<img src="http://gallery.nitromater.com/files/6/5/steve_king_columbus.jpg" alt="steve_king_columbus" align="right"borders="0"/>
Columbus , OH – After inclement weather washed out Saturday’s qualifying session at the 9th Annual Goodyear World Finals, the much improved weather forecast for Sunday was a welcome sight. Unfortunately, the torrential downpour the night before forced a late start and a switch to 1/8th mile racing for the completion of the seventh and final event on the 2006 CORTECO NSCA Drag Racing Series schedule. The racers were given one shot at the track to set up the ladder and then eliminations began. The points chase was tight in several classes and the early exit of the top players made champions of a few racers that had already given up any hope of wearing the #1 decal in 2007.
The Goodyear Outlaw Drag Radial Shootout attracted some wild radial wearing rides! Leading qualifying was Tim Huspen’s Dearborn , MI based ’86 Mustang. This pony is powered by 380-cubes of Windsor power with a big Procharger huffing through a carburetor. The wheel standing ride was good for a 5.220/138.06 to top the ladder. Maryland Richie Stine and Daryle Hardman took the next two slots on the ladder with a 5.392 and a 5.662 respectively. Redford , MI ’s Keith Grove’s ’81 Cutlass had technical issues and was relegated to the bottom of the ladder.
Stine fired the first shot in eliminations driving his sprayed 572-cube big block Chevy powered ’71 Chevelle past Daryle Hardman’s turbocharged 500-cube big block Chevy packing ’91 Camaro, 5.383 to a losing 5.304 thanks to Stine’s superior reaction time. Huspen ran a 5.253 for low et of the round to send home Grove’s Cutlass and set up the final. When the tree came down, it was Huspen out first but the front end shot for the moon forcing Huspen to back pedal his Stang and costing him the $2000 prize. Stine broke the top end beams with a 5.584 to win the first Goodyear Outlaw Drag Radial Shootout.
Edelbrock Pro Street racer John Stanley rolled into Columbus with a mere seven point lead over Steve King but the odds seemed to be in his favor. The second generation blown doorslammer pilot had the most event wins under his belt but King had picked up valuable points by setting both ends of the class record and both had brought everything but the kitchen sink to this war! First round action found #1 qualified Steve King driving his Hemi powered Viper past an ever improving John Vergotz, 4.435 to a 4.481, while Thompson runner-up John DeCerbo sent home a tire shaking, sideways John Stanley. Stanley ’s misfortune was King’s opportunity to take home his first Pro Street championship and he sealed the deal with a final round defeat of DeCerbo’s nitrous inhaling ’63 Corvette, 4.305 to a losing 4.368.
Scott Merkel dominated Dart Top Sportsman this season and came to Columbus with the championship already in his pocket. With Randy’s Jewell’s championship winning ProCar Corvette now on the way to its new home in Greece , it looked like Merkel would easily complete his freshmen season in the class with another win but the blower invasion from Ohio began on Saturday. Larry Higgenbotham, Scott Braskett, Tom Agler, and Scott Quesenberry rolled through the gates ready to rumble. Between these four hitters and Jarod Wenrick’s ever improving sprayed BES 634 powered ’68 Camaro, Merkel had his work cut out for him.
Higgenbotham scored low et of qualifying with a 4.355 best in his blown 96 Corvette but Merkel was only a hundredth behind with a 4.367 followed by Wenrick, Braskett, Quesenberry, and Agler. Eliminations found Wenrick picking up the pace to a 4.359 with a little help from the ProCar team, good enough to defeat Braskett, while Higgenbotham punished a struggling Agler and Merkel sent home Quesenberry’s beautiful ’41 Willys.
Higgenbotham’s Vette just kept getting quicker running a 4.300 flat in a semi-final bye while Merkel defeated Wenrick. The ’99 S-10 laid down a 4.371 to defeat a quicker 4.352 courtesy of Merkel’s .11 second advantage at the tree. Higginbotham must have raided the pulley box once again for the final round confrontation. At the flash of amber, it was Merkel out of the gate first and the sprayed small block powered ’99 S10 cruised through the beams in 4.363 seconds but the blown Corvette made it there first with an even quicker 4.276.
