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Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series
Mission Raceway Park - Mission, BC
May 4-6, 2001
SATURDAY PICTURES
Click on the thumbnails to view full-size
Quite a contrast between those two operations... in more ways than one.
Cubic dollars (on the right) and a guy working out of his back pocket (on
the left). Kevin Brown (right) also runs quite a bit quicker (like almost one
second) than Dudley Clease (left).
Looks can be deceiving: under that flash new body and paint lurks a 20-year-old
Al Swindahl chassis that was originally run by Paula & Bob Gage until a
few years ago. Under that generic black blower bag lurks an even bigger surprise:
a Whipplecharger. Nearly 40 years in drag racing for Bill Sr. and he's finally
succumbed to the go-faster bug. "Hope we've got enough pump on it...."
Two of the "Three Amigos": Standing beside the car is Pat Harden, while
driver Brian Barling is strapped in and ready to go. This has to be one of
the crowd favourites at Mission Raceway. A very high-winding small-block Chevy
in an ex-Top Fuel car ("King Rat" out of Seattle) delivers quite a show in
Top Comp.
Two more of the Top Comp crowd in the staging lanes. Wide awake and ready
to run is Vancouver Island's Brent Murray in his '23 'T' blown big-block,
while retired (or is that just tired?) policeman Terry Mchardy catches
a quick nap in Bill Visser's "Old Timer" '68 'Cuda. I guess when you get to
be Terry's age, you've got to have regular naps in the morning....
Here's a couple of pics of Oregon's newest (and only... so far) injected
nitro car. He's barely into his first season of Federal-Mogul Dragster racing
and has already runnerup-ed at his first race at Boise, Idaho last month. He
also ran 5.48 and set the track speed record at over 260 mph there. Obviously,
he's expecting even better numbers with Mission's much lower altitude, and
(need we say it?) better track surface.
Waiting in the lanes before the first qualifying session were Brian Hough
in Mike Johnson's Shelton, Washington-based car (left), while Las Vegan Duane
Shields (right) pulled out of his pits to join the line. It's starting to look
a lot like "Murderers Row".
Now we're out on the starting line and we begin with - what else? - a pair
of blown alcohol dragsters. On the left is Paul Jones in the Edgecombe Family
car. It's a new car and engine combination and is already running very hard.
On the left is Bill Edwards Jr. with a new body and engine combination. His
first lap of the day (and season) was his caree best. Not bad....
Obviously in a hurry to get down to the top end and meet his happy crew,
we're barely able to keep the car in the frame. After the qualifying run,
we head over to their modest pit area (sandwiched between a pair of big rigs)
to offer our congratulations.
"Yeah, so you just ran your quickest and fastest ever; the bearings don't
care about that, so get under there and get back to work" as Bill Jr. assumes
the position under the motor. Meanwhile, Bill Sr. and the rest of the crew
get busy servicing the car for what they're hoping will be their first five
second pass later in the afternoon.
Another family operation here is that of Kim and Randy Parker of Graham,
Washington. Randy drives a flopper and Kim controls the dragster. They're too
busy with their growing family to run all that often, but the car always looks
first class and usually runs pretty well.
Randy carefully brings Kim into the beams and she prepares to launch on
her first pass of the season. Things didn't quite go to plan from that point
on, as the engine emitted a very loud BANG and the car rolled to a stop less
than twenty feet off the starting line. Terminal engine damage was the diagnosis
back in the pits, as the engine wouldn't even turn over.
Local racer Bob Haffner did his best to uphold Canadian honour in the
dragster ranks, with a 5.87 pass in the first session. He's back to the Whipple
blower and is trying to duplicate his European combination (which set the FIA
record in England last year at 5.68). Considering that his foot slipped off
the throttle for nearly two tenths of a second on his .87, there's a good
chance for something close to that .68 in the second session today.
The pre-burnout and burnout shots of Brian Hough in Mike Johnson's car
show off the new paint scheme (very sharp, by the way) for this season. In
just a few outings in this new form of motor-vation (Brian previously drove
a very successful alky flopper), he's proven himself very capable of handling
the very fast dragster.
