THE ELITE CLUB - Gene Kerr was the most unlikely of winners in Orlando last year when he prevailed over a stacked Super Pro Street class courtesy of bye runs and his competitors’ bad fortune. This year he did it the old-fashioned way, running consistent six-second laps after qualifying second in his nitrous-boosted ’92 Camaro to become one of very few drivers—in any class—to count back-to-back World Street Nationals titles among their accomplishments.

“We really had to work for it this time,” said Kerr, who hails from nearby Winter Garden, FL. “But it felt great to get it done on the track.  

“And we had plenty of bottles with us this time,” he added, alluding to running out of nitrous bottles last year after going a lot deeper in eliminations than he ever expected. “We also stepped it up with a bigger, 746-inch, Charlie Buck motor this year.”

After qualifying behind only Ben Donhoff with a 6.755 at 206.13-mph pass, Kerr easily defeated fellow Floridian Wayne Smozanek with a 6.830 at 203.86 in round one of eliminations. He made an early shut-off 6.950 at just 165.17 mph bye run in round two and caught his one lucky break in the semis when Donhoff jumped the start, negating a sure win over Kerr’s 9-second run when he had to abort after drifting left out of the groove.

Meanwhile, Katonah, NY’s Gary Langner had the kind of day Kerr enjoyed in 2010, as a 7.583 at 181.62 got him past Anthony Russo, and then he got a free pass to the semis after scheduled opponent Jerico Balduf crashed in round one. That round cut the field down to three cars and as the beneficiary of a scheduled bye, Langner again just idled his ’55 Chevy down the Orlando quarter mile.

“There was nothing wrong with the car. We were just saving parts and making sure nothing stupid happened,” he explained later. “You know how drag racing can be, so we just played it safe.”

In the final, Langner left with a huge .094 advantage off the start, but his 7.887 at 134.64 mph was no match for the 6.840 at 199.85 laid down by Kerr.

“The track was good, but I was a little nervous, which I don’t usually get nervous, but we managed to get it down the track and it worked out for us,” Kerr said of the final round. “I know we didn’t have all the same cars here that we’d usually see, but at least we kept the car running, we kept at it and we got the job done, so I guess it’s all good. I’m happy.”

MEWSHAW SCORES WSN BREAKTHROUGH VICTORY - After attending every World Street Nationals event since 1998, Frank Mewshaw finally took the Outlaw 10.5 winner’s trophy back home to Melbourne, Florida.

“We’ve struggled here; it’s been a nightmare, this race, but I wouldn’t miss it,” Mewshaw declared in victory lane. “But we’ve torn up a lot of stuff here.

Mewshaw with a 6.802 at 211.73 mph qualified his twin-turbocharged ’88 Trans Am on top of a short six-car field and ran unopposed to the final after first-round opponent Jesse Violante’s ’69 Camaro broke and he had a bye run in the semis. Meanwhile, number-two starter Jeff Lutz in Willard Kinzer’s turbo Cobalt made short work of John Marconi and his ’58 Corvette in the opening round, with similar results in round two against Chris Levangie in a ’67 Camaro.

That left only the final round, where Lutz left first, but was forced to pull the plug on his run with traction trouble while Mewshaw powered to the 6.768-seconds win at 213.03 mph, his quickest and fastest pass of the weekend.

 “We did make it a little more aggressive on the starting line (for the final) and we got a .112 60-foot, so that was pretty good,” Mewshaw said. “The track was pretty good all weekend, too, I think. That first round on Friday was a little slick, but other than that it was good, so we’re happy with the way everything turned out. As they say, any win is a good win.”

SCHMIDT GOES SOLO - Ideally, the first and second-place qualifiers for Heavy Street were set to meet in the final at Orlando’s World Street Nationals, but a broken timing belt kept top qualifier Jeff Lutz and his street-legal, twin-turbocharged ’57 Chevy on the sidelines.

