During the first 11 trips to Englishtown and Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Mike Edwards did not have any good fortunes on his side, scoring only three round wins, and those all coming in 1998 when he was runner-up.
But those misfortunes have swung the opposite direction the last three trips to New Jersey as the Penhall/K&N/Interstate Batteries-backed squad has compiled nine round wins. In 2008, Edwards reached the semifinals, to do it one better in 2009, and then topped that in 2010 with his first victory at the fabled facility.
“When you lay it out like that, this place did not like me for a long time, and then all of sudden it changed and I have been on its good side,” Edwards said. “That the track has been around for nearly as long as drag racing, maybe it forces all of us to pay our dues before it begins rewarding us with trophies. I just hope that since we opened that portion last year, the hardware keeps flowing our direction.”
Edwards and his Pontiac have started to build the momentum they have been hoping for heading into the summer months of the NHRA Full Throttle season. In the recent events, he has qualified No. 1 at a couple stops and reached the semifinals at a couple others. He knows now is the time to turn that consistency into something more – victories.
“It is all well and good to be fast in qualifying and then come Sunday be consistent, but not strong enough to get over the hump into the final and have a shot at the Wally,” Edwards said. “Since Topeka, that is what we have focused on, being faster when it comes to eliminations. We think we have fixed a few things and straightened out a couple other things that will allow us to reach that goal. Now we just need it to translate into a summer run.”
Edwards comes into the event in fourth place in the Pro Stock standing, trailing leader Jason Line by 105 points with nine races remaining in the regular season points battle.
All posts by ARP Trish
SRRT Looks Toward Watkins Glen
After qualifying on the front row and racing lock-step with the fastest cars on the track at Lime Rock Park last weekend, Subaru’s factory road race team looks forward to this Saturday’s race at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York.
“We finished 11th at Lime Rock, just like we did two weeks earlier at V.I.R.,” noted Joe Aquilante, owner of Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa., where the team’s cars are prepped and tuned. “but the big difference is we were able to run up front and challenge for the lead. At Lime Rock we were a front row team.”
“Our ‘crunch work’ this time between races is mostly in the body shop. The car was back home in our shops Sunday and work started immediately. We’ll recover from this just fine. We have every reason to remain optimistic!”
Performance By Fisher
Our team competed in our first ever big money bracket race last week. The K&N Spring Fling 20’s at Bristol Dragway. While Kevin “bracket races”, I don’t and haven’t for many years. The event was great and we are very glad that we chose to participate… J
We learned some interesting things on Kevin’s car, suspension-wise that only reared its ugly head after the converter change at Norwalk. My car ran great and I was even able to get the bracket tree down pretty quick.
While we didn’t come home with any “Big Checks”, we were able to be a part of the TV coverage of the event. Masters Entertainment Group covered it and it the 30 min dedicated show will air on Fox Sports Net June 8th and June 15th. We filmed a total of three pieces and Ted Jones also did a stand up in our pit where he mentioned our “Married With Dragsters” video series. JJJ
Cookie Checks In After The Jim Clark rally
The Jim Clark Rally, that rally is awesome, made sure I took every jump as fast as possible to get some great pics! We are half way through the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship now and I am currently lying 4th Fiesta :o)
Race Report Week Ending 5/29/11
Indianapolis 500
Dan Wheldon
Sprint Cup- Coca Cola 600- Kevin Harvick
Nationwide Series- Top Gear 300- Matt Kenseth
SRRT Looks toward Lime Rock
After a promising race weekend at VIRginia International Raceway, Subaru’s factory road race team looks forward to competing on one of its “home tracks” this Memorial Day weekend – the bucolic Lime Rock Park circuit in northwestern Connecticut.
Following a solid 11th place finish in the most recent race –at VIRginia International Raceway – the team looks forward to racing on the rolling 1.53-mile Lime Rock Park configuration in this, the fifth round of the 2011 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series.
The Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) prepares and races a 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI 4-door model in the series for Subaru of America, Inc.
At Lime Rock, John Heinricy, the team’s technical director, is filling in for regular driver Andrew Aquilante, who is sitting out this race while recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in an off-course excursion the previous weekend at Summit Point, West Virginia. Andrew is expected to return and at full strength for the Watkins Glen round. Co-driving with Heinricy is Bret Spaude, Bushnell, Fla., who is the team’s regular teammate to Andrew.
