April has been a busy month for racing as all of our major points series are underway! Starting out the season was Atco Raceway with the 10.0 and 12.0 Index program on April 2nd. It was a cold Friday night, but there was plenty of action on the track! Rich Smith in the '86 Cutlass came correct in qualifying taking the #1 qualifier spot with a 12.007. The rest of the field was right on his fender, the top 12 qualifying spots in the 12.0X neighborhood. Rich went rounds until he met up with Jim Harvey in the final. Harvey went 12.001 with a .010 reaction time, which was pretty much impossible for Smith to beat, even with a valiant 12.005 pass. 
In the first matchup of 10.0 Index cars at Atco Raceway, like the 12.0 boys, qualifying was again tight with the top 8 in the field going 10.0X. Carey Cable, making sure the only shade of red he saw that night was from his Nova's paint, came out strong and took the #1 qualifier spot running a 10.010. The regular heavy hitters in 10.0 Index, all with wins under their belts, were sure to give Carey a challenge. Cable made it to the finals where he took on the wheelstanding beast of a Buick, driven by Tom Wood. Tom was also on his game tonight, running 10.039, 10.006, and 10.087 to earn his way to the finals. In the end, he took the stripe with a holeshot win over Cable, Wood goes home with his first win of the season running a 10.022 with a .038 reaction time.Check out the picture gallery including round results of the April race at Atco here.
The 10.0 and 12.0 guys packed it in and headed home for the night, as the Cecil County Dragway / Finishline Performance Outlaw Street Car Shootout was set to start the next afternoon. This year to everyone's enjoyment, the 10.0 and 12.0 guys have been moved into the same Saturday program at Cecil along with the other heads up classes. Carey Cable continued on with business and went #1 qualifier for the second time in 24 hours, this time with a 10.015 pass. Tom Wood also continued on hanging the tires all day to the crowd's delight, taking out tough competition like Lee Grinnell, John Hurst, and Paul Cottone as he made his way through the field to the ifnals. Harry Weber Jr. also made it through a very tough field of racers and met up with Tom Wood in the finals. Harry beat Tom on the tree and headed down the track with a .036 advantage over Wood. Harry tapped the brakes but needed just a tad more on that pedal, he broke out bt 9 thousandths of a second and Tom Wood went on to win his second race in as many days. Tom went home a happy man with some cash, and told us it was time to get some new tires! 10.0 Index has continued on from last season to be the closest heads up fields that we have seen from any other class we cover.12.0 Index kicked off with an 8 car field, #1 qualifier spot taken up by John Jennings, running a stout 12.028 during qualifying. Cliff Sebring in the Savoy Wagon, a regular at the Street Car Shootouts, brought some happiness to one Cecil County Announcer as he made it to the finals in 12.0 Index. Cliff gave Doug Renshaw a run for his money, both racers taking a nap at the tree but neither leaving with much of an advantage over the other. Doug Renshaw went 12.017 to take home the win for the day.
8.50 Index got their season debut in the Northeast at Cecil. Lots of these folks have their stuff in order and are easily able to run the number after their crew chiefs put in the right tune. Al Magliocco Jr. out of Fonse Performance, along with the rest of the family, obviously are doing something right in the all-motor 8.50 car. Junior goes 8.505 @ 160mph, taking the number one qualifier spot for the day. Not too far behind him was Jeff Moyer, back in action with an 8.507. Fonse made it through to the semis where he was taken out by Angelo Valla. Harry Gerb from H&J Performance started off the day not too shabby in the #6 spot, hoping that the freshly waxed paint and chromed out suspension parts on the Firebird would help him cut through the competition. It certainly did, along with the tuning prowess of Mike Doak, put Harry into the finals next to Angelo Valla. Harry left the line with a .042 advantage over Valla and never looked back, running a 8.592 with the brake lights on at the stripe to take home the win for the day, and also took home a winner's circle picture without Jackie - next time ??
Noone was surprised to see who went #1 qualifier this week in 7.50 index - of course it was John Schroeder! This man is just flat out tough and can run the number at will. A 7.534 would do the trick for him today. Schroeder went home with the win for the day with a 7.756, beating out Steve Willingham's 'Stang. Jimmy Reutter and Pete/Vinny pace will be back next month looking to take out Schroeder.
One of the newer and definitely one of the most exciting classes featured at the Outlaw street car shootout is 275 Drag Radial. These boys are making some serious power and have quite a challenge figuring out how to put that power to the ground and go A to B. This year's 275 program at cecil is 1/8th mile, and an 8 car qualified field. To noone's surprise, Chris Evans in the green 'Stang takes the #1 qualifier honors with a 5.126 pass. #1 qualifier in any drag radial class is quite an accomplishment, but these guys don't celebrate until the race is over as anyone can in this class can blow the tires off, at any time, without blinking an eye. Chris Evans made it through round 1, but not the semis as he spins 'em and Ed Thomas takes the win, moving on to the finals. Mike Thompson, a familiar face from the 8.50 Index Program, is testing the waters in 275DR this year. He likes the water, as his car is the most consistent out of the class, which was what he needed to do to take the win over Thomas in the finals. Thompson goes 5.375, 5.339, and 5.345 in eliminations.