Richmond, KY’s Shannon Renfro made his NSCA debut at the rained out Martin event but picked up right where he left off at Columbus with a 4.760 to top the ladder in Precision Turbo Super Street. Thirteen entries completed the rest of the ladder with Elliot Thompson, Jerry Morgano, and Shawn Zubler battling it out for the championship. All four proved their mettle making it to the semifinals where Zubler’s sprayed 710-cube powered 99 Trans Am took the advantage at the tree and hung on for the win against Renfro’s twin turbocharged ’87 Mustang, 4.763 to a quicker 4.760. Thompson red lit in his confrontation with Morgano but secured enough points to take the championship no matter what happened in the final. The final round proved to be anti-climatic as Zubler uncharacteristically turned on the red light while Morgano failed to make a clean run picking up a mere 13.559 time slip.
Doug Smith led qualifying in Pro-Filer Nostalgia Pro Street with a 4.866 second elapsed time followed by Pete Ricart, Kevin Parent, and new racer Randy Sacksteder. Eliminations found Doug Smith taking out fellow BES stable mate Sacksteder while Ricart dispatched Kevin Parent. In the final, it was all Ricart as Smith experienced technical difficulties. Ricart sailed through the traps with a 4.869 for his first NSCA Nostalgia Pro Street victory while Parent sipped champagne in the pits to celebrate the defense of his championship, the first in the class’s history.
Eleven real 10.5 cars made their way to National Trail to compete in Goodyear Limited Street . Defending champion Bill Trovato led qualifying with a 5.145 in his sprayed Olds powered ’78 Starfire. The Rochester , NY resident had brought a huge 55 gallon can of Whoop Ass for his arch-rival Tom Mauro but had only a slight chance of keeping his title thanks to Mauro’s consistent performance all season at every event. Mauro’s ’79 Z28 showed tremendous promise qualifying in the #2 slot with a 5.289 at only 130.40-mph but torched a main bearing in the process ending his weekend and his shot at the title.
Without Mauro in the way, Trovato put much ran over the rest of the field taking out David Hutnick’s Hobart, IN based ‘87 Mustang and Jim Widener’s ’86 pony car on the way. Donna Sydor took command on the other side of the ladder defeating Ed Kyle’s turbocharged Camaro and Kevin Neal’s big block Chevy powered ’89 Mustang. Too bad Sydor’s supercharged ’02 Mustang suffered terminal failure in the semis allowing Trovato to make an easy 5.142 single for his fourth win of the season and his second Limited Street championship.
Six racers showed up to duke it out in the naturally aspirated BES Pro Comp eliminator including several new faces. Jeremy Harris put his wheel standing ’02 Camaro on the pole with a 5.465 with Paul Suloff coming in only two thousandths behind him. Suloff has been the shoe of choice for Big John Stevenson’s ’67 Camaro all season taking two wins this season while picking up in performance at each event. Behind Suloff on the qualifying sheet were Perkins, Clevinger’s AMC, Hudson’s Mopar, and engine builder Tim Davis.
In the first round, it was Perkins over Clevinger, Suloff over Hudson, and Harris over a wheel standing Davis . Suloff then defeated Perkins in the semis while Harris got the bye to set up the final. Harris practically chopped down the tree at the flash of amber carding an incredible .004 light but just couldn’t keep up with Suloff’s hard charging BES powered ’67 Camaro, 5.459 to a losing 5.481. Despite the superior performance of both Harris and Suloff, Perkins still easily took the Pro Comp championship for 2006.
Erick Johnson made his 2006 Pro Nostalgia debut at National Trail topping the ladder with a 5.669 best in the 1/8th mile followed by Verlin Hale, Gary Jacob, Jim MacKenzie, Joe Jacob, and Russ Campbell. In first round action, “Mac” defeated Gary Jacob, Verlin Hale took out Joe Jacob, and Johnson took the bye when Russ Campbell couldn’t make it to the line. MacKenzie then sent Hale home in a battle of ’62 Chevrolets while Johnson took the bye. Johnson realized that his Pontiac couldn’t muster the horsepower required to run with MacKenzie’s Chevrolet and a good light would be crucial. Unfortunately, he pushed it a little too close with a -.111 red giving MacKenzie’s “Ol’ Reliable” his third win of the season and cementing his championship.
Taking the win in the NSCA’s three index classes were Ed Youmans in Nostalgia Super Stock, Matt Fury in Street Machine and Randy Running in American Muscle Car. Al Ross was the lucky recipient of the winner’s cash in the Jegs Stock/Super Stock combo race while Zack Running took the victory in Factory Modified.