“I knew going up there that Jeff wasn’t going to make it and I was thinking about how last year we took him out here in the semis and we both wanted to race again. So it’s not how we want to do a final for the fans, and it’s not how we want to do a final as racers because we’re competitive and want to race for it on the track,” Schmidt said. “But a win’s a win and it feels really, really good to get this one.”

In the only class this year to feature a full 16-car field, Schmidt opened Heavy Street eliminations with a 7.597-seconds win over Willard Howard that also set low ET of the round. He took down Gino Bia in round two with a 7.746 pass, but Lutz went low for the round with a 7.558 victory over David Carlson.

In the semis, Schmidt earned lane choice for the final with a 7.437 win at 174.82 mph over John Townsend, while Lutz posted a 7.580 at just 161.48 mph in beating Kenny Anderson.

“The timing belt broke right at the end of that run, which is why we were a little slower,” Lutz explained. “We could’ve fixed it, but we couldn’t find the right belt to fit, so we were done.”

Schmidt made a conservative 8.461 pass at 176.72 in his solo run to the race win.  

“We struggled a little getting it off the starting line today, but we were able to calm it down and get it down the track. We had a good pass on Friday and left the same tune-up in it, but today the track got better and it was chattering the tires, so we had to go after it a little bit,” he said. “But no matter how it comes it feels great; we struggled a little bit today, but we came out on top.”

FRATENA FIRST IN DRAG RADIAL - For a while it looked like 83-year-old Willard Kinzer was going to write the perfect Drag Radial story for himself at the World Street Nationals by qualifying his twin-turboed, Chevy 532-powered ’88 Mustang number one, resetting both ends of the track records (7.224 and 221.96) and reaching the final round with a dominant car. But a leaking transmission at the end of his burnout before facing number-two starter Michael Fratena put a premature end to his tale.

“That’s just the way it goes in racing sometimes,” the unflappable Kentuckian said. “I had fun here today, so I’m happy with our results.”

Fratena, who races as teammate to Outlaw 10.5 winner Frank Mewshaw out of their combined shop in Melbourne, FL, won a mutually challenged race against Scott Murray in round one that saw both drivers post 10-second runs on the scoreboards. Fratena recovered in round two, however, with an 8.514 win at 182.40 mph over Larry Albright, then improved to an 8.007 at 187.11 in the semis against Dennis Lugo.

“It was actually a pretty hectic day because I broke the transmission the first round, had to pull it out, fix it, and I barely had time to make the second round,” he said. “I kind of had a rough weekend just figuring the car out. It ran great on Friday, but I had to work on it all day today and I’m glad all that hard work paid off in the end.”

Kinzer, meanwhile, ran his record-setting ET in a round-one competition single after Brian Criste couldn’t answer the call to stage. He then made a 7.559 bye run in round two before going 7.671 at 203.46 to secure lane choice for his ill-fated final.

Fraterna made an 8.720-seconds pass at 180.16 mph to secure his first WSN event win.

“This was actually my first round win here today, too,” he revealed. “I’ve been coming here at least seven or eight years now and I’d never even got past the first round before, so this is great, excellent.”

FIERY FINISH FOR BALDUF - At the conclusion of a career-best 6.829 at 192.14-mph pass in winning his first round of racing in the World Street Nationals, Jerico Balduf experienced a big engine explosion and fire that ended with his ’63 Vette up against the right wall in the shutdown area.

“It was a pretty big boom and then there was fire everywhere,” Balduf recalled. “It didn’t damage the chassis at all, but the body took a pretty good hit.”

Though not suffering serious injuries, Balduf said his right leg was burned in two places in what he compared to “a really bad sunburn.”

His father and team owner, Ronald Balduf, said his emotions went from elation to dismay in a split second as he watched his brand-new, Suncoast-built car make its best pass ever before exploding in an orange ball of fire.

“It’s too bad it happened, but the most important thing is (Jerico) is okay and we can fix everything. A couple of months’ work and we’ll be back,” he said.

