Southwestern International Raceway On Friday, June 1, SIR held a small Gambler in preparation for Saturday’s “National Dragster Challenge”. The final was a motorcycle – door car battle between Tom Lannie’s Suzukii and Victor Sandoval’s ’85 Mustang. Victor had a better reaction time of .010 to Tom’s .065, but was further off his dial to give the motorcycle the win. Tom dialed a 9.49 and ran a 9.535 at 131.93 MPH. Victor ran a 16.250 on the 16.10 dial at 87.97 MPH. The first Wally of Saturday evening during the National Dragster Challenge went to the reigning High School champion, Matt Hawk. The High School final was a double break-out affair. Matt dialed a 16.70 and had a .083 light and ran a 16.636 at 78.69 MPH while Nick Carey went further under his 14.35 dial with a 14.269 at 89.43 MPH The motorcycle Wally went to Tom Patterson on his ’94 Kawasaki against the 2002 GSXR 1000 of Jim Burris, Jr. Tom had a .096 reaction time and ran a 9.463 on his 9.45 dial at 124.00 MPH. Jim had a better light by almost 5 hundredths, but ran a 10.202 on the 10.03 dial at 135.27 MPH for the runner-up position. Kevin Terlecki towed down from Mesa, AZ to take home the Sportsman Wally. Don Quaintance from Tucson ended up in the number two spot when he went under his 12.46 dial by almost six hundredths at 105.07 MPH. Kevin also went under, but only by about two hundredths with a 13.997 on his 14.01 dial at 98.05 MPH. The Pro final saw the blue oval ’64 Falcon of Jason Riker against Rene Teteault’s ’65 Chevelle bow tie. Jason took the Wally with a .193 reaction time as he dialed an 11.78 and ran an 11.846 at 112.22 MPH. Rene had a .113 light and ran an 11.594 on his 11.37 dial at 110.15 MPH. The Super Pro final was a hard fought battle through six rounds of competition. The two standing for the last Wally of the day were Chuck Hawk, Jr. and Jess Nelson in his Morgan Capital R.E.D. Chuck had a beautiful .005 light and ran a 7.604 on the 7.59 dial to make this National Dragster Challenge a special night for the Hawk family with both Chuck and his son Matt in the winners circle. Jess tried to catch-up after his slower .020 light, but ran under his 7.49 dial with a 7.423 at 179.16 MPH. for the runner-up spot. A Box and a No Box Conci races rounded out the night’s schedule. Joseph Landavazo took his ’90 Mustang to the win over Chuck Phelps’ Yancer R.E.D. in the Box Conci. Joseph dialed a 9.15 and then ran almost on the number with a 3 at 150.80 MPH. Chuck was a close second when he ran an 8.595 on the 8.58 dial after his .029 light. The No Box final was the same as Friday’s Gambler when a motorcycle squared off against a door car and with the same results. Friday’s winner was Tom Lannie, Saturday’s night winner was his son Greg Lannie in the victory lane. Greg had a .031 reaction time and ran a 9.341 on the 9.33 dial at 139.00 MPH. Meanwhile Jeff Morgan in the ’80 Malibu had an almost perfect 11.225 on the 11.22 dial at 117.28 MPH, but the .085 reaction time was 5 hundredths to late. The next race at SIR is our Sport Compact / Street Legals on June 9th with gates at 7 PM and racing at 8 PM. Bruce Mabry, track announcer |