Westerfield Wins First, Whiteley Continues Roll

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photo courtesy of David Smith

At the AAA Texas FallNationals in Dallas, Shane Westerfield handed Frank Manzo his first final-round loss in nearly eight years to earn his first major Top Alcohol Funny Car victory and Jim Whiteley put the Top Alcohol Dragster championship almost out of reach with his sixth overall win this season.

With increasingly quicker reaction times, Westerfield left on everybody he faced and reeled off one low-5.50 after another, highlighted by a 5.55 to 5.58 final-round decision over Manzo, whose last runner-up was 43 finals ago at the 2006 Winternationals. "That's about the best weekend anybody could have – not because I won but because I ended his streak," Westerfield said. "That's all anybody wanted to talk about."

Manzo had a solid .059 reaction time, but Westerfield, who is getting married next weekend, was even quicker with a .051 and fought his car off the centerline in low gear. "It went right almost immediately," he said. "I thought, 'I might end up hitting something, but no way am I lifting or short-shifting this one.' Just as I was getting really close to the centerline, the shift light finally came on, and I got it back in the groove. I actually thought I lost – I never saw my win-light come on. He wasn't too happy. He was loaded up and out of there in no time."

With the victory, Westerfield, who broke into the Top 10 for the first time last year, is up to second in the national standings, one point ahead of John Lombardo. He qualified his CP-Carrillo entry No. 3 behind Manzo and Annie Whiteley with a 5.54 and ran a career-best 5.52 in the first round to take out Texan Steve Burck, who slowed to a 5.93. From there, it was nothing but Top 5 drivers and side-by-side 5.50s the rest of the way: Lombardo fell in the second round, 5.53 to 5.56; Whiteley lost on a slight holeshot in the semi's, 5.54 to 5.52; and Manzo slipped to a 5.58 to fall short of his 5.55 in the final.

Racing at Dallas for the first time since the 1990s and just the fourth time in his career, Manzo ruled until the semifinals, where he lost lane choice for the final in a 5.55 win over Jay Payne. After qualifying No. 1 with a 5.50 that held up all weekend for low e.t., his 5.60 in the first round took out Ro Yale, who cut a .004 light and anchored the field with a career-best 6-flat – quicker than surprise non-qualifiers Tony Bartone and Brian Hough ran. Manzo then ran a 5.51 in a second-round win over Bryan Brown's engine-blowing 5.98 and edged Payne in a great semifinal race, 5.55 to 5.58.

The rare final-round loss may have ended Manzo's streak, but in just a month he's rocketed from the lower rungs of the Top 10 to a huge lead. With 15 consecutive round-wins and victories at Brainerd, Indy, and Charlotte, he now tops the standings by 85 points and almost certainly will close his incredible career with yet another championship

Jim Whiteley, like Manzo, is the defending national champ, just won Indy, recently announced that this will be his final season, has a commanding points lead, has won an overwhelming percentage of his career finals, and was part of a side-by-side final in Dallas. Unlike Manzo, he won.

Whiteley and Bill Reichert, who have combined to win six of the past seven Top Alcohol Dragster championships, both ran 5.32s in the final. Whiteley got off the mark first, .075 to .089, and ran slightly quicker, 5.322 to 5.327, to persevere by 19-thousandths of a second.

"I can always hear those A/Fuel cars, so I knew he was there somewhere, but I had no idea it was that close," Whiteley said. "We had to take it easy on the motor. The number two main cap was broken completely in two, and we're real fortunate that it survived the run. The crank probably should have come out of it."

Whiteley qualified his YNot Racing Dragster No. 1 with a 5.24 at 274.50 mph (top speed) and made his best run of the season, a 5.23 (low e.t.) in a first-round win over Michael Manners, who was unable to appear. A steady 5.28 took out Monroe Guest in the second round and the first of back-to-back 5.32s was enough against Joey Severance in a semifinal match both were lucky to survive.

Severance got into his own oil, veered into Whiteley's lane, corrected, and slid down the centerline for hundreds of feet on the left tires before miraculously steering back into his lane unscathed. "I saw him coming at me and wondered what was going to happen," Whiteley said. "Then I saw him turn and knew I was OK, but somebody was definitely watching out for him that time."

Running conservatively in the final, Whiteley managed another 5.32 to all but lock up his second straight championship. "I heard some rumors that I need to just qualify in Las Vegas to clinch this, but I'm not sure," he said. "I've been told that if I quit right now, [Chris] Demke would have to win every race for the rest of the year to pass me. [Brandon] Booher has come on here lately, and if he does well at Reading, Vegas, and Pomona, maybe he could take us, so we'll just have to wait and see. I'll miss racing this car next year, but I've done what I wanted to do. We set out to win a championship, and it looks like we might get two."

VIDEO: Demke Set to Defend Northwest Nationals Title

Courtesy of NVW Motorsports Promotion
Photo courtesy of Maddern Racing

SEATTLE, Wash. (July 31, 2013) – Top Alcohol Dragster points leader Chris Demke returns to Seattle’s Pacific Raceways this weekend to defend his O’Reilly Northwest Nationals title. Chris won last year’s event in one of the sport’s most bizarre final rounds, where he defeated rival Jim Whiteley in an 11.37 to 11.76 race – a few seconds slower than their typical 5.2-second elapsed times.

