(Words by Dennis Salzwimmer – Photos by ‘Big’ Bob Snyder)
Memorial Day weekend the 9th Annual Pace Performance Funny Car Nationals and Nostalgia Classic to Quaker City Motorsports Park. According to the local weatherman, there might be some issues over the weekend. It was a strong field of alky funny cars and gassers to celebrate the old days.
Good Vibrations Motorsports presented the Saturday Night Funny Car Show under the Lights with a special added attraction; a new versus old funny car race with veteran funny car racer Bunny Burkett’s Avenger funny car taking on Scott Ringwood driving the Mistress ‘78 Corvette.
There was also a special husband versus wife race with Chris Massarella in the “Total Insanity” Blown Monza versus wife Krista in her “Temporary Insanity” Monza.
There was a day of bracket racing prior to the Saturday night racing. First out were the Massarella Monzas with great burnouts and a few old fashion dry hops; both cars are painted identical so it was like double exposure. The format was for each driver to dial-in from their career best ETs. Well the tree was not set correctly and the tree came down evenly. Krista did come out first and held Chris off till about half-track and then the blown big block passed by for the win.
The winner of the Good Vibrations Motorsports Best Reaction Time by a supercharged funny car was Chris Schneider in John Troxel’s “Mopar Crazy” Challenger, tuned by Roland Leong.
Early Sunday the pits were already buzzing with activity and the crowd was treated to an on track photo session reminiscent of the old days with all 28 funny cars lined up on the race track for a photo shoot with the drivers standing proudly in front of their funny cars, followed by an autograph session.
After the National Anthem the “Total Insanity” Monza and the “Solid Rock” Mustang came up and over the hill to lead into a tremendous burnout with the Monza took the win.
Tom & Steve Timoszyk brought out their recently finished recreation of Poncho Rendon’s “Detroit Tiger” Monza taking on Jon Wall in the Fireball Monza racing out of Massachusetts. The “Fireball Monza” moved first and put him into what would be the finals with a 7.02.
The injected funny cars, led by the recently painted beautiful “Iron Outlaw” Mustang II driven by Jamie Russell. This car was brought out at the end of last season and it will be a force to be reckoned with powered by an injected 426 Hemi.
Bob Daly and the “Warhorse” Mustang II came out with a Chi Town Hustler style burnout, taking the burnout contest in the injected class for both the first & second round.
The Pol–Cal Corvette from Hamburg NY took on John Troxel’s “Mopar Crazy” Challenger, tuned by Hawaiian Roland Leong. Chris Schneider pulled a whole shot and took the win with a 7.78 to a losing 7.57.
It was time for the finals, first up Frank Barnard in the Poison Arrow was up against the “No Money No Funny” Nova driven by Willie Johnson. These two cars have been up against each other in several finals. The “Poison Arrow” spun the tire right at the hit and never recovered with Willie taking the win.
In Outlaw Gasser action, it’s always tough to see a gorgeous 1933 Willys like Dave Cobb’s get out of shape and crash. You watch the video earlier here in BangShift.com.
The blown finals were next with Jon Wall in the “Fireball Monza” who ran a 7.02 taking on Ron Ooms in the “Streaker’s Ride” Camaro with a 7.09. The Monza came out first with a killer burnout. The two staged and it was a race to the finished with the Fireball Monza taking the win.
Dennis Salzwimmer who along with Quaker City Motorsports Park puts this great, yearly event together explained that next year will be the 10th Anniversary of the Pace Performance Funny Car Nationals and he has now promised that it will be a 32-car funny car field… and the crowd went wild!
