ADRL VIRGINIA - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - CHAMPIONS ARE CROWNED UNDER THE LIGHTS
CONFIDENCE RESTORED - As a back-to-back world champion (2007-08), record setter and multi-race winner, Jason Scruggs’s name was synonymous with success for quite some time in the ADRL’s premier Pro Extreme (PX) class. But after installing a converter-equipped transmission in his screw-blown ’63 Corvette for the 2011 season, the Saltillo, Mississippi-based cotton farmer struggled somewhat to post competitive numbers and maintain consistency on the track.
It was unfamiliar territory, but that all changed Aug. 11-12, at Virginia Motorsports Park, near Richmond, where led only by 2010 class champ Frankie Taylor in qualifying, Scruggs set low ET in all four rounds of eliminations along the way to a convincing win in the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV.
“I’ll be honest; this is probably the most exciting single win I’ve had, just because we’ve been struggling. Even the championships weren’t as exciting because we were doing pretty well back then and we were more expected to win,” Scruggs said. “But this is really the first time I’ve ever struggled, the competition is so tough—not that it wasn’t back then, too, but everybody has stepped up so much—and the car finally is doing everything that we’re telling it to do. So everything about this is very, very gratifying.”
Mike Castellana’s third win of the 2011 ADRL Pro Nitrous (PN) season almost was overshadowed by the heroics of former teammate Burton Auxier, who delivered a record-setting performance Aug. 13, in the ADRL U.S. Drags IV at Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP).
Castellana, who started from 3rd place in the 16-car field, beat Jason Harris and Stan Allen before receiving a free pass into the final when Auxier had to shut down on the line prior to their scheduled semi-final face off. He then went on to an easy race win when Jeff Naiser went red against him in the final.
“I saw his red light, so I knew we had it won then. But no matter how they come, a win’s a win and they’re all good,” Castellana said after exactly matching his qualifying time of 3.827 seconds and going 196.19 mph over the VMP eighth mile in his Al-Anabi Racing ’69 Camaro.
In round one of eliminations, number-two starter Auxier stunned the Pro Nitrous faithful with an unprecedented 3.746-seconds pass at 199.02 mph, then backed it up well within the required one percent for an official ET record with a 3.754 at 198.15 mph. Unfortunately, after performing his burnout for the semis, Auxier detected a loud squeaking noise in his engine just before it lost oil pressure, so he shut it off in order to save parts.
“It definitely would’ve tore itself all up if we had run it like that,” said Auxier, who hails from Dixie, West Virginia. “It’s better just to shut it off and save it for the next race.”
PRO NITROUS CARNAGE - The Pro Nitrous semis also were marred by the crash of number-one starter Mahana Al-Naemi while racing in the left lane against Naiser. Al-Naemi’s ’69 Camaro began hazing its rear tires about half-track until the car completely lost traction and turned left toward the wall. Despite rising up on its two right-side wheels the car did not turn over, though it did make a high-speed spin that slammed its right flank against the vertical concrete before continuing the loop until Al-Naemi wrestled it back into submission and slowed to a stop, never once varying from his own lane.“He stayed in it way too long,” crew chief Shannon Jenkins stated. “It started rattling the tire by the 60-foot mark and went into tire shake just past the 330 (feet). It took so long that it actually went into tire smoke like a fuel car and the front end just washed out.”
Fortunately, Al Naemi walked away from the wreck unscathed, but certainly a little more experienced.
“It’s hard to explain; they’re in the moment, they want to do well, want to win, but sometimes it’s just time to give it up and worry about the next race,” Jenkins stressed. “It’s a big learning curve and Mahana just learned a big lesson about driving a Pro Mod car. He’s not hurt other than feeling pretty bad about what happened, so he’ll learn from it and we’ll move on. No big deal.”
Pat Moore, pictured above and below, had a tough time during Saturday's final qualifying session.
Moore's car launched on the pass, and made a sudden move to the left. The car made a slow roll onto its roof where it slid to a stop across the finish line. [Moore photos by Robert Keene].
