Keep up with this weekend’s Orlando World Street Nationals by reading our event notebook. We bring you the stories behind the numbers and win-lights throughout the course of the weekend. Tune in daily for the latest news from the pits.
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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK –
SUPER PRO STREET
BAPTISTA BY FIRE — Tim Baptista blew the door off of his ’67 Camaro — literally — in the unscheduled fifth round of qualifying Saturday evening. Doug Horween had been in the other lane, but he discovered some sort of problem that caused his crew to push the car off the starting line. So he wasn’t in any danger of the flying door hitting him or his ’94 Chevy Lumina. Randy Weisinger, general manager of the racetrack, rode down the left lane on a scooter and retrieved the door for Baptista. The truly frustrating part of the whole fifth-session exercise for Baptista, who hauled his car to Orlando from Massachusetts and was bumped from the field in the “bonus” session. He was 30th at the end of four sessions and sat on the bubble at 32nd even after his calamitous run. But by the time the rest of the racers took their turns, he wound up 33rd, seven hundredths of a second too slow for the show. Horween was able to come back a few minutes later and slipped to 15th.
GONE (DOWNTRACK) AND VERGOTZEN — John Vergotz improved from fourth to third to second Saturday, using a 6.398-second run in the bonus qualifying session to bump Chris Rini to third.
UP-AND-DOWN TIME FOR HILL — Winning this prestigious race guarantees a driver nothing the following year. Mike Hill found that out this weekend. He defeated Vinny Budano in the Super Pro Street final last October, but in this visit to Orlando Speed World Dragway, he had a roller-coaster ride in his effort simply to make the field. He didn’t make a pass in the opening session, and was a precarious 29th after his Friday evening debut. Bumped out the show, down to No. 37, after three sessions, Hill leaped 30 spots in the order to seventh place. The fifth session didn’t hurt him, for he stayed seventh with a 6.483-second elapsed time at 205.04 mph in his ’07 Pontiac GTO.
OUTLAW 10.5
‘KING TUTT’ IS ULSCH’S ACE — Pro Modified ace Todd Tutterow didn’t sit around, admiring the National Guard ADRL Pro Extreme championship belt he won the previous weekend at the Texas Motorplex at Ennis, Texas. He has been busy helping Chuck Ulsch grab the Outlaw 10.5 top-qualifier honors from the Gil Mobley Motorsports headliner’s archrival, Tim Lynch. Even while sorting out an entirely new engine combo in his ’02 Camaro, Ulsch — with advice from Tutterow — took the No. 1 position in Friday’s evening session and held onto it through three more. Ulsch leads the field with his Friday-night 6.450-second pass. Lynch’s consolation is that he’s qualified second and his 232.31mph is top speed of the meet. S for the second straight year, Ulsch and Lynch started eliminations as the Nos. 1 and 2 drivers. It’s another feather in the cap this year for Tutterow, who shared the winners circle with 14-year-old Junior Dragster-driving son Ty at the St. Louis ADRL race this summer. Ty Tutterow might have been helping his dad this weekend, but he was busy with a Junior Dragster Shootout at Farmington, N.C.
DRAG RADIAL
START SPREADING THE NEWS — Before the fourth session — which he figured would be his last chance to put his New York Motorsports ’93 Mustang at the top of the heap — Dave Hance predicted he would rip off a 7.35-second elapsed time in the neighborhood of 213 mph. He didn’t pull that off, recording a 7.768 / 167.91, but did elevate himself from 12th to seventh. Then after learning he would get a third opportunity to run Saturday — and in cooler conditions — Hance reeled off a 7.436-second performance with a 201.13-mph speed to replace Mel Nelson as the class leader. Not bad for the man who keeps his own ego in check by referring to himself as “the lead sweeper.” He actually does sweep the shop floor at his Long Island business every day. But the dubious title came years ago from an elderly gentleman who kidded him when he was doing menial labor by “complimenting” him with a promotion to “lead sweeper.” Hance’s blast also was a sweet tune-up for his own race, The Shakedown at E-Town. The Shakedown, which he established and is promoting for the seventh year, will run this coming weekend at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at Englishtown, N.J., after being postponed because of a winter-like storm. Perhaps ironically, this Mustang that took Hance to the top qualifying spot Saturday is the same one he debuted — and crashed — at last year’s Shakedown. He then rebuilt it and drove it to three straight victories, breaking the six-second barrier in the process (a 6.93 at Bradenton, Fla.). Sunday’s eliminations, he said, promise to be a tuning war, whereas his Shakedown, because of the later timing, is shaping up to be a horsepower shootout.
