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Top Alcohol
Winternationals coverage is
here
2004 Alcohol TV coverage is here
April 20, 2004THE SCOREBOARD (after Houston Nat'l and Indy Div'l)
Indy Division 3 Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Coverage is below
Houston Final Round Results: (photo highlights courtesy Guy Van Syckle).
Sunday TAD 2nd Round
------Semi Finals-------
---------Finals---------
Winner
Myers' has two nat'l wins this year already
Cooper failed to qualify for the tought 5.50 bump
Ashley Force is in the point's lead after her semi final finish Top Alcohol Funny Car
Payne and Gasparrelli in the final Sunday TAFC 2nd Round
------Semi Finals-------
---------Finals---------
Winner
TAFC wrap up: The performance
levels early this season are staggering to say the least. There is a
very good chance that a 5.40 pass could happen. With Bob Newberry going
a 5.55 in qualifying and then Jay Payne backing up his season earlier
5.548 with a 5.545. It's too bad that Cy Chesterman had to red light
against Payne in the semis, because that match-up could have
Saturday Elimination's: In round one of elimination's in TAD, five blown cars were up against 11 A/Fuelers. There were a couple upsets in the first round, most notably was the #16 qualifier Lee Callaway defeating a tire smoking Mike Gunderson. Gunderson pedaled it a couple times but could not hook up leaving his potential ET record on the table. David Wells stepped up big time for a 5.34 victory over Gene Snow, Morgan Lucas ran his first 5.20 of the year with a 5.28 victory over Darryll Hitchman. Mitch Myers ran back to back 5.20's Saturday, with a 5.27 win over a red lighting Dave "Grumpy" Wilson. Randy Meyer defeated Tim Rudy with a 5.40 and Art Gallant drove around Duane Shields with a 5.37. In the final two pairings, Jason Cannon continued to run well, turning in a 5.40 to defeat a tire shaking Shelly Howard, and Ashley Force ran 5.36 to go around a very loose Karl Brounkowski. Second round pairings for Sunday include Callaway and Wells, R. Meyers and Cannon, M. Myers and Lucas and finally, Force vs Gallant. In TAFC, Tate Branch wasted a great 5.65 when he red lit against Steve Gasparrelli Gasparrelli ran a 5.68 so it would have been a close race. Newberry shook hard on his single so he loses lane choice against Gasparrelli. Chesterman gets a single to the semis when he defeated John Patton in round one. Cy went 5.64 to get the win over a wounded John Patton. Mark Woznichak takes on Jay Payne in a battle of Californians Sunday in the second round with Payne getting lane choice after a great 5.61 in round one. In the final second round match-up, Bucky Austin faces Jimmy Jones, with Austin getting lane choice after his 5.67 victory over Steve Burck Houston Saturday Final Qualifying. A number of TAD's stepped up big time in the final qualifying session Saturday morning. Most notable, Mitch Myers ran a career best 5.266 to jump into the #2 spot. Randy Meyer and Jason Cannon all ran their best ever et. Here is the final qualifying for TAD. TAD 1. Michael Gunderson U00D 5.217
274.78 In TAFC, the expected cars that struggled picked up the pace including Bucky Austin who moved into the #4 spot on the ladder with a 5.66. Bob Newberry made the best lap on Saturday when he went 5.55 to catapult into the #1 spot. Mark Woznichak moved into the #3 spot with a 5.64. Here is TAFC final qualifying 1. Bob Newberry Hu.ssa5.551/258.47
April 16, 2004 Qualifying Friday in TAFC did not provide the numbers expected as a number of teams struggled to get down the track including Div 6's Bucky Austin who could only run a very loose tire shaking 9.14. The 18 car on the entry list turned into only 13 cars and did not include world Champion Frank Manzo. Cy Chesterman was the only guy to hit the expected 5.50 number, when he went a 5.594@256. Bob Newberry is #2 with a 5.636/256 and Vern Moats, in his first event of the year went a 5.68. Here is final qualifying TAD was quite a bit better, but my earlier comments on the parity issue stated below reared its ugly head as Michael Gunderson ripped off a below National record 5.217 @ 274. Four more A/Fuelers follow Gunderson including Randy Meyers, Mitch Myers, Art Gallant and Morgan Lucas. Jason Cannon is #6 and leads the BAD's with a career best 5.384/267.