“I’ve had the opportunity to help develop this Subaru race car from the technical standpoint for the last couple years, so being asked to be one of its drivers in actual competition is a real treat. Driving cars in competition is something that’s always given me a lot of satisfaction, and ‘feeling the car myself will help me better work with Brett,” Heinricy said.
“The comparative short and winding Lime Rock Park can be an advantageous track for our Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive capabilities, which in turn helps us improve even more on our promising finish from VIR,” said Joe Aquilante, owner of Phoenix Performance of Phoenixville, Pa., where the team’s cars are prepped and tuned.
Congratulations to HPD!
ARP congratulates HPD and their engineers James Goodloe, Roger
Griffiths, Marcelo Martinelli and Robert Bell on winning the BorgWarner
Schwitzer Award. The Louis Schwitzer award is presented by engineers to
engineers, and is intended to recognize individuals for innovation and
engineering excellence in the field of race car design, specially
related to the Indianapolis 500. Presented by the Indiana Section of SAE
International, BorgWarner sponsors the prestigious $10,000 awards. The
winners are honored at an awards banquet, and their names are
immortalized on the trophy, which is on permanent display in the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.
The system is designed to prevent a race car from leaving the pits with
the refueling hose still attached. It is intended to help prevent fuel
spills and injuries to drivers and crew members and has been adopted for
use for the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.
Click here for Motorsports.com story
Showtime Funny Car Has Rough Start
I am sorry to have to report the Showtime FC will not be racing at the FIA Main Event this coming weekend. Unfortunately we had some further issues with shipping the new car over and it will not now arrive in the UK until after the event.
Our revised plans are now to run the new car at Santa Pod on at least one of the Test Days in June or July before we go to the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim in August ( The current car features heavily on the website www.dragster.de and on publicity material for this years event)
Jules Reicher checks in.
Well we just completed Race 2 on the Pro Pulling League Series, Friday Night’s Race got Cancelled
do to rain, but the weather held out for Saturday, we were the second class to pull that night and
I was the last puller in our class, I did pretty good, there were 5 trucks that had a pull off which I missed
by 8 inches so my pull was 319.33 and the pull off was 320 feet not bad for my second race which I
got 6th place so I am improving every time which is great. I am having a great time and as always I want
to thank each one of you for your continue support as I am doing my best for you, Mikey didn’t come
to Texas so I don’t have any video of my pull, well that is it for now, our next race is in Salem, Indiana on
June 4 hope to see you out there soon, talk to you all later and have a wonderful day and again thank
you for everything you do I am trying to make you all proud.
SRRT Takes 11th at VIR
Subaru Road Racing Team (SRRT) co-drivers Andrew Aquilante and Bret Spaude finished 11th in the 58-car field the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series on the 3.27-mile road course of Virginia International Raceway, near Danville, Va. This outing served as only the team’s fourth competitive race event to date in the all-new 4-door model of the 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
“We had it pretty well sorted for this race” said SRRT owner Joe Aquilante. “Our Subaru Impreza ran strong during the race, like it has so many times with our previous generation race-prepared Imprezas. We are still early in our car development program, but the car, crew and drivers all performed well.
Spaude, of Bushnell, Fla., qualified the Subaru in a career-best fourth place in the 25-car Grand Sports class, with a lap average speed of 95.257 miles per hour on the winding 3.27-mile circuit, giving the team its best starting position all season.
“Bret found a magical place on the track to run interference relatively clean lap, but at the drop of the green flag, we were necessarily careful to avoid any of the potential accidents, and that caution dropped him back to between ninth and 15th place for the first part of the race,” Joe Aquilante said.
The Subaru Road racing team performed two flawless refueling and tire change stops on the car, but the yellow flags just kept coming. By the end of the race, more of the race had been un-contested behind the safety car, instead of at racing speed.
“There’s an old saying in racing that ‘Cautions breed more cautions’,” said Andrew Aquilante. “Too many times today we’d come out of a caution period of four or five laps behind the safety car, and on the first or second green flag lap, somebody else would cause a problem. You always pray they happen behind you and not ahead of you, which could easily involve you as an innocent bystander. Unfortunately, I had some contact myself late in the race and that cost us a finish in the top ten”
“We placed 11th today against a large field of solid competitors,’ said, James Han, who manages the program for Subaru of America, Inc., “and we didn’t experience any mechanical challenges on a relatively new car. The development of our STI is on-course, and I’m confident that we can find ourselves a fixture in the top ten in future races.”
