Tag: 1320 NHRA News

B. FORCE, HAGAN, AND M. SMITH QUALIFY NO. 1 AT DODGE//SRT MILE-HIGH NHRA NATIONALS PRESENTED BY PENNZOIL

MORRISON, Colo. – Brittany Force unleashed the quickest run in the history of Bandimere Speedway on Saturday, rocketing to the No. 1 position in Top Fuel in front of a huge crowd at the Dodge//SRT Mile-High NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil.

Matt Hagan (Funny Car) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also qualified No. 1 in their respective categories at the eighth race of the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

Force, a former Top Fuel world champ, put together a monstrous track-record run of 3.717-seconds at 326.00 mph in her 11,000-horsepower Monster Energy dragster to close out qualifying. That gave Force her third No. 1 qualifier in 2021 and 23rd in her career, as she tries to close in on her first win of the season and also her first victory on Thunder Mountain in Denver. She’s been close throughout the year, advancing to a pair of final rounds and Force will look to finish the job on Sunday.

“John Force Racing as a whole, we took a step back in 2020. Every single one of my guys put their faith in John Force Racing and every one of them returned,” Force said. “I think that shows so much about character and their loyalty to this team. (Crew chief David) Grubnic said he was going to push it like he always does, so thank you to my guys. I’m excited to be here and I’m just glad to be back in Denver. I really want to win on the mountain. I’ve never won here in Denver and hopefully, we can win this thing tomorrow.”

Points leader and three-time defending world champ Steve Torrence finished second thanks to his impressive run of 3.778 at 327.11 from Friday. Mike Salinas took the third spot with his run of 3.836 at 320.51.

Matt Hagan moved a step closer to picking up his first victory at Bandimere Speedway, as he qualified No. 1 thanks to his run of 3.966 at 319.22 from Friday in his 11,000-horsepower Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye. That run gave Hagan his second No. 1 qualifier of the 2021 campaign and 42nd in his career. Winning in Denver has been one of the few things that has eluded the defending world champ and Hagan is in a prime position to change that on Sunday.

“We’ve got to go rounds, there’s no doubt about it, but we’ll take that No. 1 qualifier right now,” Hagan said. “We’ll take that momentum into raceday tomorrow. This Hellcat is running strong and I cannot wait to put on a show tomorrow for all these fans here in Denver. It’s going to be awesome.”

Alexis DeJoria qualified second with her run of 3.982 at 323.50 on Friday and Tim Wilkerson jumped to third during the final qualifying session on Saturday with a pass of 3.984 at 312.35.

After qualifying in the No. 1 spot on Friday in Pro Stock Motorcycle, Matt Smith only got better on Saturday, improving on each run and finishing the day with a pass of 7.113 at 189.47 on his Denso Auto Parts/Stockseth/Matt Smith Racing EBR. It hands the points leader and defending world champ his second No. 1 qualifier of the year and the 45th in his career, and also gave Smith the speed record at Bandimere Speedway. Smith made the quickest run of every session in qualifying, giving the standout plenty of confidence heading into eliminations.

“We’ve got a good bike,” said Smith, who made the second-quickest run on Thunder Mountain as well. “This bike, it’s running mean. We’ve gradually gone faster and all in all, to be No. 1 and have Angie (Smith) No. 2, you can’t say enough about having Denso bikes No. 1 and No. 2 and husband and wife going No. 1 and No. 2 as well.”

Angie Smith took the second spot after her strong run of 7.134 at 186.67 and Andrew Hines, the 2019 winner and five-time champ at Denver, qualified third after his run of 7.170 at 188.10 in the final session.

Justin Bond finished No. 1 in the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service. He ran a 5.976 at 230.45 to place himself atop the competitive category.

Eliminations for the Dodge//SRT Mile-High NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil begin at 11 a.m. MT on Sunday.

***

MORRISON, Colo. — Sunday’s first-round pairings for eliminations for the 41st annual Dodge//SRT Mile-High NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil at Bandimere Speedway, the eighth of 20 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs listed below pairings.

