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Sunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Sunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\n
Good luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n
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Saturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle01.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle02.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle03.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle04.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle05.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle06.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle07.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle08.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle09.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle10.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle11.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle12.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle13.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle14.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle15.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle16.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle17.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle18.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle19.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle20.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle21.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle22.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle23.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle24.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle25.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle26.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle27.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle28.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>PHOTO GALLERY – \n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals-rich-pasley-gallery\/nhra_new_england_nationals_2013_rich_pasley_top_fuel_funny_car_pro_stock_pro_stock_motorcycle29.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals01.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals02.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals03.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals04.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals05.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals06.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals07.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals08.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals09.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals10.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals11.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals12.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals13.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals14.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals15.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals16.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals17.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals18.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals19.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals20.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals21.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals22.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals23.jpg\"\n){kind=link}
![\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n \n \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\t<\/div>\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSunday Update 2:\u00a0WARNING! WINNERS ARE LISTED BELOW! SKIP DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM!<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nSpencer Massrey wins Top Fuel! This is his second win in two Top Fuel races at New England Dragway. He won Top Fuel at the last IHRA national event and the first NHRA event!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCourtney Force wins nitro funny car over her dad John Force in a close, dramatic, tire smoking final round!<\/strong><\/p>\nAlan Johnson wins Pro Stock over Shane Gray on a hole shot!<\/strong><\/p>\nJohn Hall wins Pro Stock Motorcycle!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnthony Bertozzi wins Stock and Super Stock!<\/strong><\/p>\nEd Brooks wins Super Street!<\/strong><\/p>\nKent Hanley wins Super Comp!<\/strong><\/p>\nMike Sawyer wins Super Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\nKen LeBlanc wins Top Dragster!<\/strong><\/p>\nHistory on the line – <\/strong>Both Anthony Bertozzi and Mike Sawyer have made it to their respective final rounds…all four of them. That is right, both men have the shot to win two classes! Bertozzi in stock and super stock and Sawyer in super street and super gas. If they are able to complete their tasks properly it will be the first time in NHRA history that two people have won two classes a piece at a single race. That would be a neat piece of history for the first ever race here at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSunday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe 210 club – <\/strong>Four of eight first round winners in Pro Stock went 210mph, two went 209, one went 208, and Tom Martino went 205 in his hole shot victory over V Gaines. It will be interesting to see how the speeds hold up during the day as track conditions and weather conditions change.<\/p>\nHole Shot – <\/strong>Tom Martino is here and competing in Pro Stock. It has been a long time since Martino was in a field, let alone celebrating a round win but he was able to do just that on Sunday after dropping the hammer on V Gaines. Martino’s .017 reaction time was scads better than Gaines’ .218 leaving time and that lead to one of the biggest hole shot victories we have ever seen in pro stock. Martion beat Gaines with a 6.73. Gaines? He ran 6.65. Wow!<\/p>\nGirl Fight<\/strong>\u00a0– Alexis DeJoria and Courtney Force squared off in round one with Force running away with the round win and moving onto the second round. Force’s 4.128\/310 was too much for DeJoria’s 4.29\/287 tire smoker. We still think it is cool that we’re in an era with drag racing that makes this pretty much a non-story. It would have been cool for them to be meeting in the final to make some history and judging by how driven and talented those two women are, it is inevitable someday.