The racing portion of Tuesday on Hot Rod Magazine Drag Week 2010 Presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive has ended and the cruise has begun. As with all good drag races there was some drama on the track, last minute thrashing, and the elapsed times are looking strong for day one.
Our man on the scene Chad, gave us some good info from early in the day:
Larry Larson, who had fried the clutches in his Lenco during Monday testing was nervously awaiting parts to be overnighted to him when fellow competitor Jeff Lutz heard about his plight. Lutz had everything Larry needed in his trailer, gave him the stuff, and the car was right as rain to start the day. Larson currently leads the animalistic Unlimited class with an unofficial 7.16-second blast.
Doug Cline ripped off a seven second pass, but things got very interesting for him on the way down. The car went into two wheel-stands and during the second one, triggered the fire bottle which Cline thought was tire smoke. During all of this the car was hauling down to a 7.90-something elapsed time. Doug pulled the ‘chutes and they got tangled in each other, sending him into the sand trap at the infamously short National Trail Raceway. They were last seen pulling the seats out of the car to clean all the junk out. They are dirty, but still in the action.
Four-speed hero Mike Crow leaves the track with a personal best 10.30-second run in his awesome ‘Cuda (that is wearing BS stickers…woot!)
Jeff McConnell, who gained infamy by pulling what was probably the largest wheelstand in the history of Drag Week in his blue Malibu finds himself in first place on the first day of racing in the small block naturally aspirated class. He went deep into the 9.70s and has a significant lead on the number two racer. He has also calmed down the wheelstands much to the dismay of photographers and video guys!
Eric Yost, driving the Firebird of Jeff Pearley was limited at National Trail due to a discrepancy with his chassis certification. Yost ran an 8.70 (he was limited to 8.50 per tech inspectors) and is currently having the additional tubing added at Larry Morgan’s shop, which is close to National Trail. At Indy, we should really see the Firebird fly.
We’ll be back with another update tonight as the racers are all in a caravan to the next stop, Indy!
