War Breaks Out At The Old Dominion Fun Ford Weekend In Richmond, Virginia.
Todd Amandus of Orlando was working out the bugs in his new BFGoodrich Drag Radial ride. He went out in the first round to Phil Clemmons of Sandston, Virginia.
Round 5 of the 2006 Fun Ford Weekend racing series descended upon the serene countryside of Richmond, Virginia, attacking the track with tire-smoking 1,000-plus horsepower machines, and the local roads with street-legal muscle.
Saturday's activities got off to an early start with the make-up finals for the O'Reilly Cajun Nationals (from Belle Rose, Louisiana). Mark Anderson, Don Justus, Jim D'Amore, and Sheldon Lewis were victorious in the Street Stang, Tough Truck, Ultra Stang, and Modcomp classes, respectively.
As always, a strong, 56-car Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords True Street contingent came out and Tremec Transmissions was on hand to pass out free hats at the drivers' meeting. The street-legal war in True Street was fierce, with several 10-second players vying for the top spot. Stephen Posenau brought home the money with a winning average of 10.34 seconds.
David Schorr of Independence, North Carolina, continued building his lead in Probe Pro, piloting his '04 Kaase-powered big-block Escort to the win. It was a close race with Rainbow City, Alabama's Jason Collins who, along with Schorr, broke traction and pedaled the car to the finish line but wasn't able to put the power down soon enough.
While True Street kicked up the street/strip action, there were other battles contested. Some racers suffered the usual minor breakage on the strip, but in one unfortunate incident, an '05 Mustang GT banged the wall (see photo) hard. In another case, James Black, whose Street Renegade ride started out of the groove, see-sawed back and forth until it finally crunched the barrier about 1,000 feet out.
Come Sunday, a bleak weather outlook kept some of the fans away, but the hot side-by-side racing wasn't to be missed, especially in the Drag Radial, Street Outlaw, and Pro finals, where the drivers fought for traction most of the way down the track. The one who could get the power to the ground the fastest and the longest took the win.
We could ramble on for hours about the happenings, but we'd rather show you, so flip the pages and dig into our pictorial from Richmond. We'll see you at the next FFW event.
Frank Snellings of Fred, Virginia used the 800-cube motor in his '02 Cougar to take him to the number-one qualifying spot in Pro, but was off the pace in Round 2 against the eventual winner. | 
Columbus, Georgia's Erica Ortiz was in Virginia making her Pro license passes in her '86 Ford Thunderbird entry. Thanks to its Parker Chassis modifications, the 'Bird drove straight and true to several low seven-second passes. |  |
Radford, Virginia's Jared Brunner had his work cut out for him in ProCharger Street Outlaw with Dennis Lugo running 5 mph faster than him through the traps. Brunner was able to make the most of his turbo-charged 430ci powerplant and took the number-one qualifying status with a 7.25 to Lugo's 7.35. Brunner was escorted to the final round after Terris Hicks redlit, where he took the win over Logonville, Georgia's Brad Brand who suffered tire shake. | 
The black big-block coupe of Brad Brand (say that three times fast) defeated Dennis Lugo in Round 1 of Street Outlaw, but fell to winner Jared Brunner in the final. Once Brand gets all of the power from his 700-plus-cubic-inch, twin-turbocharged monster to the ground, he might just give the Pro cars a run for their money. | 
Ouch. Some poor soul stayed in it too long during Friday's time trials, and the result wasn't pretty. |