|
|
Fun Ford Weekend - Horsepower on the HillsideFun Ford Weekend Visits Thunder Valley From the January, 2007 issue of Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords By Steve Baur Photography by Steve Baur
|
|
There's no doubt that the laps one gets to make in the Bristol Motor Speedway are driving lots of people to the Fun Ford O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee. Those entering the Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords/Tremec True Street class were given a treat in 2005 by lapping the half-mile NASCAR track prior to turning elapsed times on the 1,320, and the event was repeated in 2006 for the 68-car field. A favorite to win, frequent True Street racer and winner Nick Yarber went out before he could complete his three runs due to a broken rearend. With Yarber's usual low eight-second passes being absent, the title was wide open for his cousin Baron, along with a host of new contenders all vying to take home the first prize. The hot True Street racers fought for track time with the quick heads-up and tight bracket-racing contingents, and the combination made for a great show at Fun Ford's 15th annual visit to Thunder Valley. Despite the roving density altitude that hovered around 4,000 feet, many cars were running stout numbers, including John Gullet (6.50s all weekend long), Tim Lynch (6.97 at 213), and Erica Ortiz, who posted a career best of 6.85 at 207 mph in her Probe Pro class Thunderbird. With a great facility and beautiful scenery, the race at Bristol is a great event to catch and one you should mark on your calendar whether you plan to race or watch. Check out the captions to see why.  Winner Danny Pennington piloted...  Winner Danny Pennington piloted his notchback to the low-11-second win in True Street with an 11.04, an 11.06, and an 11.01.  Winner D.J. Worley grabbed...  Winner D.J. Worley grabbed the low-15-second award with his Roush/Mach 1 Mustang.  Winner Mark Whitted drove...  Winner Mark Whitted drove the wheels off his Windveil Blue Stang to arrive at the low-14-second winner's circle.  Winner Hailing from Elliston,...  Winner Hailing from Elliston, Virginia, Matt Scott entered his very first True Street behind the wheel of a formidable car. His '03 Cobra features exhaust, pulley, gear and ECM upgrades. A set of sticky Hoosier tires, straight from eBay, got him down the track in fine fashion while taking the low-13-second win.  Winner Coming off a win in...  Winner Coming off a win in True Street in Richmond, Maryland's Jeff Edwards nabbed another low-12-second prize in Bristol behind the wheel of his 347ci, Paxton-blown Mustang GT.  Think you've got the fastest...  Think you've got the fastest car in True Street? You'd better be packing some serious horsepower.  Winner Tracy Silver slid...  Winner Tracy Silver slid into the low-10-second spot after Saturday's True Street competition came to a close.  Having plugged away in the...  Having plugged away in the True Street ranks for seven years now, Jacky McCarty of Nickelsville, Virginia, finally has the power to take him to the top of the True Street heap. His '91 GT features a Scott Vastel-built 442ci engine with Yates NASCAR heads and a 250hp shot of nitrous courtesy of NOS. McCarty's 9.50 average was half a tenth short of the top seat this time, however.  Winner The Muscle Mustangs...  Winner The Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Editor's Choice award went to the True Street winner, Richard Markland of Elizabethtown, Tennessee. Markland's LX uses a fuel-injected 408ci Windsor for motivation with an NOS single-stage nitrous oxide system to really wake it up. The '87 Stang ran a 9.46, a 9.45, and a 9.47 to squeak past Jacky McCarty for the win.  Winner Tom Conrad Jr. has...  Winner Tom Conrad Jr. has been racking up numerous wins in many Fun Ford classes. Here in the Superchips Street Stang final, he broke out against Powell, Tennessee, resident Nick Lucas.  Winner Since changing the...  Winner Since changing the class to include four- and six-cylinder engines, Fun Ford has been getting all kinds of interesting entries into Bama Chips Four-Six Frenzy. Chris Parisi of Jacksonville, Florida, took the win with his V-6-powered F-150 when Joshua Wells tripped the red light in the final round.  Winner Bob Cochran's 429ci-powered...  Winner Bob Cochran's 429ci-powered '48 pickup certainly stands out in JDM Engineering Tough Truck. Maybe that's what caught Kenny Carr off guard when he lined up against Cochran in the final. Cochran took the win thanks to a better reaction time.  Winner Mod Motor champ Robert...  