FATHER KNOWS BEST - For Dean Goforth, a holeshot win in the Extreme Pro Stock (XPS) final of the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV confirmed the 67-year old can still compete with the best his class has to offer. After qualifying third in the second-tightest 
field in class history behind polesitter and defending champion John Montecalvo and Goforth’s own son and current points leader, Cary, he raced through David Schorr, Steven Boone and John Pluchino to reach Montecalvo in the money round.
Goforth, driving his Dean’s Casing Service 2010 Pontiac GXP, left with a .066 light in the final against a .100, by far Montecalvo’s worst of the day, which allowed Goforth’s 4.095 at 174.91-mph pass to prevail over the quicker and faster 4.087 at 175.94 put up by Montecalvo’s 2009 Cobalt.
“John told me at the top end that he wouldn’t have minded getting beat by a holeshot if I’d gone .007 and he was .021, but that wasn’t the case. Really, I didn’t win this race; my crew did,” Goforth insisted.
“They’ve been awesome all year and put us places we didn’t expect to go. They make very few mistakes themselves and are very understanding of any mistakes I make as a driver. I hope that they’ve got me started back on a path that I thought I’d lost.”
MILLEN REBOUNDS - For the first time this year, the Extreme 10.5 (XTF) class featured a full 16-car field for eliminations Aug. 13, in the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV at Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP), south of Richmond in Petersburg, Virginia.
In the fourth and final round of qualifying, Michigan racer and reigning XTF World Champion Dan Millen slipped his screw-blown 2011 Mustang past the similarly powered ’68 Camaro of Maryland’s Chuck Ulsch to take over the top spot with a 3.887-seconds pass at 196.22 mph. Following Ulsch on the list was Frankie Taylor in his supercharged ’05 Corvette, Grant McCrary in a twin-turboed ’08 Stratus and Billy Glidden with a new, bigger nitrous motor in his 2010 Mustang.
Like heavyweight fighters, Millen and Ulsch continued to trade blows through each round of eliminations, with Ulsch setting low ET of the opener at 3.920 seconds and Millen countering in round two with a best-of-the-round 3.938 effort. Not to be outdone, however, Ulsch went low for the semis with a 3.917-seconds single after Taylor’s starter failed on the starting line. Millen, meanwhile, reached the final by taking out McCrary with a 3.946 pass.
Both combatants were able to make their best runs of the weekend when it really counted, with Millen leaving with a .031 starting-line advantage that led to a 3.883 pass at 198.03 mph to beat the 3.897 at 198.52 put together by Ulsch.
“We’re really happy. All of us have been working our butts off the last three weeks testing and testing. The heat and humidity has definitely thrown us a little bit of a curve ball, but it all came together here and we couldn’t be happier,” Millen said in victory lane.
He also praised the participation and close competition in the class at VMP and said he hopes it continues at the next race on the schedule (Sep. 9-10), at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina.
“There were just so many quality cars and combinations out here; Frankie, of course, Grant McCrary, Brad Brand, Todd Moyer and those guys; but the one I think we’ve got to worry about is Billy (Glidden). I told him with that new engine he’s going to go as fast as the Pro Nitrous guys. He’s as sharp as anybody out there and this tire, the Mickey Thompson tire that we use, is really, really good. I think a lot of people underestimate them. I’m looking forward to a good finish to the season.”
NOTHING BUT DOMINANCE - The result was the same with Ashley Owens picking up his fourth Pro Extreme Motorcycle (PXM) win after going to the final in each race he’s entered, but despite making the historic quickest pass in ADRL two-wheeled history, Owens almost 
was nipped at the finish line by a first-time finalist.
After going a career-best 4.089 at 173.54 to qualify second behind Owens’ 4.027 at 176.12 combination, Maryland’s Casey Stemper made his way through Mac McAdams, Carlos Wilkerson (whom he beat with a holeshot), and Ron Procopio to reach the runaway points leader and determine the PXM winner for the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV at Virginia Motorsports Park, near Richmond.
