2006 Fun Ford Weekend Topeka Racetrack - Heads-Up In The Heartland

The field of True Street cars may not have been the biggest of the year, but it likely was the most geographically diverse, with entries from Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, Iowa, California, and Texas.

Mike Scott and his brother, John, found a creative way to get the most out of a weekend of racing. They rented a small self-contained trailer, hooked it up to Mike's Lightning, and headed to Heartland Park for a weekend of racing fun. This '03 Lightning has Dynatech headers, a Bassani after-cat, a JLP cold-air kit, and a Dynojet Wide Band Power Commander for consistent 13-ohs on Nittos. Mike won the 13-second award, and his brother grabbed the 12-second award in his '04 Cobra-sounds like a memorable weekend.

Caleb Becker proved you don't need to have the fastest Stang in the Midwest to have a great time cruising around town with some of the Midwest's fastest cars. His stock 14-second '01 Mustang drop-top got the same money as the 10-, 11-, 12-, and 13-second winners.

Keith Duda pulled double duty on this weekend. He made the 30-mile cruise and the required three consecutive passes, and then he entered the car show on Sunday. His outrageous, chromed-out, Mondo-cooled, Vortech YS-Trim and nitrous-oxide-injected '93 Cobra pounded out 10-second passes in the Tremec True Street class.

Conrad Scarry has piloted this beautiful Seeger-family-owned '04 Mustang in the Street Outlaw class all season long in a neck-and-neck battle with Tim Lynch for the ProCharger Street Outlaw title. Scarry proved exactly how serious he was with a 7.02 qualifying pass to put him at the top of the ladder. The beautiful Cajun Pro Cars chassis is stuffed with 449 cubes of Proline power with twin Precision 88mm turbochargers. Scarry blew through Travis Franklin and Brian Carpenter to claim the Topeka title going into the season's final event in Dallas.

Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords/Tremec Transmissions True Street class winners: (top left to right) FFW official Jay Beason, Fastest & 10-second Mick Procovich, Runner-up Brent Hargadin, 11-second Steve Nichols, 12-second John Scott; (bottom left to right) 13-second Mike Scott, 14-second Caleb Becker, and Editor's Choice Keith Duda.

Dan Saitz ran a career-best 6.56 twice in qualifying using Kuntz & Co. power. The Saitz family is just playing for the remainder of the season with the Probe. They plan to drop the bomb on the competition when they introduce their new twin-turbo '06 Mustang. Saitz ousted Brad Waddle's recently acquired '94 Pro car with a 6.62 to face the newly crowned FFW Probe Industries Pro Champion, David Schorr. Although the holeshot went to Schorr, it wasn't enough to offset Saitz's 6.66 to 6.76 performance advantage. Saitz went on to take the Probe Industries Pro win over Chuck Samuel.

Safety is always a concern with racers, and the competitors don't have a problem with helping each other when it comes to making the cars a little safer. Brian Carpenter and Conrad Scarry's crew chief Jason Fields compare notes to stop Scarry's steed from veering towards the wall upon launch.

Chuck Samuel wheeled the Kevin Marsh Motor-sports, RV Lending Group-sponsored Escort ZX2 to a torrid sequence of 6.50, 6.46, 6.44, and 6.41 e.t.'s enroute to the class final. The big 220-mph trap times were indicative of their intention to collect the e.t. and mph record for the off-season. The sick sting of near-record elapsed times ended one round before the final, however, leaving Dan Saitz the Probe Industries Pro trophy.