FULL NELSON — Mel Nelson swiped the No. 1 qualifying position in the Drag Radial class in Saturday’s second session. His 7.486-second pass at 201.04 mph came with some tuning help from Bill Futch, last year’s Outlaw 10.5 winner here. He supplanted Alex Vrettos, who still owns the class’ top speed at 213.91 mph.
HEAVY STREET
GOTTIER: GOTCHA! —Sam Gottier’s 7.148-second blast in Saturday’s first session in his ’71 Chevelle didn’t set an event record. However, it was good enough to put the Canterbury, Conn., driver at the top of the order. In leaping past Gary Naughton, of Pipersville, Pa., Gottier gained some extra confidence, knowing he can run that kind of a number in the heat of the day. The sunshine, missing for most of Friday’s activity, appeared Saturday and gave all racers a peek at the forecast for Sunday’s eliminations. However, Naughton used the extra qualifying session to pull the “Gotcha!” on Gottier, blazing to a 7.092-second elapsed time at 204.66 mph.
EXTREME IMPORT
AMBUSH BY ALEX — Heriberto Santiago had enjoyed a comfortable lead through four qualifying sessions, improving both his elapsed time and speed along the way. But Alex Dieguez, who jumped into the mix late and was lurking in third place, rocked him from his comfort zone with a dash of 7.161 seconds at 193.27 mph to take over the top spot Saturday night.
MISCELLANEOUS
HANGING IN THERE — All business executives today are trying to combat the economic woes and find creative ways to maintain clients and maybe even gain a few. Naturally, World Street Nationals promoter Carl Weisinger and track GM son Randy Weisinger had been a bit anxious about the crowd and car count for this 17th edition of this event. With a Friday audience that Randy Weisinger said was encouraging and full grandstands Saturday, they didn’t appear to suffer too much at the gate. And the final car count for all four classes was a total of 161, certainly respectable in this economic climate.
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – NOTES FROM THE EARLY SESSIONS
HEAVY STREET
NAUGHTON DOMINATES — Gary Naughton (Pipersville, Pa.), shop foreman at K&K Adavnced Door Car Technology Enterprises, was head and shoulders above the rest of the 37-car Heavy Street field in the first Friday session. His closest competitors gained some ground on him, but Naughton was unchallenged in the night session.
With a 7.211-second run at 206.07 mph, he was more than three-tenths quicker than No. 2 Sam Gottier, of Canterbury, Conn. No. 3 Jeff Lutz, at 187 mph, had the second-best speed but was nearly 19 mph off Naughton’s pace. Gottier improved from a 7.530 to a 7.266 in keeping his No. 2 spot.
BURN, BABY, BURN — Eddie Miller didn’t qualify in the top 10, but he might have won a prize for the coolest-looking burnouts. Public-address announcer Patrick Budd called Miller “he of the look-at-me burnouts.”
FIELDS FULL OR NEARLY FULL — Heavy Street, with 39 racers making passes Friday, and the popular Super Pro Street carding 43, are the two classes that have no problem filling their 32-car fields. Outlaw 10.5 has two more open slots Saturday, and Drag Radial was one competitor short of a full field.