“I guess that’s a final round that will go down in history. Jim and I both crossed the finish line at over eleven seconds with our parachutes out. It was a very helpless feeling. I knew my motor blew up. Typically when that happens you just watch the other guy go by you to take the win. As I coasted down the track,  I felt the parachutes blossom I and pushed in the clutch. I realized that Jim wasn’t going by me. The motor blew up at three seconds into the run so that means I coasted for eight seconds. That was eight of the longest seconds of my life. I crossed the finish line and saw my win light come on, and then just exploded into laughter. I had no idea what happened but I won the race and that’s all that mattered at that point,” Chris recalled.

Demke’s Peen Rite/Operational Solutions team has a history of success at this event, reaching at least the semifinals in their last four appearances at the Northwest Nationals, including wins in 2010 and 2012, and a runner-up in 2009.

Chris enters this year’s Northwest Nationals with four 2013 national event final rounds under his belt, including a win at Maddern Racing’s most recent national event, the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago. That record coupled with runner-up finishes at the recent Jegs Allstars and Woodburn regional events give Demke confidence.

“I think we’ve done well at national events this year. Looking at our recent performance I think we can continue that this weekend. I haven’t looked at the forecast yet but if the weather and track are good I think this Peen Rite/OSI/Cleanboost Oil car can thunder. I’m looking forward to making some fast laps and coming home with the Wally,” said the fan-favorite blown alcohol dragster driver.

Though his results at this race will affect his national points battle with Jim Whiteley, Chris says the team generally doesn’t let the points situation determine how the team runs their race.

“It’s hard not to look at the points, but it’s a little deceiving how the sportsman points are tallied. Though I have more points than Jim, I’m also counting one more race than Jim and the other drivers behind me. I’m leading points but my points per counted race are lower than Jim’s. We try not to look at the points. If I’m on top, that’s great. We try not to let it affect our tune-up – we just go out there, try to have a good time, and win.”

Top Alcohol Dragster qualifying at the O’Reilly Northwest Nationals is scheduled for 2:15 and 4:45 PM on Friday, August 2^nd. Final round of qualifying is set for 11:30 AM on Saturday, followed by first round of eliminations at 4 PM. 

Maddern Racing, celebrating 20 years of competition in 2013, is a family-owned and operated NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster team based in Southern California. The Chris Demke-driven Peen Rite/OSI/Cleanboost Oil dragster is owned by Jerry Maddern and crewed by Adam Rhoades, Kevin Watson, Mike Demke, and Ron Mann. For more information on Maddern Racing, please visit www.MaddernRacing.com.

Maddern Racing receives support from the following companies: Peen Rite Inc., Operational Solutions Inc., Cleanboost Oil, A1 Technologies, Boninfante Friction Inc., and Hoosier Racing Tire.

 

VIDEO: Strong Speed Numbers for Ahten in Famoso Testing

Courtesy of THR5 Communications
Photo and video courtesy of Costabile Productions

 

McFarland, CA. – Johnny Ahten loaded up the new Ahten Racing truck and trailer and headed to the historic Auto Club Famoso Raceway last weekend for some testing and to put on a show for the Saturday Night Nitro event. What the Island Renovations/CleanBoost-801Racing/Fireman’s Brew team left with was even better. Two runs with trap speeds of 266+ mph proved they are moving in the right direction, and they captured some exciting video in the process.

“Since this was not a regular race, we decided to outfit the Stump Puller with a few video cameras,” said Ahten. “A few turned into four, which lead to some great video. My video guy, Chuck Costabile of Costabile Productions, was able to sync them all together and create a four camera angle video that highlighted our 5.53@266.8 run. We have made some changes to the combination and it really showed, added Ahten.

That afternoon blast down the Famoso quarter mile was with a 145° track temp. The elapsed time was not where Johnny would like it to be, but the thinking in the Ahten camp is it needed more fuel. Crew Chief Al Ahten concurred, and for the next run they fattened it up a bit. It shook the tires at the hit and Johnny shut it down. Ahten added, “For the night session we made a few adjustments and ran another 266 mile per hour run with a 5.51 elapsed time.  The plan now is for a bit more compression and we might throw some more fuel at it.  The weekend was a great success, we got down a 145 degree track, and then shook when it got cold, adjusted and got down a cold track, very happy with that. All we need are few more adjustments to get back into the .30s. We were also working the kinks out on our new race rig. I had quite a list going of things we still need or didn’t bring. It was a bit nerve-racking to turn and look for something and it was not there. By the next race we will have everything in place,” concluded Ahten.  

The Stump Puller’s next planned outing is scheduled for the Seattle Pacific Raceways’ Northwest Nationals Aug. Aug. 2-4. By then, Johnny and the crew will have the tune-up in place, the new trailer sorted out, and the desire to blast down the track even faster. For now they will have to wait, but at least they have some great in-car video to enjoy.