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Reading photos are here Indy photos are here. Len Imbrogno interview is down the page. Oct. 29, 2003
Ashley Force out last weekend licencing at Vegas. (Photos courtesy Rick Grond LVMS)
Ashley Force doing her most powerful burnout, on here way to a 5.78/240 licencing lap.
She looks pretty stoked. John looks the same as usual, but must be pretty proud. Oct. 21, 2003 Rob Atchison wins the 2004 IHRA Funny Car Championship. London Ontario Canada's Rob Atchison became only the second Canadian ever to win the IHRA/Hooters National Points Championship in Alcohol Funny Car after this past weekends action at Rockingham Dragway. Atchison driving the Erickson Manufacturing Pontiac dominated the class in 2003 by qualifying # 1- 9 times, setting 6 track records, 2 runner-up finishes and winning 6 events of the 11 races entered. Atchison won 32 of 37 rounds he raced for winning percentage of .860. Rob Atchison would like to thank Major Sponsor Erickson Manufacturing, and Associate Sponsors Atchison Machine Service Inc., TEAM Truck Centres, Ultimate Touch Collision and Custom and West Coast Transportation for their kind and generous support during the 2003 race season. Rob would also like to thank all of his product sponsors, Hooters Restaurants, IHRA and all the IHRA Contingency Sponsors for their support in 2003. Rob would also like to acknowledge the best crew in the world, Bob and Maxine Atchison, Kevin Burtch, Kyle Harris, Les Mellows, Darcy Miller, Shelly Miller, Pat Ryan, Dennis Smith and Steve Smith. Rob would also like to thank Walt Austin and Matt Moore for their help throughout the season as well as all the IHRA Funny Car Race Teams, IHRA Officials, SPEED Channel and all the fantastic IHRA Fans. Oct. 12, 2003 Dallas, Texas. O'Reilly Nationals. (photos courtesy of Guy Van Syckle) More photo highlights are here With the championships in both TAD and TAFC already
decided, this weekend was about jockeying for position for positions
2 through 5. At Ennis, Texas the O'Reilly Nationals had repeat winners
in both classes. In TAD, Morgan
Lucas stayed on his hot streak with his third
Oct. 5, 2003 Alan Bradshaw clinches the TAD championship, even with a second round exit at Reading. The Scoreboard in TAD
after this weekend's two Divisional and one national event, now reads
24 Wins for A/Fuelers and 32 wins for BAD's. The A/Fuelers have 10
National wins and 14 Divisional wins and the BAD's have 4 National
wins and 28 Divisional wins. at the National event at Reading, Mike
Gunderson got win win over Mike Kosky. Gunderson had luck on its side,
as he actually lost in the semi finals against Richard Bourke, but
Bourke was disqualified when he came up light In TAFC, all eyes
were on Frank Manzo, and whether or not he could go past the semi
finals and clinch his 7th national title in a row. He did it on both
counts, as he won the event and got
Drafting is not actually part of TAFC is it? Top 15 Point standings for TAD 01 Alan Bradshaw 716 7/8 Fuunny Car point standings 01 Frank Manzo 829 7/7
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national
win in a row, and his fourth overall win in a row (counting the Jeg's
win). To bad for him and the Darien/ Meadows team they left too much
on the table in the middle of the year, or he could very well be the
champion. Lucas took out Bill Reichert in the final round. Morgan
used 5.30's and .40's and his usual .020 lights to get through another
very tough 16 car field. Tony Bartone did not get past Morgan Lucas
for second place, as he went out in round two on a red light. David
Wells and Marty Thacker both hot off 5.20 performances two weeks ago
failed to move up in the points 
with
first round exits for both. Wells broke and Marty had his third red
light of the year. While I applaud the BAD guys for their effort to
cut a killer light when they race the A/Fuelers, I don't understand
their need to think they have to cut a light that more often that
hot ends up being red. When the BAD's race an A/Fueler, the majority
of time one of two things are going to happen; The A/Fueler is going
to run a great number and even a .000 light will probably not win
you the race, or they have trouble with tire smoke or a bunch of dropped
cylinders and you don't need a great light anyway. Just go out and
run your own race and make sure you cross the stating line with a
chance to win. Don't throw it away with a red light. Marty one of
the best out there is one of many BAD's that have lost rounds this
year due to red lights. Oh ya, the score card now reads 25 A/Fuel
wins and 32 BAD wins. A/Fuelers have been #1 qualifier at all 15 National
events and have won the last seven. 
