Monday, May 29, 2006

From a soggy Friday to some of the warmest days of the year, the Memorial Day weekend's Dragway 42 World Series of Drag Racing had a little bit of everything to offer racers and fans.

Sunday: The big money was on the line, with $3,000 going to the combo winner and $1,000 going to the runner-up. When the smoke had cleared, the "final final" paired Box Class winner Rik Wallen of Spencer, Ohio in his Bos Rear Engine Dragster against the No Box Class winner Nick Hastings and his 1985 Mustang out of Shelby, Ohio.

Neither driver pushed the Christmas tree as hard as they had in the earlier elimination rounds. At the finish line it was Hastings getting there first but breaking out to hand the victory to Ric Wallen.

Wallin - 7.8532 @ 171.07 MPH
7.83 Dial In - .0348 RT
Hastings - 12.4181 @ 106.38 MPH
12.43 Dial In - .0610 RT

For the Wallin Family this was 3rd Sunday this season where the dragster had advanced to a combo final round.

Nick Hastings, a former Junior Dragster champion, advanced to the finals with a string of stellar reaction times and consistent ETs. If RT's of .0020, .0021, and .0090 in last three rounds of No Box weren't enough, in Round #6 Hastings paired a .0020 RT with a dead-on 12.4600 on the 12.46 to defeat the Vega of Austintown's Eric Lesick. Two rounds later Hastings would defeat Cleveland's Joe Capiccioni and his '66 Cuda in the No Box final.

After buying back from a first round, double breakout defeat by Broadview's Ron Biondo, Wallin too used excellent reaction times (.005 and .007) as he worked through the Box side of the combo. Racing fate is sometimes cruel and the all-dragster Box Class final round featured racers who faced each other in round number one, Wallin and Biondo. This time the race was decided at the starting line when Biondo turned on a .0110 red light to hand the invitation to the $3,000 "final final" to Wallin.

Showing the caliber of racers who had come to this World Series of Drag Racing event, Round 2 in the Box Class featured a perfect .0000 reaction time from Brian Gifford and an "oh, so close" .0001 red light from current Dragway 42 Top Class points leader Brian Chillik.

Saturday: Recovering from the rainout of both the Friday test and tune program as well as the 1/8th mile Mickey Thompson tire race, the Dragway 42 staff and the hundreds of racers on hand did a masterful job of getting the $1,000 combo race in the books, but also had time enough to run two Mickey Thompson Tire Races and a trophy race to boot.

The all-door car "final final" featured the 1982 Mercury Capri of Cleveland's David Widmar representing the No Box side of the combo against Wakeman, Ohio's Dennis Floyd who had entered his Ragtime, "no box" 1967 Camaro in the "box" class, and took the class title.

On the starting line it was Widmar with slight advantage (.0290 to a .0332), but at the finish line it was Floyd taking the stripe with a 9.8917 @ 127.49 MPH on his 9.85 dial in to take the $1,000 top prize for the day. Widmar ran 12.6079 @ 105.86 MPH on a 12.54 dial-in for the runner-up money.

Floyd advanced to the combo final when Tim McGuire of Oberlin and his 1986 Monte Carlo turned on a .0149 redlight. Widmar made his way to the combo final when Strongsville's Ken Porter in his 1980 Camaro got to the finish line a bit too quick, recording a 10.9383 pass on the 10.95 dial that moved Widmar along.

In the finals of the box class Mickey Thompson tire race, Ryan Pickens in the family's new Calais faced off against "Dr. Death" Mike Jones and his Camaro for the fresh rubber. As it was in the combo race, the person second off the line (.0361 to a .0358) ended up with the top prize as Ryan Pickens won the double breakout contest. Pickens' 5.9748 @ 109.24 on the 5.98 dial-in was closer than Jones 5.5261 @ 127.05 on his 5.54 dial in.

In the No Box M/T tire race, Joe Soucek, Jr. took advantage of a huge holeshot and subsequent breakout pass by Joe Prez to take home his new pair of slicks. The runners-up in the tire races each received $50.00 for their efforts.

Saturday's trophy eliminator featured a couple of Dragway 42 regulars as Creston's Josh Carpenter in his 1998 Dodge took a double breakout victory over the '77 Olds Cutlass of Uniontown's Jodi Alfman.

Note: Nick Hasting's grandparents were not able to attend the races in person this weekend due to the grandfather's leg injury however they took advantage of the Dragway 42 webcam to keep up with Nick's progression through the rounds and all the way into the finals. "Ain't technology grand."