With the fourth and final round of Super Pro Street qualifying in the books, Florida’s own Ben Donhoff held on to the top spot with his blown ’93 Daytona, last year’s SPS race winner Gene Kerr (shown) placed second with his Winter Garden, FL-based ’92 IROC Camaro, and Gary Langner rounded out the top three for the eight-car field with his ’55 Chevy.

Just five cars showed up to contest the Outlaw 10.5 race, with Frank Mewshaw’s ’88 Trans Am showing the way over Jeff Lutz, Chris LeVangie, Alex Ramirez (shown) and John Marconi.

We reported yesterday that Jeff Lutz ran a track record 7.16 in qualifying number on in Heavy Street, but that honor actually belonged to Sam Gottier from last year’s World Street Nationals. Regardless, Lutz made no question about the record in Saturday’s fourth and final qualifying session with this 7.07 pass to cement his position at the top of the 16-car field after 19 entries made attempts.

J.W. Kinzer disappears behind the scoreboard that he lit up Saturday afternoon with the number-one qualifying numbers for Drag Radial. David Hance holds the current track ET record at 7.249 seconds, but Kinzer’s speed is the fastest ever on drag radials at Orlando Speed World Dragway.

Melbourne, FL’s Ben Donhoff sat out the third round of Super Pro Street qualifying on Friday night, but his 6.593 at 212.90 from the second round held up for the number-one spot heading into Saturday’s action.

Gary Langner improved a couple of hundredths to a 7.512 at 182.65 in the third qualifying session for Super Pro Street, but it wasn’t enough to move him up from the third-place spot he’d already secured in round two with his classic ’55 BelAir.

Frank Mewshaw, from Melbourne, FL, has gone quicker in each round of Outlaw 10.5 qualifying, finishing Friday on top of the list with a 6.802-seconds pass at 211.73 mph in his twin-turbocharged ’88 Trans Am.

West Palm Beach, FL’s Danny Palm, who was qualified in the number-five position for Heavy Street with his ’84 Malibu wagon, crashed heavily in the third round of qualifying on Friday night. Running in the left lane, Palm drifted close to the wall in the first half of the track before pulling back into the groove, then losing control and crashing into the right wall near the finish line. Fortunately, Palm was uninjured in the wreck, but the car sustained heavy front-end damage and is done for the weekend. Lutz_Q3_HS

With his third and final qualifying pass of the day, Jeff Lutz steered his 3,620-pound, twin-turboed ’57 Chevy into the top spot in Heavy Street with a track record 7.169-seconds pass at 202.36 mph.

Promptly at 2 p.m. the first pair of cars hit the quarter mile at Orlando Speed World Dragway for this year’s version of the World Street Nationals, with local racer Ron Dickerson (far lane) running his ’97 T-Bird to a 7.654-seconds lap at 183.74 mph to earn the provisional top spot in Super Pro Street qualifying. Gary Langdon, from Katonah, NY, had to shut down early in his show-car-quality ’55 Chevy.

Just two Outlaw 10.5 cars made hits in round one of Outlaw 10.5 qualifying, with Jeff Lutz (shown) the quicker and faster of the two at 8.454 and 191.08 in his twin-turboed Cobalt.

John Townsend and his ’75 Nova from Daytona, FL, is undefeated this year in Orlando Speed World Dragway’s Friday-night, Quick-8 doorslammer series and proved his knowledge of the track with a number-one qualifying 8.001 at 171.77 mph in the opening session for Heavy Street.

Florida’s own Michael Fratena set the early pace in Drag Radial qualifying with a number-one 7.776 at 190.54 mph in his turbo-boosted ’98 Camaro.

Eighty-three-year-old J.W. Kinzer brought his ’88 Mustang down from Allen, KY, and placed second in Drag Radial qualifying after his first pass with an 8.058-seconds pass at a class-leading 196.93 mph.