Winner Mod Motor champ Robert Hindman (left) has been at the helm of his modular-powered '87 Mustang GT this year, and secured the SHM ModComp win after going five rounds in the 41-car field to defeat the '74 Mustang II of John Pickering.  Winner Known for using rental...  Winner Known for using rental cars to compete at Fun Ford events across the country, S.D. Wheeler of Crosby, Texas, cracked the wallet wide open and sprung for a Hertz Shelby GT-H Pony in Bristol. The rental evidently liked being raced as S.D. went three rounds in Ford Racing Ultra Stang, defeating Tom Conrad Jr. in the finals for the win.  Winner Former Street Warrior...  Winner Former Street Warrior champion Jeremy Martorella had the UPR Cobra back in Borla S/W action, taking the number-one qualifier spot from John Scaro. Scaro took out Kenny Gallman in Round 1, while Martorella enjoyed the bye run. In the final, Scaro was quicker off the bulb, but the Glidden-powered UPR machine edged past him for the win.  Winner Ripley, Mississippi's...  Winner Ripley, Mississippi's Tony Atkins was low man on the qualifying ladder in BFGoodrich Drag Radial, and the turbocharged 358ci engine in his '03 Cobra-bodied hot rod took him past Jamie Sarver in Round 1 and pushed past points leader Hale Camerman in the final for the win.  Current FFW Drag Radial points...  Current FFW Drag Radial points leader Hale Camerman qualified his '02 turbocharged Mustang in the top spot with an 8.06 at 177 mph, but came up short in his race to the stripe in the final round.  Winner Dan Bott Jr. was amped...  Winner Dan Bott Jr. was amped up in Bristol, as the miniscule CFE Racing Street Bandit class featured him and one other contestant. Bott qualified number one with a 9.00 elapsed time and had Abbeville, South Carolina's Greg Beauford covered in the final by nearly a second.  Down on cubes compared to...  Down on cubes compared to his Street Bandit com-petitor, Greg Beauford of Abbeville, South Carolina, stood his '86 GT on its back wheels, but a late reaction time and the lack of Bott-bashing horsepower relegated him to runner-up status.  Winner With a nitrous-fed...  Winner With a nitrous-fed '00 Mustang GT that runs 7.80s on command, there isn't much that can keep Ronnie Wilson from taking the Precision Turbo Street Rene-gade championship this year. He extended his sizeable points lead with a win over Leesville, South Carolina's James Black.  Gina Gorman picked up Demo...  Gina Gorman picked up Demo Kourtsis and Adam Louramore's championship-winning Drag Radial ride, changed the flames to a metallic raspberry, and bolted on a set of slicks to compete in Street Renegade. Gorman qualified Third with an 8.42, drove past Scotrod Pennington in Round 1, but was defeated by eventual winner Ronnie Wilson.  When fans see Tim Lynch's...  When fans see Tim Lynch's shredded Street Outlaw Mustang roll into the burnout box, they fully expect 6-second elapsed times from the twin-turbo machine. Lynch had been busy swapping out the 400-plus cubic-inch small-block for a 598-cube big-block, and itsfirst pass off the trailer was a low-7 second effort, followed by a 6.97 at 213-mph, number-one nabbing run. Unfortunately, the car wouldn't start after the burnout in Round 2, allowing Jared Brunner to advance. We're expecting far more performance from this new motor once the team has it sorted out.  Winner The '05 ProCharger...  Winner The '05 ProCharger Street Outlaw champion, Bill Glidden, was back in action in Bristol, qualifying Second with a 7.18. Glidden's small-block, nitrous-fed GT moved past the twin-turbo big-block coupe of Brad Brand on a holeshot in Round 1, and he took out an off-the-pace James Keen in the second round. In the final, Jared Brunner of Radford, Virginia, was the first racer of the weekend to cut the Tree on Glidden, but problems downtrack led to the little black nitrous car passing for the win.  Orange park, Florida's John...  Orange park, Florida's John Gullet had his 420ci Moody-powered, twin-turbo Mustang set on kill, knocking down 6.56, 6.57, and 6.55 elapsed times with relative ease. The 6.55 set him as number-one qualifier and gave him the bye run in the first round. Gullet stood on the loud pedal and charged to a 6.53, but things fell apart in the second round, when David Schorr's big-block-powered '04 Escort left the line first and took the stripe in the same manner.  Winner Grain Valley, Missouri,...  Winner Grain Valley, Missouri, resident David Schorr uses 815 ci of naturally aspirated power to get the job done in the Probe Pro ranks. Good reaction times and consistent performances have put him well ahead of his fellow competitors, and a victory over Chuck Samuel in the Probe Pro final round increased his points lead.
|
|
|