DRAG RADIAL
SMART ALEX — Alex Vrettos, of Springfield, N.J., one of the first radial-tire drivers to run in the six-second bracket this year, blistered the Speed World Dragway quarter-mile in the first session with a 7.548-second blast at 206.39 mph. Only three Drag Radial competitors cracked the seven-second barrier — Vrettos, Walt Drakeford, and Steve Turley. No. 6 Ev Bernardo, in a ’96 Mustang, was the only other driver to surpass 200 mph (at 203.74) in the first session. Vrettos established the class’ top speed of the meet so far in his night run, clocking a 213.91 mph. Turley, who settled fourth overnight, and Buck Walker, who’s fifth for now, also has seven-second runs. Bernardo leapfrogged Drakeford for the No. 2 spot with two more chances remaining before Sunday’s eliminations.
REYNOLDS RAP — Dave Reynolds, of Lake Mary, Fla., halted action in the first Drag Radial qualifying session, crashing his Chevy S-10 pickup. Reynolds was racing in the right lane but got loose, perhaps into some sort of liquid on the surface. His truck shot across both lanes, perpendicular to the wall, but swung the back end around in time for it to make contact with the wall first. He was uninjured.
SUPER PRO STREET
RAGIN’ RABON — Coby Rabon’s 6.269-second class-leading elapsed time beat his closest competition — Doug Horween, of Loxahatchee, Fla. — by a whopping five-tenths of a second in the first qualifying session. Rabon’s speed (235.31 mph) was 30 mph faster than Horween’s 205.54. The two were the only Super Pro Street drivers to top 200 mph in the first session — although 11 did so once the track became a little more broken in. Only four in the class, including John Vergotz (Erie, Pa.) and Lance Styk (Americus, Ga.), were in the six-second range in the first go-around. Eight others joined them for the distinction in Q2 — Craig Miller, Chris Rini, Steve King, Jimmy Marino, Tony Williams, John Hall, Jose Norel, and Sean Carpenter. It looks like Rabon likely will have a brighter finish to his season, coming back strong from a May testing accident at Atlanta.
DEWEY HAVE TO START THIS WAY? — In one of the early pairings of the day, Super Pro Street racer Dewey Pedrick crashed his ’63 Corvette into the left retaining wall but appeared to be unhurt. The NHRA Division 2 Top Sportsman driver from Light House Point, Fla., started getting sideways in the left lane at about 800 feet downtrack. Something let go in the engine, splattering fluid on the tires. The car nosed into the wall, sending parts and pieces flying. Pedrick, 61, got out of the car on his own and sent word back to the tower that he was all right. Racing resumed one hour, 11 minutes later.
QUICK SHOTS — While Super Pro Street’s John Hall grabbed the attention, lurching hard to the right at the hit of the throttle, Doug Horween took his ’94 Chevy Lumina down the right lane to the No. 1 spot with a 6.763-second pass at 205.54 mph in the opening session. That lasted for about three pairings, until Ridgeland, S.C.’s Coby Rabon, with some help from Steve Petty, vaulted to the top with a stunning 6.269 / 235.31.
BIGGEST LOSER — John Vergotz lost 75 pounds to make his Jerry Bickel-built A-1 Automotive ’68 Camaro run quicker. And it paid off, as the Erie, Pa., driver finished the first session in third place among the 30 entrants with a 6.841-second elapsed time at 173.09 mph. He stayed third through half of qualifying, despite improving both his time and speed to 6.451 / 217.04.
LARGE LEAP — Craig Miller, of Savannah, Ga., catapulted himself nine spots in the lineup, from ninth to second, with his evening run of 6.437 seconds at 217.60 mph in his ’02 Pontiac Grand Am. By contrast, Doug Horween, who had been second after one session, dropped to seventh by the time he came to the line for his second qualifying attempt. And that’s where he stayed overnight.
SPECTACULAR DEBUT — North Carolinian Jason Harris didn’t make a qualifying attempt in the first go for the Super Pro Street class. When he brought out his Camaro, he crossed over into the left lane and plowed into the wall. He was not hurt. He was able to deploy the parachute as he headed for the wall, lessening the blow somewhat but not enough to save his car. The clean-up took about 40 minutes.
OUTLAW 10.5
UN-ULSCH-ISH, AT FIRST — Chuck Ulsch saved the best for last Friday, capturing the No. 1 position in the Mickey Thompson Outlaw 10.5 division with a 6.450-second, 224.62-mph feat in the nighttime session.