Top Fuel — 1. Brittany Force, 3.717 seconds, 326.00 mph vs. Bye; 2. Steve Torrence, 3.778, 327.11 vs. 13. Rob Passey, 5.847, 118.38; 3. Mike Salinas, 3.836, 320.51 vs. 12. Buddy Hull, 4.339, 267.85; 4. Doug Kalitta, 3.849, 299.33 vs. 11. Leah Pruett, 4.056, 249.49; 5. Alex Laughlin, 3.900, 316.67 vs. 10. Joey Haas, 4.054, 259.56; 6. Greg Carrillo, 3.926, 304.87 vs. 9. Antron Brown, 4.030, 309.42; 7. Clay Millican, 3.969, 264.49 vs. 8. Shawn Langdon, 3.973, 251.34.

Funny Car — 1. Matt Hagan, Dodge Charger, 3.966, 319.22 vs. 14. Chris King, Toyota, broke; 2. Alexis DeJoria, Toyota Camry, 3.982, 323.50 vs. 13. Jack Wyatt, Charger, 4.489, 207.08; 3. Tim Wilkerson, Ford Mustang, 3.984, 312.35 vs. 12. Jim Campbell, Charger, 4.272, 292.90; 4. Ron Capps, Charger, 3.986, 318.09 vs. 11. Terry Haddock, Mustang, 4.211, 287.78; 5. John Force, Chevy Camaro, 4.014, 320.74 vs. 10. Robert Hight, Camaro, 4.097, 310.70; 6. Paul Lee, Charger, 4.045, 318.62 vs. 9. Cruz Pedregon, Charger, 4.074, 313.29; 7. J.R. Todd, Camry, 4.055, 314.90 vs. 8. Bob Tasca III, Mustang, 4.060, 316.52.

Pro Stock Motorcycle — 1. Matt Smith, EBR, 7.113, 189.47 vs. Bye; 2. Angie Smith, EBR, 7.134, 186.67 vs. 15. David Barron, Buell, 7.428, 161.32; 3. Steve Johnson, Suzuki, 7.163, 184.88 vs. 14. Jianna Salinas, Suzuki, 7.384, 178.50; 4. Andrew Hines, Buell, 7.170, 188.10 vs. 13. Jim Underdahl, Suzuki, 7.360, 180.26; 5. Angelle Sampey, Suzuki, 7.171, 185.54 vs. 12. Ryan Oehler, EBR, 7.266, 186.18; 6. Eddie Krawiec, Buell, 7.182, 189.18 vs. 11. Jerry Savoie, Suzuki, 7.220, 182.21; 7. Joey Gladstone, Suzuki, 7.193, 185.15 vs. 10. Karen Stoffer, Suzuki, 7.220, 183.59; 8. Scotty Pollacheck, EBR, 7.199, 185.84 vs. 9. Cory Reed, Suzuki, 7.220, 184.42.

Long Lost Film Of ’66 Winternationals Found! Sunday Eliminations With Packed Pomona Grandstands!

Jan 31, 20211320 Event Coverage, 1320 NHRA News, 1320 Videos, BangShift 1320

Long Lost Film Of ’66 Winternationals Found! Sunday Eliminations With Packed Pomona Grandstands!

(Film and Words by Darr Hawthorne ) In 1965 Santa brought me a new 16mm Bolex film camera, rather than using my dad’s cameras any-longer. The first opportunity I had to use it was on the Pomona Raceway starting line at the 1966 NHRA Winternationals, I’d been granted an NHRA photo/media credential with my best friend, at 14 years of age, lucky I know. It was my third time on the line at the Big Go West.

These ten minutes of original footage shows off some of the Top Fuel legends like the Greek, Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwen and Tony Nancy and event winner Mike Snively in Roland Leong’s Hawaiian. Leong recently said of the win, “Thats my wagon (at the end of the video). Must be 1966 and yes we won.” Leong added, “ After that we were on our way out of town going on tour to our first date and a ’55 Chevy towing a ’55 Chevy racecar side swiped a short bridge (while) passing us and then served into us. Wagon ended up upside down, trailer broke off and went about 1/4 mile into the desert. Both ’55 Chevy’s ended up upside down. Thankfully NO ONE got hurt.” Adding, “Thats my story and I’m sticking to it”. 