April 16, 2004: Houston Raceway Park, Baytown, Texas. The toughest Top Alcohol Funny Car test of the year is this weekend in Houston, for the O'Reilly Nationals. Here is the entry list: 1 Frank Manzo Seven of the top 10 are pre entered, and a number of other tough competitors making this easily the biggest test of the year. Manzo is at his second event in defense of his seventh consecutive world title. Bucky Austin wants to erase his earlier two events of the year where he has only gone three rounds so far. Cy Chesterman could take a stranglehold, if he gets his third win the three starts this weekend. Jay Payne with two wins and the season's best 5.548 et and Tate Branch and Jackie Stidham both with two final rounds will all be tough. A couple hard running Californians, Mark Woznichak and John (I can't cut a light) Patton are also expected to be around on Sunday. Here are the times for qualifying. Friday ooooooooTAD/TAFC
Qualifying Session 000010:30 AM TAD Entry List 2 TAD Morgan Lucas Indy Division 3 Top Alcohol Coverage. Jeff Wilson got his first win of the year against Bill Reichert at Indy. He ran a 5.40, then a 5.60 and finally a 5.50 in the final round to defeat one of those hot A/Fuel cars. One of the pre race favorites, Marty Thacker, qualified #1 but fell victim to the dreaded BAD killer, tire shake against Reichert, who only went 5.76 in his first round victory. Canadian Ken Perry was defeated by Riechert in round two by the same disease as Thacker. Was the track off or were the BAD's trying to rotate the earth? Top Alcohol Dragster Round 1 8) Bill Reichert, Owosso, Mich., 5.765, 249.72 def.
2) Jeff Wilson, Winfield, Mo., 5.441, 263.05 def. 6) Robin Samsel, Marion, Ind., 5.569, 248.98 def. Semifinals Final In TAFC, Mick Snyder made history when he defeated Danny Townsend in the final in TAFC. Snyder is running a Lencodrive automatic in his Funny Car. He had an awesome .002 rt in round two and a .015 in the first round of elimination's. Those reaction times will win alot of races in the class. He also had pretty good performance low et in every round on qualifying and elimination's except two and was less than 1/100th from low et in every round. If he keeps that up, he will have a tough combination to beat. Chuck Cheeseman was the big surprise in the class at Indy as he failed to qualify for the first time at a divisional in a long time. He was actually the # 1 qualifier at five consecutive in-divison races last year. Top Alcohol Funny Car Round 1 4) Bruce Carlson, Prior Lake, Minn., Firebird, 5.834,
238.81 def. 2) Paul Lee, Gaithersburg, Md., Firebird, 5.822, 252.52
def. 3) Danny Townsend, Muncie, Ind., Dodge RT, 5.799, 250.51
def. Semifinals Final
Bill Reichert and Jeff Wilson both bumped their way into the field Saturday at Indy. Four blown cars and four A/Fuelers make up the field 1 5 B/AD Marty Thacker, Robinson
IHadmanBAE 5.420 263.67 ------------ Not Qualified ------------ 9 3339 B/AD Roger Beernaert Friday April 16, 2004 A strong field of Top Alcohol Dragsters are at Indy this weekend for the central division's first Lucas Oil event of the year. MArty Thacker sits #1 after Friday's lone session with a 5.42. I expect quicker #'s today from Marty and a number of others. Three or four of the current non qualified cars including Bill Reichert, Jeff Wilson and Daniel Merier I expect to get into the field giving a bump spot in the 5.50's or better. 1 5 B/AD Marty Thacker, Robinson
IL., ..n-BAE 5.420 263.67 ------------ Not Qualified ------------ 9 321 B/AD Timothy Bowgren, Saturday TAFC Final Qualifying Div 3 Indy Snyder stayed on top in TAFC and did not run the final session on Saturday. He gets his first ever #1 qualifying spot in the class. Paul Lee moved into the #2 spot. The surprise of the weekend, was Chuck Cheeseman not making the field. 1 36 Mick Snyder, Demotte IN,
