ENNIS, TX (Oct. 26, 2008) — Speed and thrills highlighted the running of the 4th annual LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals Oct. 24-25, at the Texas Motorplex, by the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League presented by the National Guard.
Day one featured the Speedtech Al Anabi Nitrous Battle for the Belts, in which the top-eight points earners in each ADRL pro class raced against each other in single-elimination “playoffs” that determined 2008 series champions. Pro Extreme Motorcycle rider Billy Vose successfully defended his 2007 title, as did Jason Scruggs in the almost unlimited Pro Extreme class, while Billy Harper prevailed in Pro Nitrous and Billy Glidden won the Extreme 10.5 championship.
With the 2008 season capped off, all points earned in qualifying and eliminations at the World Finals counted toward setting the Battle for the Belts fields for next year. So, leaving with the early lead after winning on the Ennis eighth mile were Quain Stott in Pro Extreme, Mike Castellana in Pro Nitrous, Glidden in Extreme 10.5 and Scott Gray in Pro Extreme Motorcycle.
A record 45 Pro Extreme entries showed up at the Motorplex, with 23 posting sub-four-second laps in qualifying for the 16-car raceday field. Travis Swearingen of Blue Springs , Missouri led the way with a 3.78-seconds pass at 199.40 miles per hour, while Toronto , Canada ’s Ray Commisso anchored the field at 3.94 seconds and 192.11 mph, making it the quickest field in ADRL history.
Stott faced off against Scruggs in the Pro Extreme final, running 3.87 seconds at 183.59 mph in his ’63 Corvette, while Scruggs came oh-so-close to crashing. Straight off the start, his 2007 Dodge Stratus took a hard left, taking out an unmanned TV camera in front of the starting-line “tree” before Scruggs wrestled it back under control.
“The master (brake) cylinder let go just as I let the clutch out and brake fluid sprayed all over the rear tire,” Scruggs explained. “I don’t know how I managed to not hit anything more (than the camera), because I really should have.”
<p style="width:300px;float:left;font-weight:bold;padding-right:0px;">
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/Hernandez_damage1.jpg" alt="Hernandez_damage1" />
<br><font color="Navy">The ’57 Chevy driven by Joshua Hernandez in ADRL Pro Extreme competition shows the effects of a meeting with the wall at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis , TX . Hernandez was complaining of a sore, upper right arm after the accident, but otherwise was uninjured.</font>
<P>Earlier, in round two while racing fellow Texan Clyde Scott, Joshua Hernandez was not so lucky, as he crashed his National Guard-backed ’57 Chevy, slightly injuring his right arm after bouncing the car off both guardwalls before grinding to a halt beyond the finish line.
“It was on a good pass, but just got a little loose and I tried to drive through it, just like I had last night (in qualifying),” Hernandez said. “This time, though, my right foot wrote a check my body couldn’t cash. I’m pretty sore right now, but what I really hate is that I tore up a great hot rod.”
No such violent results in Pro Nitrous, where Shannon Jenkins paced the qualifying field with a 3.93 at 191.02 mph and his teammate Castellana drove his ’68 Firebird to a 3.92-seconds win at 190.57 mph over the ’68 Camaro of Jim Halsey, who lost traction within about 60 feet of launching and had to shut off early.
“Once we got the car to go straight it got better every time out,” said Castellana, who made the best Pro Nitrous pass of the weekend in the final round. “It was really straight and smooth by the end there.”
The diverse Extreme 10.5 class (so named for the cars’ relatively narrow 10.5-inch-wide rear slicks), put on a great show at Ennis, as several drivers traded record-setting runs in a wide array of combinations on their way to a climactic finish.
Georgia’s Steve Kirk Jr. threw down the first gauntlet with a stellar 4.12-seconds run at 177.91 mph to earn the number-one starting spot with his nitrous-boosted, 820-cubic-inch ’63 Corvette. Then Glidden answered with a 4.11-second run in the semi-finals with his 404 c.i., small-block-Ford-powered ’06 GTO, while Gary White kept pace with his own 4.12 effort to advance the 186 c.i., turbocharged six-cylinder Team Titan ‘07 Scion to a final-round showdown with the new champ.