Race Results Week Ending 5/22
NASCAR
Iowa Speedway- John Deere Dealers 250- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Charlotte Motor Speedway- All Star Race- Carl Edwards
NHRA
Top Fuel: Spencer Massey
Funny Car: Robert Hight
Pro Stock: Shane Gray
Top Alcohol Dragster: Cody Perkins
Top Alcohol Funny Car: Frank Manzo
Competition Eliminator: Lou Ficco Jr.
Super Stock: Chris Chaney
Stock: Daryl Bureski
Super Comp: William Swann
Super Gas: Mike Wiblishouser
Super Street: Steve Domingues
Top Dragster: Keith McCullar
Brianna Blintzler Update
Brianna running Suzie in Super Pro at Top Gun Raceway in Fallon Nevada. Had a lot of fun!
ARP to Sponsor Fast Time Award For Lane 75 at Kalamazoo Speedway
ARP (Automotive Racing Products) will present a $100 product certificate
to the fastest qualifier for the Saturday’s Lane 75 at Kalamazoo
Speedway. So far this season JR Roahrig, point leader Phil Bozell and
Tom Thomas have earned fast times in the Outlaw Super Late Models.
Click here to go to the Kalamazoo website.
Matt Lennen Update
Hello again – just another quick update, we literally just got back in from testing at Maryland International Raceway. Ran tonight from 8pm-1am, track condition was excellent.
Our second track appearance drew the attention of everyone at the track. Made a handful of passes tonight, just about all of them on the lowest boost setting – when I tried upping the boost the car started misfiring pretty bad. I’ll address that this week with some new coil packs and replacing old questionable wires on the harness. No crazy times yet, as I was fighting traction issues all evening. The powerband on this car is absolutely outrageous. Again the track condition/prep was excellent, the power just kicks on so fast its overpowering the tires, this is NOT a bad thing, in fact the problem for most factory automatic cars is just the opposite – we just need to figure out how to get that power to stick to the pavement.
Ran a handful of 9.4-9.6 passes, all with weak 60fts – 2 of these passes are notable:
9.45x@149.xx – 1.56 60ft – 28psi boost (lowest setting, ~800whp)– feathering the throttle
9.55x@150.86 – 1.57 60ft – 28psi boost until the 1/8th mile, 38psi after (manually operated switch to turn on boost controller) – 50% throttle until the 1/8th mile, 100% throttle after, breaking up bad/horribly misfiring the last 1/8th.
The previous best was 9.308@146.94mph with a 1.45 60ft, at 36-37psi boost (when the car dyno’d 762whp) – the 9.45 run would have been ~9.25 with last years 60ft, and probably into the 9.1x range without the feathering of the throttle. The 9.5 run is pretty crazy considering the 50% throttle, breaking up, and weak 60ft. We’re up 4mph with much lower boost. I was able to get some good log data from these passes to look over this weekend.
The next day at the track will be in one week, a private rental at MIR. The rental runs 9am-5pm, and followed by an open test and tune 6pm-1am – we will be there until we find the right combo for the launch. I will be taking care of the misfiring issues this week and testing a few different sets of tires. The factory automatic transmission record for the Supra is 8.9, that is about to be crushed.
Permatex/Follow A Dream Team Back in the Semifinals
At the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream Top Alcohol Funny Car team reached the semifinals for the second time in three national event appearances this season. Driver Todd Veney, who qualified a career-high No. 2 last month at the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, was No. 4 in Houston, ahead of some of the biggest names in the business, including 2010 championship runner-up and defending champ Mickey Ferro and current points leader and eventual winner Tony Bartone.
Veney eliminated one of the most prolific drivers in Top Alcohol Funny Car history, veteran Vern Moats, in round one and Texan Bryan Brown in the quarterfinals before crossing the centerline in the semifinals for an automatic disqualification against Steve Burck, who reached his first career final with the round-win. It was the only shut-off run all weekend for the Follow A Dream team, the only Top Alcohol Funny Car team all weekend to get down the track with a five-second pass in all three qualifying sessions.
