June 7, 2006

After three straight Wednesday programs that were interrupted by rain, this evening's racing activities went off without a weather hitch.

In the Anything Goes trophy class Wooster's Scott Thiel overcame a slight holeshot to defeat Rittman's Chuck Powell in a double-breakout class final round. Thiel was first to the line and his '76 Mustang's 12.3609 / 109.25 MPH pass on the 12.38 dial-in was closer than the 11.0120 / 118.99 on a 11.05 dial-in recorded by Powell in his '87 Cutlass.

Jeff Maat of Spencer, Ohio saw his Anything Goes class points lead cut to just 10 points (one round of eliminations) over Thiel and the class' most recent event winner, Jim Gainer. For his efforts, runner-up Powell moved to only 20 points behind Maat in the season standings and into a tie with Doc Crawford.

In Street Trophy Akron's Wayne Darlington of Akron ran his consecutive round winning streak in this class to 11 on the way to a second straight eliminator victory. In the final round Medina's Tom Biesiada and his very slick '65 Chevy truck was unable to chase down Darlington's '71 Pontiac Grand Safari Station Wagon which recorded a .0339 package (.0220 RT, 17.7019 on a 17.69 dial-in). With the victory Wayne was able to take the lead in the class point standings away from his son Bryan who had been in first every week this season.

In Lowbuck, Randy Biddle, Jr. of Burbank pocketed the $100 top prize in his '78 Malibu by taking a final round victory over Creston's Ron Hanshue in the very familiar '71 AMC Ambassador. Biddle, Jr. held a .0012 advantage at the starting line and ran 11.7259 / 109.25 mph on his 11.70 dial in to narrowly overtake Hanshue's 17.2271 on a 17.20 dial-in pass that earned him the $50 runner-up payout.

"The Bike Shop" Trophy Bike class was won this week, not by a motorcycle, but by a snowmobile. Spencer's Joe Wright took his '03 Polaris down track on a pass of 11.0229 / 111.07 MPH when his competitor was not able to make the final round call to take home the victory.

In the 5 Foot Trophy, Bonus Runoff it was Scott Thiel taking the win with a pass of 12.4070 on a 12.38 dial-in to defeat Wayne Darlington's 17.7428 on 17.70 dial-in in the battle between the evening's Anything Goes and Street Trophy class winners.

Wednesday point standings have been updated and may be found by clicking here.

June 5, 2006

On a weekend where wet weather forced a cancellation of the Friday program and steady rain delayed the start of Sunday's program, racer's persistence was rewarded with two full days of competition.

Saturday: The third Summit Super Series points event saw a tough first round where half of the class points leaders went down to defeat and season points races became that much tighter.

In the Top Class, Tim McGuire took the class victory in his Monte Carlo with a pass of 8.6372 @ 156.27 MPH to defeat the dragster of Chris Weinkamer which suffered a seal failure prior to staging. McGuire had a bye into the final round while Weinkamer was involved in a tough semi-final round matchup with Randy Biddle. Both drivers recorded .004 reaction times and Biddle got to the finish line first, but ran a a breakout pass of 8.5119 on his 8.52 dial-in that put Weinkamer into the finals.

McGuire's victory allowed him to jump from 7th place in the Dragway 42 point standings to 1st by one round over Brian Chilik who had lead the class through the first two events.

In "Backyard Concepts" Mod class, Joe Capiccioni won his first, first round of the season, then went on to win the class defeating Mansfield's Greg Hilson in the finals. Reaction times in the finals separated the drivers by only .0010, but in a double breakout Hilson's '71 Pinto got to the stripe first, giving the victory to Capiccioni and his '66 Cuda.

The victory moved Capiccioni from 33rd place all the way to 3rd in the season point standings. Capiccioni defeated John Bailey in the semi finals, but Baily's fine showing allowed him to move from 11th place to 2nd in the standings, just one round behind Gary Gribben.

The Bike Shop Pro Bike Class saw points leader Joe Bayles redlight in his first round race to open the door for the rest of the class to move up. Second place rider David Sovine of Perrysville took maximum advantange of the situation and closed to within 2 rounds of eliminations of Bayles with the event win over a red-lighting Dave Williams of Mansfield in the class finals.

In the Akron Horsepower Street class Bryon Shanno extended his points lead to three rounds over the rest of the class by taking the event victory. In a very close race Shanno's .0259 light was second off the line as Matthew Obertanec took the starting line advantage with an .0189 reaction time. At the finish line it was Shanno getting their first with a stellar run of 17.0662 on the 17.06 dial in to hold off Obertanec's 14.3049 on a 14.29 dial in.

With the runner-up finish, Obertanec moved from third to second in the point standings.

Sunday: Steady rains fell for most of the morning, but once the storms passed the day turned quite nice and the full program was able to be completed only a couple of hours behind schedule.

In the $500 to win Combo Event, Wellington's John Bailey put his '71 Duster deep into the final rounds for the second time in the span of about 18 hours by winning the No Box side of the Combo. On Saturday night Bailey was the semi-finalist in the "Backyard Concepts" Mod class.

Facing Bailey in the finals was the beautiful 1980 Chevrolet Pickup of Canton's Chris Stewart which worked its way through the box class field with a string of 9.70 passes.

Bailey was first off the line with a .0120 reaction time, but was closely followed by Stewart's .0240 light. At the finish line, it was Stewart getting their first by .0057, and being closer to his dial-in to take the double breakout victory.

In Junior Dragster Super Pro action, Elyria's Darren Rick used a .0058 reaction time to defeat Uniontown's Scott Chitty in the class finals. The runner-up finish did allow Chitty to move from 6th to 2nd in the class point standings, just 2 rounds behind Alex Nay who he defeated in the second round of eliminations.

In the Junior Dragter Pro class, Avon Lake's Nicolette Shroeder took the victory over Matthew Forkapa who turned on the redlight in the finals. The runner-up finish allowed Forkapa to move back into first place in the season point standings by one round over Joshua Phillips. Forkapa and Philips have stayed within one round of each other in the standings for the past 3 events, trading the lead back and forth.

Sunday's Street Trophy eliminator victory went to the 1991 Mustang of Brandon Perry of Monroeville when Parma's Steve Schlegel turned on the redlight in his 2003 Celica.

The finals in The Bike Shop Trophy Bike class came down to a pair of Hayabusas as South Euclid's Greg Sistrunik on his 2001 used a slight reaction time advantage to take the victory over a .0103 breakout pass by the 2003 of Cleveland's M. Green.