Thorton, Weems, Holder dominate PSCA action
The PSCA event at California Speedway’s quarter-mile track was marked by blistering California heat and equally blistering performances from the racers. Ed Thorton (Pro Street), Ron Weems (Outlaw Street) and Roger Holder (Extreme Street) all qualified on the pole and went on to win their respective classes. In fact, in the top six classes at the event the number one qualifier went on to win his division.
Twelve cars were entered in PSCA’s premier class, Pro Street. Current points leader “Big Ed” Thorton’s turbocharged ’57 Chevy was the low qualifier but Low ET of the meet honors went to Las Vegas, Nevada, racer Gil Nevarez who shoed his supercharged 454ci big block Chevy-powered ’68 Camaro.
Thornton eased through the field. After a bye run in the first round he trailered Art Hodges IHRA Pro Stock Stratus and Gil Nevarez’s ’68 Camaro to set up a final round featuring one of the sports original Pro Mod racers, John Scialpi. Scialpi had gotten around Clint Hairston’s just completed ‘07 Pontiac that uses a twin turbocharged motor for power, and high-desert racer Mack Moffit’s blown Hemi-powered ‘Vette, giving Scialpi a bye into the final round and setting up an all ’57 Chevy, blower vs turbo final.
In the final round Scialpi cut a stellar .011 light to Thorton’s .062 to take the lead to half track, but then Scialpi had to lift as his ‘57 got out of shape and coasted to a 7.70/123mph. Thorton’s ’57 motored down the track and broke the beams in just 6.477 seconds at 228.19 mph. The win gave Thorton the points lead over his closest competitor, Scialpi.
In other Pro Street action Jimmy Mock debuted his brand new supercharged alky hemi in a 1951 Chevrolet coupe. Mock got into the show at the number seven spot running a best of 6.749 at 209.20. Jeremy Hanger in his ‘51 Studebaker was the number eight Q at a 6.875 at 199.88 mph, Mack Moffit in his ‘95 blown hemi Corvette ran a 6.743 at 208.88 mph for the number six spot and, carrying the Ford colors, John Mihovetz pushed his 282-inch, twin-turbo, modular Ford-motored 2002 Mercury Cougar to a 6.58/214 pass and made it to the quarter-finals before breaking a tranny against Scialpi.
The comeback story of the weekend had to be Outlaw racer Ron Weems. He qualified number one with a 7.201 at 195.79 mph blast but on his second qualifying lap the chutes got sucked under the car into the wheelie bars and Ron went into the gravel trap at the end of the track. The last time this happened to Weems he tried to spin the car out and rolled it instead; this time he drove it straight into the gravel and the nets stopped him. There was damage to the Pontiac Grand Am, but his crew members worked late into the night and made the necessary repairs.
Weems drove his Pontiac into the winner’s circle Sunday afternoon after he beat Assad “Slim Shady” Zeinaty with an impressive 7.369/185.96 pass to Zeinaty’s losing 7.477/194.10 mph top end charge.
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