Photos by Todd Dziadosz, Robert Richard
PALMER, MCINTIRE, TAYLOR AND TUCKER COME UP BIG IN IHRA’S COLUMBUS RETURN
Scott Palmer understood the pressure on his shoulders to make a good showing at the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series. He was billed as one of the stars of the rejuvenated IHRA in its return to open competition.
He embraced the pressure, and delivered all that was expected of him.
Palmer scored his first IHRA Top Fuel win by stopping Krista Baldwin in the final round of the inaugural Outlaw Nitro event at Darana Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, located outside of Columbus.
Joining Palmer in the winner’s circle were Mike McIntire (Funny Car), Frankie “Mad Man” Taylor (Pro Modified), Jerry Tucker (Mountain Motor Pro Stock), and Bob Malloy (Nitro Harley).
Palmer, running from the No. 1 qualifying spot behind the wheel of his PBR/RoofTec dragster, stopped Chuck Loftin and Doug Foley to reach the final.
“I hated to win,” Palmer said with a smile. “I wanted Krista to win, but also wanted us to win, so Krista is my favorite driver, so it’s like mixed emotions, but I’m damn sure happy to be here for sure.
“Honestly, she was so close that I could tell she was over there ‘til about half-track. I could actually almost, I’m pretty sure I could see her front wing. So I knew she was probably a little bit ahead at that point. So, I honestly thought she was still there, and I have not drove good this weekend at all, so I was just nervous. I was honestly focused on trying to do the right thing myself, because I have really struggled this weekend myself. … I’m the weak link right now. But anyway, I did okay on that run and I could tell she had kind of faded away, but they put a couple cylinders out, so luckily, this thing did its job.”
McIntire became the first IHRA Funny Car winner since 2008, when he stopped the 1992 champion Del Worsham in the final round. Just like Palmer, McIntire won from the No. 1 qualifying position.
“It’s huge,” McIntire said. “These things are a lot of work, and everybody worked their butts off and it’s just … crazy. I have no words right now. We raced Del in the finals, and I mean, how cool is that? I mean, he’s a legend and, yeah, it’s just been an amazing weekend.”
McIntire’s road to the title included wins over Jody Stroud and Jack Wyatt.
Frankie Taylor won the Pro Modified division, racing from the No. 1 qualifying position after getting a bye run in the first round, and then getting around James Beadling in the semis and Mike DiDeminoco in the final round.
“This was exactly like the old IHRA I raced on and off back in the day, but especially my buddy Richard Patterson – he would help us go and stuff like that,” Taylor said. “So I want to thank PMS Excavations… You know, he’s the one that got me into the IHRA stuff. I just could never afford to do it. And then now they’ve got this big payout, and you just got to come try it.”
Former NHRA 500-inch Pro Stock racer Jerry Tucker found his groove early in the IHRA Mountain Motor division, stopping PDRA champion Chris Powers in the final round.
Tucker won it in a close one, 4.120 seconds at 174.89 mph to Powers’ 4.122 seconds at 174.26 mph, using a slightly quicker reaction to get off the line first.
“It’s been a rough weekend, and this is the IHRA guys – they put on a good show, and they don’t have a lot of luck with the weather and all, but they kept it together and the racetrack was perfect, and the people was great, and it all worked out,” Tucker said, giving credit to his crew chief Frank Gugliotta.
“I’m pumped,” said Tucker. “Man, old Frank, we just put this deal together and it’s awesome. We just didn’t need to get in our own way. If we didn’t beat ourselves, we was going to be fine. And we thought we had the car and we thought we had the performance, we just didn’t need to do anything silly.”
Tucker’s road to the final was paved by wins over Stroube Lander and Kurt Neighbor.
The 500-inch Pro Stock class provided veteran driver Larry Morgan with another win. Morgan had the win before the tree even turned green due to Derrick Reese’s red-light, but he proceeded to run a 4.451, 162.90 to add the punctuation mark to the victory.
The Pro Nitrous win went to Tony Wilson. He ran an impressive 3.790, 201.64, the second quickest run of eliminations, to pick up the win over Dale Brinsfield’s 4.106, 148.31.
In the Top Alcohol divisions, Jackie Fricke got it done in her dragster, and Stan Sipos won in Funny Car. Fricke’s 5.520, 267.53 run beat Mike Coughlin’s 5.606, 262.74, while Sipos’ 5.505, 264.03 rose above Phil Esz’s 5.496, 262.28.
Bob Malloy rode his Nitro Harley into victory, running a 5.340, 204.01 against Jay Turner’s 5.491, 193.29. Both riders had impressive reaction times, with Malloy’s .067 giving him less than .02 of a second lead at the tree over Turner’s .084.
The next stop on the IHRA’s Nitro Outlaws series heads to Milan Dragway on July 23-26.
SATURDAY ELIMINATIONS
PALMER, MCINTIRE, TAYLOR AND HUFFMAN LEAD REJUVENATED IHRA’S RETURN
There’s a lot to be said about making a good first impression.
Qualifying under the lights at National Trail Raceway as the clock almost turned midnight Friday, Top Fuel racer Scott Palmer was both good and spectacular.
Joining Palmer atop the IHRA leaderboard at the Outlaw Nitro Nationals were Mike McIntye (Funny Car), Frankie Taylor (Outlaw Pro Mod), and Jeremy Huffman (Mountain Motor Pro Stock).
Palmer claimed the No. 1 qualifying spot by running a 3.955-second elapsed time as the engine flamed up, slowing the PBR/RoofTec dragster to 267.37 miles per hour.
