Day Two PRO Winter Warm-Ups, ’18 Mello Yello Fuel Champs Lead The Pack!


Day Two PRO Winter Warm-Ups, ’18 Mello Yello Fuel Champs Lead The Pack!

(Photos by Big Bob Snyder) – Day two of the PRO Winter Warm-ups at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park brought out more teams, racecars and bikes wiping out the cobwebs. With only a handful of days left prior to the season opening Lucas Oil Winternationals at Auto Club Pomona Raceway February 7-10, it looks as though Steve Torrence in Top Fuel and JR Todd in Funny Car will be picking up where they left off in 2018.

Steve Torrence set the pace with the quickest in Top Fuel pass, a stunning 3.689 elapsed time during Thursday for the 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel Champ. Steve’s father, Billy Torrence (above) made the second-quickest pass of the day with his 3.731 ET pass.

Rookie Jordan Vandergriff was third quickest with his 3.738 ET at 325.85 MPH, while Mike Salinas’ “Scrappers” dragster (above) grabbed the fourth position with his 3.747 ET at 296.24 MPH.

Salinas’ twenty year-old daughter Jianna (above) is still in college and was testing with veteran Pro Stock Bike racers Karen and Gary Stoffer.

Three-time Champion Angelle Sampey was out too, getting familiar with a Vance & Hines Harley Davidson Pro Stock Bike.

’18 Funny Car Champ, J.R. Todd, was low for the day with his 3.930 ET at 305.22 mph in the DHL-backed Toyota Camry fielded by Kalitta Motorsports. The second quickest funny car at Phoenix was 2017 Champ Robert Hight’s 3.94 ET at 314.68 MPH with John Force (below) next in line with his 3.942 ET at 311.13 MPH.

There’ll be more pre-season testing on Friday.  Here are the remaining photos from Arizona’s Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park PRO Winter Warm-Up.

 

Antron Brown – 3.769, 293.73

 

Doug Kalitta – 3.78, 289.07

Matt Hagan – 3.959, 319.22

Chad Green – 4.125, 239.82 (driving for Tim Wilkerson)

Jonnie Lindberg – 4.169, 242.67


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