Monday, September 10

One too many miles. Too many rounds. Too many beers. It's Monday morning and I'm beat. Not nearly as beat as a lot of the IHRA teams that traveled from North Carolina and Georgia. A lot more miles than my puny butt laid down. The amount these guys and gals traveled; heck, they could have gone to Texas and back and driven less miles. Epping, New Hampshire is as about as close you can get to the Maine border without going to "Down East".

Anyway, the weekend started with me driving to Englishtown, New Jersey. Friday was the start of two days of makeup for the rainout in August. Only one round of Federal Mogul Dragsters and Funny Car qualifying had been completed and everyone who returned would get one more shot. The car count is less than stellar. Many of the racers could not or did not return.

A Friday and Saturday rainout date just doesn't fit into their plans. Plus, the Keystone Nationals at Reading, Pennsylvania are less than a week away. The pits look about half as full as they were just a month ago. I shoot Competition Eliminator and then the Alcohol cars are called up.

More than one qualified Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car has opted not to return to E-Town. Paul Lee, with the Cape Codder Vette, along with the Colaneri and Libby Camaro Alcohol Funny Car have made a conscious decision to go north and race at the Epping IHRA event. Both were qualified at E-Town.

Also not returning to the points race was Alcohol dragster driver Fred Ahrberg who is in the #6 slot. Fred ran a 5.875 on the original date back in August. Between the original Englishtown date and the rainout date was the Cecil County points race. Fred got squirrely in the traps at Cecil and bent his piece when he contacted the guardrail. Apparently the damage he inflicted on the chassis was more than the team could deal with and they are repairing their "iron" for Reading next week. A show the team should make.

With Fred Ahrberg not returning, Bruce Insinger is put into the field as his replacement. Ahrberg gets the first round money regardless of being there. Insinger will only get some cash if he wins the first round on Saturday, therefore getting second round $$$. I am told by some of the racers that the first two alternates get a little money at the Federal Mogul races too. I don't know if this is true. Anybody out there have any info on the payout? (Note: The first alternate gets a little, usually $200).

After the big race at Indy, Reading will not be too deep in Federal Mogul Funny Cars and Dragsters. Where is that Blown Wedge from the Pacific Northwest when you need it? Is it still down under? (Note: Yes, it's still in Australia).

More than 12 Alcohol Dragsters have returned to E-Town and the last minute bumping is pretty exciting for a Divisional race. Steve Cantrell and Karen Benkovich both ran solid 5's to get in. But the race of the night was the side by side pairing of Division champ Cliff Bozzelli in his blown car against the A/FD of Rich McPhillips. Rich ran a low ET 5.546 to Bozzelli's close 5.62. The crowd, had they been there, would have gone wild.

Racer and fellow photographer Dave DeAngelis smokes an engine on his last qualifying attempt and does not make the field.

Well, I left Englishtown around 6 PM and then drove to somewhere outside of Boston and spent the night in a cheap chain hotel. I got up, showered and shaved. Then went next door to the Dunkin Doughnut and had a quality breakfast of a tall coffee and a jelly doughnut. I can feel my arteries clogging.

Epping is about a two-hour drive and once I got there and signed in for my Photo Pass, I was informed that I could not park in the pits. Too crowded, they say. I can see lots of empty spots in the pits but I am not arguing. Never look a gift horse in the mouth I say. The media parking is in the regular lot that of course was already full. Well, I got lucky and stuck the car between a couple of trucks and headed in to check out the action. This is my first IHRA race since the New York race in July.

Seeing as it is late in the year and Epping is a long haul from just about anywhere, the car count was as I expected. Slim. Fifteen Pro Stockers along with 10 Fuel Dragsters, 17 Alcohol Funny cars, and about 20 or so Pro Mods. Rockingham it was not.

But even with the small Pro turnout, the racing was good; the track was smooth and quick. Clay Millican blew out both ends of track record in Top Fuel with a 4.614 at 323.58. Right on his heels was Paul Romine with a 4.63 and Bruce Litton at 4.67.

Mike Janis, from Lancaster, New York put his 1963 Chevy Corvette on the Pro Mod pole with an Epping record 6.182 at 228.46. The bump was a decent 6.391 from Harold Martin's 2002(?) Grand Am.

Attention Nitrous lovers alert!!! Blown Cars rule!

The top five cars in qualifying were BLOWN!!! Yes....Janis, Fred Hahn, Alan Pittman, Chip King, and Al Billes grabbed the top five spots. The quickest nitrous car was Quain Stott with a not too shabby 6th best 6.28!

I can hear the N02 crybabies now.... Put more weight on the blower cars... make 'em run only two speeds. Leave the rules alone, thank you. The blown Pro Mod cars are the most popular racecars IHRA has.

One car not making the show, but the talk of the pits, was the beautiful homemade '63 Vette of Kjell-Hakan Mostron from Sjalevad, Sweden. Kjell (pronounced Kelly or Carol, or Bob; I'm not sure) got most of the parts for his Pro Mod mailordered from the States. And what he could not buy, he fabricated himself.

He shipped the car over from Sweden and enlisted Buzzards Bay, Massechusett's Ken Rebello and his son Robby along with Mike Faucher and his friends to get the car running. The team qualified 17th and hoped to get in if someone broke, but it wasn't gonna happen. Next time guys.

Meanwhile, back at Englishtown: Since I was North in Epping I had to rely on Larry Sullivan and fellow photographer Nate Varney to find out what was happening at the Division 1 race. First, there were two accidents at Englishtown on Saturday.

