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Sept.29, 2003 In Memory of Our Precious Codi Bug We are sad to have to tell you all that Codi passed away at 12:52 am on September 23, 2003. She was surrounded by her Grandpa Darel, her Mama Loni, her Mama Sara, her special friend Melodie, and her favorite nurse, John who came in on his day off to be with her. Our precious Codi on Earth is now our precious Angel Codi in Heaven. Codibug.com will live on in her honor, promoting her causes. We, at SpeedZone Magazine are very sad to hear of the passing of Codi Frazier. God be with you and your family. You inspired us all! Dean Sept. 26, 2003 Bucky Austin Preview. Route 66 Raceway There are all kinds of hyperbole you can use to describe
the importance of this weekend's Top Alcohol Funny Car race at Route
66 Raceway. While it is not quite the bottom of the ninth with two outs
and a full count, it is still the bottom of the ninth. Maybe it's one
out! Sept. 25, 2003 John Force after Race City RACE CITY MOTORSPORT PARK for immediate release September 25, 2003
Race City announced early in 2003 that it was dropping its National
Hot "We feel that it is in the best interests of everyone - our fans,
our The International Hot Rod Association has grown rapidly in Canada in
the It happened, good or bad, it is hard to say, the most important thing is for Calgary's Race City to get their affairs in order. And that includes getting the surface and the pits worked on extensively, and getting the management ot pay attention to the people that support the facility; The racers and fans. Sept. 25, 2003 Funny Car racer John Force has been fined $5,000 by the NHRA for an incident that occurred Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003, during the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals in Memphis, Tenn. Force violated the rules and regulations of NHRA as set down on page 241 of the 2003 NHRA Rulebook regarding participant conduct for his actions toward competing crew chief Lee Beard. The fine must be paid in full prior to Force being allowed to participate at any future NHRA events. Force may appeal this action through a written Notice of Appeal submitted to the NHRA Technical Services Department within 30 days of the date of the Statement of Violation (issued Sept. 24), accompanied by a $300 filing fee.
Sept. 20, 2003 Rumors and tidbits Rumor has it that the NHRA Tech Dept. is going to start looking closely at a couple of the Pro Stock teams. With one or two dominating the field this year compared to the last couple years, there is talk that the cylinder heads are not really on the up and up. Melanie Troxel and the Race Rock TF team departed ways earlier this month and all kinds of specualtions are running rampant, including John Force adding her as a Top Fuel driver or even possibly as the third Funny Car pilot, as Densham does not look to be returning. Don the Snake Prudhomme is also said to be an owner looking at Melanie as a second driver. In the same fold , Is Gary Scelzi or Scotty Cannon going to be with the Force team, as Oakley's Jim Jannard is said to be not happy will their current situation with the Schumacher team. Paul Romine will stay in the Carrier Boyz Top Fuel car for the balance of this year and probably for 2004 as well. What will happen with John Mitchell and his operation, well it is a tough call, but Mitchell has had run ins with the NHRA in the past. He does not have any sponsors to answer to, as it is all on his own buck, so we'll have to wait and see. The mandate by the NHRA of proving the team won't oil down the track for three consecutive runs, is more of a pride deal and I bet his ego is bruised. Bob Gilbertson may have an 'Ace' in his hole for 2004 and a new sponsor In the Pro Stock ranks, Don Schumacher may add a Pro Stock car to the stable, in his quest to take over the NHRA professional classes. Greg Anderson is also set to announce a new or additional sponsor for the Ken Black team. In the Top Alcohol ranks, As noted in that Zone, Morgan Lucas is said to be in his own car next year, and Ashley Force may be in the Darien/Meadows A/Fueler. Duane Shield sold his car to Daniel Mercier from Quebec. Will Duane be back? If his is, I think as do many others that it will be in an A/Fuel car. Maybe he bought an existing ride. Sept. 11, 2003 Bucky Austin "Reading, Lucas Oil" Preview Last weekend at Indy really left a bad taste in the Bucky Austin camp.
