August 26, 2012, 09:26 AM
Tom LangResults Asphalt Wars at Pittsburgh Raceway Park Aug 25 , 2012
Qualifying Round One Pro Mods
1. Dave Norris 4.0883 187.89
2. Andy Jensen 4.1899 178.93
3. Dave Trapletti 4.2046 173.34
4. Mark Malcuit 4.2383 167.72
5. Jamie McBride 4.3990 157.89
6. Chip Forman 4.4784 146.77
7. Lester Sensibello 4.8490 162.98
8. John Vergotz 4.9777 145.91
9. Tim Brown 8.0394 56.80
10. Tony Desiderato 8.2348 66.80
Final Qualifying Order Pro Mods
1. Dave Norris 4.0883 187.89
2. Mark Malcuit 4.1757 172.41
3. Andy Jensen 4.1899 178.93
4. Dave Trapletti 4.2046 173.34
5. Chip Forman 4.2146 183.00
6. Lester Sensibello 4.2630 171.69
7. Jamie McBride 4.3990 157.89
8. John Vergotz 4.9777 145.91
9. Tim Brown 8.0394 56.80
10. Tony Desiderato 8.2348 66.80
Eliminations Round One Pro Mods
Brown .1648 4.9443 139.53
W-Jensen .0776 4.8564 167.22
McBride .0526 4.6903 140.80
W-Malcuit .0221 4.1775 173.34
Forman .0445 5.3405 91.86
W-Trapletti .0469 4.1650 176.54
Vergotz .0902 4.6765 123.76
W-Norris .0594 4.1231 186.03
Round Two Pro Mods
Jensen .0500 7.9353 76.45
W-Malcuit .0772 4.9570 158.79
Trapletti-broke in round one
W-Norris .0712 4.1325 186.72
Final Round Pro Mods
Malcuit .0626 4.3334 169.68
W-Norris .0512 4.3112 175.71
Qualifying Round One Outlaw Dragsters
1. Dan Dietrich 3.8729 186.26
2. Mike DiDomenico 3.9460 190.19
3. Keith McLennan 4.0245 152.49
4. Michael Scheel 4.2051 171.10
5. Dale Duche 4.5485 151.31
6. Dennis Dimitrov 4.6470 173.88
7. Jake Meinert 4.8629 140.67
8. Bob Bauer 5.6642 119.17
Final Qualifying Order Outlaw Dragsters
1. Dan Dietrich 3.8729 186.26
2. Keith McLennan 3.8984 184.28
3. Mike DiDomenico 3.9460 190.19
4. Dennis Dimitrov 4.0737 176.75
5. Michael Scheel 4.1923 170.65
6. Dale Duche 4.5485 151.31
7. Jake Meinert 4.8629 140.67
8. Bob Bauer 5.6343 119.17
Eliminations Round One Outlaw Dragsters
W-Dietrich .1306 3.9201 163.64
Bauer .0358 5.5926 120.19
Dimitrov -.0054 4.1622 175.44 RL
W-Scheel .0339 4.2155 167.47
Meinert .0396 4.8763 140.58
W-McLennan .0334 3.8643 184.05
DiDomenico-broke in qualifying
W-Duche----No time
Round Two Outlaw Dragsters
W-McLennan .1057 3.8398 184.96
Duche -.4000 9.1873 77.03 RL
Dietrich---left before tree activated
W-Scheel .2438 5.7733 80.80
Final Round Outlaw Dragsters
W-McLennan .0467 3.8371 185.26
Scheel .0030 4.7177 111.30
Notes: Dave and Scott Koffel have the Lake Erie Monster on a roll collecting their second win in two weeks. After celebrating Dave and Suzy’s 55th wedding anniversary in the winner’s circle last week at Thompson Keith McLennan wheeled to his sixth consecutive round win and second consecutive race win, running 3.86, 3.83 and 3.83 during eliminations. One of the Koffel’s stated goals in competing in these types of races is to show that their B-1 heads can be competitive and winning races speaks the loudest.
