Southwestern International Raceway

Tucson, AZ

March 23, 24, and 25, 2007

Friday afternoon, the 23rd of March saw the SIR track crew and officials busy preparing the grounds and the racing surface in spite of the dark clouds forming in the distance. As the racers and spectators began to arrive, so did the rain. After checking the weather radar and a staff conference, Friday’s action was put on hold until Saturday morning. On Saturday, March 24th all eyes were on the Tucson skies. The Arizona weather did not disappoint with temperatures in the high 70’s and no clouds in sight, the Hall of Fame inductions got under way. This year’s inductees were Ron Miller, Bob Huff, Joe Antonelli, Jon Hurst, Elell Barnes, and Barney Alvey. The man that got SIR up and running as the first general manager Mr. John Hall, was also an honoree as the Grand Marshall of the proceedings. Soon after the ceremony, race cars started to fill the staging lanes. Hot Rod II came out first followed by Hot Rod I with Nitro Funny Cars, Nostalgia Front Engine Dragsters and cool looking exhibition cars in the wings.

Top Fuel Funny Car driver Ron Capps, fresh off his national win in Gainesville, stopped by to drive a Nostalgia Funny Car owned by Bob Godfrey and Jeff Gaynor. Ron was the low qualifier of the day with a 6.15 at just over 235 MPH. Steve Nichols towed all the way from Newark, DE to be the big winner in the final over the Sons of Thunder fuel funny car. A few of the talented drivers racing included Dennis LaCharite, Mike Savage, John Powers, Randy Walls, Mike Adams, and many more put on a great show for the standing room only crowd. Some of the exhibition cars were the AA/FA of Mike Boyd who blistered the track in his black primered, altered with a 5.558 at 254.52 MPH. Jon Rowley brought out the Retro Rocket nostalgia dragster and laid down a 7.457 at 173.45 MPH. J.D. St Cyr hauled out Gary Glanden’s Southwest Customs Truck and ran a quick 7.412 at 184.25 MPH. Two jet cars also made the tow to entertain the fans by running in the low five second range at close to 300 MPH.

Hot Rod I category brought drivers from all over Arizona, New Mexico and California. When it came down to the final round, two drivers from Tucson faced each other. Randy Dockins dialed his ’27 T Altered at a 9.08. He took the win at the tree with a .087 reaction time and a run of 9.097 at 144.69. The runner-up was the Ford powered ’75 Camaro of Pat Neal. Pat dialed an 8.94 and ran an 8.959 at 147.73 MPH with a reaction time of .099.

The Hot Rod II finals once again pitted two local racers against each other. Fred Stout took his ’73 Nova to the winners circle with a 12.29 dial and a run of 12.621 at 85.74 MPH when Jeff Holtzman’s transmission in his ’73 blown Courier pick- up gave up at about 660 feet. Jeff had a better reaction time by two hundredths and still ran a 13.304 on his 12.44 dial with no second gear.

A celebrity race also took place when firefighters, police, TV and radio personalities came to enjoy and learn about drag racing. Nancy Avery from Tucson Fire was the winner of the race and the 1st Celebrity Trophy.

Several of our Junior Dragster racers also made some exhibition passes for the spectators who have not seen the future of our sport. Jon Bradford Jr. was the quickest at the tree with a .005 followed close by the reigning champion, A.J. Thomas with a .032. A raffle was held by the Jr. Team to raise funds. The prize won by Mr. E. Loshbaugh of Vail, AZ was a John Force Race Brick worth $125.

A huge car show was also on hand for the festivities on Saturday. The prizes included $100 cash plus an SIR plaque. Mary Mingo in her ’57 Chevy won for Best Custom. Jim Chumbler won for Best Truck with his 1941 Ford. Alex Jacome won Original with his 1972 Buick Sun Coupe. Best Muscle Car was won by Frank Araiza and his ‘69 Camaro. Lloyd Whitt brought his 1964 Chevy Impala SS and won the People’s Choice Award and Ralph Davis’s 1930 Ford Model A took the money and plaque for Best Rod.

When Sunday morning of the 10th Anniversary Celebration dawned, the sun warmed the track to a super 90 degrees for the drivers to compete for the guaranteed purse in the Big Bucks Bracket Race. The No Box class pitted a past champion in Joe Kidd against the motorcycle of Tom Lannie. Lannie took home the first place payout with a great .010 reaction time and ran a 9.538 at 134.08 MPH on the 9.46 dial. Joe had a .046 light and tried to catch up, but took too much stripe. Joe went under his dial by one one-hundredths at 105.25 MPH. In the Box category Howard Gerstel took his Chevy powered Pinto to the runner-up spot when Don Toia in his ’27 Roadster had a super .015 reaction time and ran an 8.416 on his 8.36 dial for the big check. Howard could not make up the four hundredths of a second he left at the tree, but still took home some of the money.

The next race at SIR is a Friday night Open Test and Tune on April 6th with our Team race #4, HS race #4, and Jr. Race #3 on Saturday, April 7th. Gates on Friday are at 4 PM. Gates on Saturday are at 8 AM.

Bruce Mabry, Track Announcer

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