NHRA Pro Stock News: The Captain nets another fish

Agent 1320 hears that doorslammer shoe Matt Hartford, who has had success in every kind of ‘slammer series from Import drag racing to the ADRL’s Extreme Pro Stock division and is qualified for the ADRL season ending Speedtech Battle for the Belts, is leaving Billy Dingman’s Extreme Pro Stock team reportedly to take a position driving for NHRA multi-team owner Kenny Koretsky as a driver on his Nitro Fish Pro Stock team.

Veteran XPS campaigner Jeff Dobbins will take over driving duties for Dingman’s Wilson Manifolds-backed ‘07 Cobalt. Hartford, however, will compete Oct. 23 at Ennis, TX, as the third seed for the XPS Speedtech Battle for the Belts, with Dobbins taking over the wheel during qualifying and elimination rounds Saturday for the LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals.  (DRO file photo) [10/14/2009]

CHRR to stay 8-car field

Contrary to a rumor floating around and causing confusion, race director Steve Gibbs wants all nitro funny car participants on the way to the 18th California Hot Rod Reunion to be reassured that this year’s event remains as originally planned.  

“We have an eight-car, qualified field for the funny car class at this Reunion, that is the time we’ve allotted on the busy schedule. It looks like we’ll have plenty of entrants, but the field will remain at eight.” said the forty-year NHRA veteran.  

A rumor had circulated that the event was changed to a 16-car A&B field, but that information is apparently referring to another race later in the year -- not the Reunion! [10/14/2009]

Smith, Taylor, Riesterer have wall bangers at Houston Motorsports Park

Three ADRL Texas hitters were involved in crashes last weekend at the 1/8th mile Houston Motorsports Park. According to DRO photographer Joe McHugh, Gaylen Smith had a run-in with the right side top end wall after his ‘chutes deployed. He bent some front-end tubing and scraped some of the paint off the new Helaire.

The night’s major accident involved Pro Extreme racer Frankie Taylor (above) and Pro Nitrous racer Doug Riesterer. Taylor’s car got loose at about 600 feet, the back end came around and the car bounced off of the left wall, came across track and caught the front end of Doug Riesterer’s Camaro, taking the car’s front clip off. Taylor hit the right wall head on and then bounced back across the track impacting the left wall again.

Taylor was taken to the hospital but was released around 1:30 a.m. after a CAT scan revealed no injuries.

Taylor took his wrecked car directly to Jeffers Pro Cars just west of St. Louis for repair. Larry Jeffers told the Agent, “We were just about to begin building Frankie a new C-5 Corvette for the 2010 season. Now we will build the new car and repair the old car at the same time.”
 
Taylor’s team planned on picking up a car Sunday, Oct. 18, from Houston race team owner Richard Patterson so that Taylor can run the eighth-mile Kennedale (Texas) track this weekend and then ADRL race Oct. 23-24 in Ennis. No information at this time about Riesterer’s car and if it will be ready. (Joe McHugh photos) [10/14/2009]