(Photos by Charles Wickam) – Californian Shane Westerfield and Kansas racer Randy Meyer took home the hardware in the Top Alcohol Funny Car and Top Alcohol Dragster classes respectively at the 2014 NHRA Spring National in Houston, Texas on Sunday after wading though a pair of tough fields along the way. Ever changing weather conditions and still competition were the two toughest challenges for both racers to overcome throughout the course of the weekend. While neither made record runs because of the air they were racing in, both Westerfield and Meyer were fast enough every round to beat their opponents.
Meyer, a former national top alcohol dragster national champion driving the car that carried him to that honor qualified fifth in the field and began his march to victory by defeating Michael Manners in round one, Forrest Fair in round number two, Dave Brounkowski in round three and in the final he bested Mark Taliaferro who had to go into a full on thrash to simply have a car to drive in that final round. Meyer also had a decent outing at the Four Wide Nationals earlier in the NHRA season, so he’s a player to watch on the national front this year.
In top alcohol funny car, California based racer Shane Westerfield took advantage of a strong qualifying position, a stout car, and a rare laddering situation to muscle his way to the winner’s circle by taking down all comers in Houston. A 5.614/258.42 lap was good enough to garner the number two qualifying position at Houston. Westerfield’s race day got weird when his first round opponent Ro Yale was unable to make the call and he got a competition single. Westerfield then had a scheduled bye run in round two, and met his first opponent in the semi-finals. That came in the form of Las Vegas’s Nick Januik, the recent winner of the NHRA Las Vegas event in alcohol funny car. Finally, Westerfield took down the hard charging Annie Whiteley to score a wally and make the long trip from California well worth it.
Last I knew, Randy Meyer (and the rest of the Meyer 5 racing team) were from Kansas City…. not Kentucky.
You are right, Ron. Brain fade. Just fixed ‘er up.
Brian,
Enjoyed your announcing gig on Friday at the Springnationals. Who knew you could also work a microphone as well as a computer!