legs sticking out of those shorts for more years than we can remember it was somehow fitting it ends at Seattle. Since his promotion from the starting line to the office Mike never failed to stand behind HH in more ways that any of you will ever know. Though we wish them all the best in the future Mike, Beth and the kids will be missed greatly. It will not be the same without Mikey around, but there's more to this story, much more, as we found out this weekend that Ray Rice is most likely in his final season of stellar service. Words cannot describe what this family has meant to northwest drag racing and if it comes to pass that we not only loose one of 'em but two...well it's impossible right now to even think about.