Photos by Chris Simmons – Courtesy of IHRA

There were five class winners at the IHRA Nitro Jam Southern Nationals Presented By Crower over the weekend at Bradenton Motorsports Park, but Mike McIntire Jr. scored his biggest nitro funny car victory so far.

McIntire, with his family “McAttack” Camaro, won the AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car Presented By Aeromotive final round over Baton Rouge winner Tim Boychuk in the “Hawaiian” Firebird. In the process, McIntire also broke both the IHRA Nitro Funny Car elapsed time and mile per hour records.

What made McIntire’s victory even more significant was that his father, Mike Sr., was there to witness it. Mike Jr. and the team skipped the Baton Rouge Mardi Gras Nationals when it was discovered his father required open-heart surgery.

“About a week before Baton Rouge, we found out my father needed quadruple bypass surgery,” McIntire explained. “He was admitted to the hospital and two days later was undergoing open-heart surgery on the Monday before the event so that pretty much was it. We did not even consider going (to Baton Rouge) without him.”

On his march to the Bradenton winners circle, McIntire defeated Steve Nichols “Mill Road Boys” Camaro in the first round and trailered defending Funny Car champion Jason Rupert’s “Black Plague” Camaro in the semi-final. McIntire then faced Canada’s Tim Boychuk in the final after the Baton Rouge winner had defeated “Mr. Explosive” Mark Sanders’ Mustang and John Hale’s “One Bad Texan” Camaro.

McIntire’s “MacAttack” Camaro outran Boychuk’s “Hawaiian” Firebird to the finish line at 5.662 seconds and 260.49 miles per hour – setting new records in the Nitro Funny Car category in the process and adding his name to the exclusive Legends of Nitro – 260 Mile Per Hour Club for Nitro Funny Cars.

“It’s unbelievable,” McIntire admitted. “It’s a surreal feeling. You always come out trying to win, but to win it the way we did it this weekend…it was crazy. A lot of hard work and we overcame a lot of things to get here. This is for my dad. We worked our tails off this week to get this win for him. Dad’s doing great. We got him a little too excited this weekend. But I think it was good therapy overall.”

CROWER PRO MOD

Isaias Rojas, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, scored the first win of the Crower Pro Mod class after the popular division was reinstated in the IHRA Nitro Jam program driving his nitrous-fed Chevy Cobalt

“I’m very happy. We loved IHRA for years.  My dad ran in the IHRA Pro Mods back in 2000. Now I have the victory here. We struggled in the first round of qualifying. We went about six months without testing and we have never been to this track.”

Rojas and his Mech-Tech crew righted the ship and his 2006 Cobalt rocketed to No. 1 on the qualifying grid. Rojas met Dina Parise in the first round. Parise’s crew made a valiant effort to repair the car after suffering mechanical damage during qualifying. Rojas then went on to defeat Ken Fiscus in the semi-final in order to face Floridian Jimmy Keen in the final.

NITRO HARLEY

Randal Andras (above) of Amelia, Louisiana, scored the Nitro Harley win by defeating favorite “Tak” Shigematsu of Ehime, Japan.

Shigematsu, (above) a 16-year veteran of the Nitro Harley wars, earned No. 1 Qualifier status but was a mere two miles per hour slower than Andras in the final.

“It’s absolutely wonderful. Racing in the panhandle of Florida has been a dream of mine,” said Andras. “It’s a dream come true. This is a great place and great people to race with. We were trying to get some 30s and 40s during the day, but we just couldn’t get there because of the weather. We ran some consistent 50s and it was enough for a win.”

U.S. BOUNTY HUNTERS PRO STOCK

New Yorker John Montecalvo won the U.S. Bounty Hunters Pro Stock class over Trevor Eman of Aruba.

“It’s been a long time since we raced here in IHRA. Last time we raced his was in 2009 and we won the world championship then,” said Montecalvo. “Man, I’m tellin’ ya – I’m feelin’ pretty good. This is a great organization. They really hired some good people over here. I am impressed with the way the (IHRA) operation runs.

“This field was the cream of the crop,” continued Montecalvo, referring to the fact the Baton Rouge winner, Kevin Bealko, was unable to qualify for the eight-car field. “It’s all tough competitors. It’s only a couple hundredths of a second between us.”

JET DRAGSTER

Elaine Larsen scored another win in the Jet Dragster class. Larsen won the first round of eliminations when opponent Marisha Falk fouled on the starting line. Larsen faced Shea Holbrook in the final and ran 275 miles per hour to collect the IHRA IronMan trophy.

“This is amazing,” Larsen exclaimed. “It was a great night for Miller Welding. We took home the win. Now we’ll see if I can do it again next week in West Palm Beach.”

Katarina Moller (above) from Osprey, Florida ran a 5.727 sec./284.45 mph to grab the #1 qualifying position in the Jet Dragster class.

Due to local curfews, the Summit Racing Pro-Am Tour portion of the event for sportsman racers was postponed until Sunday morning.

ELIMINATIONS

 

CROWER PRO MOD

First round:

Isaias Rojas defeated Dina Parise (broke), 6.009 sec./231.24 mph to 22.077 sec./50.83 mph.

