Defending World Champ Lang knocks North Carolina’s Rickie Smith from top of Pro Mod
 
Cox makes it two in a row in Top Fuel; Montecalvo sits on Pro Stock ‘pole’ for first time in years
 
No one has navigated the lanes at famed Rockingham Dragway more times than Rickie Smith.

A seven-time IHRA world champion and multi-time winner at one of the
oldest and most prestigious tracks in all of drag racing, Smith is
usually considered a shoe-in when making passes at “The Rock.”

Saturday night, that history meant nothing.

Pairings are set for Sunday’s eliminations at Memphis Motorsports
Park.  This event is the second of six in South Central division
competition, where racers are striving to add valuable points in hopes
of division and national championships. Categories contested include
Comp Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas,
Super Street, as well as the division’s Sunset RaceCraft Top Sportsman
Series, TCI Comp Cams Top Dragster Series and NHRA Sportsman Motorcycle
Series presented by Harley Davidson will also be run in conjunction
with the event.

Joey Tanksley of Greenwell Springs, La., pieced together a nice run
placing him at the top of the Comp Eliminator field.  Shane Gray,
Artesia, N.M., who won the division’s opening event at Texas Motorplex,
sits back in the No.8 slot going into eliminations.  In the Super Stock
field, Lloyd Wofford from Jonesboro, Ark., powered his '78 Volare to
the No.1 qualifying position. Stuttgart, Ark., resident Dean Oliver
rose to the top of Stock Eliminator field.

Qualifying is complete at S.R.C.A. Dragstrip with pairings set for
Sunday’s eliminations.  This is the first of six events set for the
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series West Central Division.  Top qualifiers
included Brandon Lewis of Broken Arrow, Okla., in Top Alcohol Dragster
and Roger Bateman, Calgary, Manit., in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Lewis grabbed the top spot by posting a 5.487 second, 255.77 mph pass,
placing him more than a second ahead of the competitive field. Justin
Davis from Murrieta, Calif., sits in the No.2 qualifying position
heading into eliminations.  In Top Alcohol Funny Car, Roger Bateman
will start Sunday off with a first round bye. His best pass of 5.720
seconds placed him in the lead of the seven car field.

Bruno Massel, Woodbridge, Ill., claimed the No.1 Comp Eliminator spot
in his ’08 Cobalt. Last year’s reining event champ, Lou Ficco,
Wheatridge, Colo., sits in the No.3 spot going into eliminations. Larry
Schmidt out of Grand Island, Neb., drove his ’55 Bel Air to the top
spot in Super Stock with Zimmerman, Minn., resident James Findell,
piecing together the best run in Stock.

Jack Beckman crashed Friday evening during a nostalgia Funny Car match
race at Sacramento Raceway according to a report on NHRA.com.

At first glimpse his ride may look like a vehicle straight from Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds but that’s not about to deter Pro Modified racer Harold Martin in his quest to make his Martin M-4 a viable Pro Modified race car.

“The car’s progression is coming along well,” Martin said. “The
publicity in the early stages actually caused a problem in that racers
and fans flock to the car. There’s a part of me that will be glad when
the newness wears off so we can get down to racing and figure this
thing out.”

Martin is currently qualified 15th provisionally in the Pro Modified field at the IHRA Spring Nationals in Rockingham, N.C.

Of the obstacles Martin, the former General Motors engineer, has faced
in the past few weeks learning the nuances of the chassis has proven
the toughest challenge.

Bruce Litton straps in his Top Fuel car and he’ll be the first to admit the correspondences between he and tuner Richard Hartman are on a need to know basis.

As Litton describes it, the only thing he needs to know is to keep the
car in the groove. He did just that during the first qualifying session
at the 38th annual IHRA Spring Nationals in Rockingham, N.C., running 
to the provisional No. 1 Top Fuel qualifying position with a 4.721
elapsed time at 290.32 miles per hour.

Rockingham Dragway has Rickie Smith’s number. He has its number, too.

Nearly
thirty years ago, Smith, then a budding mountain motor Pro Stock star
in the IHRA became the first driver to record a seven second run.
Friday night he ran a five second pass on the second stop of the IHRA
tour.

The seven-time IHRA Pro Stock world champion from King, N.C., was the
class of the Pro Modified field at the IHRA Springnationals as he was the first and only
doorslammer driver to dip into the five second zone with a 5.962
elapsed time at 234.37 miles per hour.

In addition to her busy college schedule at Cal State
Fullerton and her blossoming race career behind the wheel of the Sanyo
Supercharged HD Top Alcohol Dragster, Courtney Force has now added
“Agent” for the Fiesta Movement to her expanding resume. As part of the
social media program to launch the Ford Fiesta in the U.S. Ford Motor
Company selected 100 individuals or “Agents” who have extensive social
media networks to drive the Ford Fiesta then talk, blog, photograph,
video, and generally expound upon their experiences across the world
wide web.

The most prestigious Sportsman race in the world will celebrate its
25th anniversary this year on the weekend of June 5-7 when the invitation-only JEGS Allstars race returns to Chicago's Route 66 Raceway.
 
The prestigious JEGS Allstars race features the top points earners from
the NHRA's seven geographic divisions competing against each other for
big money and divisional bragging rights. Although the fields haven't
been set for this year's race as competitors in Top Alcohol Dragster,
Top Alcohol Funny Car, Comp, Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas,
and Super Street continue to earn points towards inclusion, organizers
at JEGS High Performance are making sure the 25th anniversary will be
one to remember.

Marc Kinton, an IHRA official and avid CompetitionPlus.com reader, was injured recently at a divisional event. According to the IHRA, Kinton was struck in the face by an errant part from a support vehicle.

Keep up with Marc's situation on CARE PAGES . 

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