The first was Comp racer Pat Ross from Division Three. His gorgeous C/A Firebird had been running the numbers and he had been CIC'ed earlier. Pat apparently got on the brakes a little too hard in the traps and kissed the cement wall god. The damage was severe but by most accounts can be repaired.

The second accident involved Todd Beam's Super Comp dragster. I don't have all the details but I do know Todd was not driving the car. He had lent the car to another Division One driver whose regular car had a hurt motor. I'll let you know when I get more information. In both cases the drivers were OK.

In the finals at E-Town, Frank Manzo's Kendall Dodge Funny Car beat longtime friend and rival Bob Newberry with a 5.742 to Bob's tire shaking 9.272. With Manzo's win the Winston Points race got a whole lot tighter. Frank, Jay Payne, along with Bucky Austin, are neck and neck for the title. Frank has a slim 762 to 750 point lead over Payne with Bucky close behind with 713 points.

In Alcohol Dragster, Billy Gibson driving Erick and Donna Cindrich's car, finally won a Division One race. Billy took over the driving duties from Jeannie Booz after her sudden retirement earlier in the year. The Cindrich team, along with fuel system wizard Bill Barrett, has had the second quickest car in the division all year.

Runner up was Rich McPhillips in his A/FD. Gibson's blown dragster was consistent all day while McPhillips had a good first round but then struggled with 5.80's and lost the final, 5.801 to Gibson's 5.652. Cliff Bozzelli, who lost in the semi finals to Gibson, had already wrapped up the Division Crown. But what a race it was. Gibson ran a 5.642 with a .448 light and Bozzelli ran a 5.640 with a 0.464 light. Billy's 16-thousandths hole shot won the race by about five feet.

Back to Epping on Sunday....

In the Pro Mod final Mike Janis's Blown Vette beat the Nitrous 1957 Chevy of Carl Moyer in a great side by side race, 6.318 at 226.58 to Carl's close 6.352 at 221.78. See, the nitrous cars can win too. Number two qualifier, Fred Hahn's Summit Parts 2001 'Vette went out in the second round against Moyer when Fred apparently left before the tree was activated. Brain fade....

Janis' win all but sewed up the point's battle. Mike has a huge 250 points over second place Alan Pittman's 1941 Willys.

Ex-IHRA Funny Car World Champ Jimmy Rector returned to form with a win over IHRA points leader Mark Thomas in his Ethanol sponsored Firebird. Mark now has a slim 13 point lead over Rector with three races to go.

Gene Wilson's Mercury Cougar won Mountain Motored Pro Stock again and pretty much wrapped up the 2001 World Championship in IHRA. Tom Lee would need Gene to park the Cougar and Tom win the remaining races. Not gonna happen... Wilson defeated Long Island native John Montecalvo in the finals with a 6.588 - 211.79 to the Chevy's 6.650 - 210.05 run.

Ditto for Clay Milican in Top Fuel. Clay has a 200-point lead over Paul Romine and is definitely the class of IHRA Top Fuel. The win at Epping was the team's fifth in 2001 in IHRA competition. This ties "Big Daddy" Don Garlits for the most wins in a year in IHRA history.

The Werner Trucking Co. sponsored team just happened to be staying at the same hotel as I was. On Sunday at breakfast I mentioned to the team that the way the car's been running they could be a player in NHRA. Their reply was "that's right where we're headed". Werner Trucking has over 10,000 trucks on the road.... 10,000... jeez.

All of the regular IHRA Top fuel "players" went out in the first round when they overpowered the hot track. Jim Head, Litton and Romine all smoked the tires against lesser opponents.

After the race I beat feet to get home at a decent hour. Going through Connecticut, I stopped at the visitor's center to check the best way home. Earlier, on my drive up on Friday, I hit massive traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge and it took me two hours to get through all the mess.

I decided to go down the Saw Mill Parkway along the Hudson River, catching the George Washington right at the entrance to the bridge. It was a beautiful summer night with the New York City skyline twinkling in the distance. I could see all the way south past the Empire State Building to the twin World Trade Center Towers.... It was breathtaking.... My 10th wedding anniversary was coming up in October and I was thinking wouldn't it be nice to take the wife to the Big City for a celebration...

Things change. As I was checking this installment of Fear and Loathing on Tuesday for spelling and factual errors, a co-worker stopped by my cube and told me of the terrible news in New York City and Washington, DC. Getting onto the internet, seeing and reading about the events in New York stunned me in a way I have never felt before.

Suddenly my little odyssey to the races wasn't very important. I don't feel like going to the races now. I don't know what to feel. Drag racing is not high on my list at this moment.

I was only 11 years old when JFK was shot and I still feel sad seeing footage of the motorcade in Dallas that day in November.... I can't begin to fathom the feelings I will have after seeing the horror of September 11, 2001 on TV. Looking at the carnage on TV was so surreal. It was like seeing a Bruce Willis action movie, but in real time. And Bruce was not going to save the day. Not this time. Not ever.

NHRA announced today that the race at Maple Grove has been postponed until October 4th. Who knows what we will be feeling by then. Maybe the shock will have hit us harder.

Today is the Wednesday after the attack. I am numb. The death toll in New York and Washington is massive. I feel so bad for the families of the victims. I feel so bad for all the fireman and police who gave their lives. I want to give blood to the Red Cross. I want to see justice done. I want to wake up from this nightmare...but we all know there is no waking up...

After Tuesday morning our lives will never be the same...

Stay tuned.....prh