On the left is Mission's Leo Grocock in the Northwest Drag Racing School
car, while Eugene, Oregon's Brian Hough gets ready to launch Mike Johnson's
Washington state car. While Leo had nothing but problems on the day, Hough
laid down two very consistent passes and qualified in the top half of the
very tough field.
Two pics of Salem, Oregon's Gregg Lawrence and his new injected nitro car.
Very nice looking car and it runs just as good as it looks. In his first
competitive outing at Boise, Idaho last month he finished runner-up to Mark
Hentges in the Division Six opener. And set the Firebird Raceway track speed
record. Not a bad start in a dragster, eh?
Tourist Time now, with Brandon "Bud Prince" Bernstein on the left and Duane
Shields (Las Vegas) on the right. Both cars are professionally prepared and
run that way, getting into the field with solid 5.4 elapsed times, with
Bernstein breaking the track speed record on his second pass of the day.
What the heck is going on here? If you've ever used a video camera, you've
got to admit that you've forgotten which button you pushed last at some time.
But have you ever walked around for five minutes, getting lousy pictures of
the sky, the ground, and everything in between? Here's two of the "best" of
those shots from the "Bob loses it" collection of excellent video.
After zooming in on the pores of the concrete guardwall for nearly two
minutes, the "ace" photographer realizes what's happening just in time to
grab this quick pic of car owner Jack O'Bannon guiding Rick Santos back to
the starting line after his burnout. Thank goodness.
It takes all kinds of cars to make a drag race. Here's one of the strangest
cars that regularly competes at Mission: Roger Manson's ultra-radical "Rapidfire"
Jeep. It's a short wheelbase, rear engined, blown alcohol 4-cylinder Pontiac.
Back on the track, we've got a couple of Oregon Funny Cars backing up after
their burnouts. On the left, it's Klamath Falls' Clint Thompson, and on the
right, is Matt "The Rat" Goss from Junction City.
Two pics of Graham, Washington's Randy Parker, capably assisted by his
wife Kim in the reversing procedure. Randy had a great weekend, running a
pair of 5.80's at more than 240 mph. Kim blew up on the starting line in her
only pass in her Federal-Mogul Dragster.
A Tale of Two Austins? Here's the perennial finalists, captured during
Saturday's qualifying action. Yes, they were the top two qualifiers, and met
in the final yet again. This time Bucky won.
Two "back of the blower" shots. On the left, Duane Shields looks very
relaxed as he contemplates setting another new personal best. On the right,
Leo Grocok seems to be searching for some more horsepower. "There's gotta be
a five in here somewhere...."
A pair of pics of Al Edgecombe replacing the dead sprag in his Lenco after
their first qualifying attempt. "Two runs on a new sprag... at 500 bucks a pop".
We didn't have the nerve to check him out after they broke that new sprag on
their second pass.
Ouch! Bob Haffner's first lap came at the cost of a blower belt and six
rod bearings. How the heck did all that happen? "Step into my office and I'll
show you the computer data"
Here we've got Bob explaining to Dale Carlson (the headless dude with the
NHRA shirt on the right) how his foot slipped off the throttle at 500 feet,
then when he got back on it, the engine went to 10,000... plus... and chewed
up the belt and the bearings.
Here's both sides of the Parker Family pit area. On the left, we've got
the silent (and dead) dragster, and on the right, the crew has turned all
their attention to the very alive funny car.
In the Mark Hentges "Airtime Aviation" pit area, everyone was going about
their usual maintenance routine, with the exception of Mark himself, who tried
to hide under the trailer when he saw me coming. Or was he searching for some
more horsepower? (As if he needed it....)
The Bateman & Reynolds team weren't overly happy with their 6.00 best
in qualifying, despite the speed of nearly 248 mph. "There's still something
wrong inside the can", said driver Roger Bateman (on the left), while Bill
Moore, who sadly has recently been diagnosed as clinically insane (he's bought
his own funny car!), helps turn the engine over.
Everything's calm and cool in Bucky Austin's "Northwest Hitter" pit area
as they go about trying to set things up to repeat their consecutive 5.7 passes
in qualifying for Sunday's eliminations.