'02 Pntiac Firebird 5.780 247.11 ------------ Not Qualified ------------ 9 37 Greg Elliott Friday April 16, 2004 In TAFC the field is certainly not as strong as TAD but three or four cars are capable of getting their first win of the year. Chuck Cheeseman Paul Lee, Danny TOwnsend and Mick Snyder are the top runners here and I like Snyder's chances of getting his teams firt win in TAFC. If the team does get the win, and they off to a good start after sitting #1 after Friday's first seesion, it will be a history making event. The Snyder team runs a Lencodrive automatic transmission with a convertor in the car and if they got the win, it would be the first for a Blown Alcohol Funny Car
TAD Elmination's at Vegas. TAFC Elimination's Montgomery TA coverage
April 15, 2004
The Chicken Chokers have been regrouping this season and are now ready
to go! Montgomery Ala. Lucas Oil coverage is below Summit Nationals Las Vegas. (photos courtesy Mark King) Sunday April 4, 2004 Sunday elimination's at the Strip @ Las Vegas Motor Speedway saw five of eight first round match -ups end up with the lower qualified car advancing, including the # 1, 3, and 4 qualifiers. Joey Severance suffered his fate right on the starting line, with a red light. Ashley Force plain got out run by Mitch Myers and Don Hudson broke just off the starting line. Pre-race favorite Steve Federlin lost to David Wells in a great blown showdown, and upstarts Greg Tacke and Bob Perkins both advanced. In the second round, Chris Demke defeated Dave Wilson despite Wilson's perfect light, Greg Tacke continued his winnings ways at the expense of Shelly Howard, Wells ended Perkin's run and Morgan Lucas defeated Mitch Myers. Greg Tacke's Cinderella story ended in a close race against Chris Demke 5.49 to 5.50, Lucas seems to have their combination sorted out (at least for this weekend) when he ran a solid 5.44 to Well's slowing 5.54. David Wells had run low et in each of the first two rounds, but could not repeat the low 5.4 efforts he had in those two rounds. In the final, Chris Demke was in his third final round in a row, but his first at a national event. Lucas was in his first final after struggling all season with a new car and new rookie A/fuel crew chief. Norm Grimes with the help of Jim Rizzolli are the brains behind the car and after going as far as having another driver in the car because they did not want to use up too many races early, it looks like a genius decision on Morgan's and Forrest's part. A great win in a high elevation track for the A Fuelers. Here is round by round eliminations.
----Second Round----
------Semi Finals------
Final Round
Winner
Top Alcohol Funny Car was not a upset minded as their dragster counterparts, as only Bucky Austin in the top half (and he was the #8 qualifier) was a first round runner up (defeated Bucky Austin). Bernie Harrington went in for a broken Bret Williamson but could not defeat the "Woz" as Woznichak had low et in round one. In the round of eight, Clint Thompson carried on his upset minding ways with a defeat of #1 qualifier Steve Gasparrelli. Thompson is in the car previously owned by the tuners of the Gasparrelli's; Larry and Bob Miner, ran a great 5.71 with a solid .015 rt. #'s 2, 3 and 4 on the ladder all advanced to the semi finals as well. There, The "Woz" defeated Clint Thompson with a 5.74 to a slowing 6.47 ending his surprising run. The other semi saw Cy Chesterman run a great 5.65 to defeat Ron August's, all over the track 5.92. In the final round the Davenport tuned Coca Cola/Chippewa Spring Water Firebird driven by Iowa's Cy Chesterman had just to much for Californian Mark Woznichak driving his Rancho Framing/Color By Woz Camaro as his low et of elimination's 5.64 to mark's 5.74 Here are the elimination's for TAFC
----Second Round----
------Semi Finals------
Final Round
Winner
Saturday Final Qualifying
Sweden's Leif Andreason did not get in the field. He is in one of Don Schumacher's 2003 Dodge fuel body's. Saturday April 3, 2004. Las Vegas,
NHRA and the Summit Nationals beat the long odds on Saturday and got
qualifying in for all five top classes at the Strip: TF, FC, PS, TAD
and TAFC all got two laps in to set the fields for Sunday elimination's.