Ulsch turned Orlando Speed World Dragway into his own amusement park last October, taking the No. 1 qualifying position with a with a 6.555-second E.T. in his ’02 Camaro that was three-tenths quicker than the event’s previous record. He lost to Bill Futch in the final. But Futch, in a show of respect and sportsmanship, split his $10,000 winnings with Ulsch. That put an extra $3,500 in Ulsch’s pocket.
“In the final, we were both capable of running faster than we did. We both stepped our programs up, and we both spun our tires. He had the faster car and lost. It could’ve gone either way. I try to do the right thing,” Futch said. “We’re too good of friends not to split the money. It’s more for bragging rights.”
But things started out differently in this trip. Futch wasn’t part of the competition Friday. He’s tuning Mel Nelson’s Drag Radial car. And Ulsch couldn’t rekindle the mojo from a year ago in the opening session. In an un-Ulsch-like performance, the Maryland-based Gil Mobley Motorsports “Militia” headliner wound up 20th among the 23 Outlaw 10.5 racers.
EXTREME IMPORT
IMPORT ‘KIDS’ ON SCENE — In an effort to reach out to the Fast-and-Furious generation, track operator and World Street Nationals architect Carl Weisinger invited eight drivers from Maryland to Texas to participate in a new class called Extreme Import. Only five of the eight had gone through tech inspection by Friday’s first session, and only four of them made passes in the opening opportunity. Herbierto Santiago, of Haines City, Fla., driving a ’90 Mazda RX7, set the class’ low elapsed time (7.222 seconds) and top speed (190.27 mph). The field grew to six in the evening session, but Santiago’s time and speed held up as best.
FRIDAY – WISE WEISINGER STILL PACKING ‘EM IN AT ORLANDO
drag-racing crowd was in town.
“I never asked ’em,” he said, as though the thought were a truly novel idea. “It’s always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
In the fall of 2004, three hurricanes raked across his facility in six weeks, and a foolhardy local TV camera crew clocked winds at more than 100 miles an hour huffing and puffing against his three-story cinder-block tower. Aside from an adios to sponsor signs atop his scoreboards, a few leveled fences, and a giant pile of splinters that used to be trees, Weisinger and his Orlando Speed World Dragway did more than survive.
They tidied up and got ready for company, folks who brought along their Willys coupes, their ’54 Studebakers, their ’72 Hurst Olds, their ’67 Camaros and Novas and Mustangs, their ’71 Hemi Barracudas, their Biscaynes, Bel-Airs, Chevy IIs, Chevelles, Cobras, Fairlanes, Firebirds, Grand Ams, Trans Ams, Malibus, Mark 7s, Mercurys, Monte Carlos, S-10s, Vegas, ‘Vettes, Vipers, and Z-28s. And they put on The Show, the Southeast mecca for street-legal outlaw racing.
But he explained his modest racetrack by saying, “It’s kind of like you didn’t know a guy was a drunk until you saw him sober. Well, if you never saw this place before today, you have no idea what it was like.” He remembers inheriting in 1987 a place where the restroom roofs were such that “you could look at the stars while you went.”
He moved fluidly among the crowd that had gathered near the fence at the starting line. “It’s just like football,” Ralph said of his decidedly Southeastern practice that’s as common as tailgating. “We’re just havin’ some fun. Got to take a chance.” The lone woman in on the game had a funnel-shaped bun plastered to her head and a fistful of twenties. “Whatcha got?” “Inside lane!” “I got the blue car!” “Shiiiiii — I don’ want’ no blue car. I take the white one.” “You break a hunnert?” The banter flies back and forth. One sturdy, straight-from-Stark dude with a goatee looked as if he could’ve been from either side of the bars at the state prison there. But he was discriminating in who he’d take on, and he waved off several offers for the outside lane. Even if a driver makes a solo pass, the Big Boy makes a deal, “What’ll he do? Beat a 6.7? . . . Yessir — Woooo-hoo! Gimme my twenty!” He got twenty dollars, though it might easily have been twenty years if he had been busted.
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