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SIR Results 04-09-07

Southwestern International Raceway

Tucson, AZ

 

The first night race for the 2007 season at SIR was Friday, April 7th.  By the time racing got underway at 5 PM there were almost 300 race and street cars on the property.  With racing action winding down by midnight, the highlight for many racers was the Gambler.  Friday’s winner was John Thoma in his ’79 Mustang.  John had to overcome the reaction time advantage of Fred Stout in his ’73 Nova to get the win.  John had a .036 light, dialed an 11.18 and ran an 11.196 at 119.11 MPH to Fred’s .007 reaction time.  Fred dialed a 12.19, but ran a 12.273 at 109.12 MPH to place him in the runner-up spot. 

 

Early Saturday morning the SIR staff was back in place and ready to send Jr. Dragsters and Big Wheel racers down the track.  The Big Wheel team race final was won by Kendra Holly from Vail, AZ.  Cody Thomas from Queen Creek, AZ placed 2nd.  The final for the 8-12 year olds found Zander Hart from Tucson take a double breakout win over Dannielle Trammell from Casa Grande.  Dannielle had a better reaction time with a .077, but ran further under her 9.12 dial with a 9.096 at 70.48 MPH.  Zander dialed a 9.69 and with a .177 light ran a 9.679 at 66.56 MPH.  Jr. Dragsters 13-17 were the next to finish up.  Their final pitted local driver Donny Toia against the Chandler resident, Jacob Reber in his Checker Shucks & Kragan car.  Jacob took the win when Donny went red by .011 at the tree.  Jacob took the free pass to let his dragster go.  He ran under his 8.02 dial with a 7.965 run at 82.34 MPH with a .070 light.  Donny also ran under his 8.23 dial with an 8.206 run at 79.31 MPH for the #2 spot. 

 

The Jr. Dragster Conci race turned out to be a family affair.  Eric Dockins stopped his brother Kevin at the tree by about five hundredths with a reaction time of .028.  Eric dialed an 8.14 and ran 8.185 at 78.21 MPH for the win.  Brother Kevin had a .073 light; he dialed an 8.12 and ran an 8.153 at 77.87 MPH for the 2nd place.

 

Summit Racing Series Team Race #4 was the next to hit the track. The Sportsman category put the family sedan of Chris Citro next to the black ’66 Chevelle of Kevin Terlecki.  Chris ran on his numbers with a 7 on an 18.18 dial and a run of 18.187 at 75.82 MPH and pushed Kevin to go under by 7 thousandths with a 14.07 dial and a 14.063 dial at 92.57 MPH.  The Pro final staged two beautiful bow ties as the ’71 Nova of Victor Sandoval squared off against the red and white ’57 Corvette of Tom Payton and Vicki Payton.  Tom ran closer to his dial of 11.00 with an 11.036 at 122.61 MPH, but left a tenth at the tree with .138 reaction time to Victor’s .047.  Victor dialed a 10.68 and ran a 10.777 at 120.91 MPH for the hard fought win.  Chuck Phelps came down from Glendale, AZ to SIR looking to leave with big money and a large jump in Super Pro points.  Chuck’s rear engine dragster was first on the tree through each round until the final where he went red by .002.  Brian Fritz from Gilbert, AZ in his ’27 roadster took the final round with a .012 light.  Brian dialed a 9.75 and ran a 9.744 at 135.32 MPH.  He ran under by six thousandths, but already had the win as Chuck ran two hundredths under his dial at 151.61 MPH.   The High School team was next to attack the 1320.  Matt Hawk was the victor when he dialed a 16.58 and ran a 17.021 at 61.31 MPH in his mom’s 2002 Ford Explorer.  Craig Wood and his 1987 GSXR750 took the final round from Tom Lannie and his 1981 Suzuki when Tom left .023 too early.  Craig dialed an 8.98 and ran a 9.046 at 145.27 MPH even with the win light already on in his lane.

 

With only two races left to be decided, the No Box final came to the line.  Jim Wheeler got an unusual gift from Stu Dutcher when Stu turned on the red light by .047.  Jim dialed an 11.32 and ran a 12.026 at 90.36 while Stu still ran a 13.241 on his 13.14 dial in the ’79 Malibu.  Two pipe cars wee the final – final of the day.  Another red light in a final round put an early end to the race.  Don Toia’s red light of .028 handed the win to Scott Stauth with his new 565 Chevy big block.  Scott had a 003 light, dialed a 7.75 and ran a 7.754 at 174.50 MPH. 

 

The next races at SIR are April 13th and 14th.  Friday’s race is a night Test and Tune with gates at 4 PM.  Saturday’s race is a daytime event including ADRA and Top Comp and R1320.  Gates for Saturday are at 8 AM.

 

Bruce Mabry, Track Announcer