In Top Alcohol Dragster, the North West's Joey 1. Joey Severance Severance Racing B/AD 5.449 261.83
Randy Johnson failed to qualify TAD Pit notes: Greg Tacke and Bob Perkins, two drivers not used to being in the top half elected to sit out the final session and save parts for Sunday elimination's. Hat's go off to Tacke as he has been oh so close to qualifying at a number of events in the last few nationals, but always ended up just short. This was his first 5.40 pass and it put him in a great position with lane choice for round one. Don Hudson was on a similar run in the second session as his first round 5.46, but he hung a valve just past half track and lifted the PSI off the manifold and hurt one BAE head. The team was surprised by the breakage, as the car was freshened for this weekend, but are happy the bottom end did not sustain any damage, and they made all the repairs Saturday night . They are ready for round one against Oklahoma's Shelly Howard. Steve Federlin is one of the early season big dog's after their performance at Pomona where they ran career bests. This weekend they went back to back within 1/100th on both passes. Mike Robeck has a good handle on the new combination that is a clone to Rick Santos championship powerplant.
Clint Thompson
John Patton 1. Steve Gasparrelli Prisms Unlimited Firebird 5.637 253.61
Bernie Harrington Thursday April 1 ,2004 Top Alcohol previews for Bucky Austin, Mike Cofini and Don Hudson. Looks like rain for the day Friday, but we will keep you up to date on any action at the "Strip"
April 2, 2004 Montgomery Alabama Lucas Oil Top Alcohol qualifying Friday. What can you say about the Top Alcohol classes in Division 2. You know (and this is directed at the competitors primarily in the South East, but you can also include a parts of the geographic area that is not too far away from racing this weekend in Alabama), what gives. Unless all the teams are boycotting this race because of entry fees (which I doubt because the top ten get free entry), having a two car field in TAFC and less than a full field in TAD is inexcusable. Talk about not caring about the future of the class at least at the divisional level (yes I realize that there are a number of teams that would rather not race at divisional events, and maybe this is one of the tracks that is not that good. But I don't think so. Guy Kelly ran a 5.42 at over 261 in his TAD, so I don't think the track is the problem. All I can say is; To all the competitors that are there to compete, a applaud you and to those that skipped it, shame on you. TAFC final qualifying 1 5 Jay Payne, Claremont CA, '04 Chevy Camaro 5.951 241.22 241.22
1 2155 B/AD Guy Kelly, Wadley AL, Hadman-BAE 5.426 261.24 261.24 Memphis, Tucson and all the Top Alcohol coverage for March and earlier is here.
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2004 Lucas Oil Top Alcohol TV package 2004 Alky Zone archives Jan/Feb Alky archives 2003 Alky Zone Archives 2004
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April
19, 2004
TAD
wrap-up: The new crew-chief is certainly paying off for Mitch
Myers and the Epha team. The performance level of the A/Fuel cars returned
to last year's form, and obviously the debate will heat up. The BAD's
did perform pretty well, even though they were few and far between,
as only 5 qualified for the tough 5.50 bump spot. With corrected air
between 600 and 1100 for the TA classes, you knew the A/Fuelers would
rip up the surface. Speaking of the surface, it was new and very inconsistent
according to the teams I talked to. One run the track was good for the
first couple hundred feet, and the next run it was very suspect at the
start, and good on the back half, so the crew chiefs had quite a task
making 
consistent
runs. Myers with Steve Boggs calling the shots, ran a career best 5.34
in qualifying Friday and then stepped up to a 5.266 in the final session.
