(Photos by Bob & Ginger Snyder -Words by Dennis Salzwimmer and Bob Snyder) -This year the Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit brought their Funny Car Nationals to Quaker City Motorsports Park in Salem, Ohio. The event was combined with the track’s annual Quaker City Nostalgia Classic & Pace Performance Great Lakes Funny Car Nationals.
An awesome collection of past early funny cars like the “Hemi Cuda” and Mickey Thompson’s “Revelleader” Pontiac were part of a cool car show.
Twenty-one funny cars raced the Chicago-style event with an East versus Midwest format – with the quickest funny car from each region facing off in the final.
CLICK HERE to see all of our photos from the Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Association Invasion Of Quaker City Dragway
Nineteen funny cars met for the first round. This was the first weekend of racing at Quaker City this year so the surface was still a little green, which made for some exciting runs.
One of the highlights of this round was the “High Psi” Plymouth Arrow kicking one of drag strip timing blocks right at the freshly repainted “War Path” Buick Somerset. Owner Rocky Pirone got the spectators on their feet by getting as close to the wall as you can without scrapping the zoomies.
The first round saw Rocky Roxlau’s “Time Bomb” ’72 Vega run a 6.710/204.27 miles per hour for the East with Chuck Horvath and his “Damn Yankee” ’77 Vega topping the Midwest numbers, running a 7.2139/190.03 mph.
The second round kept the spectators on their feet too, this time it was the beautiful “Warpath” pushing one of the foam block right behind the “Damn Yankee” Vega as he was backing up from his burnout.
Roxlau drove the “Time Bomb” to another solid 6.70 run in the second round hoping that would get him in the final, but was not to happen as Kim McKean, driving the “Agent Orange” Duster, stopped the clocks at 6.508/215.62 mph making his run the quickest from the East.
Mark Horvath slightly bettered his time from the first round a with a 7.212 putting him in his third straight, and fifth total Funny Car National finals.
Horvath knew he was an underdog giving up more than a half a second and did what he had to do with a holeshot for the Duster (.115 to a .448 light). The Vega held on to about half-track when the Duster made his move crossing the finish line with a 6.81/182 mph to a slowing 7.56/169 for the Vega.
Dennis Salzwimmer, Grand PooBah of the Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit.
Two of the East Coast heavy hitting injected cars also joined in on the fun, Willie Johnson in the “No Money No Funny” Nova and Frank Barnard in the “Poison Arrow” (above). Frank ran a best of 7.8848 against Willie’s 8.0047. The Nova had a transmission problem so the Arrow made a single in the finals taking home the trophy.
The East Coast teams really brought their “A-game” this year with a round win tally of 11-5.
The day also included high winding gassers from the Nostalgic Notions, gear banging from the UMTR.
Old style, front-engine dragsters from the Southern Slingshots also rounded out the show.
Showman Tim Arfons brought his killer “Green Monster” Turbine dragster out to thrill the crowd. Over the winter Tim added a flame show to the incredible turbine engine, which really wowed the spectators on repeated runs down the Quaker City strip.
The Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit would like to thank title sponsor Pace Performance for helping them bring this great event to Quaker City Motorsports Park.
The Peak Winners Trophy went to Kim McKean in the Agent Orange Duster in The Blown Class, and Frank Barnard in the Poison Arrow in the Injected Class.
The S & W Contingency awards go to Kim McKean (Winner) & Mark Horvath (Runner Up) Blown Class
Frank Barnard (Winner) Injected Class
Best burn out presented by MJM Trucking
Blown Class Split Decision Total Insanity Monza & Solid Rock Mustang
Back Up Girl Presented by Warped Worm Engineering
Krista Massarella Total Insanity (Winner) Casey Welsh (Runner Up)
Best Reaction Time Presented by Good Vibrations Motorsports Whittier, CA
Chris Schneider driver of the “Mopar Crazy” Dodge Challenger (.0051) – Blown Class (below)
Frank Barnard “Poison Arrow”( .026) – Injected Class
Longest Tow Award Presented by Classy Carts
John Troxel “Mopar Crazy” Dodge Challenger tuned by event Grand Marshall the “Hawaiian” Roland Leong.
Best Appearing Car Presented by Classy Carts
Steve Timoszyk’s “Parts Peddler” Plymouth Barracuda
Stan Bowman Memorial Award. Presented by Total Flow Performance.
Nick Tilley “Shyster” Corvette
The next event for the Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit is the Nostalgia Nationals at Wisconsin International Raceway. For more info on the Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit http://glnfcc.com
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