1998 AHRA World Final Report
Spokane Raceway Park August

This report comes to HH courtesy of J.W. Last of the great Funny Cars of the 70s page...thank you so much!

TOP FUEL

#1 qualifier was Ron Smith 5.40/251, #2 went to Craig Smith's GoodWrench car at 5.43, closely followed by Bobby Baldwin's 5.44. Seven of the eight qualifiers were in the fives, rare for Spokane!

Round 1

-1997 World Finals champ Ron Smith 5.35/269 defeated Arley Langlo who broke after the burnout after literally setting the right slick on fire! (see photo) Langlo is always a photo op!!!!

Arlo Langlo literally lites the tires on the first round burnout....

-Garth Widdison's beautiful "Widdison Motor Sports" car from Utah over Craig Smiths "GoodWrench" car, 5.52 to 5.67

-Bobby Baldwin (driving his own car instead of the Greek's) defeated Bob Passey (96/97 runner up) 5.51 to Passey's tire smokin 5.98

-Chris Karamesines (back in the cockpit after a 4 year layoff but with Bobby Baldwin's name still written on the sidepanels) defeated 96 champ Mike Ranney's Colorado Raider, 5.61/263 to a losing 5.68

Round 2

-The Greek smoked the tires almost the entire quarter mile but defeated Ron Smith's slowing 7.50ish with a 6.33

- 90/91 champ and 93 runner-up Bobby Baldwin's 5.63/208 defeated Garth Widdison who broke on the burnout (and oiled down the right lane).

Final

- Unfortunately, I had to leave before the final round, however, I did call the track later that evening to get the results. Now comes the strange part... the girl at the track on the phone told me that Bobby Baldwin defeated the Greek, 5.63 to 6.33. I thanked her and hung up the phone, then looked at the semi final round results...identical E.Ts from the previous round for both!! I didn't call back to verify, figuring the Spokane paper would have the correct results...Monday's Spokesman-Review showed the exact same results!!!! So the only thing I know for sure is the Bobby Baldwin was the 98 AHRA World Finals winner. Find it hard to believe that both cars ran the identical E.T.s from the previous round...believe it or not!!!

Some Observations: - Spokane is an AWESOME track to experience nitro cars. The grandstands literally bump up against the race track and you can almost feel the heat coming out of the headers as the cars go by!!!

- The most interesting car at the event was the "Telstar" front motored dragster being campaigned by "Diamond Dave" Miller and Charlie Proite (names from the past!!!!). This is not a nostalgia car, this is a real attempt to run a F/E T/F car!!!! From what I could gather, the car at Spokane was a prototype (only running a Donovan 417 with 225 inch wheel base), they are currently building a 300 inch car to debut at next years NHRA Winternats. Car at this event ran a best of 6.47 if I remember correctly.

- Oil downs at the AHRA event are very painful experiences! Guys with brooms and brushes make for long down times.

- This is race reminds me of a 70's NHRA WCS event. Regional nitro cars attempting to work into an 8 car field.

- This is a great drag race!!! Like a blast from the past!!!!

 

FUNNY CAR

Round 1

Jerry Toliver's Mad F/C defeated Dave Benjamin 6.73/261 to Nasty's close 6.01/229 in a battle of the "Haves vs Have-Nots"

Dave Benjamin vs Jerry Toliver in round 1...

- In the battle of the Wyatts, Jack Wyatt smoked the tires almost the entire quarter mile but defeated Wyatt Radke's ex-Bazemore Mustang 6.33/228 to a 6.36/191

Wyatt Radke in the ex-Whit Bazemore Mustang prior to round 1.....

- Tom Hoover (back in the car after Cory Lee qualified it) defeated Paula Martin (who finally got down the quarter mile) 5.84/229 to a trailing 6.20/231

- Gary Densham soloed at 6.59 after booked in entry Chuck Beal was unable to show after suffering a detached retina in the weeks prior

Round 2

- Gary Densham ran a 5.82/264 to defeat an up in smoke Jerry Toliver

- Jack Wyatt shook hard off the line but had Tom Hoover covered until the 1000ft mark when the chutes shook out allowing Hoover to drive by for the win 5.89/229 to Wyatt's obviously slowing 6.10/158

Final

- Densham won the event for the third year in a row, and for the third year in a row Tom Hoover was runner up. Much like the T/F final, the times reported for the F/C final (I wasn't able to attend, had to get the results over the phone) showed the exact same ETs/MPHs were run by the finalists that they ran in the semi-finals...so Densham's 5.82/264 defeated Hoover's 5.89/229.

Next year I'll stick around for the finals to get accurate results!

Observations: - The Spokane announcer spent the entire weekend hyping the MAD mag F/C to the point of nausea. Saturday's hype was followed by a broken throttle cable on the burnout and a coast through the quarter mile during night qualifying. On Sunday Jerry Toliver and crew chief Donnie Couch judged a calendar girl contest before eliminations, time that should have been spent (judging by his performance at Seattle and Spokane) tending to the race car!!! IMHO, their are more deserving racers of those big sponsor $$$$$!!!

- Best cross -track insult heard the entire weekend (Spokane is so narrow you almost don't have to yell across the track to be heard): "Our snack bar is bigger than yours" Best comeback: "Size doesn't matter" - Sunday's crowd was very sparse, quite a surprise after Saturday's packed grandstands. Surprised this race can survive on such a limited turnout...but sure glad it does!!! - If you miss the good old days, save your pennies and make this race next year!!!!