Along the way, Texas racer Todd Moyer officially set a new ADRL speed record of 180.45 mph with his twin-turboed, 622-equipped 2000 Firebird in his semi-final loss to White.
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<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/White_record1.jpg" alt="White_record1" />
<br><font color="Navy">Though coming up just a little short of Billy Glidden in the Extreme 10.5 final at Ennis, Gary White and his Titan Motorsports teammates left the Lone Star State with a new E.T. record of 4.101 seconds.</font>
<P>The Glidden-White showdown produced one of the all-time great ADRL pairings as the combatants laid down the quickest side-by-side pass on 10.5W tires ever—anywhere—with a pair of stunning 4.10s over the all-concrete Ennis strip. Glidden took the win, courtesy of a sizable .060 holeshot, but White at 4.101 earned the official elapsed time record by just two thousandths of a second.
“This class just keeps getting tougher and tougher,” Glidden said later. “It used to be you could run 4.30s and occasional 4.20s and be competitive, but everyone has really stepped up their game over the last five months or so and that’s a thing of the past.”
The record-setting continued in Pro Extreme Motorcycle, where Louisiana rider Charlie Prophit, aboard a 1570-cc, Suzuki-equipped, Timblin Chassis bike, went a precedent-setting 4.24 seconds to qualify on top in Texas.
<p style="width:300px;float:left;font-weight:bold;padding-right:0px;">
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/PXM_final1.jpg" alt="PXM_final1" />
<br><font color="Navy">Pro Extreme Motorcycle racer Scott Gray (far lane) rewarded new sponsor Bionic Tonic with a win over Matt Prophit in the 4th annual LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals.</font>
<p>It was left to Floridians Scott Gray and Matt Prophit to settle the final round, though, with Gray’s 4.37 at 165.09 taking the win after Prophit’s bike missed a gear shortly after launching.
“I just felt like it was my time to win today,” Gray said. “For sure it took a lot of hard work, but when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
All four winners will be on top of the points lists when the ADRL’s 2009 campaign resumes next March in Houston , Texas .
ABOUT LENMAR MOTORSPORTS
LenMar Motorsports is a one-stop race shop in Mansfield , Texas , just south of Dallas . It has a dedicated chassis shop, can perform all automotive plumbing and wiring jobs, has an engine shop capable of turning out supercharged, nitrous-assisted or turbocharged powerplants, and even in-house graphics and paint services.
ABOUT FLOWMASTER
Flowmaster, Inc. is housed in two ultra-modern facilities in Santa Rosa and West Sacramento , California , together totaling over 400,000 square feet. Flowmaster employs over 250 workers dedicated to building the highest quality U.S.-made exhaust products available. Flowmaster’s product line includes exhaust products for Performance Street , Muscle Cars, Trucks, Street Rods, RVs, Motorhomes, and all types of race applications. With more than 400 different muffler models, 370-plus exhaust systems and numerous exhaust accessories available, Flowmaster offers the choice to fit your specific vehicle needs, or your sound preference from "wild to mild."
ABOUT THE NATIONAL GUARD
The National Guard is the oldest component of the Armed Forces of the United States and one of the nation’s longest enduring institutions. The National Guard operates in all 50 states, three territories (Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands) and the District of Columbia .
ABOUT THE ADRL
Based in O’Fallon, Mo. , the American Drag Racing League is the nation’s premier sanctioning body for the sport of eighth-mile drag racing. The professional categories featured in the ADRL are Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Extreme 10.5, Pro Nitrous, and the quickest doorslammer class in all of drag racing, Pro Extreme. The 2008 Flowmaster ADRL series presented by the National Guard consists of nine national events run throughout the United States . For more information on the ADRL, visit ADRL.us :: Home.