Owens, meanwhile, took out Dave Vantine in round one, then made history with the sport’s first three-second pass when he beat 2010 PXM champ Kim Morrell with a 3.989-seconds run to the eighth-mile stripe at 177.42 mph. It was a number Owens has been trying to reach all season long—and one thought practically impossible just a few years ago.
“We had to wait until conditions were right, the bike, the air, the track, and it all came together pretty perfectly here,” the Decatur, Alabama, native said. “I can always tell when the bike is really pulling in third gear that it’s on a pass and that time it was pulling as hard as I’ve ever felt and it felt good!”
That left only former two-time class champion Billy Vose between Owens and the final round. After qualifying fourth with a 4.095, his first time in the “ohs,” Vose ran his own career-best 4.033 in the opening round of racing, then followed up with a 4.042 in the second round before treeing Owens in the semis by .034 and going 4.056 at 166.64 mph. It wasn’t enough, though, as Owens ran 4.012 at 177.91 to take the win by one-hundredth of a second and earn his berth in the final round.
Given his typical performance advantage Owens tends not to push the tree, but an uncharacteristically slow .125 reaction time nearly cost him the win as Stemper left with a stellar .007 light. But Owens also lowered the official ET record with another “three,” going 3.977 seconds at 179.42 mph that reached he finish line a scant three-thousandths of a second ahead of the 4.098 at 173.43 in Stemper’s lane.
“He was out there on me and I thought I was going to run out of track,” Owens admitted. “I’m just happy to get the win light. We put in a lot of work and to get two 3s and win? It’s a great weekend. I can’t thank (team owner) Paul (Gast) enough; this bike is just unreal and we needed every bit of it tonight.”
TEETS IS THE TOP SPORTSMAN - Twenty-five of the country’s best Top Sportsman teams made qualifying laps at the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV and after four sessions on the Virginia Motorsports Park eighth mile it was Georgia racer Ronnie Davis heading 
the list with a 4.091-seconds run at exactly 180 miles per hour in his 1963 Corvette.
Louisiana’s Earl Folse placed second with a 4.120 in his ’68 Camaro, followed by the ’41 Willys of home-state favorite L.J. Wood. Donny Thompson of Suffolk, Virginia, nailed down the 16th-place bump spot with a 4.403 in his ’04 Cavalier after four rounds of qualifying were in the books.
But it was 10th-place starter Glenn Teets Jr. and number-13 qualifier Sandy Wilkins who raced in the final round, with Teets winning after dialing in at 4.33 seconds and going 4.373 at 161.04 while Wilkins broke out with a 4.340 at 161.42 against a 4.35 dial.
“This is my first ADRL race and I live in Manassas, Virginia, so it was close and I was able to have all my family here with me,” Teets said while waiting his turn for winner’s circle celebrations. “This is great. It’s what racing is all about and it’s what I know racing can be. They (ADRL) are bringing it all together, the atmosphere, the fans, the fun, the cars; I mean, you’ve got a variety of everything. I love it and I thank ADRL for adding Top Sportsman.”
FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME - In 2001, Mike Janis won his career-first Pro Mod race during an IHRA national event at Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP). On Aug. 12-13, he was back at the Richmond-area track and won the first-ever exhibition of so-called 
“legal” Pro Mods in the almost-no-holds-barred ADRL.
Behind the 3.900 at 189.92 mph by Mike Knowles, the Lancaster, New York, race engine builder qualified second at 3.915 and 189.87 mph in the roots-blown 2010 Mustang he usually campaigns in the NHRA GSA Pro Mod series. He also entered the ADRL’s elite Pro Extreme class with a screw-blown ’70 Duster and admitted “it was a lot more work than I thought it would be” to race in two distinct classes at one event.
With only seven cars entered, Janis made a solo pass in round one after Thomas Jones II broke, then ran 3.914 to get by a traction-troubled Leah Pruett-LeDuc before facing fellow NHRA regular K.A. Balooshi in the final.
Janis again ran 3.914 at 189.26, but it was his .038 light to Balooshi’s .059 that earned the win over a quicker and faster 3.896 at 193.88 by Balooshi’s nitrous-popped ’68 Camaro.
“It’s actually the first win for this car ever, so it was good to finally get that out of the way,” Janis said.
