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Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series
Mission Raceway Park - Mission, BC
May 4-6, 2001
SUNDAY PICTURES
Click on the thumbnails to view full-size
As you can see, after Friday's monsoon, the weather cooperated for the
rest of the weekend, and the drag racing fans turned out in droves for Mission's
first major event of the season.
The Northern Thunder jinx strikes again. Less than a minute after snapping
these pics of Rob Harrison's '91 Beretta I/A, he was unable to start the car
and was disqualified in the first round of eliminations.
Yes, as you can see on the left, IGOR still lives inside Harrison's car.
The name of his six-cylinder (from hell) engine stems from the ready-rod that
keeps the block from being a two-piece (the hard way...) unit. On the right,
we captured Mark Hentges in deep contemplation before his first round race
with Steve Federlin.
A tale of two pictures: On the left we have Brian Hough launching hard on
his way to a career best (for him and the Mike Johnson car) of 5.40 at 263
mph.... in a losing cause to the Low ET of the meet car of Kevin Brown. In
the right pic, we have Mike Johnson (facing camera) holding court afterwards
with Bob Haffner (left) and FastNews Network's Michael Jex (right). "There's
just no justice...."
Achieving more success in the first round was Mark Hentges, seen backing
up under the direction of wife Lezlee (on the left) and edging into the beams
with the help of Scott Nelson (right photo). He turned another career best
of 5.37 at nearly 264 mph, defeating Steve Federlin in the process.
Despite his best efforts, and those of new crew chief Mike Robeck, Oregon's
Steve Federlin tasted defeat in the first round in his "Impatience Racing"
entry. He was able to holeshot Hentges, but his best of the weekend pass of
5.57 wasn't good enough to get around the Airtime Aviation car.
Four time defending World Champion Rick Santos had to play second fiddle
to Hentges this weekend, as he remained stuck in the 5.40's. Another great
5.42 at 264.00 mph was just enough to get past the A/FD of Gregg Lawrence in
a very close first round match. Here he's going through the pre-race routine.
The first round of Funny Car was a strange affair indeed. In the very first
pairing, Abbotsford's Rod Clough met the many time World Champion Pat Austin.
They'd replaced the engine damaged during qualifying and were loaded up for
what they hoped would be a five second run. It didn't turn out quite that
way as the rearend housing broke early in the run, causing the car to cross
the centerline. Instant disqualification, right? Not so quick.... in the
other lane, Pat Austin brushed the wall and the question was "who did it
first?"
Division Director Chris Blair (shown in his usual position with the radio
going non-stop), made the call in Austin's favour, based on the webcam video
from the crossover bridge camera - located directly behind the starting line.
The decision wasn't the most widely accepted of the weekend, but Clough's
broken car would have been unable to appear for the semis anyway. In the
pic on the right, we can see (if you click for the larger version) the slight
body damage suffered when he brushed the wall.
Backing up too fast for my slow reflexes, Randy Parker's almost out of
the frame before I manage to catch him backing up. Finally slowed down enough
to capture, he's bumping into the beams (on the right) with the assistance
of wife Kim.
Here's a pair of cars that tasted defeat in the first round. On the left,
Clint Thompson was outrun by Randy Parker (6.00 - 6.27), while Tim Nemeth,
on the right, banged the wall in a futile effort against Bucky Austin's 5.79.
Here's the victor of that race with Tim Nemeth, being directed back to
the starting line by his wife, while Bob loses it again and starts taking
pictures from a "unique" angle. "Needs focus and composition, Bob"
This is Roger Bateman launching on his way to a Low ET and Top Speed run
of 5.74 at 253.44 mph, in a first round bye over a "broken" Matt Goss. On
the right, we can see the victorious team excitedly going down to pick up
Bateman and begin celebrating their best run in nearly two years.
So what really happened to Goss? I never had a chance to ask them - and
they probably wouldn't have been too willing to talk about - but it appears
that brainfade caused them to be shutoff behind the line in the first round.
In the left pic, we see the crew raising the body, and then, on the right,
we see one of the MRP starting line crew removing a traffic cone that was
wedged underneath the car. From what I could see, Goss just backed up past
the burnout pad and stopped on top of a cone, damaging the car in the process.
There's a million ways to lose a drag race, but you don't see this one very
often.