Outlaw Drag Radial's #1 qualifier spot went to John Carter in the Proline powered '04 Corvette, running a 5.034 pass. If you haven't already, you need to take a walk over to John's trailer and check out this amazing piece of work! Always fun to see such a high horsepower car rolling out of the burnout box and smoking out the crowd, then Carter rolling down the power windows as he backs up to clear out the inside of the car. Paul Major was in his street car, collecting some points as he awaits the return of his Corvette to the racing circuit. Brett Hull had two singles to figure out his stuff on his way to the finals, and met Quentin Methany there. Methany was out of the gate first but could not get down the track, Hull also was off the pace but he'll take the 5.676 and win for the day.
It was music to everyone's ears as they heard over the PA "Outlaw 10.5 to the staging lanes!" 16 big names in 10.5 showed up for the season opener, and Mo Hall was back in the Fulton powered Camaro to defend his 2009 championship title. Chuck Ulsch and Team Mobley finished #1 with a 4.201 after qualifying, over two tenths ahead of the 2009 champ who went #2 with an impressive 4.429. Some of the big names did not make the 8 car field and were sent back after qualifying to their trailers, scratching their heads to figure out what to do next month. Noone really had a chance against Ulsch's horsepower, but Doug Harris almost made the billion horsepower insignificant in the semi-finals as he treed Ulsch big time, but Ulsch ran him down and won by .04. Mo Hall did not make the final round and Team Mobley took home the win. Jim Halsey told us at the end of the day to keep a lookout for some much faster numbers out of Mo Hall next month. After the race, there were some rule modifications to the Outlaw 10.5 class, to level the playing field in the class. We support what Dave O'Donnell and Jim Halsey do to bring an exciting show to the fans, and we are looking forward to see the outcome of these rule changes at the May 1st shootout.Check out the picture galleries and round results from the April 3rd Cecil County Dragway / Finishline Peformance Outlaw Street car Shootout here
Englishtown Raceway Park opened the heads up racing season with their 8.50, 10.0, and 11.50 Index Programs on Friday, April 23rd. Raceway Park gave out free tickets to spectators on their web site, be sure to check for this in the future at the next event, which happens to be on Friday, May 21st. Action got underway with the 11.50 Index class, made up of a few racers from Englishtown's Corvette Challenge program, along with some of the 12.0 boys who turn up the dial a bit to run here. Ellis Gray was not fooling around, and put up a perfect 11.500 on the boards during qualifying to take the #1 spot for the evening. John Stankunas was right behind him with an 11.526 pass. Ellis made it through round 1 but was put on the trailer in the semis by Eric Fischer who ran an 11.507 pass, hard for Ellis to beat. John Stankunas, the #2 qualifier, made his way to the finals where he treed Eric Fischer. Fischer tried to run him down and broke out in the process, as well as Stankunas who paced him. Stankunas took home the win for the evening with an 11.487 pass.
We can't stress enough how tight the 10.0 Index field has been since last season, and through the first two races of the season. Englishtown's season opener was no exception to this rule. The top 8 cars out of the 12 car ladder were 1.065 or better, with David Shen going 10.007 to take the #1 honors of the night. Paul Cottone took his second #2 qualifier spot for the season as well. Mike Romeo, the defending champion, was right behind these two with a 10.019. David Shen kept up the good work, making his way through Ray Wallis Jr., Robert Corujo, and a semi-final bye to the finals. Here he took on Tony Mullin and Tony's fresh orange paint job on the '83 Mustang. Tony cut an amazing .015 light and an even more amazing 10.001 ET to take home the win for the night. Shen also went an impressive 10.007, but factoring in reaction time, had no chance against Mullin. Mullin was teetering on the south side of 10.0 all night with 9.9x passes, he slowed down just at the right time in the night to win the cash.
Keith from Finelines will need some rest after taking care of the 17 8.50 teams that came through the gates. An impressive turnout for the 8.50 Index racers brought some impressive results as well, with Angelo Valla running an 8.508 to take the #1 qualifier spot. Harry Gerb was right behind Angelo with an 8.513, don't forget that these two racers faced each other back at the Cecil County 8.50 Index finals a few weeks ago, Gerb victorious for the night. 7 of the 17 teams ran faster than 8.50 and would need to slow it down a bit if they expected to make it through eliminations. Enjoying the perks of being #1, Angelo Valla took a single due to the odd number of cars in the field, only to red light in Round 2 to Shawn Gallagher. The Gallagher brothers started off strong in round 1, Shawn with a 8.534 and .010 light. Shawn was a machine at the tree, with .010, .022, .016, and .010 lights during eliminations. Mike Conway (Super Dave, or Hightower if you wish), the 2009 Atco Track champ, saw his way into the semis against Harry Gerb. Harry got him at the tree, Mike tried to run him down and broke out - margin of victory for Harry was .0005 seconds - daaaaaamn! Harry Gerb met Shawn Gallgher in the finals, all the chrome and paint did not help this time as Gallagher went .010 at the tree and 8.524, a package that Harry's 8.530 and .056 reaction time could do nothing about. The Gallagher brothers were happy to be in the Winner's circle yet again at Englishtown. Check out the picture galleries and round results from the April 23rd Englishtown Raceway Park Index series
Fun watching your 8.50 career move along and seeing you and team work so hard speeding up the car each week