FINALLY! - It’s been nearly two years in the making and Ashley Owens has flirted with success several times, but on Aug. 12, in round two of eliminations for the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV at Virginia Motorsports Park, he finally made the first three-second 
pass in Pro Extreme Motorcycle history.
Running in the right lane alongside defending class champion Kim Morrell, the only rider to beat him in a final round last season, Owens rode his Fast by Gast Suzuki to a 3.989-second win at 177.42 mph that also set a new official elapsed time (ET) record for the ADRL motorcycles, backed up by his 4.012 at 177.91 in the next round of competition. Incremental times on the record run included .999 to the 60-foot mark and 2.626 seconds to half-track.
“I’ve never been 60-footing like I was here and that’s where all the ET came from,” Owens said. “Plus the air got a lot better tonight and the track is really good. We’ve been trying to do this for a long time and everything just came together at the right time here.”
Owens qualified number one with a 4.027 pass and defeated David Vantine with a 4.053 in the opening round of racing, while former class champ Billy Vose ran 4.033 at 174.21 to advance from his first-round pairing, which is as close to Owens as any of his competitors have come this year. However, Owens insisted Vose’s performance had nothing to do with him finally getting the three-second job done.
“Honestly, it’s not something we can just decide to do; it really did have everything to do with conditions being right,” the Decatur, Alabama-based rider insisted. “But I am very happy we were first and that we were able to get this out of the way and not worry about being first anymore. It’s a relief really to not have to think about it and that I can just go back to concentrating on going rounds and winning races.”
Owens returned in the final round to lower the elapsed time record further with a 3.977 at 179.42 and take home the event win.
AN EXPENSIVE PASS - After making his quickest pass of the weekend in Saturday’s fourth and last round of qualifying for the ADRL Pro Extreme race at Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP), the engine in Terry “Legbone” Leggett’s 2009 Mustang let go just as he crossed the eighth-mile finish line.
Leggett’s 3.737 at 199.82 mph should have left him 9th and facing a first-round eliminations match against Jason Scruggs, but instead he was back in the pits considering the damage caused by “at least” two broken connecting rods.
“We don’t know yet why it happened,” Leggett said. “The (spark) plugs look good, the tune-up was okay; we were still running pretty conservative, so I just don’t know right now.”
Riding in the right lane, Leggett’s car made a hard turn toward the wall when the engine broke, but the veteran driver from Pinetown, NC, quickly dropped the laundry and got it straightened out before coasting to an uneventful stop.
“It didn’t hit the wall, but I sure wouldn’t have wanted to be standing there when it went by; you would definitely have lost some skin!”
With his spare engine already committed to the ’09 Mustang his car builder, Alan Pittman, was driving in the Extreme 10.5 class at VMP, Leggett said several competitors, including Scruggs and Quain Stott, offered a replacement powerplant for eliminations.
“If I knew there was going to be enough time, I might have gone for it. But after the rain delay today I know they’re going to be hurrying to get this thing started, so I think we’re done here,” Leggett said.
“But I really, really appreciate the offers of parts and help,” he added. “it really shows you the quality of people we’re racing with out here.”
THAT'S GONNA LEAVE A MARK - The 3.850-seconds pass that placed Todd Martin 13th after the second round of Pro Extreme qualifying for the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV had just been pushed down to the bump spot during the third session run Saturday 
morning at Virginia Motorsports Park.
The veteran Mustang, Oklahoma, racer lined up his screw-blown ’53 Studebaker beside the ’68 Camaro of Sheik Khalid Al-Thani and saw his 3.85 posted on the scoreboards as the number to beat in order to race in eliminations later in the day. At the first hint of green, Martin dropped the hammer and streaked to a 3.835 at 198.09 mph that vaulted him back up to the 14th position while Al-Thani struggled for traction and shut off early in the left lane.
Despite his qualifying success, the Sheikh’s trouble may have been the most fortunate part of the run for Martin as his throttle hung open and he wound up hitting the left wall and grinding to a halt in the shutdown lanes.
