A feisty hurricane named Nicole flirted with New Jersey earlier this week, callously leaving her calling card marked by record rains, flooding, and high winds.
 
But she brought down the temperatures, giving outlaw-style drag racers at Englishtown's Old Bridge Township Raceway Park perfect conditions once again this weekend as the sun peeks out on the ADRL.us Shakedown at E-Town.
 
This eighth edition of Dave Hance's Northeast doorslammer showcase, as always, promises to blend history and hysteria Saturday and Sunday. Performance records surely will fall, as racers in all eight classes -- including the newest addition, the Mountain Motor Pro Stock Association beasts -- will race against the 7:30 p.m. noise curfew as much as each other.
 
Hance, owner of New York Motorsports and founder of this always-wild event, often says, "What more can you ask for?" No telling what this year's eliminations will give the fans, but last year's action fed off cool temperatures that produced outstanding elapsed times but also contributed to more than a couple of spectacular accidents. The final rounds were no exception, with a crash or car breakage in all but one category.

A feisty hurricane named Nicole flirted with New Jersey earlier this week, callously leaving her calling card marked by record rains, flooding, and high winds.
 
But she brought down the temperatures, giving outlaw-style drag racers at Englishtown's Old Bridge Township Raceway Park perfect conditions once again this weekend as the sun peeks out on the ADRL.us Shakedown at E-Town.
 
This eighth edition of Dave Hance's Northeast doorslammer showcase, as always, promises to blend history and hysteria Saturday and Sunday. Performance records surely will fall, as racers in all eight classes -- including the newest addition, the Mountain Motor Pro Stock Association beasts -- will race against the 7:30 p.m. noise curfew as much as each other.
 
Hance, owner of New York Motorsports and founder of this always-wild event, often says, "What more can you ask for?" No telling what this year's eliminations will give the fans, but last year's action fed off cool temperatures that produced outstanding elapsed times but also contributed to more than a couple of spectacular accidents. The final rounds were no exception, with a crash or car breakage in all but one category.
 
Overall, Hance had another winner with the 2009 Shakedown at E-Town, even though he barely missed capping it with a trip to the winners circle himself. Ever an optimist, he called it "a dream weekend," despite his own personal misfortune. He looked like the man to beat as the top qualifier in the Pro Torque Converters Drag Radial class.
 
However, his '93 Mustang broke just before his final-round appearance against Dwayne "Big Daddy" Gutridge, and he forfeited his chance to win this event he created and shaped. It had been his best chance in awhile, too, after wrecking at The Shakedown twice before. Still, Hance stood on the starting line and cheered Gutridge, one of the "Magnificent Seven" drivers who joined him for the first Shakedown in 2003.
 
Jim Halsey repeated his Pro Mod Nitrous championship and Tommy Deez Fernick and Rob Golobo broke up the Tim Lynch-Chuck Ulsch domination of the Outlaw 10.5 class, as the Shakedown crowned four other first-time winners: Tony Pontieri (Pro Outlaw Blown), Mike Janis (Outlaw 1/8-Mile Challenge), Gary Romonoyske (Outlaw 8.5 Index), and Gutridge (Drag Radial).
 
Both Mitch George and John Carinci were safe in the final of the K&K / Advanced Door Technology Heavy Street class. George was declared the winner after he and opponent Carinci both crashed.
 
Carinci, in the left lane, wrestled with his '70 'Cuda by midtrack. However, it drifted too far to the left and touched or crossed a white boundary line just inside the guardwall for an automatic disqualification.
 
George's Monte Carlo then got out of shape near the top end because of fluid on his tires, and the car barrel-rolled into the left lane, frighteningly close to Carinci's car. But officials determined that George crossed the center line after traveling past the finish line. He was declared the winner, because Carinci committed his infraction first (triggering the so-called "first is worse" rule).
 
"I feel bad what happened. I want to thank the Lord for letting me walk away from it," George said.
 Pontieri, in his '69 Camaro, won the Pro Mod Blown trophy as final-round opponent Kevin McCurdy's beautiful purple and silver entry broke and was pushed to the side before staging.
 
Janis and his Firebird cruised to the 1/8-Mile Challenge triumph when Dwayne Wolfe couldn't overcome transmission troubles left over from the semifinals. Wolfe tried desperately to get his car to fire on the back-up from the burnout. He was able to back up but knew it was not in shape to give Janis a challenge. As if that weren't aggravating enough for Wolfe, Janis' '68 Firebird lost traction and Janis simply coasted across the finish line.
 
Halsey stormed back from qualifying last among the 15 Pro Mod Nitrous entrants to handily beat Gary Courtier for the title.
 
In his first-round appearance, No. 3 qualifier Alex Vrettos became the first Drag Radial driver to dip into the 6.8-second range at 6.894 seconds in his Ford Cobra. After all, an unwritten rule at The Shakedown is that no performance record is safe.
 
Paul Major (Drag Radial), John Bartunek  (Pro Mod Nitrous), and Rodney Bitgood and Brad Brand (Mickey Thompson Outlaw 10.5) were among those whose crashes got the fans' attention. Jeff Rogers' Executioner Mustang detonated on the starting line as he prepared to race Pro Mod Nitrous rival Robert Nicola. They were unhurt. But "Jersey Joe" Newsham ended up at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital with a compression fracture of a lower-back vertebra and injured feet from his Saturday qualifying accident as he sought a repeat victory in the Outlaw 10.5 class with his Cobra.
 
This year, Hance hopes to top last year's car count of just a little more than 200. This year's classes include Speedtech Nitrous Pro Nitrous, Modzilla Cannonball Racing Pro Modified Blown, Adrenaline ADRL Pro Extreme 1/8-Mile Challenge, Mickey Thompson Outlaw 10.5, Pro Torque Drag Radial, Western Beef 8.50 Index, and K&K Advanced Door Car Technology Heavy Street.

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