Although Russo left with a .017 holeshot, Torkelson led at the 60-, 330-, and 1,000-foot marks, but faded to a 6.850 against Russo’s 6.669 after his blower belt broke just as the car shifted into high gear. And that’s when the drama really began for Torkelson, in the debut of his new Blackstone Race Cars-built ’59 Corvette.
“The throttle hung open, so I immediately reached up above my head to hit the fuel shutoff, but that was in the old car,” he explained. “This car’s shutoff is down here (beside his right thigh), so I had to look for it and when I looked up all I saw was parachutes. That’s when I jerked it back left and almost hit the wall, but I’d rather wreck my car than mess his up, too.
Wayne Torkelson rolled out his brand-new ’59 Corvette at the Atlanta race. The car was so new, in fact, that the Idaho-based team had to install front brakes and several other finishing touches at the track before making a couple of early shut-off test passes while qualifying eighth. On raceday, however, Torkelson got the Brad Anderson 526 up to full song in the first round, setting low E.T. and top speed of the meet at 6.430 seconds and 220.91 mph. The car’s striking paint job was applied by Jaggers in Garden City, ID.
“When you drive the same car for eight years, you get to where you just react when something like that happens,” Torkelson continued. “That was just the fourth pass on this car and the second full pass, so I just haven’t had the time in it yet to where I can just react to things.”
Chris Russo, a fire department lieutenant in Montclair, NJ, made his first trip to Atlanta Dragway a memorable one by reaching the Nitro Coupe final round. His 7/8-scale 1963 ‘Vette originally was built in Sweden, but Russo and crew chief Bob Craner have been racing the car with Super Chevy and the Northeast Pro Mod Association for the last four years.
In the final round, Russo lined up in the left lane and again left first in his ’63 ‘Vette, but immediately veered right, narrowly missing the starting tree and nearly crossing lanes,
while Williams posted a vulnerable, but winning 6.741-seconds pass at 199.77 mph.
“The cloud cover came in and we thought the racetrack would get a little bit better, so we hit it with a little more power,” Russo said. “In the semi-finals, we (he and Williams) ranwithin a thousandth of each other, so we knew it was either going to be the light or someone would have a little edge in horsepower that would make the difference. So we got after it a little bit and it was our undoing. I knew I hit the tree well and I was out on him by I think it was four hundredths, but the car just immediately drove right. I mean, it didn’t even make it to the 60-foot.”