On the left, we have two spectators enjoying a mid-race nap in the pits,
while on the right, in the Duane Shields pit area we have a group of concerned
folks asking about his first round holeshot loss to Brandon Bernstein. Left
to right: Wyatt McMurray (Eagle Motorplex), Dale Carlson (shirt on fire),
Duane (mainly obscured by Dale), Bernie Plourd and his son.
These are two very different post-first round pit areas. On the left is
the Bateman & Reynolds camp, with the crew excitedly preparing for a
semi-final match with Bucky Austin -- and Bateman's got lane choice. On the
right is the Mike Johnson car, with the wing off, ready to be loaded up and
taken home after losing to Kevin Brown's A/FD.
What's wrong with this three pic sequence? Yes, that's Vicki Strell, on
foot, in the middle pic, but who's driving her '71 Demon on either side?
Turns out that her husband, Dave, gets the keys for the Federal-Mogul events,
while she continues her defense of last year's Mission Track Championship
in Super Pro. Note to Mopar fans: this car has a Chevrolet engine! Criminal,
isn't it?
We're down to the semi-final round of Funny Car here, with Bucky Austin
backing up on the left, then staging against Roger Bateman in the pic on the
right. Bucky took this race, at the expense of an engine, when Bateman smoked
the tires on the launch.
After the semi-finals there was quite a bit of time before the last runs
of the day. This gave Glen Braid (on the left, somewhere in that fogbank)
and Martyn Stewart (on the right) a chance for a headsup grudge match with
their blown alky "street" machines. If I tell you who won this race, someone
with a lot of gold jewelry around his neck might just wring mine....
To kill time before the final rounds, we started looking around the pits
to see what mischief we could get into. It didn't take long, as this group
of notorious barbecue beasts showed up to take a good look at the winner of
"Best Appearing Golf Cart"
The pre-final atomosphere in the Rick Santos - Jack O'Bannon Racing pits
was very laidback. While the rest of the crew relaxed, Rick was hard at work
resurfacing the clutch discs. And you thought all those "hero" drivers just
sat in the lounge and sipped cold drinks, didn't you?
Over in the Bucky Austin pit, they were taking an engine inventory. Let's
see now, there's one on the trailer tailgate, one on the ground, and one in
the car. Okay, the one in the car doesn't count, as it's a dead player, but
which of the other two is going in for the final round match against Pat?
Quite a contrast, eh? On the left is George Swann (in the loud tourist
shirt) helping Bucky Austin (short haired guy) perform the engine swap in
preparation for the final round. The pic on the right is the Dudley Clease
pit area as the team continues doing a post-mortem on their first round loss
in Top Comp.
Here's two more pics of Dudley's crew disassembling their hurt engine. It
was mentioned to me that he was running a "Calgary" (high altitude) tuneup
on his qualifying run on Saturday. Don't tell me you didn't richen it up -
a bunch - for eliminations? Apparently not.....
Finally the time arrives for the finals, and the Rick Santos team pulls
out of their pit area and starts heading for the staging lanes. Heading back
to his position in the tower is announcer Steve Wong (on the right).
Out on the track now, the Airtime Aviation team guides Mark Hentges back
to the starting line to face Rick Santos, his final round opponent -- and
former nemesis. Who's going to win this battle?
We've got our answer just 5.41 seconds later, as Hentges ekes out a very
narrow win over Santos in a tremendous side-by-side race. The absolutely
ecstatic crew nearly lights up the tires on their mini-van and blows the
horn all the way down to pick up their hero driver Mark. Congratulations to
both teams for a great finish to an absolutely awesome event.
Hang on a minute, we've still got the Funny Car final to run, and it's
going to be a good one. The all-Austin match should be another barnburner.
Here's two pics of Pat pulling up to the staging beams, then waiting in the
pre-stage while he and Bucky played a short game of burndown. In a minor
surprise, Bucky's engine swap works out, as he takes the 5.80 to 6.12 win
over an early shutoff effort from nephew Pat. And that's a wrap on the race.
We've finally made it to the end of the tape and the bottom of the page.
Congratulations to everyone who's hung in here this long... On the left, we
can see the object(s) of the exercise as the "herd of Wallys" sits on the
staging beam box at the starting line. On the right, we're giving Rick Santos
the last word, as he makes a statement about his feelings in the rules department.
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