“We probably pushed a head gasket out down there, but you know it’s so hot down here and it’s been hot at Norwalk and hot in Epping – been hot everywhere,” said Palmer, whose dragster went through the lights with flames coming out of the pipes and everywhere else. “It’s just tricky conditions when it’s hot like this, so we took some fuel away, slowed the clutch down, and usually it puts a hole out. I can’t really tell if it put a hole out there or not, but to be real honest, I thought about lifting at the eighth-mile because I thought I felt a hole out and my foot eased off the gas, and when I went back down I knew it would not be good. But actually it didn’t hurt anything.
“It did blow a spark plug out of the hole, so we ended up lucky, and I think it would’ve run a 3.80. I think it would’ve run a .87 or .88 if the plug didn’t go out, so we’re happy with that after the trouble we’ve had. We looked like beginners on the first run, and after all the work these people have put into putting this event on we wanted to make a decent run down the track. You know, we all compare ourselves to other runs but in these conditions on this day, that was a good run.”
Krista Baldwin was second while Lex Joon and Cameron Ferre rounded out the top half of the field.
Palmer will race Chuck Loftin in the first round of Saturday’s eliminations. Baldwin matches up against Mitch King, Joon will face Will Smith, and Cameron Ferre will take on Doug Foley.
McIntyre drove his “Mac Attack” to the top spot in his field, edging out defending IHRA Funny Car champion Terry Haddock. McIntyre went to the top of the order at 4.073, 309.34 to edge Haddock’s 4.162.
“It was fast. When it’s dark, it’s real fast,” McIntire said. “These things are fast during the day, and at night, it’s a whole different beast. You got the flames up by the side windows and it’s dark. She was cruising. It was a good run.”
McIntire expects a strong day in Saturday’s eliminations, which are scheduled to begin in the heat of the day.
“It’s going to be hot again,” McIntire said. “We got to figure that out, and hopefully we go some rounds.”
McIntyre is paired against Jody Austin in the first round. Other matchups include Haddock versus Tod Barker, Joey Haas vs. Dale Creasy Jr., and Jack Wyatt taking on Del Worsham.
Taylor went to the top with a 3.699, 199.91. He is followed by Mike DiDomenico, who led the first session with a 3.732, 203.12. Tom Blinco was third with a 3.777, 200.05.
There was a scary moment as Paul Diagrepont lost control of his supercharged 1969 Corvette, and smacked the wall before crossing over in front of Jason Lee. He exited the car under his own power, and no injuries were reported.
In the quickest side-by-side Mountain Motor Pro Stock run of the day, Huffman flexed his muscles to take the top spot, running a 4.129, 174.57,to take the No. 1 spot. Dwayne Rice will start Saturday’s eliminations as the second seed after running 4.138, 172.63, in qualifying.
“We’re pretty excited,” Huffman said. “We weren’t sure what to expect coming up here at IHRA. Never been on an IHRA-prepped track, so we were pretty soft in that first run, and we struggled with some ignition stuff earlier with the FuelTech. We’ve had some crank-trigger issues, and got that all fixed up and seem to have it coming in the right direction now.”
Cory Voss anchored the eight-car field with a 4.204. He will race Huffman in the first round.
“It’s very tight racing,” Huffman said. “We’ve got a good group of 14 cars here, a lot of good racers. It’s really tight racing. The driver’s really got to be on his game and be on the tree, because I think the top four or five are all within, like, .03. It’s pretty exciting when it’s good, close racing.”
Other first-round matchups include Rice vs. Rick Cowger; John DeFlorian Jr. vs. Chris Powers; and Jerry Tucker vs. Tony Pontieri.
TOP FUEL
1. Scott Palmer, 3.955, 267.37, 2. Krista Baldwin, 4.539, 178.47, 3. Lex Joon, 4.612, 171.49, 4. Cameron Ferre, 4.725, 170.51, 5. Doug Foley, 4.754, 157.61, 6. Will Smith 5.514, 123.91, 7. Mitch King, 6.301, 101.65, 8. Chuck Loftin, 6.704, 87.12
FUNNY CAR
1. Mike McIntire, 4.073, 309.34, 2. Terry Haddock, 4.162, 286.44, 3. Joey Haas, 4.289, 279.61, 4. Jack Wyatt, 4.352, 228.34, 5., Del Worsham 4.635, 169.23, 6. Dale Creasy Jr., 4.654, 189.02, 7. Tod Barker, 4.688, 253.39, 8. Jody Austin, 6.137, 118.77
OUTLAW PRO MOD
1. Frankie Taylor, 3.699, 199.91, 2. Mike DiDomenico, 3.732, 203.12, 3. Tom Blinco, 3.777, 200.05, 4. David Monday, 3.785, 200.77, 5. Disco Dean, 3.789, 196.70, 6. Zach Sackman, 3.901, 164.57, 7. James Beadling, 4.150, 175.09, 8. Jason Lee, 4.780, 118.59, 9. Craig Sullivan, 4.856, 104.24, 10. Paul Daigrepont, 5.155, 94.67, 11. Jacob McNeal, broke
MOUNTAIN MOTOR PRO STOCK
1. Jeremy Huffman, 4.129, 174.57, 2. Dwayne Rice, 4.138, 172.63, 3. John DeFlorian Jr., 4.145, 173.58, 4. Jerry Tucker, 4.147, 173.14, 5. Tony Pontieri, 4.152, 174.05, 6. Chris Powers, 4.181, 173.54, 7. Rick Cowgar, 4.181, 171.53, 8. Cory Voss, 4.204, 171.38, 9. John Konigshofer, 4.215, 172.19, 10. Kurt Neighbor, 4.246, 170.75, 11. Stroube Lander, 4.252, 168.58, 12. Mike Murphy, 4.387, 161.79, 13. Johnny Pluchino, 5.061, 102.64, 14. Larry Pearce, 9.778, 54.54
FRIDAY QUALIFYING – Q2
FRIDAY QUALIFYING – Q1