Dave Norris and the Millerstown Pic-a-Part Camaro finally strung together some good runs and collected the win in Outlaw Pro Mod. Norris and crew chief Jon Anderson have always made big power with their twin turbo engine but getting the car to go down the track consistently has proved elusive. They laid down a 4.08 in the first qualifier to take the number one spot. Several people told me to advise Jon not to change anything, to which he jokingly replied, “I’m gonna change everything but the left front wheel bearing.” After they didn’t make a good run in the second qualifier Jon told me they decided to change that left front wheel bearing and they ran 4.12 and 4.13 in the first two rounds of eliminations. The team had some issues with the starter and when the car didn’t want to crank over for the final round Jon crawled under the car with a hammer and drift and gave the starter a couple good whacks. Sometimes a mechanic’s favorite tool is a big hammer and it worked for Norris and Anderson. In the final both Norris and Mark Malcuit got a little squirrely off the starting line but they both legged it out to less than stellar ET’s but only .0336 separated them at the finish line.
Andy Jensen’s day started okay with a 4.18 in the first round of qualifying but his car slowed with every pass and ended in the semifinals when he smoked the tires like a fuel funny car. After the race Andy told me that something was broken or bound up in the rear suspension as the car got stiffer every pass until it basically had no suspension at all resulting in the tire smoker.
Jamie McBride got everybody’s attention in the first round of qualifying when he carried the front end of his twin turbo Nova in the air the entire eighth mile. He moved some weight to the nose of the car so he could steer the car the rest of the day.
Michael Scheel took his blown altered to Norwalk a couple weeks ago to make some test runs and the team learned a lot. At Pittsburgh the team made several good runs, 4.20, 4.19 & 4.21; enough to get them to their first final round in Asphalt Wars competition. Unfortunately they ran up against the Lake Erie Monster in the final round and they had to settle for the runner-up spot.
The Lockwood Racing Corvette and driver Pat Moore had an up-and-down weekend. The team came in Friday night to take advantage of the track’s free Friday test session for Pro Mods and Outlaw Dragsters. They developed a problem with the radiator and after attempts to repair it or obtain a suitable replacement locally didn’t work out crew chief Bruce Yeager and his wife Cindy made a road trip to Summit to pick up a new one. Unfortunately they didn’t get back in time to make a qualifying attempt. Both Pittsburgh and Thompson allow non qualified cars and those that go out early in eliminations to come back and make time runs during eliminations so Moore did get to make some runs. They turned in a pair of 4.03’s to back up their career best of 4.02 run at Pittsburgh a few weeks back. So, although they didn’t get in the show they were more than happy with the runs they made.
Dan Dietrich put his screw blown Olds powered dragster on the pole and seemed on course to meet the Koffel’s Place B-1 car in the final. That is until the clutch pivot ball broke when he was staging the car in the semifinals. Of course when the linkage broke the clutch released and Dan found himself headed down track a little sooner than he had planned.
Dave Trapletti had his Corvette running pretty well. A 4.20 in the first qualifier earned him the number four spot from which he used a 4.16 to knock out Chip Forman in the first round of eliminations. But that 4.16 came at a price. Dave melted a piston on that 4.16 and despite the efforts of the Trapletti family and Tom Hemphill they were unable to get it fixed for the second round.
Mike DiDomenico’s luck seems to have turned 180 degrees from his early season four race winning streak. Mike ran a 3.94 in the first qualifying session but broke the engine on the run and was done for the day.
The turnout on the dragster side was thin due a lot of breakage in the last couple weeks but three of the tracks regular racers decided to try their luck in heads up competition. Bob Bauer made the three best runs of his life in his naturally aspirated small block altered but fell victim to Dietrich in the first round. Jake Meinert and Dale Duche also got in the show in their dragsters. Duche benefitted from DiDomenico’s misfortunes to earn a bye in the first round. His day ended in the semifinals with a red light against McLennan. Dale told Keith that when McLennan brought the RPM’s up on the starting line it startled him and let go of the button too soon. All three of the local guys thanked me for letting them in the show. I told them it had nothing to do with me. Anybody that is willing to pay the entry fee is welcome to jump in the mix and we appreciate them filling out the show.
There will be a full report on High Octane Racetalk Monday Aug 27. The show airs from 6-8PM on Cool 101.7 FM in Meadville, 1470 FAR in Farrell and 940 WGRP in Greenville. I generally get to the drag racing results after the 7PM newsbreak. You can also access the show online at:
http://www.cool1017online.comThe call in line is 814-333-9011.
There will also be a report on Rappin’ on Racin’ Monday at 8:15 PM. That show can be heard on the show’s website:
http://www.speedwayproductions.biz/The archives can also be accessed through that site.