The overstuffed qualifying order meant an extra round first thing in the morning on Sunday, and polesitter Vincent almost missed his bye – as he and his family were pulling in the gate, James was warming up his tires in the bleach box. Fortunately, a few on-track delays meant that Vincent had time to get his car to the lanes and get a bottle warmed up, leading to a 7.693 eye-opener of a pass that put the car hard on the bars through the 330-foot beams. Vincent was just getting started, though – the second round paired him against former SSO champ Manny Buginga, and Vincent was wide-awake for that one, running a deadly-quick 7.484 pass and trailering the turbo car despite Buginga’s .008 light.
The victory paired Vincent with Yanni “Super Greek” Papakosmas in round three, and a combination of a slow reaction and an off-pace nine-second run ended the Greek’s climb up the ladder. The oddness of the 17-car ladder gave Vincent one more bye in the semis, where he legged out a 7.491 lap on the single.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ladder another nitrous racer, Don Burton, was making his way to a final round match-up with favorite Vincent on the strength of his superior reaction times. In the semi-finals Urist had a horribly late .155 light and his 7.634 was quick enough to catch Burton’s 7.707. The final saw Burton cut an unreal .007 light, but his 7.768 ET just wasn’t quick enough to hold off Vincent’s 7.475 winning pass.
OUTLAW 10.5W
The Milan event was one of only three NMRA events that featured the Outlaw 10.5W class and a full field of eight cars was on hand. Qualifying was led by Brian Carpenter’s 7.243 at 206.51. Tim Essick was right on Carpenter’s bumper just three-thousandths slower at 7.246, and Keith Neal rounded out the top three qualifiers with a 7.295 lap.
In semi-final action Neal, against number one qualifier Carpenter, stepped up running a stellar 7.202, but, unfortunately for Neil, he combined that ET with a .196 reaction time while Carpenter slaughtered the tree with an unreal .004 but a sub-par 7.324 ET. It was enough to hold off the late Neal, however. Carpenter’s turn to take a big shot at the tree against Neal, and he came away very, very lucky with a .004 to Neal’s .196. He’d need every bit of it, too; the holeshot gave Carpenter the win despite running a slower 7.324 versus Neal’s 7.202.
On the other side of the ladder, Greg Blevins’s respectable 7.333 against Ray “Hollywood” Johnson’s 7.828 set up the final round between him and Carpenter. Carpenter pulled out all the stops for the last Outlaw race of the day, pulling a slight advantage at the tree, then hammered it out to a stunning 7.170 at 206.59, leaving Blevins three-tenths in his wake and taking the Milan title.
Seventeen seemed to be the magic number at Milan; just like SSO, ProCharger EFI Renegade also drew that many competitors, and the all-run format meant another round of racing to get to the finals and another weird ladder. Tony Orts bucked the presumed underdog status of nitrous cars and put his Coast Guard-approved Mustang into the top spot with an 8.734 at 154.78 mph. The final Renegade match up was almost a
foregone conclusion. Despite a glacial .328 light, Howard had plenty in the bank against Beary, running an 8.746 and crossing the line with the better part of a second to spare for the win.
Edelbrock Hot Street is heating up (pun intended), clearly evident from the tight spread in Milan’s qualifying field. Roush engine builder Ben Mens (shown) came out on top with an 8.842, followed immediately by Robbie Blankenship (running an engine built by Mens) at 8.848. In the final, it was clear that Mens builds as good a motor for his customer as he does for himself – after giving up the tree, .051 to.023 to Blankenship, Mens caught up and drove around, but just barely, taking the Hot Street win with an 8.852 to Blankenship’s 8.882.
BFGoodrich Tires Drag Radial has been a magnet for controversy so far this year, with the blower contingent crying foul against the stunning performances turned in at the season opener by turbo racers John Kolivas and Chris Tuten (lead photo). With the class regulations static by rule until after the Milan race, all eyes were on Drag Radial to see what effect the weekend’s racing would have on the status quo. It was no surprise that the final qualifying sheet had Tuten and Kolivas at the top of the order, with an 8.088 and 8.137, respectively, but ProCharger-boosted Chad Doyle was right there in the mix in third with an 8.183. The fourth spot went to Kevin Fiscus with an 8.230. In the final round Fiscus was away first, .021 to .113, but had to pedal a bit and could only run 8.829 to Tuten’s 8.211, relegating himself to runner-up status.