“I tried slapping the throttle, but then I got the chutes out, shut off the ignition and fuel and it blew up,” Martin described later. “All I was worried about was hitting Khalid and I went over there and apologized to him for getting in his lane.”
For a moment, Martin said he actually thought he was going to get away with just a long slide in his own oil.
“I think it grazed the right wall a little and I corrected and then it started to slide, but there was so much fire and smoke in there by then that I couldn’t see anything and it went over and hit the left wall pretty hard,” he said. “My data recorder showed 2.9 Gs when it hit.”
Fortunately, Martin received only minor injuries in the crash, complaining of a sore shoulder and “goose egg” on the inside of his right foot where it hit the brake pedal. His car fared a little worse.
“It’ll need a new front clip and I’ve already talked to Alan Pittman about getting a new nose and doors, so I’ll get it fixed up soon.”
But Martin will concentrate the next couple of weeks on completing a brand-new Garrett Race Cars-built ’67 Mustang that’s just been painted this week by Ken Billings at Liquid and Powder Coat Finishes.
“We’ll try to have it ready for Rockingham (Sept. 9-10), but it’ll be in Norwalk (Sept. 23-24) for sure,” Martin said. “You know, the worst part of this whole thing is I had to call and tell my wife, who’s at her high school reunion back in Texas.”
and first-round losses as he makes the transition from a clutch to a converter-equipped transmission.After three rounds of qualifying for the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV at Virginia Motorsports Park Scruggs is second with a 3.648 at 205.51 mph. The run came Saturday morning after Friday night’s Pro Extreme qualifying session was postponed by the track’s 11 p.m. curfew.
Earlier on Friday, Scruggs had slotted into third place with a 3.709 pass, but his weekend got off to a parts-breaking start when 2.8 seconds into his first attempt the rearend locked up on his car, causing the universal joint and driveshaft to snap. Still, he managed to coast to a 3.921 that had him seventh after the opening round.
“We were always pretty close, but we were making little mistakes,” Scruggs admitted. “It has taken a lot of work and trial and error, but I think if we do get the converter figured out it’ll actually be easier. I still don’t think we’re a top two or three car, but I think we can run in the top half of the field. All I want is to be competitive, to have a chance to race and win again.”
After qualifying 11th and finally getting his first round win of the year at the previous event last month in Martin, Michigan, Scruggs said the three test hits he made at the Martin track the day after the race and another three-pass test at Rockingham Dragway a couple of weeks later are what’s made the difference for him in Virginia.
His father and crew chief, Mitchell Scruggs, said he’s most pleased with making seven consecutive passes without tire shake.
“That’s the most important thing; that we’re finally getting down the track,” he said. “The car’s got so much left in it that it’s just up to us to get it out. I really think this can be a consistent 3.50s race car.”
If so, the Scruggs team may soon be granted their wish to return to victory lane.
NEW LOOK, SPONSOR - Outlaw 10.5 racer Maurice Bea rolled through the gates of Virginia Motorsports Park with a new look and sponsor.Bea, competing in this weekend's ADRL U.S. Drags, is 14th after three sessions in his sleek nitrous injected, 2011 Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra.
Bea is racing this weekend with a new chassis design from Chris Cheeks of Cheeks Performance in Fredericksburg, Va. The new car has a new combination which is considerably lighter than the previous car.
MoBea Solutions, manufacturer of the digiscope, a power tool which connects to a computer through a USB port and allows closer view of details, has signed on as the team's primary sponsor.
“As a racer myself, I am happy to partner with MoBea Solutions," said Bea. "We have used their products in our racing program with resounding results. Being able to see details you miss with the naked eye makes the difference on the racetrack."
The team is planning on competing at select ADRL events, Extreme Outlaw Pro Mod(EOPM), & local Quick 8 races. - Bobby Bennett
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - QUICK AND FAST QUALIFYING CUT SHORT BY CARNAGE, CURFEW
THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY - When the engine in Jason Harris’ Pro Nitrous entry let go and oiled the right lane at Virginia Motorsports Park on Friday, it gave the Pro Extreme (PX) class the rest of the night off during the first day of the ADRL U.S. Drags.