“The track wasn’t the Houston we’ve come to know in years past,” Veney said. “Last year, everybody was in the 5.50s or low 5.60s, but this year, everybody had trouble figuring it out all weekend, even Bartone’s team. “We had a pretty consistent string of runs going for a while [5.70-5.69-5.70], but when we tried to step it up a notch for the semifinals, the track wouldn’t take it.”
After a three-week layoff, the team heads for historic Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., for the first race of the five-race Division 1 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, May 27-29. With the semifinal finish, Veney is just outside the top 10 in the NHRA national points standings.
Kasey Kahne Racing Update
Kasey Kahne Racing Eldora Recap
It was another solid night for Kasey Kahne Racing on Friday night at Eldora Speedway. Joey Saldana picked up his third win of the season while Paul McMahan and Cody Darrah scored top-10 finishes.
-Joey Saldana, driver of the #9 Red Bull/Sage Fruit/ASE Maxim
Joey Saldana entered Eldora Speedway looking for revenge against the track that cost him a shot at winning his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series title last season.
He couldn’t have had a bigger night. Not only did Saldana put the Kasey Kahne Racing Red Bull Maxim in victory lane, he also increased his lead in the 2011 championship battle to 51 points. It was a complete turnaround from last fall, when Saldana was leading the title hunt before he wrecked hard at Eldora and wound up suffering a concussion that prevented him from racing the next night, thereby costing him any chance of contending.
Saldana qualified second, won his heat and won the dash. He led 23 of the 30 scheduled laps in the A main to go on to win his third Outlaws race of the 2011 season.
“I’ve got a huge smile on my face because last year I didn’t know where I was for a few days, that last show I left in a helicopter. This is a lot more fun and gratifying. Definitely coming back from that and winning here, because this is such a tough track, it’s a huge accomplishment for me so I’m very happy for this entire Red Bull Team.”
COOKIE HOLDS TOP 10
Kent’s female rally driver, Louise Cook, contested her fifth ever gravel rally this weekend, The Pirelli International Rally, based in Carlisle. The event was the third round of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship. Louise was looking forward to the rally with her car engine management faults behind her.
The rally kicked off Friday night with a ceremonial start at Carlisle Racecourse and then straight off into the 1st stage. With only one pass of the stage in reconnaissance, some dodgy pace notes and what appeared to be a lot of wheel spin due to the extra power, Louise took no chances and got off to a steady start bedding herself in with the car. Then it was off to the rally party, where teams signed autographs and mingled with the fans before heading back into the forest in darkness. With no night driving experience, except the odd late night shopping trips to Bluewater, Cookie knew it was going to be a difficult stage. Despite the lack of experience in the dark, Louise held her position in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy for the overnight halt.
It was an early start on Saturday with the crew setting off at 7am for the first loop of stages.
“The morning went okay, it took me a while to get into it as I struggled with believing in my own pace notes. Nearly every corner in Kielder is over a blind crest, so you really have to have a lot of confidence in your notes. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have that level of trust in my note writing yet, not after just 3 gravel rallies. So, I suffered.”
On the second run through the morning stages, Louise set some creditable times amongst the modern faster Fiesta R2’s, leaving 3 R2’s in her wake.
“Once I had been through the stages once, I knew that my notes weren’t massively off, and I started to trust them more and more. Once I’d had a few over excited moments and got the car back from various ditches, the Killer Kielder forest did not seem as bad as all its hype. It was pretty amazing to realise how far I have come after only 2 gravel rallies since Pirelli last year. There was one section where I was absolutely flat on the rev limiter and having 4 wheels off the ground over crests at over 100 mph, I would never have done that last year! It was a nice benchmark.”
With Cookie’s confidence on the up, the car was on the down. The forever hard working service crew found a gearbox leak in a 10 minute service
and it became evident on the road section that what was thought to be wheel spin, had been the clutch slipping from the start and Cook’s stage times suffered as a result “I have no idea how much time it cost me, I lost a lot of confidence. The diff was unlocking and I would start to under steer off the road, when I needed the front wheels to pull me round, the clutch was giving way and the car had no drive. It was a shame, but at least I wasn’t out of the rally, I kept it going, even though it was scary at times. I managed to keep her on though after about five or six moments where it could have all been over. I will keep positive and take what I have learnt from this rally and use it on the next one.”
