October
17th was the date. The American DRAGCAR Throwdown was the
race. Heads-up, all-out, no-breakout drag racing was the
format. This was a special invitation-only race comprised
of a field of 8 racers chosen out of the day’s earlier
DragSport Eliminator field. The 8 racers were chosen by
only one requisite, their qualifying ET, but nobody knew
what ET would get them into this field beforehand. In fact,
very few of the racers even knew such a field was going
to be drawn for this special free entry exhibition class
to be run off during the night’s Halloween Havoc event.
With
53 DragSport Eliminator racers having performances ranging
from 7.93 to over 16.50, the tightest bunch consisted
of 13 having run in the smallest performance range cut
out of the qualifying list with their qualifying times
ranging from 10.47 to 10.92 making for a possible field
spread of .45 seconds. The 8 closest performances were
in a range of only 3 tenths of a second but of the 13
selected, only 10 were able to commit to running in the
evening program so an 8-car field was picked with 2 alternates.
Then attrition played its part so in the end it was a
field with a performance spread of .45 seconds from the
quickest to the slowest.
The 8-car field consisted of;
#1 @ 10.472 - Rick Lagno
#2 @ 10.479 - Matt Ballard
#3 @ 10.562 - Howard Devore
#4 @ 10.627 - Butch Saylor
#5 @ 10.650 - Jim Wray
#6 @ 10.708 - Marc Ocampo
#7 @ 10.799 - Shawn Fredrickson
#8 @ 10.922 - James Sorenson
First round opened with Butch Saylor in his ’78
Chevy Malibu vs. Matt Ballard in his ’72 Chevy Vega
(right). Ballard had a 15 hundredths performance
advantage over Saylor on paper but this eliminator was
running on an Instant green start. Therefore performance
wasn’t going to be everything as racers would have
to be on their toes to react quickly to get a decent reaction
time and hopefully a jump on their competition. As it
turned out in this pair, Ballard’s performance advantage
was enough to overcome the holsehot advantage put on him
by Saylor and he took the win with a 10.42 over a 10.77.
Next out was Marc Ocampo in his ’67 Ford Mustang
and James Sorenson in his ’73 Chevy Nova. Ocampo
carried a 22 hundredths performance advantage going into
the round but before the greens even flashed, the red
light was glowing on Ocampo’s side of the tree allowing
Sorenson a 10.95 pass into the semi-finals. The third
pair up to the line was Howard Devore in his ’69
Chevy Nova taking on Rick Lagno in his ’75 Chevy
Monza. Lagno carried the advantage in this pair having
qualified 9 hundredths quicker than Devore but it was
the reaction time that made the difference in this pairing
as Devore’s 10.57 
prevailed
over Lagno’s quicker 10.48 charge. And then the
final pairing of the round brought out Jim Wray in his
’51 Plymouth Suburban going up against Shawn Fredrickson
in his ’72 Ford Maverick (right. When was the
last time you saw a 4200 pound '51 Plymouth Suburban powered
by a blown big block Chevy running 10's at the track?).
Jim Wray had a 15 hundredths performance advantage going
up to the line in this pairing but again the reaction
time made all the difference as Fredrickson came away
the winner with an 11.23 over 11.08.
The
first pairing of the semi-finals had Howard Devore in
his Nova going up against Shawn Fredrickson in his Maverick.
Fredrickson qualified with a 10.79 but had only run 11.23
in first round while Devore who qualified with a 10.56
had run 10.57 in first round so the big performance advantage
was going to Devore in this pairing. And when the greens
lit, it was Devore off the line first with a healthy holeshot
advantage and he just stretched it out as he went taking
the win with a 10.59 over a slowing 11.84. Then it was
James Sorenson facing off with Matt Ballard. Sorenson
who had qualified with a 10.92 and managed a 10.95 in
first round was at a decisive disadvantage as Ballard
qualified with a 10.47 and had run 10.42 in his first
round. When the greens lit for this pair, it was again
the faster racer taking the reaction time advantage and
stretching out the lead as it was Ballard taking the win
with a 10.47 over a 10.97.
So
Howard Devore had his work cut out for him as he looked
to be at about a tenth of a second performance disadvantage
to Matt Ballard going into the final round, and Ballard
had nailed down the best reaction time of the night in
his previous round. Then the two Chevys were staged, big
block vs. small block, Nova vs. Vega, Tucson vs. Flagstaff,
lotsa bragging rights up for grabs here. The greens flashed
and the front ends jumped up, and it was Devore with a
5 hundredths reaction time advantage off the line that
made Ballard worry. Ballard had to be sweating as Devore’s
Nova looked to be running away with the win, stretching
out his lead as they raced down the track. Then at about
the 1/8th mile, Ballard’s Vega finally started to
pick up speed on Devore’s Nova and began closing
the gap, and it was at the 1000’ mark where the
big block Vega finally climbed up alongside the Hound
Dog and started edging forward for the win 300 feet later
by a slim 5 hundredths of a second margin, 10.47 @ 127mph
over a 10.58 @ 123mph.
Results
- American DRAGCAR, Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, AZ /
October 17, 2015
Quarter
Finals:
Winner:
Matt Ballard, Tucson, AZ., '72 Vega, RT: .639, ET: 10.423
Runner-up: Butch Saylor, Sierra Vist, AZ., '78 Malibu,
RT: .615, ET: 10.771
Winner:
James Sorenson, Elgin, AZ., '73 Nova, RT: .552, ET: 10.95
Runner-up: Marc Ocampo, Avondale, AZ., '67 Mustang, RT:
LB3, ET: xxxx
Winner:
Howard Devore, Flagstaff, AZ., '69 Nova, RT: .529, ET:
10.575
Runner-up: Rick Lagno, Scottsdale, AZ., '75 Monza, RT:
.917, ET: 10.485
Winner:
Shawn Fredrickson, Florence, AZ., '72 Maverick, RT: .668,
ET: 11.233
Runner-up: Jim wray, Wittmann, AZ., '51 Suburban, RT:
1.095, ET: 11.080
Semi
Finals:
Winner:
Howard Devore, RT: .553, ET: 10.591
Runner-up: Shawn Fredrickson, RT: .635, ET: 11.848
Winner:
Matt Ballard, RT: .504, ET: 10.479
Runner-up: James Sorenson, RT: .554, ET: 10.964
Finals:
Winner:
Matt Ballard, RT: .564, ET: 10.472
Runner-up: Howard Devore, RT: .510, ET: 10.583