In
TAFC, Steve Gasparelli got his
second win of the year, as the 2002 #2 point guy defeated perennial
2003 r/u Bob Newberry (he now has 8 r/up's this year) in the final
round. Gasparelli ran the only 5.50 of the weekend, in the final round
as he went 5.59 to the "Newb's" 5.63. Gasparelli would have
moved into the top 7 win the win, but had run out of race to collect
points at on the national trail. He has one divisional race that he
can improve his total at. He win try and do that at Vegas in three
weeks. Cy Chesterman moved past Newberry into third place in the standings
with a semi final finish. 
by
15 lbs. at the scales. Kosky was running real well in eliminations
and had a couple 5.39 passes, but he broke the engine at the 800 foot
mark when he was ahead, allowing Gunderson to blow past Kosky at around
1100 feet. At Darlington's Lucas Oil event, Jason Cannon took the
the point lead in Division two and guaranteed the 2003 TAD championship
for Alan Bradshaw (Cannon defeated Tony Bartone in round two) with
a win over Fran Monaghan, who clinched the Division one TAD title.
Cannon ran in the 5.40's all day long and defeated John Haley and
Tony Bartone in the semis before dispatching Fran with a 5.474/258
in the final round. Monaghan was a 5.50 performer all day including
a 5.57 in the final round. At Noble Oklahoma, David Wells continued
his strong performance. This weekend at the Lucas Oil event, he got
the win against Steve Federlin, as both cars in the final were out
of Division performers. Federlin (5.488 in the final), hailing out
of Division six, picked up a valuable 28 points and moved into third
place in the div. standings. He red lit his chance away in the final,
but probably did not have the horses to get by the 5.424 run by Wells.
David moved ahead of Alan Bradshaw in the Divison 5 point standing
as now has 331 point to Bradshaw's 312. That is enough to clinch the
division, as Bradshaw has run out of races to claim points. Wells
stays in 4th place in the national standings.
the
championship by 60 + points over Bucky Austin. Austin had a slim chance,
but he decided not to show up to battle Manzo on his home turf after
all the traveling he has done in the past few weeks. The interesting
note in this weekends race is the two of them would have faced off
in round one had Bucky showed up and not improved on his tire smoking
only run three weeks ago. That would have been worth the price of
admission in itself. Manzo defeated Bruce Mullins who could not make
the call in the final. He basically went through eliminations uncontested,
as he defeated a starting line breaking Dave Kedding in round one,
a bye in round two and a redlight win over Todd Veney in the semis
to clinch the title. If only the west coast national events were as
easy as that, Austin would possibly be the champion this year. On
the divisional trail, Division seven's Robert Lee got his first win
of the year, as he defeated another div. seven competitor Doug Gordon
in the final at Noble Oklahoma. Doug Gordon qualified #1 and defeated
Ron Rice in round one, Jackie Stidham in round two before facing Lee
in the final. Lee, the #2 qualifier Eddie McDow and Bob Alberty before
facing Gordon. Both cars were strong 5 second performers throughout
qualifying and elimination before facing each other in the final round.
In the final, they both slowed down from earlier performances, as
Lee ran a 6.149 @ 180 compared with Gordon's tire rattling, wall hugging
early shutoff 9 second pass. The win moves Lee all the way up from
10th to 4th place in the division. Gordon has pretty well clinched
the divisional title with the runnerup finish. At Darlington, only
four cars showed up and Mark Billington defeated Jay Payne in the
final round. Billington the #2 qualifier (5.95) defeated Phil Hooper
in round one before facing off with Payne. Jay defeated Greg Beckner
one round one. Jay had the win well at hand until he banged the blower
at 1000 feet, and Billington flew by with a 5.99 - 6.13 win. Mark
moves into 3rd place in the standings in Division two and Jay guarantees
a second place finish behind Jim Sickles. 