Louise came home still holding her 5th place in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, top 10 in the F2 Championship and still leading the BRC Ladies Cup. It’s onto tarmac for the fourth round of the Championship, the Jim Clark Rally up in the Scottish Borders, a rally that Louise competed in last year. “I am really looking forward to the next one, I have more tarmac miles under my belt, so I hope to close the gap on the next round.”
Race Results Week Ending 5/15/11
NHRA
Top Fuel: Antron Brown
Funny Car: Jack Beckman
Pro Stock: Jason Line
Pro Stock Motorcycle: LE Tonglet
Pro Modified: Ed Hoover
Competition Eliminator: Bruno Massel
Super Stock: Mike Crutchfield
Stock: Mickey Whaley
Super Comp: Roger Warren
Super Gas: Matt Cooke
Top Sportsman: Mark Pickens
NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series- Dover DE, Lucas Oil 200, Kyle Busch
Nationwide Series- Darlington SC, FedEx 400, Matt Kenseth
Sprint Cup- Dover DE, 5-Hour Energy 200, Carl Edwards
Have you considered our Perma-locs?
Hib Halverson with Corvette Action Center has, and he liked ’em. Check out his review.
Muncey Racing looks toward the future
Atlas Blue is Back
There’s no replacing the legendary Bill Muncey and the famed “Blue Blaster” Atlas Van Lines Unlimited Hydroplane. They became the winningest Unlimited Hydroplane and race driver combination in history. However, Evergreen Moving Systems, an Atlas Van Lines agent in Washington State, is returning the iconic paint scheme as a tribute to Atlas Van Lines, back into hydroplane racing, with, appropriately, Bill’s son Wil Muncey behind the wheel.
The UL-00 Evergreen Moving Systems will ironically be numbered the same as the original U-00 some three plus decades ago. Representing Evergreen Moving Systems and secondary sponsors in the 2011 season, Muncey Racing will participate at Seattle’s Seafair Regatta and other select races around the Pacific Northwest. This campaign could also include other locations across North America.
One of the hulls of the two boat Muncey Racing team has been known for years as “The Little Boat that Could”. With Wil Muncey behind the wheel in 2010, the tandem bested bigger and more powerful hulls, taking second place at Phoenix, and Tri Cities, before concluding the season fourth in national standings. In 2011 the “Big-00” will share the racing responsibilities with a 509 cu. in., 900 hp engine. At nearly 26 feet in length, this hull is built for the big, rugged courses such as Seattle’s Lake Washington.
The Evergreen Moving Systems UL-00 will debut on Thursday, April 21st at Stan Sayers Pits on Lake Washington at the annual ” Spring Training ” test session. The event will be co-hosted by the Hydroplane & Race Boat Museum and supported by Seafair Inc.
Wil Muncey commented that while Muncey Racing remains committed to automotive powered hydroplane racing and have even been developing a supercharged program over the last two years, they are also investigating the possibilities of re-entering Unlimited racing with turbine power at Seafair in Seattle and elsewhere. The boat will be a regional tribute to a great driver and a Van Lines company that supported him during the “Golden Years” of piston driven boats and the Van Lines industry.
“ Marine motorsports have been an integral part of the heritage of the Pacific Northwest for well over half a century. “ said Muncey, “ The Brown family has been in the Van Line business for three generations and avid boat racing fans the whole time. Through their company, Evergreen Moving Systems they are contributing to a sport that they feel very strongly about and Muncey Racing feels privileged to be a part of that.”
Bill Brown, President of Evergreen Moving Systems, Inc. went on to say, ” My brother Steve and I are very excited to be involved in such a high profile sport. This is our NASCAR here in the Northwest. Not only does it make business sense, but demonstrates our commitment to the Pacific Northwest community. We are honored to be a part of the APBA, and by the support of the Muncey Family who has contributed so much to this great sport. This tribute is not only for our parent Van Line, but the Muncey family as well.
Steve Brown, Vice President, commented, ” We understand that this is a huge commitment in this economy. We feel, though, that this is the right time, with the right team. We do appreciate corporates positive remarks which has made this tribute all the more important.”
The last time that an ATLAS VAN LINES hydroplane started in a heat of competition was at Clear Lake in Houston, Texas, in 1984 with Chip Hanauer driving. The boat DNF in Heat 1-B and then withdrew from the race. The first time that an ATLAS VAN LINES-sponsored hydroplane entered competition was at Tampa, Florida, in 1967 with Bob Schroeder driving.