Fords At Englishtown Event - North Atlantic Action Blue Oval Style

With the second generation Lightning trucks hitting the streets in force, its no wonder the Ford Truck class was such a success. A total of 35 entered (the class was open to any Ford truck), the quickest belonging to Sal Mennela, who ran 12.88 with his '99 Lightning.

By round four, notable racers including Staten Island, NY's Harvey Jones and our own Evan Smith had bowed out, leaving the door open to the rest of the field. Canton, Mich.'s Gordon McLachan advanced into the semifinals where he received a bye run, while Downs Ford's Joe Amato squared off in his daily-driven Lightning against Johnny Wiker Jr., AKA Johnny Lightning, in a '99 model. "Lightning" grabbed a quicker light and defeated Amato, which set up the all-Lightning final. Unfortunately, Mr. Lightning's day ended with a .477 red light, handing the much-deserved win to McLachan, who ran a 13.61 on a 13.55 dial in.

Fords At E-Town 2000 certainly brought with it some highs and lows. The weather was great on all three days and the Mustangs ran very, very fast. Hopefully in 2001 the rules structure will include more of the popular NMRA and FFW classes, but it will take the support of racers to make it happen. Englishtown is one of the few tracks that has hosted Mustang races since the start and we hope the tradition continues in '01 with more cars and more record ETs.