The supercharged racers had their own game and second generation player Scott Cannon's stunning 5.738-second pass at 252.71 mph in Saturday time trials led the supercharged set. However, No. 2 qualifier Von Smith, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, raked in the $20,000 winner's share with a set-up in his Al-Anabi-sponsored '57 Chevy Bel-Air that he said he and his crew "threw together" just 72 hours before.
In the Outlaw Ten-wide game Georgia's
Tim Lynch, king of the Southeast Outlaw 10.5 shoes, his twin-turbo
Ford Mustang, and his "Lynch Mob" consisting of tuner Steve Petty and the ProLine Engines
hands, were for the third straight year the team to beat. Lynch tipped his hand with a 6.543-second E.T. in Saturday qualifying and then reeled off 6.5s in the first two rounds, followed by a record-setting 6.495-second, 224.43-mph blast in Round 3. But home-state hero Joe Newsham carved his name into the Shakedown lore by beating Lynch in the semis then trailering Ray Johnson in the Precision Turbo Super Street Outlaw 10.5 final.
And it all went according to Hoyle for Shakedown at E-Town founder and promoter Dave Hance -- except for the part where he wrecked his brand-new '93 Mustang (shown) in the second round of the Drag Radial eliminations. Hance had no favorites. He had been cheering all along for his car count, his increased payouts, and the satisfaction rate of the sponsors, racers, and fans. The businessman from Queens, an aspiring nitro Funny Car driver who owns New York Motorsports, was determined to outdo himself in 2008. He knew he had built this heads-up fall showdown into a must-enter Northeast race for doorslammer drivers East of the Mississippi. The cooler temperatures at this time of year and the fabled E-town track delivered dazzling elapsed times and speeds.
Racers and spectators alike were anticipating a 5-second quarter-mile run from the nitrous Pro Mod drivers. The fact they were there at all was a testament to Hance's daring marketing plan to add classes (including Outlaw 8.5 Index), break the Pro Outlaw entries into Blown and Nitrous categories with $20,000 winner jackpots for each, and upping the ante. The event -- which definitely has morphed into THE place to be with a reputation that rivals the NHRA's annual stop at Englishtown in June -- carried a whopping record $65,000 purse for the winners alone and increased its tech-card sales to 203, an almost impossible increase from last year's 126 in this sagging economy. Moreover, with racer/class sponsor Mike Castellana spearheading the effort, The Shakedown at E-Town had an intriguing new twist. Maybe Hance should have called it "The Sheikh-down," because Al-Anabi Racing -- the pet project of Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani, of Qatar -- bankrolled the sponsorship. Thanks to Al-Anabi, a tape-delayed broadcast of this race will be on SPEED -- a huge first for this event. Broadcast dates will be announced later. |
