Air apparent: Records fall in 4,000-ft corrected altitude

Words by Jeff Burk
Photos by Tim Marshall and Ron Lewis

Although there were fewer sportsman classes competing at the Summit.com Nationals April 16-18 than at Houston the previous week, Bruton Smith’s Las Vegas facility attracted well over 300 sportsman racers and, unlike the Houston event, there were full fields in the premier classes of TAD and TAFC.

The star of the sportsman show went would have to be Stock Eliminator racer Brian McClanahan, who, despite running on a track where the corrected altitude exceeded 4,000 feet, managed to run about a half-tenth under the existing National Record of 10.16 with a 10.091 during qualifying. Making a lap under the record when the corrected altitude is over 4,000 feet is something that deserves congratulations. McClanahan was the only sportsman car of any kind that ran under an established record last weekend.

Top Alcohol Funny Car

Jay Payne  (Ron Lewis photo)

There were 21 alky floppers at Vegas, which meant qualifying was a war as least five TAFC racers knew they wouldn’t be racing on Sunday.

Qualifying was tight with the top qualifier separated from the fifth spot by just 33-hundredths of a second. California racer Daniel Oliver sat on the pole with a 5.663/252.33. He made that blast during the afternoon of the second qualifying session and went from number 19 qualifier to the number one slot.
 
Oregon racer Clint Thompson had low ET of the class, laying down a 5.662 in a first round win over Keeter Ray.

Event winner Jay Payne and his Mustang were a model of consistency reeling of a string of 5.60+ passes with a best of 5.673/255.72 that not only buried a struggling Steve O’Bannon’s 9.55 effort but also got the Top Speed of the meet honors.

The best reaction kudos go to Ron August Jr. and his ’08 Mustang. He cut a near perfect .001 light in a losing effort against number-one qualifier Daniel Oliver during the first round of eliminations.