<\/p>\nHalf and Half- <\/strong>Half of the first round flopper pairings were upsets! Jeff Arend, Del Worsham, Blake Alexander, and Tim Wilkerson all did what they shouldn’t have done and beat a higher qualified opponent. The Blake Alexander win over Matt Hagan was the largest of the upsets as Alexander was in the 12 spot and Hagan was the number two qualifier.<\/p>\nCacklin’ Jack Beckman? <\/strong>– Roger Comstock, the owner of Mail Terminal Services, a big sponsor of Jack Beckman’s Funny Car and a close personal friend bought Jack an interesting gift the other day. Specifically he bought Beckman a beautifully restored front engine dragster called the Blood, Sweat, and Nitro <\/em>machine that was restored by John Ewald. Beckaman is huge into the history of drag racing and this thing is sure to make appearances at nostalgia events on the west coast at least.<\/p>\nNo hometown luck for Tasca – <\/strong>Unfortunately, Bob Tasca III wasn’t able to generate the happy ending that he was looking for as Jack Beckman knocked him out in the first round. The local favorite made his first runs down New England Dragway at the helm of his street car in the early 1990s. Tacsa III has certainly come a long way since those days as an enthusiastic hot rodder, climbing the ladder to drive the most powerful race cars on earth. Unfortunately, tire smoke and an expiring engine cost him the round win, much to the disappointment of the crowd. Tasca moved Beckman to the left lane at the last second as he had lane choice, but the move did not prove fruitful.<\/p>\nPacked house…again! <\/strong>– NHRA officials and New England Dragway track officials have to be absolutely over the moon with the response to this event. Typically, Sundays are lighter spectator days but not here in pluggy Epping, where the place is once again standing room only. Ok, not standing room actually as the track is allowing people to sit on the massive hill that rises out of the Earth at the top end of the track. Fans and photographers alike have reported it is probably the best seat in the house. The hill was a staple of viewing races here at NED for decades and it has officially been re-baptized this weekend.<\/p>\nTop Fuel upsets make round one interesting – <\/strong>It is not very often that we see a #14 qualifier upend a #3 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but we saw that this morning when Terry McMillen beat David Grubnic in their match up. McMillen was understandably pumped up and thanked the New England fans and the track saying, “I’ve been coming here a lot of years with the IHRA and this place is awesome. I love this place.” McMillen was his normally excited self at the top end and his team really needs to make a move over the next few races to get themselves into good position for the tough middle section of the season. Morgan Lucas leapt from the #11 spot and beat #6 JR Todd in round one as well. Not as dramatic a jump as the McMillen\/Grubnic pair, but an upset nonetheless.<\/p>\nMatching lights, mis-matched elapsed times: <\/strong>Antron Brown and Bob Vandergriff both left the starting line at the exact same time. .047 seconds after the green light came on. The didn’t get to the finish line at the same time though as Vandergriff powered down the right hand lane here at New England Dragway ahead of Brown, knocking the defending champ off in the opening frame of the day. It is rare to see two bracket guys leave the line on a sportsman tree let alone a pair of top fuelers on a pro tree. A weird one for sure.<\/p>\nNew England Racers making their mark –<\/strong>We have LOTS of locals in contention here’s the breakdown!<\/p>\nIn stock<\/strong>: Fred Thibeault (who lives 9hrs away and considers NED his home track) will take on Bob Horgan for the right to take on Anthony Bertozzi in the finals. A tall order for sure!<\/p>\nIn super street:<\/strong> Eddie Brooks has a free pass into the finals where he’ll face either Mike Sawyer or Ray Butler in the final. I’m pulling for Mike because rules and has a chance to double up this weekend. Also, Mike is undefeated in final rounds. He’s 5 for five.<\/p>\nIn super comp:<\/strong> Tom Hoosigian takes on Kent Hanley on one side of the ladder. Neither of those guys have made a national event final round, so that’ll be cool. On the other side of the ladder, locals Nick Willard and Ray Fredricks square off in semi-final action. Willard recently won two classes at the NHRA National Open race, so that’s a guy who has a hot hand. Fredricks has has roundly thumped his competition thus far so he’s also coming into the semis on a hot streak.<\/p>\nIn super stock:<\/strong> Joe Santangelo and Anthony Bertozzi are going into the semis on one side of the ladder. That’ll be one to watch. Bertozzi can double up this weekend and is a multi time champion and national event winner. On the other side, Connecticut’s Mark Markow gets the bye run into the finals. His S10 truck has been a buzz saw all weekend. Should be great!<\/p>\nIn super gas:<\/strong> Mike Sawyer has a bye into the finals, which as mentioned above, he is virtually unstoppable in. Sawyer will be looking at either Canadian Charlie Kenopic or Vermonter Tim Quintin when the tree comes down in the finals. Go Mike go!<\/p>\nIn top dragster:<\/strong> Two of the four final racers are NED regulars. Frank Zeffiro will meet Ken Moses in the semi-finals in a match up that will be entertaining to watch. Zeffiro’s blown alky burning hemi powered dragster is the most powerful car left in the field by a ton and he will be running down Moses like a scalded dog on the top end. Looking on the other side of the ladder, weekly NED warrior Ken LeBlanc will be throwing down with Scott Luken.<\/p>\nSo there you have it….a little preview of today’s semi-final rounds.<\/p>\nGood luck to everyone (with a little dash of extra good ju-ju to our local and regular NED racers!