Southwestern International Raceway

Tucson, AZ

Friday night, April 13th, SIR hosted an Open Test and Tune to get ready for Saturday’s full out racing action. The officials closed the lanes about 10: 30 PM after the racers put up to 15 passes on their machines with everyone back in place and ready to go by 8 AM Saturday.

April 14th dawned calm and warm with several races within one race day. Top Comp, R1320, a guaranteed payout Box / No Box ¼ mile bracket race, and the featured races of the day with the Arizona Drag Racing Association (ADRA) Pro and Super Pro addition. When the finals started coming to the line, R1320’s Shelby Breckenridge took her brand new Mustang to the win over Jamal Brewers’ 2004 Dodge SRT. Shelby had a .066 light on her 16.19 dial and ran a 16.156 at 87.02 MPH for the double breakout win. Jamal dialed a 14.30, but went 14.196 at 99.16 MPH for the #2 spot for R1320.

No Box pitted the 1951 Henry J nicknamed “Sweet Pea” of Roger Guerette, Jr. against the Camaro of Ruben Arrieta. “Sweet Pea” dialed a 10.15 and ran a 10.236 at 130.66 MPH for the win, as Ruben took too much stripe and broke out by five hundredths. Ruben dialed a 10.50 and ran a 10.458 at 123.67 MPH on a .118 reaction. The Box category was won at the hit when the blue Mustang of John and Judy Thoma turned on the red light by four thousandths of a second. Fred Schmidt ran his beautiful altered out the back door and went under his 8.84 dial by eight thousandths at 152.90 MPH for the #1 spot. John dialed an 11.30 and ran an 11.241 after the red light start at 119.86 MPH.

The Top Comp final was going to be one of the best match-ups of the day as the #1 qualifier George Clark took on the formidable Chuck Hawk, Jr. The 601 CI Ford of Chuck again went to the winners circle when George’s red light came on. Hawk dialed a 7.65 and ran a 7.762 at 176.55 MPH to Clark’s dial of 6.82 and a run of 6.838 at 198.06 MPH. After getting the #1 qualifying position for the day, George wanted to top the 200 MPH mark. He was almost there during the second round when he reached 199.11 MPH.

Toping off a great show, the last two finals of the day featured the ADRA. The Pro final put David Pitera in his “Blast From the Past” 1957 Chevy against Greg Fleetwood’s 1976 Camaro. Greg’s win light came on when David turned on the red light by four thousandths of a second. Fleetwood dialed a 10.42 and ran a 10.340 at 133.01 MPH. Pitera dialed a 10.96 and ran a 10.926 at 122.58 MPH for the runner-up spot. As the Super Pro final came around the staging lanes, the fans had a door car or a dragster to cheer for. The door car of Scott Kilborn dialed an 11.08 and ran an 11.100 at 129.03 MPH, but could not over come the hundredths of a second he left at the starting line and the almost perfect run of Chuck Phelps. In his dragster, Chuck had a .017 reaction time, dialed an 8.65 and ran an 8.651 at 149.83 MPH for the win.

The next races at SIR are the Junior Dragster National Open and Junior Dragster Divisionals on April 28th and 29th. The gates open at 8 AM each day.

Bruce Mabry, Track Announcer

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