Day one featured the Speedtech Al Anabi Nitrous Battle for the Belts, in which the top-eight points earners in each ADRL pro class raced against each other in single-elimination “playoffs” that determined 2008 series champions. Pro Extreme Motorcycle rider Billy Vose successfully defended his 2007 title, as did Jason Scruggs in the almost unlimited Pro Extreme class, while Billy Harper prevailed in Pro Nitrous and Billy Glidden won the Extreme 10.5 championship.
With the 2008 season capped off, all points earned in qualifying and eliminations at the World Finals counted toward setting the Battle for the Belts fields for next year. So, leaving with the early lead after winning on the Ennis eighth mile were Quain Stott in Pro Extreme, Mike Castellana in Pro Nitrous, Glidden in Extreme 10.5 and Scott Gray in Pro Extreme Motorcycle.
A record 45 Pro Extreme entries showed up at the Motorplex, with 23 posting sub-four-second laps in qualifying for the 16-car raceday field. Travis Swearingen of Blue Springs , Missouri led the way with a 3.78-seconds pass at 199.40 miles per hour, while Toronto , Canada ’s Ray Commisso anchored the field at 3.94 seconds and 192.11 mph, making it the quickest field in ADRL history.
Stott faced off against Scruggs in the Pro Extreme final, running 3.87 seconds at 183.59 mph in his ’63 Corvette, while Scruggs came oh-so-close to crashing. Straight off the start, his 2007 Dodge Stratus took a hard left, taking out an unmanned TV camera in front of the starting-line “tree” before Scruggs wrestled it back under control.
“The master (brake) cylinder let go just as I let the clutch out and brake fluid sprayed all over the rear tire,” Scruggs explained. “I don’t know how I managed to not hit anything more (than the camera), because I really should have.”
<p style="width:300px;float:left;font-weight:bold;padding-right:0px;">
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/Hernandez_damage1.jpg" alt="Hernandez_damage1" />
<br><font color="Navy">The ’57 Chevy driven by Joshua Hernandez in ADRL Pro Extreme competition shows the effects of a meeting with the wall at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis , TX . Hernandez was complaining of a sore, upper right arm after the accident, but otherwise was uninjured.</font>
<P>Earlier, in round two while racing fellow Texan Clyde Scott, Joshua Hernandez was not so lucky, as he crashed his National Guard-backed ’57 Chevy, slightly injuring his right arm after bouncing the car off both guardwalls before grinding to a halt beyond the finish line.
“It was on a good pass, but just got a little loose and I tried to drive through it, just like I had last night (in qualifying),” Hernandez said. “This time, though, my right foot wrote a check my body couldn’t cash. I’m pretty sore right now, but what I really hate is that I tore up a great hot rod.”
No such violent results in Pro Nitrous, where Shannon Jenkins paced the qualifying field with a 3.93 at 191.02 mph and his teammate Castellana drove his ’68 Firebird to a 3.92-seconds win at 190.57 mph over the ’68 Camaro of Jim Halsey, who lost traction within about 60 feet of launching and had to shut off early.
“Once we got the car to go straight it got better every time out,” said Castellana, who made the best Pro Nitrous pass of the weekend in the final round. “It was really straight and smooth by the end there.”
The diverse Extreme 10.5 class (so named for the cars’ relatively narrow 10.5-inch-wide rear slicks), put on a great show at Ennis, as several drivers traded record-setting runs in a wide array of combinations on their way to a climactic finish.
Georgia’s Steve Kirk Jr. threw down the first gauntlet with a stellar 4.12-seconds run at 177.91 mph to earn the number-one starting spot with his nitrous-boosted, 820-cubic-inch ’63 Corvette. Then Glidden answered with a 4.11-second run in the semi-finals with his 404 c.i., small-block-Ford-powered ’06 GTO, while Gary White kept pace with his own 4.12 effort to advance the 186 c.i., turbocharged six-cylinder Team Titan ‘07 Scion to a final-round showdown with the new champ.