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nSaturday Update 2:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nFirst round odd couple – <\/strong>John Force will face Dave Richards on Sunday morning’s first round of funny car eliminator. This is an interesting match up because Force collected his 142nd number one qualifier award this weekend and Dave Richards qualified for his first ever funny car field. In a even more telling stat, Force has raced 135 competitors going to Sunday, Dave Richards will be 136. Force will be Richards’ first competitor. Amazingly, Force has raced in 1593 rounds of competition going into Sunday making first round 1,594 to Richards’ humble 1. We love this stuff!<\/p>\nOdd man out – <\/strong>Mike Smith, driving the Ultimate Warrior funny car of Paul Weiss was the lone non-qualifier this weekend in a flopper. The machine consistently smoked the tires at about 400′ during qualifying runs. That spot in the track proved tricky to many competitors who seemed to struggle with it at least once during their four attempts to make the field.<\/p>\nThe drought is over – <\/strong>Kenny Delco made his first Pro Stock field since 1992 here at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Delco has attempted to qualify 20 times over the course of the 20 years since his last Sunday appearance. We’re sure Delco is super excited to be hammering on his race car on eliminations day. Delco has the daunting task of running Allen Johnson in round one tomorrow, but we’re thinking that this is a race that could be upset city in a couple categories. Only time will tell.<\/p>\nThe thrash is on –<\/strong>\u00a0John Gaydosh came into the tower today to verify he was qualified in Pro Stock (which he is) holding a completely destroyed intake valve from his race engine in his hand. He was wondering about his qualified status because if he was in the field, he was going to make a call to the shop in Maryland and get a motor rolling toward Epping ASAP. We’re not sure of the logistics involved or how long the ride is, but safe it to say that those fellows are going to have either a really late night or a really early morning, depending on how you like to tell time. The valve was all kinds of mangled, so that $100,000+ pro stock engine has to be some kind of ugly inside!<\/p>\nThey’re all in – <\/strong>With 16 top fuel dragsters on the grounds here at Epping, all of the competitors knew that they’d have a chance to race on Sunday. Two of the 16 are from Canada and those guys are Tom Boychuk and Ike Maier. Boychuk made a best lap of 4.33 seconds to qualify 15th and Maier brought up the rear of the field with a best of 5.40. The Maier operation didn’t run all of the qualifying sessions (probably as a budgetary move) and the ones they did resulted in some tire smoke. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at Doug Kalitta tomorrow in hopes of being on the right side of a titanic upset.<\/p>\nThree on the outs – <\/strong>The professional category with the most non-qualifiers was pro stock motorcycle. Three riders did not make it into the field of 16 and among them is local Sam Hurwitz from Newton, Massachusetts. Hurwitz rented a machine for the race this weekend from the Gann operation but their best effort of 7.30 was not quick enough to get them into the all six second field. Local fans were supporting the team big time especially when they appeared at the starting line sporting Boston Strong shirts in memory of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon. Hurwitz is a regular racer at New England Dragway and it would have been neat to see him in the field with the big names from across the country.<\/p>\nSaturday Update:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPro Stock lite – <\/strong>So there are only 15 pro stock cars on the ground of New England Dragway this weekend and in that group of 15 there are several names who will be making their first field in a long time, some making their first field ever. Detractors would argue that this field is lacking on the quality side. We see it the opposite way. How bitchin’ would it be for one of the lesser name guys to come in here and march through the established names (Jeg Coughlin, Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson) for a victory? We think that would be boss and would create a great story line for the event.<\/p>\nFuggetaboutit – <\/strong>The New York\/New Jersey contingent is represented by three guys, so 20% of the field is from that area and those drivers are Vince Nobile, Tom Martino, and Kenny Delco. Nobile, who is a recognized ninja on the christmas tree claims that he grew up watching Martino race and that he’s always wanted to trade blows with him on the track. Martino is also known as a precision leaver. We’re thinking that fate will find the student and the master lined up side by side at some point in eliminations. That’ll be a fun one to watch, especially because Vince’s dad John is a big emotional guy who will be wound tight to see that match up.<\/p>\nSea of Humanity – <\/strong>Yesterday marked what was possibly the largest single day crowd in the long history of New England Dragway. The crazy thing is that advanced ticket sales for today’s action are DOUBLE than they were for yesterday’s. This is both an incredible win for the track and a bit of a concern for officials as the place was about to burst at the seams yesterday and today’s crowd promises to dwarf yesterday’s Race officials were working yesterday on plans of handling the mass of general admission spectators because reserved seating is 100% sold out for today. There are few (if any) tracks on the Mello Yello tour that can claim that sort of situation. Even Sunday looks like it will produce a bumper crop of spectators. Clearly there was massive pent up demand for this race.<\/p>\nTop Fuel field is stout – <\/strong>Top Fuel qualifying netted some great performances on Friday evening. Doug Kalitta leads all competitors and he was the only guy to dip into the vaunted 3.70 zone with a 3.79\/323mph lap. The top seven racers are all in the low 3.80s. The racers had what will be the best air conditions that that will see all weekend yesterday so the reality is that times will probably not improve over those two sessions. Today’s weather will be more indicative of the conditions that they will face during eliminations tomorrow.<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/assets\/galleries\/2013-nhra-new-england-nationals\/nhra_2013_new_england_nationals24.jpg\"\n){kind=link}