1966 also presented a showcase to the early evolution from stock-bodied cars into nitro funny cars; Jack Chrisman’s red Comet, Gas Ronda’s Mustang, Maynard Rupp’s rear-engined Hemi-Powered Chevelle, Don Gay’s blown GTO, Steve Bovan’s altered wheelbase Nova, Joe Davis’ Colt 45 Mustang, Preston Honea’s Marlin and Bob Davis in the Jolly Green Giant Impala. These lumbering giants were relegated to the dragster classes, since NHRA had not yet recognized a true funny car class.

Along with them, was Super Stocker Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins in his ’66 Nova and event winner Shirley Shahan’s “Drag-on Lady” Plymouth Fury, the first woman to win a National Eliminator, at this Winternationals. 

There’s Big John Mazmanian and Stone Woods & Cook with a bunch of AA/Gas Supercharged monsters as well as some early Modified and Comp Eliminator cars too, in front of the packed Pomona Raceway grandstands. 

Grab a hot dog and a cold one for ten minutes in the Way Back machine for some long misplaced film from the ’66 Winternationals.

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Thanks to Periscope Films for the transfer and the music is from dcml dnb

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FTI Performance Introduces the Gen 3 XPM Billet Bolt Together Torque Converter Line

This is big news for those drag racers out there who are running a high horsepower combo and backing their engine with a torque converter. FTI Performance Introduces the Gen 3 XPM Billet Bolt Together Torque Converter Line which is the most tunable, most interchangeable, and most user friendly ultra high performance torque converter on the market. Because each piece is interchangeable, the racer can carry multiple stators, turbines, pumps etc to make their combo work to its best ability and they can do it without having to wait on parts!

This truly is an innovation from FTI and one that we believe racers will take advantage of. Back when the torque converter started to make major inroads into ultra-high horsepower drag racing, the common refrain was that “you can’t tune them like a clutch…” but the real truth is that now you basically can. Amazing!

FTI Performance Introduces the Gen 3 XPM Billet Bolt Together Torque Converter Line

December 10, 2020 (DELAND, FL) FTI Performance expands their product line with the introduction of the Gen 3 XPM billet bolt together torque converters. This line is revolutionary to the converter market as each piece is interchangeable to make it self-tunable. With multiple options for various components, FTI gives the customer the ability to change their converter to fit their personal combination.

Each component of the FTI Gen 3 XPM torque converters are CNC-machined and interchangeable. Multiple options for the billet stators are available for roots blowers, screw blowers, nitrous, N/A, Pro Charger, and turbo. The customer has a choice between spragless and sprag combinations. The billet front cover fits all flex plate combinations (bolt patterns) including HEMI. All turbines are available with all splines from Lenco, GM, and Ford. With multiple pump angles available, all pumps are available with bolt on capability for the Lenco, GM, and Ford. The torque converter fits up to 1” thick block plates without the need of changing covers. Another customizable option is the ability to change the 10” torque converter to a 9” unit and vice versa to adapt to the customer’s combination.

With each part balanced and sold separately, the customer has the ability to buy each piece one at a time like an engine build. As the first user-buildable torque converter from FTI performance, the FTI Gen 3 XPM torque converters provide the customer convenience and tunability.

“The industry needs technology that the end user can capitalize on without the help of a freight truck,” says FTI Performance Chief Technical Officer, Greg Samuel. “When they need it and how they need it!  This converter allows interchangeability as well as tunability beyond any other converter available.”

With convenience, tunability, and interchangeability, the FTI Gen 3 XPM torque converter is the perfect option for customers who have multiple vehicles or race in varying conditions. For more information about these torque converters and the rest of the FTI Performance line up, call (386) 736-5816 for more information. 

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