The 2006 CORTECO NSCA World Champions:
Edelbrock Pro Street – Steve King
Dart Top Sportsman – Scott Merkel
Precision Turbo Super Street – Elliot Thompson
Pro-Filer Nostalgia Pro Street – Kevin Parent
Goodyear Limited Street – Bill Trovato
BES Pro Comp – Larry Perkins
Pro Nostalgia – Jim MacKenzie
Nostalgia Super Stock – Stephanie Dimino
Street Machine – Tim Duncan
American Muscle Car – Scott Williams
Final Round Results:
Edelbrock Pro Street
Steve King .054 4.305 169.87
John DeCerbo .038 4.368 166.76
Dart Top Sportsman
Larry Higginbottham .054 4.276 166.85
Scott Merkel .025 4.363 164.07
Precision Turbo Super Street
Jerry Morgano 3.565 13.559 50.77
Shawn Zubler -.010 4.793 142.82
Pro-Filer Nostalgia Pro Street
Pete Ricart .022 4.869 146.18
Doug Smith 3.383 13.955 71.90
Pro Nostalgia
Jim MacKenzie .045 5.506 124.93
Erick Johnson -.111 5.644 121.13
BES Pro Comp
Paul Suloff .023 5.459 125.45
Jeremy Harris .004 5.481 127.80
Goodyear Limited Street
Bill Trovato .200 5.142 138.17
Donna Sydor
Street Machine
Matt Fury .051 8.339 82.50
Cliff Sebring .112 7.878 87.36
Nostalgia Super Stock
Ed Youmans .119 5.779 118.73
Jeff Millward -.046 6.291 107.92
American Muscle Car
Randy Running .030 8.101 84.12
Harry Hutten -.095 9.649 73.04
Goodyear Outlaw Drag Radial
Richie Stine .102 5.584 129.68
Tim Huspen .131 6.289 128.32
Jegs Stock/Super Stock
Al Ross .046 6.930 94.31
Harley Day .070 6.55 103.09
Factory Modified
Zack Running .098 6.867 98.31
Dave Layer .154 6.495 103.99
Stine, King, Higgenbotham, Morgano, and Ricart Dominate Goodyear NSCA World Finals
Columbus , OH – After inclement weather washed out Saturday’s qualifying session at the 9th Annual Goodyear World Finals, the much improved weather forecast for Sunday was a welcome sight. Unfortunately, the torrential downpour the night before forced a late start and a switch to 1/8th mile racing for the completion of the seventh and final event on the 2006 CORTECO NSCA Drag Racing Series schedule. The racers were given one shot at the track to set up the ladder and then eliminations began. The points chase was tight in several classes and the early exit of the top players made champions of a few racers that had already given up any hope of wearing the #1 decal in 2007.
The Goodyear Outlaw Drag Radial Shootout attracted some wild radial wearing rides! Leading qualifying was Tim Huspen’s Dearborn , MI based ’86 Mustang. This pony is powered by 380-cubes of Windsor power with a big Procharger huffing through a carburetor. The wheel standing ride was good for a 5.220/138.06 to top the ladder. Maryland Richie Stine and Daryle Hardman took the next two slots on the ladder with a 5.392 and a 5.662 respectively. Redford , MI ’s Keith Grove’s ’81 Cutlass had technical issues and was relegated to the bottom of the ladder.
Stine fired the first shot in eliminations driving his sprayed 572-cube big block Chevy powered ’71 Chevelle past Daryle Hardman’s turbocharged 500-cube big block Chevy packing ’91 Camaro, 5.383 to a losing 5.304 thanks to Stine’s superior reaction time. Huspen ran a 5.253 for low et of the round to send home Grove’s Cutlass and set up the final. When the tree came down, it was Huspen out first but the front end shot for the moon forcing Huspen to back pedal his Stang and costing him the $2000 prize. Stine broke the top end beams with a 5.584 to win the first Goodyear Outlaw Drag Radial Shootout.