In elimination's he stayed running in the 20's and low 30's in dispatching
Dave Wilson, Morgan Lucas, Jason Cannon and finally, David Wells in
the final. Wells ran very well in his third event of the season without
Norm Grimes calling the shots. But with the air being sub 1000 feet,
the blown cars probably should have been a little quicker. Morgan Lucas
is running close to the 2003 performance, as Norm Grimes and Jim Rizzolli
are getting a handle on the nitro combination. The run of the weekend
had to be Jason (below) Cannon's 5.37 though, and not the 5.21
by Mike 
Gunderson,
simply because he had the wheels up in the air for 300 feet (no wheelie
bar) and they were 2 feet high as well. Okay, the Gunderson 5.21
was pretty cool too! David Wilson's (right, far lane)run here
in North America has come to an end, and he performed very well. The
North American BAD's have very little on the "Grumpy" Englishman.
been
worth the price of admission in itself. Mark Woznichak made the trek
to Houston in hopes of running that team's best ever, and they actually
accomplished half their goal. They ran a career best MPH when they went
256.02 in the final qualifying session. While their ET mark of 5.599
wasn't broken, they know they are right there in performance with most
of the top teams. They had trouble, much like a lot of the teams getting
a handle on the track surface that was not really up to national event
standards. On each run, the surface seemed to throw them a different
curve. Gerry Woznichak's (the crew chief) statement that the track was
"out of balance" is probably the best analogy heard all weekend.
Hey 'Woz' (pictured above), come on up to another seas level
track in 2 1/2 weeks at Mission. You'll have a great time and go 
fast
as well. On their run against Payne's 5.545, they left on Jay by 2/100's
and had two more at the sixty foot marker, but then the car broke loose
in the right lane (the same lane Newberry oiled right in front of them),
ending their day. Bucky Austin (right) is still looking to find
his 2003 form, that had the 'Hitter' as the quickest car at almost every
event. Don't bet against him coming on strong starting at his next event,
the Mission Divisional race May 7-9th. It is a track that he won at
twice in 2003 and once in 2002. Frank Manzo had planned on being at
Houston but was, according to rumors, under the weather. If Chesterman
had of won at Houston, he certainly would of been in a very strong position
for the 2004 title. Teams may of had to chase him around the country
if in fact he turned up his schedule a notch. Those red lights seem
to have a way of biting you in the butt.
Severance
leads the field with a great wheelstanding 5.449 that saw him hug the
wall for the 1320 and keep his foot in it. Bob Perkin is the surprise
#2 guy with a solid 5.459 in his BAD. Ashley Force leads the A/Fuelers
with a 5.465, after two runs within 1/100th of each other. Don Hudson
is in the #4 spot with a first run 5.465 (which tied Ashley for ET but
was 3 mph slower). Montana's Greg Tacke, ran a career best 5.472 to
sit #5 and last year's world #2 Morgan Lucas in # with a 5.477. Mark
Hentges and Duane Shields, two of the favorites going into this race
, were down to the wire and got in on their final lap. The pairings
for tomorrow include Severance and Dave Wilson, Perkins and Larry Miersch,
Force and Mitch Myers, Hudson and Shelly Howard (left), Tacke and Duane
Shields, Lucas and Mike Cofini, Steve Federlin and David Wells in a
very tough match up and Mark Hentges vs Phoenix divisional winner Chris
Demke.
In
TAFC, Steve Gasparrelli (left) and the new Fontana powerplant
is paying dividends this weekend and they stepped up big time in the
final session Saturday with a great 5.637. He is 5/100ths ahead of his
nearest competitor and will face Dale Van Gundy in round one. Cy Chesterman,
sits #2 with a 5.68 best. He will face Bob Gallio in the first round.
Ron August Jr.(below) was the only driver to run in the 5.60's twice
and his best of 5.686 has him in the #3 spot and he is up against Bil
Gallio in round one. Mark 'The Woz" Woznichak's best was a 5.698
and he gets to take on Bret Williamson Sunday morning. John Patton ran
a 5.738 and takes on Montana's Hank Coolidgeon Sunday. Dennis Taylor,
# 3 in the point standings isin the 6 hole, and gets to face Jeff Carroll.
Doug Gordon #2 in the standings (Jay Payne went one round this weekend
and won the 
div
2 race moving himself into 1st place at this time), ran a 5.757 best
and races John Weaver in round one. Rounding out the top half is Bucky
Austin who also ran 5.757 (but had a slower speed) and takes on another
division six competitor, Clint Thompson.
