Mike Trinandilis made his first Fun Ford appearance worthwhile as he took his small block ProCharger powered car to the Street Renegade finals at New England Dragway. Trinandilis ran a career best 195 mph on a true 10.5 tire in qualifying second before losing to Don Burton in the finals.
Fun Ford has seen a lot of interesting contests in its fourteen year history with New England Dragway in Epping, NH, yet none have had the championship implications that this race had.
Six different drivers had won in the seven races leading up to this event with Angel Padilla emerging as the Street Renegade point’s leader at the last race. Padilla’s grip on that lead was tenuous at best, however, as he destroyed his car in a single car crash in the previous race at Bristol. While every assurance was made that he would find a way to make it to New England in time with his back up car, Padilla and crew were nowhere to be seen when tech opened Friday. That left the door wide open for defending champ Travis Franklin to reassert himself in the championship race.
Of course, Franklin had an uphill battle of his own. Without the time to do anything to the car in between events, Franklin left the car & trailer in Raleigh, NC after the last event and then made the 19 hour non stop trip up by himself. Only when he arrived at the track was he able to start work on the car. Without the chance to work on the car between races or to do any testing this year, it’s remarkable in itself that Franklin was even in position to contend for another title. Yet he had made every event of the year and managed to go rounds despite just winning once.
A broken inlet tube ended Mustang Mike Modeste’s weekend early as well as his chances for the season championship in ProCharger Street Renegade in his Manhattan Ford sponsored car. Modeste is rumored to be experimenting with a twin blower combination for next year.
Former NMCA Street Race champ Tim Meagher came to Epping with a brand new single turbo combination on drag radials to contend for the $10,000 prize in Street Renegade, but lost a close race to Mike Trinandilus in the opening round.
When qualifying was done, Franklin had placed fourth in the field in his ProCharger car with a 7.950 at 183.42 miles per hour. Sitting ahead of him were two time event winner Don Burton with a 7.515, newcomer Mike Trinandilis with a 7.664 and four time NSCA Limited Street champ Mike Modeste with a 7.761 at 187.68 mph. Rounding out the field of eight cars were Steve Hall, former NMCA Street Race champ Tim Meagher, Nick Bouneau and Charlie Guilbault who was running in a 1993 Lightning pickup truck.
Franklin, who had regained the class point’s lead just by passing tech, got to add some padding when he defeated Guilbault in the opening round while Burton made quick business of getting by Steve Hall with a 7.548. Trinandilis then overcame Meagher’s .010 holeshot to win 7.749 to 7.839. In a huge upset, Bouneau then got around Modeste after the latter broke. With just one point’s event to go, that loss effectively ended Modeste’s chances for his first Fun Ford season title.