Mike Griffith: Drag racing to roar into Famoso
| Wednesday, Sep 10 2008 01:58 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 06:01 PM
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Drag racers at March Meet 2008 line up for their qualifying runs at Auto Club Famoso Raceway.
Around 400 drivers are expected to compete Friday and Saturday at Auto Club Famoso Raceway as the NHRA Lucas Oil Pacific Division Racing Series rolls into town.
The series awards divisional points in nine racing classes as well as national points in five of those classes.
At the top of the food chain in the Lucas Oil Series are Top Alcohol Dragsters (although nowadays most are powered by injected motors running on nitromethane) and Top Alcohol Funny Cars.
Both of those divisions will have three rounds of qualifying on Friday (2, 5 and 8 p.m.) to try and make Saturday's 8-car elimination fields. It's a good bet most of the times that will qualify for eliminations will come in the late session, after the sun has set and the track temperature drops.
Jim Whiteley of Grand Junction. Colo., is coming off a TAD divisional win last month at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma where he clicked off a string of 5.30-second runs en route to victory. That came a week after he won a national event at the same track. Whiteley leads the divisional points battle and is No. 2 in national points.
Doug Gordon of Paso Robles is atop the TAFC division points race. He is one of four different winners through the first four divisional races.
"We basically cram three days of racing into two days," said track spokesman Blake Bowser. "We can run at night and have no curfew so we'll go from 9 a.m. on Friday to abut 11 p.m. or so. The weather is giving us a break (low to mid 90s are forecast) so track conditions should be perfect. We're looking for some pretty good numbers."
Speaking of good numbers, Mike Boyd ran one for the ages last Saturday night during the Chuy's Fuel Altered Classic.
Despite daytime highs that topped out around the century mark, Boyd, driving the Mike Sullivan-owned car, thundered down the quarter mile in 5.437 seconds at 273 mph around 8 p.m. Later that night Boyd went 5.66 at 273.
The 5.437 and 273 mph is the quickest and fastest run for any nostalgia-type car at Famoso.
QUICK SHIFTS
* Street Stocks headline action Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway where Lightning Sprints, Dwarf Cars and Mini Dwarfs also will be competing. Tim Randolph needs only to finish 13th or better to come away with the Street Stock track championship. Racing starts at 6.
* Fourteen-year old Ryan Reed of Bakersfield raced to his third Legends victory at Toyota Irwindale Speedway last Saturday night. The rookie driver is third in overall points and has 16 top-five finishes in 25 starts.
* Brad Pounds of Bakersfield worked his way though several heats and various qualifying races to finish seventh in the feature race of the IMCA Modified Super Nationals in Boone, Iowa, on Saturday. Three hundred drivers competed in the multi-day event, including Bakersfield's Larry Hood, who did not advance to the final race.
* Bakersfield's Michael Johnson raced to his first IMCA Modified victory Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway. Lonnie Welch of Bakersfield won a Street Stock race Saturday night in Merced.
* The NASCAR Camping World West series heads to Altamont Motorsports Park in Tracy on Saturday for the penultimate race of the season. Eric Holmes holds a nine-point lead over Jason Bowles in the championship battle.