The other half of the Austin family, Pat's "Pro-Max" car is more in the
test mode as they try to dial in their new hemi engine (new Alan Johnson heads)
combination. They achieved some success, but at the cost of much tire shake.
Two of the local racers, Abbotsford's Bob Haffner prepares for his second
qualifying pass, while Surrey's Tim Nemeth (on the right in the white t-shirt)
looks inside the bellhousing for the answer to the horrendous tire shake on
his first attempt.
Two more dragster racers adjusting their clutches, with Mark Hentges (left)
and Steve Federlin (right) doing the work themselves.
Here's Mike Johnson and crew warming up their Brian Hough driven dragster
before the final qualifying session. Even though it's a six year old car now,
the new paint scheme makes it look brand new all over again. It ran as well
as it looked too, with low 5.40's at over 260 mph on every pass this weekend.
A pair of pics of Brian hiding inside the cockpit and climbing out after
the warmup. Even though he had much success driving his family-owned "Ahh-$um Toy"
Funny Car, this is his first season behind the wheel of a dragster.
Where's the Beef?... would be somewhat redundant to caption these photos. Yes,
there's plenty on the barbecue, along with sides of ribs and chickens, but
the guys in the pics are a "tad" on the beefy side too. Chef Dimitri made
sure I had plenty of food: breakfast, lunch and dinner... for the next two
days, in one sitting. On the right side of the left pic is crew chief Tom
Mohan, while host Rick Ray chows down in the background.
We're down to the last qualifying session now, and yes, we're so stuffed
from that barbecue that I can hardly move enough to keep the cars in the
viewfinder... and Bill Edwards comes out to take a serious shot at his first
five-second timeslip.
Sadly, Bill is forced to shut off after the burnout, as the CO2 bottle
is found to be empty. In the other lane (right pic), Leo Grocock is able to
launch the car, but runs into electrical problems (shorted out rev limiter)
at 300 feet and shuts off to a 9.68.
The injected nitro cars had better luck in their second qualifying attempts,
as they both ran in the 5.40's at more than 260 mph. Man, those suckers are
loud! One of these days I'll finally remember to bring earplugs with me.
On the left, Lezlee Hentges gives directions to Mark, with Brian Hough's
car in the background. On the right, both cars launch hard on their final
qualifying passes, with Hough outrunning Hentges 5.42 to 5.45. The blower
studs and belt broke at 1200 feet in the Airtime Aviation car, slowing
Hentges to a speed of "only" 233 mph at the finish line.
Back to the Funny Cars once more, here's Tim Nemeth (on the left) and Clint
Thomspon (on the right) backing up after their burnouts. Nemeth experienced
more heavy tire shake on this pass, while Thompson improved to a 6.14 to
stay in the # 6 spot in the field.
Two more funny cars backing up from their burnouts. On the left, we've got
Matt "The Rat" Goss in his Pico-sponsored car, while on the right it's Bob
Reynolds guiding his pilot, Roger Bateman, back in the Mopac Auto Supply
sponsored "Showtime" entry.
Staged and ready to go on the left are Goss and Bateman, while Roger leaves
hard in the right side photo. Both cars made good laps in this final session,
with Bateman first across the finish at 6.00 and 247 mph, while Goss ran a
solid 6.10 at 230 to back up his first pass of 6.03.
These pics were taken in the Motorcycle pits. That's one mighty strange
looking 'cycle that Superwebhost
owner J. Glenn Miller is riding these days. Actually, he's succumbed to the
lure of the "girlie" cars and is now much safer inside his new SuperComp
dragster.
While the other cars were out on the track during the final qualifying
session, the Rod Clough - Dave Dickerson team were changing engines in the
pits. Their first pass was ruined by a loose fuel inlet line, which leaned
out the engine and blackened the crank. Here, the car patiently sits waiting
for some replacement motivation.
We finish out today's photo page with two views of crew chief Jeff Johnson
checking over the spare short block and switching parts off the damaged unit.
The team got it all back together in time for their first round match with
Pat Austin on Sunday. Then the rearend housing broke and they crossed the
centerline in a losing effort. Ouch!
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