Edelbrock Pro Street racer John Stanley rolled into Columbus with a mere seven point lead over Steve King but the odds seemed to be in his favor. The second generation blown doorslammer pilot had the most event wins under his belt but King had picked up valuable points by setting both ends of the class record and both had brought everything but the kitchen sink to this war! First round action found #1 qualified Steve King driving his Hemi powered Viper past an ever improving John Vergotz, 4.435 to a 4.481, while Thompson runner-up John DeCerbo sent home a tire shaking, sideways John Stanley. Stanley ’s misfortune was King’s opportunity to take home his first Pro Street championship and he sealed the deal with a final round defeat of DeCerbo’s nitrous inhaling ’63 Corvette, 4.305 to a losing 4.368.
Scott Merkel dominated Dart Top Sportsman this season and came to Columbus with the championship already in his pocket. With Randy’s Jewell’s championship winning ProCar Corvette now on the way to its new home in Greece , it looked like Merkel would easily complete his freshmen season in the class with another win but the blower invasion from Ohio began on Saturday. Larry Higgenbotham, Scott Braskett, Tom Agler, and Scott Quesenberry rolled through the gates ready to rumble. Between these four hitters and Jarod Wenrick’s ever improving sprayed BES 634 powered ’68 Camaro, Merkel had his work cut out for him.
Higgenbotham scored low et of qualifying with a 4.355 best in his blown 96 Corvette but Merkel was only a hundredth behind with a 4.367 followed by Wenrick, Braskett, Quesenberry, and Agler. Eliminations found Wenrick picking up the pace to a 4.359 with a little help from the ProCar team, good enough to defeat Braskett, while Higgenbotham punished a struggling Agler and Merkel sent home Quesenberry’s beautiful ’41 Willys.
Higgenbotham’s Vette just kept getting quicker running a 4.300 flat in a semi-final bye while Merkel defeated Wenrick. The ’99 S-10 laid down a 4.371 to defeat a quicker 4.352 courtesy of Merkel’s .11 second advantage at the tree. Higginbotham must have raided the pulley box once again for the final round confrontation. At the flash of amber, it was Merkel out of the gate first and the sprayed small block powered ’99 S10 cruised through the beams in 4.363 seconds but the blown Corvette made it there first with an even quicker 4.276.
Richmond, KY’s Shannon Renfro made his NSCA debut at the rained out Martin event but picked up right where he left off at Columbus with a 4.760 to top the ladder in Precision Turbo Super Street. Thirteen entries completed the rest of the ladder with Elliot Thompson, Jerry Morgano, and Shawn Zubler battling it out for the championship. All four proved their mettle making it to the semifinals where Zubler’s sprayed 710-cube powered 99 Trans Am took the advantage at the tree and hung on for the win against Renfro’s twin turbocharged ’87 Mustang, 4.763 to a quicker 4.760. Thompson red lit in his confrontation with Morgano but secured enough points to take the championship no matter what happened in the final. The final round proved to be anti-climatic as Zubler uncharacteristically turned on the red light while Morgano failed to make a clean run picking up a mere 13.559 time slip.
Doug Smith led qualifying in Pro-Filer Nostalgia Pro Street with a 4.866 second elapsed time followed by Pete Ricart, Kevin Parent, and new racer Randy Sacksteder. Eliminations found Doug Smith taking out fellow BES stable mate Sacksteder while Ricart dispatched Kevin Parent. In the final, it was all Ricart as Smith experienced technical difficulties. Ricart sailed through the traps with a 4.869 for his first NSCA Nostalgia Pro Street victory while Parent sipped champagne in the pits to celebrate the defense of his championship, the first in the class’s history.
Eleven real 10.5 cars made their way to National Trail to compete in Goodyear Limited Street . Defending champion Bill Trovato led qualifying with a 5.145 in his sprayed Olds powered ’78 Starfire. The Rochester , NY resident had brought a huge 55 gallon can of Whoop Ass for his arch-rival Tom Mauro but had only a slight chance of keeping his title thanks to Mauro’s consistent performance all season at every event. Mauro’s ’79 Z28 showed tremendous promise qualifying in the #2 slot with a 5.289 at only 130.40-mph but torched a main bearing in the process ending his weekend and his shot at the title.
Without Mauro in the way, Trovato put much ran over the rest of the field taking out David Hutnick’s Hobart, IN based ‘87 Mustang and Jim Widener’s ’86 pony car on the way. Donna Sydor took command on the other side of the ladder defeating Ed Kyle’s turbocharged Camaro and Kevin Neal’s big block Chevy powered ’89 Mustang. Too bad Sydor’s supercharged ’02 Mustang suffered terminal failure in the semis allowing Trovato to make an easy 5.142 single for his fourth win of the season and his second Limited Street championship.