With an 11 p.m. curfew approaching and facing about a 45-minute clean-up, ADRL officials quickly reached the decision to run the third round of PX qualifying at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, prior to the scheduled noon start for the fourth and final sessions for all six official classes and this weekend’s special exhibition of NHRA-legal Pro Modified cars.
It also left the 3.668 at 204.88 by reigning class champ Frankie Taylor in the opening round as the provisional pole-sitting elapsed time.
“That run we actually softened it up at the start just to get it down the track,” Taylor revealed. “We saw everyone ahead of us smoking the tires so we just took a ton out of it early on.”
After breaking in the first round, current points leader Jason Hamstra recovered to run 3.705 at a class-leading 207.56 mph to slot his ’70 Duster into the second-place spot, followed by Jason Scruggs, who ran 3.709 in his best pass of the season so far after struggling to adapt to an automatic transmission in his ’63 Vette. Quain Stott also made a nice 3.713 pass to place fourth, with 2010 ADRL Rookie of the Year Mick Snyder rounding out the top five at 3.731 seconds. Todd Tutterow, in the debut of a brand-new car, placed sixth, just one-thousandth behind Snyder.
“Mahana’s getting more and more confident with each pass and he’s doing a phenomenal job,” crew chief Shannon Jenkins stated. “We give him the car, but he knows what to do with it.”
Al-Naemi beat out former Al-Anabi teammate Burton Auxier for the top spot heading into Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying session. Auxier, the defending class champion, went 3.803, followed by Al-Anabi’s Mike Castellana, Robert Rahaim, Jeff Naiser and Stan Allen. All six of the top qualifiers were driving either 1968 or ’69 Camaros.
SWIPED IT AWAY - In the last pair of Extreme 10.5 (XTF) cars down the Virginia Motorsports Park eighth mile in Friday’s third and final qualifying round during the ADRL U.S. Drags, Chuck Ulsch and his Mobley Motorsports ’68 Camaro wrested away the 
provisional lead from Frankie Taylor with a 3.902-seconds blast at 205.01 mph that set both ends of the XTF track records.
Just a few pairs earlier, Taylor improved on his 3.964 from the second session with a 3.911 in his ’05 Corvette, while Dan Millen completed the triumvirate of screw-blown qualifiers at the head of the field with a 3.914 in his 2011 Mustang, with Grant McCrary’s turbocharged ’08 Stratus (3.969) and Billy Glidden’s nitrous-huffing 2010 Mustang filling out the top five with a 4.034 from the opening round.
Ulsch’s advancement came after his team worked hard between rounds to pull all eight pistons and make repairs to his car’s 526 c.i Hemi after a connecting rod failed halfway through his second attempt.
“I felt it lay over so I got out of it right away and it’s a good thing I did because when we got back to the pits the motor was real tight to turn over. It turned out the connecting rod in number seven (cylinder) was bent,” he explained. “If that had broke, we would have had a real mess to deal with.
As it was, the team barely made repairs in time.
“They (ADRL officials) kept coming around asking if we were going to be ready, if we were going to make it,” Ulsch said. “A lot of teams would’ve probably called it a day, but we came here to race and to have fun. To thrash like we did, I just think that’s so cool.”
For the first time this season, the Extreme 10.5 class will feature a full 16-car field for eliminations at the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV, with Kevin Fortney currently clinging to the last position with an off-the-pace 5.531 in his nitrous-boosted ’99 Monte Carlo.
EVEN ENGINE ISSUES CAN'T STOP HIM - It’s no secret the Pro Extreme Motorcycle (PXM) class this year belongs to Decatur, Alabama’s Ashley Owens. He owns both ends of the official class records, qualified number one at each of five events held this 
season, winning three of them, and is poised to add a sixth top-qualifying honor after running a track record 4.027 at 176.12 mph Friday night at Virginia Motorsports Park to pace the quickest PXM field in ADRL history.
The record-setting run opened with a .996 sixty-foot time, the first sub-one-second time to that point in (non-nitro) motorcycle drag racing history during the ADRL U.S. Drags qualifying.
