MILAN DRAGWAY
August 5, 2005
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HEADS-UP NIGHT

        ** Points Results At Bottom Of Page**


 

                                             

On Friday August 5^th the gates opened for the final points race in the Team Z Motorsports Friday Night Heads Up race. The Milan Dragway Track Officials came in extra early to begin prepping the track for all the fast street cars they were expecting. We got what we expected when the gates opened for everyone at 3pm. The cars started to pour in and not long after we had to start filling up the field across the street because of the parking becoming filled up inside the track!

Except for the Wheel To Wheel All Motor class, the numbers in all of the categories rose. Last month in the Holbrook Racing Engines 10.5 Outlaw category there were 13 competitors that ended up qualifying and this month there was a total of 20 cars in qualifying with Greg Blevins the number one qualifier two months in a row. In the Dynoserve Run What You Brung category there were a total of 30 cars when last months number was 24. Finally in the Heads Up Street Bike category this month there were 15 bikes that qualified with only 7 bikes qualified last month. The regulars began to show up early on also. Dan Millen and his Livernois Motorsports sponsored Ford Mustang, Brad Tyson and his 87’ Ford Mustang, Butch Kemp and the 67’ Nova, Lane Lambert and the Dodge Dart was a few that showed up early getting ready for the qualifying action to begin.

First round of qualifying went flawlessly except for in Holbrook Racing Engines 10.5 Outlaw class when Norbert Rodriguez passed the scales after making his pass. This meant that run could not count. At the end of round one of qualifying Butch Kemp was once again number one qualifier in All Motor with a 9.1431 at 143.23 MPH. In Holbrook Racing Engines category, Dan Millen was once again number one qualifier apparently fixing the problems he had last race. At the tail end of round one qualifying for Street Bike Shoot-Out Bud Yoder was deemed number one qualifier with a 8.1719 at 177.31MPH. The Wheel to Wheel Friday Night Street race time trials continued to go while the heads up racers headed back to the pits to work on their vehicles.

Round two began a few minutes behind the 5:30PM schedule. In Wheel to Wheel All Motor category Butch Kemp lost his number one spot and Darrin Mag with the 67’ Mustang pulled in the lead with a 9.0781 at 146.14MPH. Disappointment came when word came that the number 1 and 2 qualifiers Darrin Mag and Butch Kemp both broke! Butch’s racecar broke a rod and would not be able to get it fixed in enough time and Darrin had spun the bearings and was not able to complete their passes or continue on. Round two of qualifying of Holbrook Racing Engines 10.5 Outlaw came next. All the racers were feeling the effects of the humidity but that wasn’t letting them hold them back. Number one qualifier Dan Millen stayed consistent keeping a 7.50 ET second round in a row. Millen was bumped down to number two when the other Mustang driven by Greg Blevins flew through the top end with a 7.3621 at 197.42 MPH! Millen’s run did not count anyway because after his pass, Millen did not stop at the scales to be weighed. The duo team of Bud Yoder and Ronnie Mitchell both stayed in the top two spot in the Street Bike Shootout category. After the bikes ran, the first round of qualifying for the Dynoserve Run What Ya Brung class began. A total of 27 cars were there for first round of qualifying, but as in the rules, only eight can come out on top. The top eight almost showed an all six-second field. The surprise was the usual racers that finish on top was below the number eight! Doug Holmes, Gene Buckles, “Fast” Eddie Szymborski, Jimmy Detrick and Nathan Hughes all were not qualified. This left Dave Hekhllis, Ron Zeller, Dan Petrie, John Powers, Barry Ballard, Dave Sullivan, Tofie Haddad and number one qualifier Ed Hall with a 6.7979 ET in the Quick 8 field.

Round three qualifying ended with the number one qualifying spots field and the ladders set. Blevins held onto the number one qualifying spot with a 7.3621 at 197MPH. In Wheel to Wheel All Motor category Dennis Kowalski and his 79’ Ford Mustang took the number one spot with a 9.0900 at 155.22MPH. Keith McWhorte took the number one spot in the Street Bike Shoot Out category with the only seven second pass of 7.9052 at 182.13. Finally in the Dynoserve Run What Ya Brung field, Ed Hall stayed in front of Nathan Hughes and took number one with 6.7139 at 206MPH! Ed had the only over 200MPH pass in the Run What Ya Brung class during qualifying.  

Eliminations

Wheel to Wheel All Motor was the first of the Heads Up class to come out first for elimination after the Friday Night Street race. There was a little confusion with how the ladder was made, but it got ironed out and there were a total of nine cars showing up first round with John Burdine having the bye-run. After All Motor the Holbrook Racing Engines 10.5 Outlaw category was up with a full 16 car field. First round Mark Knierim and Brad Tyson were both knocked out of the race with the others bringing back eight of the drivers for second round! First round of Street Bike Shootout went flawlessly with most of the drivers staying in the eight second ET range.  Finally the Dynoserve Run What Ya Brung category came out at the tail end to finish out first round. First pair out Barry Ballard went out of the race with a disappointing red light start. Afterwards semi finals were left in Run What Ya Brung.