Six racers showed up to duke it out in the naturally aspirated BES Pro Comp eliminator including several new faces. Jeremy Harris put his wheel standing ’02 Camaro on the pole with a 5.465 with Paul Suloff coming in only two thousandths behind him. Suloff has been the shoe of choice for Big John Stevenson’s ’67 Camaro all season taking two wins this season while picking up in performance at each event. Behind Suloff on the qualifying sheet were Perkins, Clevinger’s AMC, Hudson’s Mopar, and engine builder Tim Davis.
In the first round, it was Perkins over Clevinger, Suloff over Hudson, and Harris over a wheel standing Davis . Suloff then defeated Perkins in the semis while Harris got the bye to set up the final. Harris practically chopped down the tree at the flash of amber carding an incredible .004 light but just couldn’t keep up with Suloff’s hard charging BES powered ’67 Camaro, 5.459 to a losing 5.481. Despite the superior performance of both Harris and Suloff, Perkins still easily took the Pro Comp championship for 2006.
Erick Johnson made his 2006 Pro Nostalgia debut at National Trail topping the ladder with a 5.669 best in the 1/8th mile followed by Verlin Hale, Gary Jacob, Jim MacKenzie, Joe Jacob, and Russ Campbell. In first round action, “Mac” defeated Gary Jacob, Verlin Hale took out Joe Jacob, and Johnson took the bye when Russ Campbell couldn’t make it to the line. MacKenzie then sent Hale home in a battle of ’62 Chevrolets while Johnson took the bye. Johnson realized that his Pontiac couldn’t muster the horsepower required to run with MacKenzie’s Chevrolet and a good light would be crucial. Unfortunately, he pushed it a little too close with a -.111 red giving MacKenzie’s “Ol’ Reliable” his third win of the season and cementing his championship.
Taking the win in the NSCA’s three index classes were Ed Youmans in Nostalgia Super Stock, Matt Fury in Street Machine and Randy Running in American Muscle Car. Al Ross was the lucky recipient of the winner’s cash in the Jegs Stock/Super Stock combo race while Zack Running took the victory in Factory Modified.
The 2006 CORTECO NSCA World Champions:
Edelbrock Pro Street – Steve King
Dart Top Sportsman – Scott Merkel
Precision Turbo Super Street – Elliot Thompson
Pro-Filer Nostalgia Pro Street – Kevin Parent
Goodyear Limited Street – Bill Trovato
BES Pro Comp – Larry Perkins
Pro Nostalgia – Jim MacKenzie
Nostalgia Super Stock – Stephanie Dimino
Street Machine – Tim Duncan
American Muscle Car – Scott Williams
Final Round Results:
Edelbrock Pro Street
Steve King .054 4.305 169.87
John DeCerbo .038 4.368 166.76
Dart Top Sportsman
Larry Higginbottham .054 4.276 166.85
Scott Merkel .025 4.363 164.07
Precision Turbo Super Street
Jerry Morgano 3.565 13.559 50.77
Shawn Zubler -.010 4.793 142.82
Pro-Filer Nostalgia Pro Street
Pete Ricart .022 4.869 146.18
Doug Smith 3.383 13.955 71.90
Pro Nostalgia
Jim MacKenzie .045 5.506 124.93
Erick Johnson -.111 5.644 121.13
BES Pro Comp
Paul Suloff .023 5.459 125.45
Jeremy Harris .004 5.481 127.80
Goodyear Limited Street
Bill Trovato .200 5.142 138.17
Donna Sydor
Street Machine
Matt Fury .051 8.339 82.50
Cliff Sebring .112 7.878 87.36
Nostalgia Super Stock
Ed Youmans .119 5.779 118.73
Jeff Millward -.046 6.291 107.92
American Muscle Car
Randy Running .030 8.101 84.12
Harry Hutten -.095 9.649 73.04
Goodyear Outlaw Drag Radial
Richie Stine .102 5.584 129.68
Tim Huspen .131 6.289 128.32
Jegs Stock/Super Stock
Al Ross .046 6.930 94.31
Harley Day .070 6.55 103.09
Factory Modified
Zack Running .098 6.867 98.31
Dave Layer .154 6.495 103.99
