World Street Challenge - Friday Coverage

[Mark Keiser]

The weather is absolutely fantastic here is St Louis. The forecast is for it to stay that way all weekend. That will be welcome for the die hard racers that showed up yesterday. Rain and wind was about all that happened yesterday along with tech. Right now the pits are still filling up and tech is getting busy. First round of cars through on the test and tune had trouble getting past 100 feet with out spinning. After more track prep they are ready to run more cars.



Staging lanes are filling up with cars for test and tune passes.



The pit area is filling up with cars and the manufacture midway is packed.




The tech crew is going to be busy. The line seems to be getting longer.

[Mark Keiser]

Chuck Samuels is here in his Outlaw 10.5W Camaro runs a 7.67 on his first hit.



AJ Powell runs a 7.64 @ 165 in his SSO Mustang. Jarred Halfacre is not able to make it down the track under full power. On a side note, AJ’s daughter is at the track with him and is doing great in her recovery from Chemo.



Some other times from this time trial:
Steve Matusek Pro Street Mustang shook the tires
Team Swill in Extreme Street 8.94 on the first pass with the new motor.
They are here testing for NMRA Renegade in Michigan.
David Shorr’s Pro Street Escort 6.61 @ 213
Joey Bridge has problems with his Drag Radial Mustang
Tony Williams and Mike Moran have trouble and don’t make a good pass.
One of the Goforth’s IHRA Pro Stock car runs a 6.38 @ 219
A camo painted Outlaw 10.5W Mustang driver does a great job of keeping the car from crossing the center line.

[Mark Keiser]

Just received the news the Chip Havemann will be the official announcer for the weekend.



Still running the test and tune:
Dan Millen runs a 7.33 @ only 151 in his Outlaw 10.5w Mustang.
Dan Saitz has trouble in his Pro Street 2007 Mustang.
Steve Miller runs a 7.70 at 134 in his Pro Street S-10.

On Tim Lynch’s first pass of the weekend he sets the bar high with a 6.62 at 218.



Brian Carpenter, Mark Micke and Dean Goforth are unable to get down the track.

Dewayne James and Don Burton spun the tires in their SSO Mustangs.

Jim Brown in the Outlaw 10.5w Mustang runs a 7.40
Chuck Samuels second pass spun off the line but still went 7.59 at 209
Halfacre’s second run makes him the fastest SSO car in the test with a 7.56.
The beautiful twin turbo 67 Mustang from Canada runs a 7.09 at 205 in Outlaw 10.5w.
John Urist has to shut off early in his SSO Mustang
Johnny Lightning runs a 8.83 @ 159

[Mark Keiser]

Converter change is the theme of the day. Joey Bridge is having to change the converter in his Drag Radial Mustang. Joey is running on the smaller 275 M/T tires. He is also running the 94 mm turbo.




Ron Lummus is also changing the converter in his Outlaw 10.5 W Mustang. They are a little behind because the crew just arrived here from the airport.






A racer in Top Truck had a very interesting burnout in his time trial today. The slicks hooked up during the burnout and pitched the truck sideways up on two wheels. He did a great job of saving it and only has very minor cosmetic damage on the rear wing when it touched the wall.









Some of the Pro Street cars were disappointed when they were not allowed to run due to chassis certs and weight. The blower cars that run manual transmissions would weigh too much for the SFI 25.1 cert. There was also a problem with the PSI blowers. Jason Hamstra is one of the automatic cars that is able to race.

[Mark Keiser]

Tony Akins is here with a Drag Radial Mustang. He showed up with the NMRA 88mm turbo. He is trying to put a bigger wheel on it for the class here in St. Louis. He was unable to get if upgraded before first round of qualifying.



More test and tune news:
Grant McCreary runs a 6.75 @ 209 with his Proline power.
Brian Carpenter runs a 7.09



Red Drag Radial Mustang built by Bridge Racing runs a 7.75.
Still some cars not able to make a full pass.

John Urist in SSO went a 7.50.



Spiro Pappas runs a 6.80 in his Outlaw 10.5w Camaro.

[Mark Keiser]

Jason Hamstra in his blown automatic Pro Mod car rockets to the top of the qualifying ladder with a 6.16. Jason’s Camaro is two tenths faster than number 2 qualifier Cory Goforth. The 6.16 is one of the, if not the fastest pass by an automatic pro mod car.






Tim Lynch does one hell of a driving job keeping his Outlaw 10.5w Mustang off of the wall. Not only does he keep it off the wall but he qualifies number 1 with a 6.69 at 219.9 mph. The 6.69 is a little slower then the 6.62 he ran in testing earlier the day, but I think he slowed down since the pass was around 1400 feet.



Don Burton qualified well in first round, but it might have cost him his weekend. After taking the intake off the car, he found a broken lifter. The news gets worse, part of the lifter fell into the motor and it will not turn over.





Steve Miller is having trouble getting down the track. The normally consistent Pro Street S-10 has not made a clean pass all day. After qualifying he had the transmission out of the truck and apart on the bench.





Joey Bridge has had transmission trouble all day. The first pass he ruined a converter. After his second pass he is not sure if the converter is hurt, but he is sure the transmission is hurt. He has a truck coming from Memphis tonight with the parts that will hopefully get him back in to competition.



Stick Shift Pro Mod cars are not allowed. The Barkledge team showed up, but was not allowed to race. They would have to weigh 2900 pounds and their 25.1 chassis cert is only good to 2800 pounds. The automatic cars have to weigh right at the limit for their chassis certs. Ron Munks is one of the automatic pro mods that got to race, but not without totally changing his combination.



Jason Lee came ready for the drag radial class. He has converted his car to a forward facing Procharger F-2 blower and put on the bigger M/T drag radials. Jason shot to the top of the charts with his 7.74 at 174 in the first round. I would expect him to step it up even more on Saturday.



The Gateway track has proven to be tricky surface. Some cars have been very successful navigating the quarter mile in St. Louis. Others have had more trouble. There were a lot of transmission and gear changes in the pits today to get a handle on the track surface. The photo below is a shot at the score board after Tim Lynch’s run.



The barometer was right at 30 with 20% humidity and the temperature in the low 70’s makes for great racing weather. That is what we had in St. Louis on Friday, and it the weather man is correct there will be more of the same fro the rest of the weekend.



We were unable to obtain first round of qualifying sheets this evening so look for them to be posted in the morning.

[Mark Keiser]