NORWALK — Bill Yates, Sr. of Johnstown drove his ‘04 Spitzer-chassis dragster to victory in both rounds of the Competition Eliminator Class in the 2008 Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Norwalk’s Summit Motorsports Park on Friday.
Yates and his 473 Chevy engine proved too much for Lonnie Johnson of Ettrick, Va., and Tom Schmidt of Lindstrom, Mass., as the track temperature soared past 110 degrees.
“Actually, we qualified pretty decently — 17th in our class in a field of 32. Basically, I run a Pro Stock engine that is detuned to fit this class.”
Yates moves on to the next round today.
In Super Gas action, former Mount Vernon resident Travis Mazza of Washington, D.C. also came out on top in both rounds of elimination on Friday.
Mazza, driving a ‘76 Vega with a Chevy 434 motor, easily defeated Alan Kenny of Kingston, Ontario in round two.
“The car was dialed and I was very quick on the reaction time,” said Mazza. “My opponent, unfortunately, went red, so we got through both rounds and we are looking forward to (today).”
Winning in a car that was owned by his late father was especially satisfying for Mazza.
“Our family has been racing this car for 20 years,” said Mazza. “They had it repainted with, ‘In Memory of Mike Mazza (Sr.),’ so he is with me. I have his lucky horseshoe in the car with me. Last year, we finished No. 7 in Division III in the final point standings and my dad would be very proud.”
In case you were wondering, the horseshoe points straight ahead as Mazza goes down the track.
Unfortunately, Friday proved way too short for many disappointed local area racers, who took on the quarter mile track in hopes of making a good showing.
Larry Wolford of Howard lost in the first round of Super Gasto Ray Sawyer from Acton, Mass.
“I was up against a world champion,” said Wolford. “He’s a good racer, so if you are going to get beat by somebody, that’s the one to get beat by.”
It has been tough going for Wolford, whose ‘67 Camaro had not been running well this week.
“We’re having problems dialing in,” said Wolford. “I ran 82 on a 90 which broke out quite a ways and I ended up getting beat in the first round.”
It was a tough day for Fredericktown’s Rod Zolman in his ‘61 Falcon with a Ford 460 engine, who also lost in the opening round of Super Gas.
“I was a little slow on the light,” said Zolman, who lost to Michael Iaconno of Wading River, N.Y., “and he (Iaconno) beat me off the line.”
Amanda Johnson, also of Fredericktown, lost in the first round of Super Comp in her ‘02 Undercover Dragster with a Chrysler 520 motor. As for Mike Robliotto of Albany, N.Y., who defeated her. “He just plain outran me,” said Johnson.
Bill Webb of Centerburg, driving an ‘07 Racetech dragster with a Chevy 565 engine, lost a close one to Bill Kamplain of Brownsburg, Ind., in the Super Comp division.
“I lost a breakout race by two-thousandths of a second,” said Webb. “It was a good race. We just came out on the wrong end. You’ve got to be a little lucky — especially in the first couple of runs.”
Linn Bebout, Jr. also lost his first round Super Gas matchup in a ‘69 Olds that he and his father have been racing for 20 years. Bebout, in his eighth race since returning from a serious automobile accident in 2007, knows that he is lucky to even be alive — let alone racing.
“The doctors said the I would be lucky to walk again, let alone drive,” said Bebout who was hospitalized for weeks.
“We lost the first round by one-hundreth of a second,” said Bebout. “It was a real good race. We just needed a little more luck.”
The heavy rains the night before and the high humidity played havoc with cars and drivers alike.
“Humidity effects alcohol fuel quite a bit,” said Wolford. “We were pretty close to yesterday’s run, but we just couldn’t get it set up the way we wanted to. Humidity doesn’t effect it a whole bunch if you got it dialed right.”
“The humidity does slow it down a bit,” said Bebout. “It ran about the same as yesterday, but it was slower than normal because of the temperature and humidity.”
Some cars are more vulnerable to the weather than others.
“My car is naturally aspirated,” said Mazza. “There is a single carburetor underneath the hood. Humidity effects them big time. Degrees and humidity slows these cars down by one one-hundreth of a second and, in this game, you can lose by thousandths of a second. It’s very critical to pay attention to humidity.
“It’s real tough,” said Yates, who also has a single carburetor. “Sometimes the tires shake violently off the starting line, but the track has been great. They do a good job of taking care of the track. If more facilities were like this one, we’d be in Heaven.”
Drivers like Mazza and Yates have weather stations built into their trailers to track any changes. Mazza gets paged on a mobile pager when the humidity rises or drops suddenly.
“That allows me to make any last minute changes to the vehicle stop device,” said Mazza.
Along with the weather, Wolford was also dealing with mechanical issues.
“We’ve got a small problem with a torque converter,” said Wolford.” We’re probably going to have to take it out and change it.”
An early round loss does not mean the day is over. After all, it is the Nationals. For some, it is a chance to go from being a racer to being a fan. For others, it is a chance to spend an afternoon with family and friends.
“We had to battle the weather last night,” said Wolford, “but today, the weather is clearing up and we can enjoy the day.”
“It’s nice to get to see the pros run once a year,” said Bebout, “but we would have liked to have done better.”
“I’ll enjoy it here today, said Webb, “but I’ll probably go some place where I can race (today).”
For Mount Vernon’s Kevin Clinedinst, who threw a rod on Thursday in a car owned by Pacemaker’s Dragway Park operator Mike Fouts, it was a chance to enjoy the racing and promote Mount Vernon’s local drag strip.
“He (Fouts) knows what’s going on,” said Clinedinst, who parked Fouts’ red Chevelle, emblazoned with Pacemaker’s insignia on the side, where it can attract the most stares and and cell phone cameras. “We have been in touch with him, but he likes the fact that his car is out here.”