Kevin Fiscus defeated Ruben Tetsoshvili, 6.044 sec./237.09 mph to 8.022 sec./92.90 mph.

Jimmy Keen defeated Bill Lutz, 6.033 sec./234.00 mph to 10.433 sec./95.20 mph.

Fourth pair: Jerico Balduf, Chuck Mohn (both broke  — byes).

Second round:

Rojas defeated Fiscus, 5.947 sec./236.15 mph to 5.968 sec./246.98 mph.

Keen – bye.

Final:

Rojas defeated Keen, 6.024 sec./231.30 mph to 6.986 sec./149.55 mph.

 

AMSOIL NITRO FUNNY CAR PRESENTED BY AEROMOTIVE

First round:

Tim Boychuk defeated Mark Sanders, 5.715 sec./245.49 mph to 5.944 sec./244.10 mph.

John Hale defeated Paul Romine, 5.766 sec./237.40 mph to 6.072 sec./245.29 mph.

Mike McIntire Jr. defeated Steve Nichols, 5.709 sec./255.10 mph to 5.964 sec./237.34 mph.

Jason Rupert defeated Bruce Litton, 5.783 sec./246.44 mph to 8.372 sec./110.75 mph.

Second round:

Boychuk defeated Hale, 5.822 sec./244.56 mph to 8.941 sec./95.11 mph.

McIntire Jr. defeated Rupert, 5.683 sec./260.56 mph to 5.708 sec./252.80 mph.

Final:

McIntire defeated Boychuk, 5.662 sec./260.49 mph (both are new IHRA records) to 5.814 sec./237.46 mph.

AMSOIL NITRO FUNNY CAR PRESENTED BY AEROMOTIVE QUALIFYING

1.       Tim Boychuk (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) 1977 Trans-Am “Hawaiian” 5.756 sec./238.03 mph.

2.       Mike McIntire (Mentor, Ohio) 1970 Camaro “McAttack” 5.766 sec./243.04 mph.

3.       Jason Rupert (Yorba Linda, California) 1969 Camaro “Black Plague” 5.831 sec./245.83 mph.

4.       Paul Romine (Fishers, Indiana) 1979 Mustang “Man O’ War” 5.870 sec./218.07 mph.

5.       John Hale (Addison, Texas) 1969 Camaro “One Bad Texan” 6.042 sec./237.52 mph.

6.       Bruce Litton (Indianapolis, Indiana) 1974 Vega “U.S. Male” 6.061 sec./232.67 mph.

7.       Steve Nichols (Newark, Delaware) 1970 Camaro 6.190 sec./232.67 mph.

8.       Mark Sanders (Maple Valley, Washington) 1970 Mustang “Mr. Explosive” 6.228 sec./230.17 mph.

U.S. BOUNTY HUNTERS PRO STOCK

First round:

John Montecalvo defeated John DeFlorian Jr., 6.356 sec./222.82 mph to 6.477 sec./212.61 mph.

Cary Goforth defeated Cale Aronson, 10.621 sec./84.19 mph to 13.693 sec./80.55 mph.

J.R. Carr defeated John Konigshofer, 6.411 sec./221.89 mph to 6.441 sec./220.64 mph.

Trevor Eman defeated Matt Bertsch, 6.417 sec./219.56 mph to 6.398 sec./220.15 mph.

Second round:

Montecalvo defeated Aronson, 6.357 sec./218.65 mph to 6.398 sec./220.31 mph.

Carr defeated Eman, 6.383 sec./222.66 mph to 6.377 sec./220.21 mph.

Final:

Montecalvo defeated Eman, 6.318 sec./222.77 mph to 6.969 sec./154.47 mph.

 

NITRO HARLEY

First round:

Tak Shigematsu defeated Alvin Kobernusz, 6.853 sec./198.63 mph to 6.998 sec./203.25 mph.

Bob Molloy defeated Tracy Kile, 6.712 sec./206.56 mph to 8.202 sec./115.85 mph.

Larry “Drums” Brancaccio defeated Jay Turner (above) 6.409 sec./219.13 mph to no time.

Randal Andras defeated Jim Fagan, 6.996 sec./161.00 mph to 12.499 sec./90.43 mph.

Second round:

Shigematsu defeated Molloy (broke), 6.758 sec./220.85 mph to no time.

Andras defeated Brancaccio, 6.551 sec./222.38 mph to 6.595 sec./212.131 sec.

Final:

Andras defeated Shigematsu, 6.570 sec./218.92 mph to 6.597 sec./216.60 mph.

 

JET DRAGSTER

First round:

Shea Holbrook defeated Kat Moller, 6.050 sec./283.46 mph to 6.254 sec./283.46 mph.

Elaine Larsen defeated Marisha Falk (fouled), 5.905 sec./273.88 mph to no time.

Final:

Larsen defeated Holbrook, 5.805 sec./275.31 mph to 6.003 sec./265.48 mph.

 

AMSOIL Best Appearing Car Award: Carl Weisinger.

AMSOIL Best Engineered Car Award: Frank Beal.

 

After Bradenton, the IHRA Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series is headed to West Palm Beach for the Palm Beach Nationals Presented By Sunoco Race Fuels on April 24-25 at Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, FL.