“If I had been in the tower and seen that .996 pop up on the screen I would’ve thought we were going to see the sport’s first three-second pass; that’s what we were going after,” said Paul Gast, team owner for Owens. “But instead it nicked a piston and slowed down a little on the top end, so Ashley is back in the pits right now changing out that motor. We’re not going to fix it here. I want to take it back to the shop where we can figure out why it happened.”
Casey Stemper stepped up with a career-best 4.089 at 173.54 to slot into the second position, followed by Canada’s Terry Schweigert, former back-to-back class champ Billy Vose and second-place points man Eric McKinney, who all ran 4.11 laps.
With one qualifying round left to go on Saturday before eliminations begin, Dave Vantine rounds out the record-setting 16-bike field with a 4.214, edging out NHRA veteran Craig Treble, who ran an identical time in his first ADRL outing, but was .79 mph slower.
GOING FORTH AGAIN - Cary Goforth is starting to make a habit of finishing on Friday with the Extreme Pro Stock qualifying lead, doing so for the third-straight event and the fourth time this season. He’s also led his father, Dean, into the fourth and final session 
on Saturday for the second-straight race.
“Man, I’d like to get him over that hump,” the current class points leader said after securing the provisional number-one position with a 4.084-seconds pass at 176.49 mph in his ’09 Cobalt that beat his father’s time by just five-thousandths. “When he got down to the top end he was so mad, telling me he guesses he just can’t get it done, but it’ll come.”
After running 4.11 and 4.13 in the preliminaries on Friday, Goforth yanked the clutch and made his top-qualifying run with just a guess on the set-up.
“I can’t believe it ran an .11 with no clutch left in the car,” he said. “I told the guys that even if it just blows the tires off at least we’d learn something and it wouldn’t be running through the clutch any more.”
Goforth emphasized the atmosphere will dictate whether he or anyone else will go quicker in the fourth and final session on Saturday.
“I was really surprised that Monte (John Montecalvo) didn’t go around us tonight or at least get right there with us, but here we are one and two again,” Goforth said. “Hopefully that will hold up, but if conditions are right any one of us could step it up, I think.”
Montecalvo placed third in his ’09 Cobalt, while Richie Stevens had the first Ford in the field, followed by Trevor Eman with another Mustang rounding out the top five. Canada’s Tony Pontieri held on to the 16th spot in the second-tightest XPS field in history with a 4.138 at 175.07 mph.
KNOWLES LEADS PM EXHIBITION - After two rounds of qualifying, Mike Knowles may have been questioning his decision to drive 32 hours to Petersburg, Virginia, to compete in the first race ever for “legal” Pro Mods at an ADRL national event. But after going 
3.900 seconds at 189.92 mph to take over the top spot during Friday night’s third session, the long tow from Grand Junction, Colorado, suddenly made a lot more sense.
“That’s what we were looking for in the first two runs, but it doesn’t always work that way,” Knowles said of being mired last of seven entries heading into the evening round. “We’ve been struggling a bit with the clutch, surfacing it a bit differently from what we had been doing and we kind of expected to struggle at first—just not as much as we did those first two runs.”
Knowles stressed, however, that the changes he made to the clutch were done so as a test for his upcoming NHRA U.S. Nationals date next month at Indianapolis and not as a result of running the ADRL’s eighth-mile race distance. “I don’t have enough data (for eighth-mile racing) to go in there and start messing around with that,” he said. “And basically you’re running all out to the eighth anyway in quarter-mile racing. It’s still pretty hopped up.”
The trip to Virginia Motorsports Park also represents Knowles’ first visit to an ADRL event.
“I’m enjoying it. The fans have been great, very interested in what we’re doing, and it’s been a lot of fun. Plus, (ADRL President) Tim McAmis built my car, so I wanted to support what he’s doing here,” Knowles added. “We’re good friends and I’d probably drive anywhere for him.”
Knowles admitted to being “a little disappointed” that more NHRA cars didn’t show up, but expressed confidence the traditional Pro Mod class has potential within the ADRL.