Second round was the round that was the show stopper. This wasn’t because of any high flying wheelstands, but because of a few accidents that put a break in the action. The first one came when the Street Bike Shoot-Out second round of elimination came out. Second pair of the class came to the line and it was Nikki Bush going against number one qualifier Keith McWhorte. Tree came down after drivers lined up and the race went fine until around the 1000 foot mark. Keith lost control of the bike and ended up rolling with the motorcycle. The bike came away from him and smashed up against the concrete guard wall leaving Keith rolling down the track. Keith finally came to a halt and Milan safety crew reached him and was still alert. A ground ambulance was called and transported Keith to a local hospital. Later Keith was released with just a bruised side and severely sprain wrist. That didn’t hold Keith up because his plans of racing at another track the next day was still on!

The second accident happened during second round of Run What Ya Brung. It was the semi-finals and the first pair out was Nathan Hughes going against Al Sexton. Al came off the line first with a near perfect reaction of +.0009 and Nathan was slower. Al was also the first to cross the finish line first advancing to the next round, but once Nathan hit the finish line trouble came. At over 200MPH Nathan’s shoots did not deploy. This caused him to send his dragster into the sand. This slowed him down but not enough going past the sand. Nate came to a rest upside down on a hill. Safety crews got to Nathan immediately and responded to him. It turned out Nathan was ok except for being a little scratched up from his glasses. He also went to the hospital as a safety precaution and was later released.

After all of this happened, the finals came. To start it out the Wheel to Wheel All Motor category came out. In the finals it came down to Lane Lambert in the left and Bruce Sneed in the right. Lane left the line first leaving Bruce to chase him down. Bruce had the quicker ET but Lane’s MPH was faster leaving him to collect the winning purse in the tower! Next category was the Holbrook Racing Engines 10.5 Outlaw final with Dan Millen’s mustang making it through the rounds to go against Mark Floeter’s 1968 Chevy Camaro. Both were quick to line up and tree came down. Mark left the line the better reaction of +.0519 against Millen’s +.0940 reaction. At the 1/8^th Floeter stayed in front of Millen and crossed first with a 8.8841 to take the win. In the Street Bike Shoot-Out category it was Richard Peppler against Bud Yoder. Off the line Yoder had the better reaction time, but he couldn’t catch back up to Peppler once he passed him and Richard Peppler took the win with a 8.3960 at 183MPH. Finally it was the final round of Dynoserve Run What Ya Brung category. Through the rounds Al Sexton made it through to go up against number one qualifier Ed Hall. Al had it right off the line, cutting a +.0051 light. Ed left on the wrong side of the tree going red.

“Though the series is relatively new, it will be one of the fastest growing races we will have at the track.” This is a quote from the 2004 Milan Dragway Yearbook when talking about the Team Z heads up series. Looking back over the 2005 Team Z Heads Up series this statement was ever so true. There are still two more Team Z Heads Up Friday's to go in September and October plus the upcoming Race Wars.

 

 * Correction: This was NOT the last points race. *

Final Qualifying

Wheel To Wheel All Motor

CLASS	HOMETOWN	CAR or BIKE	REACTION TIME	E.T. SPEED (MPH)	SEMI FINALIST
HOLBROOK RACING ENGINES 10.5 OUTLAW WINNER Mike Floeter	Howell, MI	68' Camaro	+.0519	8.8841 158.45	x
HOLBROOK RACING ENGINES 10.5 OUTLAW RUNNER UP Dan Millen	Dearborn Hts., MI	02' Ford Mustang	+.0940	8.9331 171.65	Dean Parker
WHEEL TO WHEEL ALL MOTOR WINNER Lane Lambert			+.0370	9.2979 144.69	Bye
WHEEL TO WHEEL ALL MOTOR RUNNER UP Bruce Sneed	Milan, MI	70' Camaro	+.0960	9.4050 142.90	Andrew Dart
DYNOSERVE RUN WHAT YA BRUNG WINNER Al Sexton	Ferndale, MI	01' Dragster	+.0051	6.8278 197.48	Nathan Hughes
DYNOSERVE RUN WHAT YA BRUNG RUNNER UP Edmond Hall	Montgomery, AL	2000 Trans Am	-.0111	6.6182 208.20	Jimmy Detrick
STREET BIKE SHOOT - OUT WINNER Richard Peppler	Listowel, ONT	03 Suzuki	+.1929	8.3960 183.03	Nikki Bush
STREET BIKE SHOOT - OUT RUNNER UP Bud Yoder	Flint, MI	03' Hayabusa	+.1520	8.5340 169.86	Joe Peters

 

HEADS UP POINT STANDINGS
** Make Sure To Use The Same Number Each Race To Receive Points**

DynoServe Run What Ya Brung

10.5 Outlaw Class

All Motor Class

Extreme Street Bike Shoot - Out
 

HOW THE POINTS ARE SCORED
At the end of each race the points are totaled and posted. If you lose first round you receive 50 points. For each round you win
you will receive 100 points. For example if you lose first round you will have 50 points. If you lose second round you will receive
100 points. Third round loser 200 points. In the event of a tie at the end of the points, the racer with the most wins will be crowned champion!  If you have any questions feel free to email Matt at matt@milandragway.com