Along the way, Texas racer Todd Moyer officially set a new ADRL speed record of 180.45 mph with his twin-turboed, 622-equipped 2000 Firebird in his semi-final loss to White.
<p style="width:300px;float:right;font-weight:bold;padding-right:0px;">
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/White_record1.jpg" alt="White_record1" />
<br><font color="Navy">Though coming up just a little short of Billy Glidden in the Extreme 10.5 final at Ennis, Gary White and his Titan Motorsports teammates left the Lone Star State with a new E.T. record of 4.101 seconds.</font>
<P>The Glidden-White showdown produced one of the all-time great ADRL pairings as the combatants laid down the quickest side-by-side pass on 10.5W tires ever—anywhere—with a pair of stunning 4.10s over the all-concrete Ennis strip. Glidden took the win, courtesy of a sizable .060 holeshot, but White at 4.101 earned the official elapsed time record by just two thousandths of a second.
“This class just keeps getting tougher and tougher,” Glidden said later. “It used to be you could run 4.30s and occasional 4.20s and be competitive, but everyone has really stepped up their game over the last five months or so and that’s a thing of the past.”
The record-setting continued in Pro Extreme Motorcycle, where Louisiana rider Charlie Prophit, aboard a 1570-cc, Suzuki-equipped, Timblin Chassis bike, went a precedent-setting 4.24 seconds to qualify on top in Texas.
<p style="width:300px;float:left;font-weight:bold;padding-right:0px;">
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/PXM_final1.jpg" alt="PXM_final1" />
<br><font color="Navy">Pro Extreme Motorcycle racer Scott Gray (far lane) rewarded new sponsor Bionic Tonic with a win over Matt Prophit in the 4th annual LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals.</font>
<p>It was left to Floridians Scott Gray and Matt Prophit to settle the final round, though, with Gray’s 4.37 at 165.09 taking the win after Prophit’s bike missed a gear shortly after launching.
“I just felt like it was my time to win today,” Gray said. “For sure it took a lot of hard work, but when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
All four winners will be on top of the points lists when the ADRL’s 2009 campaign resumes next March in Houston , Texas .
ABOUT LENMAR MOTORSPORTS
LenMar Motorsports is a one-stop race shop in Mansfield , Texas , just south of Dallas . It has a dedicated chassis shop, can perform all automotive plumbing and wiring jobs, has an engine shop capable of turning out supercharged, nitrous-assisted or turbocharged powerplants, and even in-house graphics and paint services.
ABOUT FLOWMASTER
Flowmaster, Inc. is housed in two ultra-modern facilities in Santa Rosa and West Sacramento , California , together totaling over 400,000 square feet. Flowmaster employs over 250 workers dedicated to building the highest quality U.S.-made exhaust products available. Flowmaster’s product line includes exhaust products for Performance Street , Muscle Cars, Trucks, Street Rods, RVs, Motorhomes, and all types of race applications. With more than 400 different muffler models, 370-plus exhaust systems and numerous exhaust accessories available, Flowmaster offers the choice to fit your specific vehicle needs, or your sound preference from "wild to mild."
ABOUT THE NATIONAL GUARD
The National Guard is the oldest component of the Armed Forces of the United States and one of the nation’s longest enduring institutions. The National Guard operates in all 50 states, three territories (Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands) and the District of Columbia .
ABOUT THE ADRL
Based in O’Fallon, Mo. , the American Drag Racing League is the nation’s premier sanctioning body for the sport of eighth-mile drag racing. The professional categories featured in the ADRL are Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Extreme 10.5, Pro Nitrous, and the quickest doorslammer class in all of drag racing, Pro Extreme. The 2008 Flowmaster ADRL series presented by the National Guard consists of nine national events run throughout the United States . For more information on the ADRL, visit ADRL.us :: Home.