He added 11 points to his total when it could have easily been 43, if
he had of gone on to win Indy. Whether it will hurt them in their championship
bid, is yet to be seen. The "North West Hitter" is taking
up the challenge head on, as he decided to compete this weekend, at
Reading, for the Lucas Oil Nationals, a race right in Frank Manzo's
back yard. Sept. 9, 2003 Bucky Austin Indy Wrap up The North West Hitter left Indy with a little bit of good news but not the results he wanted. It was a what if scenario. After qualifying #2 with a 5.63, he faced Thomas Frickenschmidt in round one and won handily with a 5.65, the third quickest run in round one. But the best news of round one was his chief rival and world champion Frank Manzo was upset by Jeff Craig in the first round. Manzo's total point gain was 32 points for his fifth national event appearance. Bucky had to go at least three rounds to gain any more points. In Round two, he faced a very tough Tate Branch, the class of Division 4 competition. This one was tight, with Branch taking a .007 hole shot off the line, and holding the edge until 400 feet, where Bucky moved past him and extended the lead through the finish line for a .0073 margin of victory on a great 5.66. In the semi finals he faced the giant killer in Jeff Craig. Craig's best run throughout the event so far was a 5.73, while Bucky has been consistently in the mid 5.60's, so he was the heavy favorite. But that is why you don't run these races on paper, as Craig continued his upset minded ways. As the cars staged, and left the starting line Bucky went two feet when he broke, giving the easy win to Craig, who went on to win the event. With the semi final finish, Bucky threw away an earlier second round finish at Pomona and added 11 points to his total giving him 765 points to Manzo's 722 points. The next scheduled event for the Austin team is Chicago's 2nd national event Sept.25-28. He will also represent Division 6 there as an TAFC Jeg's Allstar participant. Bucky is sure to compete against Manzo at that event and knows he needs an even better result than the semi final finish at Indy if he wants to be the 2004 champion. August 29, 2003 Bucky Austin Indy Preview The last third of this season is going to tell us if someone
can take the throne away from six time consecutive world champion Frank
Manzo. The "North West Hitter" Bucky Austin is in real good
position to win his first world championship. After getting his fifth
Divisional win last weekend at Mission Raceway to complete the sweep
in that half of the requirement, he needs a couple more key wins on
the National end to end a reign that has been almost as dominant as
John Force's in the Nitro Funny Car ranks. Mitch Meyers Mission LODRS wrap Mitch Meyer knew heading into last weekend's Lucas Oil
Event at Mission Raceway, that it would be a tough race to both qualify
for and advance to the late rounds on Sunday. It ended up being an explosive
field, that wound up with a bump in the 5.50's. The bump spot was a
stellar 5.56, and Meyers' had his first ever A/Fuel explosion just after
the hit on Friday's qualifying session. Mitch blazed the tires at 40
feet and had the engine hydraulic, sending the injector scoop sailing
forty feet in the air and splitting a couple rods. Luckily the team
had a spare motor and they ran that in the next session and cranked
out a 5.53 to sixth. "That was the first time we have had a bang
in this A/Fuel deal in over 200 runs", so that is a pretty good
stat. Our system is designed to bleed away fuel when the car smokes
the tires, but we had the pressure valve set a little too high on that
pass, due to a change we made. I guess it did not like the change. We
are always learning new this with this A/Fuel deal and there will be
the odd glitch along the way, but I'm glad we responded with a good
effort to finish off qualifying and then we ran even quicker in the
first round where we defeated Mike Cofini with a 4.47. Unfortunately
in the semi finals, we smoked the tires, after changing nothing from
the 5.47 1st round pass". Mitch and team have a couple weeks to
get ready for their next event, the Medford Lucas Oil event, (they may
match race at Woodburn the week before), then they are off to Chicago
for one of the toughest TAD event of the year, a race that coincides
with the Jeg's Allstars.
August 3, 2003 Mitch Meyers West Coast Wrap Mitch Meyers and the Epha team did a bit of a flip flop compared to last season's Western swing between Seattle and Sonoma National events. In 2002, Mitch won the Seattle event and lost in the first round at Sonoma. This year, the season has had as many ups and downs as last year, but the tune up on the car is one that seems to a little more adaptable. While they did not qualify for the Seattle event last week, they attribute that to as much track conditions as their own greed. When you go into an event as defending champion, you have alot of expectations because you are expected to do well. Your tune-up therefore, becomes a little more aggressive. Unfortunately for the 'Epha team', they had the unfavorable left lane for two of three qualifying attempts. In round one they smoked the tires in the left lane Friday afternoon. Then in the second session, they took a little out of the tune-up to just get a base line and hopefully get in the field. Mitch went 5.75 to sit in the #15 spot. In the final session Saturday morning under much cooler conditions, the team knew they would have run in the low 50's or better to be in the top half, and the high 50's to just qualify, so they did tune- it up to what they though would be safe enough to get them in the field, but not to aggressive to smoke the tires in the left lane. Well, they smoked the tires right at the hit and the weekend was done for the defending champion. While the lanes probably contributed to the bad showing, Mitch did not put the blame solely on that factor, in fact he stated that they were just "plain ole too greedy" for the conditions. His hat goes out to the Bradshaw/Meyers crew though, as they had the track surface figured out and kick some serious butt all weekend. The team licked their wounds and then headed off to Sonoma where they did not have the target on their back as defending champions, but they certainly wanted redemption for the kick to the groin they endured the week previous. Right off the bat the team, got off on the right foot in the first session running a great 5.44 to sit #4. Mitch went 5.52 in session #2, but moved down to #6 on the ladder. Still safe, but the team wanted a 5.30 pass. Mitch tuned it up for the final round of qualifying and smoked the tires right off the starting line, so he ended up with the 5.44 and the #10 qualifying position. In the first round, the 'Epha' team faced Don Hudson. Mitch had a great .039 light and ran another forty, a 5.46 to get the win. In the 1/4's, Mitch faced the Darien car driven by Morgan Lucas, and got a huge break, as Lucas went red, throwing away a 5.33 compared to Meyer's consistent 5.49. in the semis, Mitch faced off against rookie Garrett Bateman. Bateman was in the Gregg Lawrence car and was in his first national event, and was running great in his first event. Mitch left on Garrett by 55/1000ths, but fell off from his 5.40 passes to a 5.56. Bateman ran a great 5.41 and past Meyers by 1/2 track. The FInal round was won by ALan Bradshaw over Bateman to give the Western sweep to Bradshaw. While the Epha team did not get the win, Mitch and crew went away from Sonoma with more data and a bit more confidence heading into their final 1/3 of the season. Their next event is at Mission for the Div. 6 Lucas Oil Event June 21-23. Speedzone Magazine Subscriptions are available for $25 from: Speedzone Magazine or our U.S. address: Box 2923 |