At the last DRO/Lucas Oil Challenge race a West Coast team-driver Mike Savage and Tean owner Jim Broome on race day were the dominant team.

At the DRO/Lucas Oil World Finals being held at historic Kansas City International Raceway Canadian driver Todd Lesenko and tuner Jon Wurtz are the dominant race team.

Losenko thusfar is the only AA/FC at KCIR that has ran in the five second zone and Leseko has done it twice. Today the Arizona based team ran a 5.987/2337,27 to maintain the number one qualifying slot that they had yesterday. There was some question raised that the Leseno Camaro mave have staged using the front spoiler instead of the wheels but a check before and during his last qualifying lap showe that the Camaro had more than enough clearance to allow the front wheels to break the beams. Lesenkp also told DRO that he has run as quick as 5.82 on the West Coast this year so his 5.90 ET’s at KCIR are no surprise.

Improving in the second round of qualifying for the DRO AA/FC National Finals included Anthony Bronge who went from the bottem of the qualifying list to the second spot with a 6.037/235.91. Doc Halladay went from a DNQ to the 6th spot with a 6.299/229 and a number six qualifying slot. By qualifying for the field at KCIR Halladay jumped over the Minnisota based Twin Town Shaker AA/FC and out of the Top five in DRO/Lucas Oil points series which means that team will get no points money in 2010. No other racers other than Bronge and Halladay improved their qualifying position. Kevin Lennon accidentally closed the fuel shutoff lever on his last qualifying lap and his engine quit in the starting line.

Track and Series ET and Speed record holder -5.83/248- set last year at this race ran a off the pace 6.247/222+ which left him in an unfamiliar forth qualifying spot. Romine ran a 5.795 at the World Series but has yet to run a five at this event.

Number three qualifier Shawn Bowen continues to have engine issues despite qualifying third and destroyed yet another engine in qualifying but was able to borrow enough pieces to get his engine repaired for the first round of eliminations.

Randy Baker driving Dannny Miller’s Ford Maverick told DRO they had gone back to the “big” came, high-compression engine combination for this race and it must have done some good as the St. Louis based team made two passes without damaging the engine and got into nthe field in thye Number Eight spot.

It has been raing for the last three or four hours and we have not real clue as to the funny Car schedule for Sunday other than the F/C’s will run somewhere after 10:00 AM depending on the weather tomorrow.

Canadian Pirate sails to pole at KCIR

Canadian racer Todd Lesenko is a regular AA/FC competitor on the West Cost Hot Rod Heritage Tour but the KCIR National Finals for the DRO/Lucas Oil AA/FC Challenge Series is his first appearance in the Midwest. The Phoenix based team of driver Todd Lesenko and tuner Jon Wurtz showed that they were ready to take on the best of the Midwest when they came to KC with an off the trailer 5.961/225.05 that stunned his competitors. The pass was even more impressive when you consider the Canadian driver “pedaled” twice on the run which accounts for the low 225.05 speed. Lesenko on Goodyear tires had a stellar sixty-foot time of .980 and was going 191.08 at the 330.

The first pair of cars out was World Series of Drag Racing runner-up Anthony Bronge in his Camaro and the seldom seen “White Trash” Dodge Dart with former Justin Grant driver Joe Haas between the tubes. The pair probably had the best track of the evening as the qualifying went off about an hour lat due to a Top End rollover by a bracket car that took about 30-45 minutes to clear. Haas ran a respectable 6.349/220.04 while Chicago area racer Anthony Bronge spun the tires hard and coasted through to an eleven second pass. 

When the sun went down and the water grain count rose above 114 the track got a little trickier to negotiate. By the end of qualifying there was ground fog at the end of the track which meant the track had to be a little slick.

The second pair out matched-up Kevin Lennon and Doc Halladay. Lennon who was short of help for the race picked up some help in the person of the legendary driver Dale Pulde who pitched in when he found out Lennon had just one crewman. Doc’s Jerry Newman-tuned hemi quit after the burnout apparently due to a magneto failure and Lennon went dead left on the launch, clicked off the engine and coasted to a 9.58. The third pair featured Todd Lesenko and Texan John Hale. Hale made a in and out of the throttle wandering lap that netted Hale a surprising 6.269/236.28 which was then top speed of the meet. In the other lane Lesenko was running the only five-second pass of the first round.

The fourth pair featured Lucas Oil points leader Paul Romine and current number two in the points Shawn Bowen. Romine had a 1.024 sixty and made the eighth-mile in 4.02/186 while in the other lane Bowen was 4.07/187 to the eighth. Romine then started hazing the tires at a 1000 feet, lifted resulting in a 6.164/213 lap. Bowen fared slightly better and was able to stay in the throttle running a 6.127/238.53 which was good for the number two qualifying spot and Top Speed of the meet so far.

Randy Baker on a single ran a 7.204/202.24 which is that teams best lap in several races.

Qualifying will rusume tomorrow at 2:00 PM and the first two rounds of eliminations beginning at around 6:00 PM

First Round of qualifying order

1) Todd Lesenko 5.961/225.05
2) Shawn Bowen 6.127/238.53
3) Paul Romine 6.164/213.92
4) John Hale 6.269/236.28
5) Joe Haas 6.349/220.04
6) Randy Baker 7.264/202.24
7) Kevin Lennon 9.586/99.63
8) A. Bronge 11.011/72.82
9) D Halladay No Time

Revised DRO/Lucas Oil National Championship Points

1. Paul Romine “Man O’ War” ’79 Mustang Indianapolis, IN 442 (4 races)
2. Shawn Bowen “Violator” ’77 Firebird Grand Blanc, MI 372.5 (4 races)
3. Anthony Bronge “Punisher” ’69 Camaro Marengo, IL 334 (3 races)
4. Mark Worden “Twin Town Shaker” ’79 Arrow Chicago, Il 231 (4 races)
5. Doc Halladay “Telstar” ’79 Omni Egan, MI 212.5 (3 races)
6. Kris Krabill “Pedaler” ’78 Plymouth Orange, CA 208 (2 races)
7. Mike Lewis “Stardust” ’73 ‘Cuda Indianapolis, IN 197.5 (2 races)
8. Joe Haas "White Trash" ’76 Duster Burnsville, MN 159 (2 races)

Previous DRO/Lucas Oil AA/FC Challenge events

World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova

Night of Fire from Cedar Falls

Former altered racer and NHRA sportsman racer Anthony Bronge is in his first full season of competition as a Nitro Funny Car racer. The team comes off of a runner-up finish at the World Series of Drag Racing’s DRO AA/FC Challenge. With the addition of veteran tuner Jerry Newman, the Camaro has become a five-second threat and is in the Top Five in DRO/Lucas Oil Championship points.

Just in case there is any confusion, the purse that was originally in place for this weekend’s KCIR National Finals for the DRO/Lucas Oil Series had $1000 bonuses for Low ET in both qualifying rounds and in the first day of Elimination. Those bonuses were withdrawn so that the qualifiers could be paid $2000 and to put more money into the rest of the purse. THERE ARE NO QUALIFYING BONUSES!