“You hear a lot of people talk about how there’s no weight break here (ADRL). Well, in our class there is, so you just have to go get a roots supercharger, weigh 2,650 pounds and go racing,” he pointed out. “I think this class will definitely grow.
Following Knowles on the qualifying list were Leah Pruett-Leduc (3.92/192.60) in just her third Pro Mod appearance, veteran Mike Janis (3.94/188.99) and K.A. Balooshi (3.96/190.43), who led through the first two sessions, but had to do a masterful driving job to save his car from the wall on Friday night.
“Kevin is absolutely the best in the business,” Scott McKinney stated. “I asked if he had the time to fly up here and here he is; we had to do something to go after Ashley and Paul (Gast, team owner for Owens); those two are just so strong right now.” Gilham uses computer-based tuning to adjust exhaust gas temperatures and air/fuel ratios, among other parameters. “Each cylinder has its own carburetor, so it’s very critical that you synchronize each one,” he said.
Only seven cars came to the line for the opening session, but Lee Adkins broke on the line. The order: 1. K.A. Balooshi (3.96/190.43) 2. Mike Janis (3.97/190.03) 3. Leah Pruett-LeDuc (3.98/191.35) 4. David Campbell (4.08/184.35) 5. Thomas Jones II (4.28/178.99) 6. Mike Knowles (6.14/83.14).
NEW RIDE FOR SWINDOLL - Last month’s ADRL event at Martin, Michigan, ended for Lamar Swindoll Jr. against the right wall just before reaching the finish line in a solo run at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park after Bill Devine was shut down after his burnout for the opening round of Extreme 
10.5 (XTF) eliminations. Though the Todd Moyer-owned ’04 Cavalier was not seriously damaged by the impact, Swindoll did not return for round two and the accident hastened his switch to a new ride for this weekend’s ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV at Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP), near Richmond.
“We actually had this car a week before the Martin race,” said Chad Rogers, crew chief for Moyer, who recently purchased the ’68 Camaro from Pro Nitrous racer Robert Mathis. “The plan was to gradually switch everything over, but after the crash we worked really hard to get it ready to come here (VMP) and just finished it this past Sunday. I want to especially thank Brian Sheppard for all the fabrication work he did for us in a short period of time.”
The Houston-based team yanked the NRC-built 618 c.i. motor out of the wounded Cav and transferred “every nut and bolt we could,” Swindoll said. But due to the Camaro’s longer wheelbase they moved its twin Precision Turbo 108-mm turbochargers from the nose of the car to under the hood, behind each front wheel.
“I would actually prefer they were still going to be getting the cooler air up front, but we had to do it this way to keep the car’s balance right,” Swindoll explained. “That would’ve been an awful lot of weight to be hanging out there in front of the wheels.”
A pair of practice hits at Houston Motorsports Park last Sunday (Aug. 7), confirmed everything was buttoned up and functioning. Four more test runs yesterday (Aug. 10) at North 
Carolina’s Piedmont Dragway before continuing on to Richmond yielded a best 60-foot time of .104 seconds.
“That’s encouraging, but I’m looking forward to getting it on the track here with the ADRL prep and seeing what it can do,” Swindoll said. “The car feels good, though. I think we’ll be okay.”
SIZE DOES MATTER - After a semi-successful test last weekend of a 717-c.i. engine recently acquired from Jeff Naiser, Extreme 10.5 star Billy Glidden was unsure early this week whether he’d have the new billet-based powerplant in his 2010 Mustang for the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags IV, or his trusty—but aged and increasingly outclassed—498 c.i. Ford Hemi.
But after last-minute repairs were completed Wednesday night, and with longtime friend Alan Whitaker of ARW Trucking along to help out with the driving, Glidden departed his Whiteland, Indiana, race shop at 11:30 p.m., bound for Virginia Motorsports Park, where he arrived about noon on Thursday with the new motor firmly in place.
“I have no expectations; it’s all guesswork right now,” Glidden declared. “I’ll leave it in at least through two sessions (of qualifying on Saturday) and see where we are then. Either way we’re under the gun.”
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