OFAA finale at Denton, Texas
Fuel Finale
It is hard to put to words exactly what it felt like to be at North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas, on October 18 for the Royal Purple Outlaw Fuel Altered Finals. A series championship was on the line, every team wanted to end the season with a good effort and the rumors of Larry Reep’s retirement from a drag racing career dating to the 1960’s were confirmed. More on that in a bit as we talk championships. Nick Poloson held the Royal Purple points lead for almost the entire season but three time and defending champion Bobby Marriott took the lead after Mo-Kan and led by fourteen points coming into this final event of the year.
Fifteen fuel altereds along with a strong field of Southwest Junior Fuel Dragsters came to do battle here in Texas and the facility was buzzing with anxious energy among teams, drivers and fans alike. Every lap was precious. Every tuning call was crucial. Every driver had to be on their game to get the win tonight, let’s get it on!
Under the eyes of drag racing icons like Dale Emery and Vance Hunt who were in attendance amongst many other name worthy faces, Chris White in the “White Lightning” machine opened the action and had his hands full as the car, for lack of a better expression, acted like a fuel altered and was basically guardrail to centerline on a 4.50 at 157 mph lap. It turned out this was a preview of things to come. Next up was an important pair between Nick Poloson and Larry Reep. Poloson had to qualify better than Marriott to help himself in the points chase. Reep was entering his final OFAA event of his extensive and successful career, which is even difficult for me to type because Reep has been a permanent heavy hitter in this series for a decade. Poloson hiked the front end and drifted steadily to the right guardrail. He wrestled it as long as he could but had to lift as the car came insanely close to smacking the wall.
“I don’t think you could have put a business card between me and the wall. I scared the wall to death!” said Poloson laughing. Reep struggled in his first attempt and went 4.85 at 166 mph. Next up was the hottest kid on the block. John Broussard, the youngest OFAA pilot at 19, with the Louisiana based “Purple Haze” team who clicked off a strong 4.07 at 176 mph. Broussard had the most momentum heading into Denton, built from their first win and two straight final round appearances in the last two events. Donny McSwain and David Purifoy rolled out to make their first hit at the track. McSwain had been plagued with tire shake issues and failed to qualify for the previous two shows, although prior to that this car was a consistent top half ride and McSwain still held a spot in the OFAA Top 5 coming into this event. The “II N’Tense” machine blew up the scoreboards with a stout 4.01 at 175 mph, nice. Purifoy wheeled the “Thrill Factor” to a 4.65 at 166 mph, off pace from their career best 4.15 set at the last event, but still respectable with one session remaining.
J.T. Heslink’s “Punisher” and Jack Hodgson’s “Southern Outlaw” laid down insane side by side burnouts past half track and finally came to a stop beyond the clocks at the eighth mile. These guys are in a personal battle for the Maxcacklephotos.com “Best Burnout” award and bragging rights of course, much to the delight of the fuel altered fans. Heslink carried the front end past sixty foot and drifted towards the centerline finally crossing and tagging the cones at the 330. Hodgson was right along side and had a front row seat as the “Punisher” logo on the side of Heslink’s car continuously got closer and closer forcing him to abort his first lap to avoid a possible collision. Whew, that was close! Next up Brad Rigler’s “Toxic” branded Danny Wright tuned machine clicked off a nice 4.11 at 173 mph while Bobby Marriott’s “Shockwave” went 4.46 at 119 in the opposite lane, a time he would likely have to improve on to qualify. The last hot rod remaining was your most recent winner Donnie Massey in the “Showtime” ride. Massey’s nitro combination has been lethal as of late with consistent 3.90-4.00 laps and Massey blistered straight down the groove to a career best 3.86 at 162 mph to knock the wind out of his competitor’s sails and easily take low elapsed time of the session.
Between rounds some serious drama unfolded in the Tim Hay pit area. The “High Voltage Hayride” had made some quick repairs and attempted to fire the motor, apparently with un-ignited nitro still trapped in the cylinders. Everyone is aware of the dangers of running racecars of this kind include the entire “High Voltage Hayride” team, but accidents happen and this one was scary. A bomb went off and could be felt at the starting line as the team attempted to fire the motor during the warm-up. The entire left side of the cast iron Chevrolet blew out taking out both top and bottom frame rails and leaving two pistons sticking out the side of the now destroyed block and bottom end. Shrapnel flew and a mushroom cloud rose over the trailer as everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to see what had happened.
Crew chief Shawn Hay was hit in the leg by racecar parts acting like bullets as the energy of the explosion was in full force not a foot away from him as he started the car. Luckily, no life threatening injuries resulted from this intense and hair raising situation. Needless to say, Hay’s day was over but the team’s spirits were not dampened as smiles were found across the pit in thankfulness that no one was severely injured. Not all was a loss, as this just gave the highly anticipated post-race party an earlier start in the Hay camp. So the show must go on and that it did with the final qualifying session which could spell do or die as Poloson and Marriott battled for position.