SHAKEDOWN AT PBIR - EVENT RESULTS

FINAL RESULTS

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ELIMINATION LADDERS -

SATURDAY - QUALIFYING NO. 4

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FRIDAY QUALIFYING -- JONES RIPS THE COMPETITION IN PRO MOD

jones

Rickie Jones, making his first competitive passes in a Pro Modified car this weekend with his '69 Camaro, proved he belongs with the veterans.

Jason Enos

The Galesburg, Ill., driver edged legendary Pro Modified nitrous wizard Shannon Jenkins by one-thousandth of a second to claim the provisional No. 1 qualifying position Friday at The Shakedown at Palm Beach outlaw drag-racing spectacular.

Jones, a former National Hot Rod Association Pro Stock driver, blasted down the eighth-mile course at Palm Beach International Raceway in 3.845 seconds at 195.59 mph in this inaugural Southern spinoff of the popular New Jersey drag-racing classic Shakedown at E-Town. Jenkins registered a 3.846 / 195.08 in his brand-new Al-Anabi '69 Camaro which has just 15 passes on it.

Jones joined Jason Enos (Outlaw 10.5), Scotty Gaudagno (Drag Radial / Limited Street), Bruno Massel (Pro Import), Kim Morrell (Pro Drag Bike), and Jeff Wallace (X275) as first-day leaders.

A fourth and final qualifying session is scheduled for noon Saturday, with final elimination rounds set to begin at 3 p.m.

Just as eyebrow-raising as Jason Enos' 4.235-second blast which overtook dominator Tim Lynch for the tentative Outlaw 10.5 qualifying lead was the announcement that Lynch is unable to continue racing this weekend.

Enos, of Rehoboth, Mass., used the class' only 4.23-elapsed time to swipe the lead in the final session of the day, while Georgia native Danny Lowery, the No. 3 qualifier at 4.270 seconds, had top speed of the class so far at 191.19 mph.

Lynch, widely regarded as the Superman of the East Coast doorslammer drivers with his elite Steve Petty tune-up, registered a 4.240-second clocking that held up as best through two sessions Friday. However, a thrust bearing on his 2010 Corvette ZR1 broke and damaged the engine beyond immediate repair.

A touch of nostalgia sparked the Drag Radial / Limited Street results Friday.

Scotty Gaudagno

Scotty Gaudagno has raced with fellow New Yorker Dave Hance since their early days at the dragstrips, when they fueled their race car with every penny they could save and fueled themselves with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Both became successful through the years, with a better racing resume and a fuller pantry these days.

And Friday, Gaudagno vaulted to the provisional No. 1 spot in the Drag Radial / Limited Street class in The Shakedown at Palm Beach, the race his buddy Hance is promoting.

Gaudagno led the field all day, first posting a 4.551-second elapsed time, then lowering it to 4.523 and finally to 4.501 in his 2002 Chevy.

Pro Drag Bike's Kim Morrell, of Loxahachee, Fla., continued this weekend where she left off last fall -- at the head of the pack. Morrell, the first woman to win a Battle of the Belts championship in the American Drag Racing League, led a quartet of motorcycle riders with her 4.142-second elapsed time at 163.28 mph. She set the bar in the first of three qualifying sessions aboard her 2010 Suzuki.

Bruno Massel happened to be in Florida, in Tampa, taping his half-hour weekly SPEED Channel show-"TruckU." So he asked Shakedown at Palm Beach promoter Dave Hance if his four-cylinder turbocharged Cobalt with Chevy ECOtech power would fit into the event's Pro Import class guidelines.

So, on a lark, he debuted his Autogeek.net sponsorship and flashy paint scheme and blazed to the top of the order with a 4.478-second pass at 157.14 mph. The tentative No. 2 qualifier, Damian Chin, recorded the category's fastest speed Friday at 158.02.

Bruno Massel

Massel, an NHRA Competition Eliminator champion, told Hance when he paid his entry fee, "I don't want to cause any trouble." It might be too late for The Shakedown's Pro Import class.

In the X275 class, Jeff Wallace, runner-up at Ralph Hester's Tomato Nationals this January at Immokalee, Fla., didn't take a back seat to anyone Friday. Wallace, of Davie, Fla., drove to the top of the grid with a 4.962-second, 142.60-mph effort in his 2001 Ford Mustang. He was the lone racer in the X275 class to break the five-second barrier.

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