Midwestern Members - 3/30/2010 Gateway-SCSS Street Car Shootout RESULTS!

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These results reflect the record holders, qualifiers, and final round contestants at each of the
Street Car Shootout Series events held in conjunction with the NHRA Drags Street Legal Style (http://www.nhra.com/streetlegal/) presented by the American Automobile Association (http://www.aaa.com/) each Tuesday at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois.

All vehicles compete utilizing Department of Transportation (D.O.T.) approved tires. All other modifications are permitted. Tuesday SCSS Track Records can be set during the two official qualifying or championship rounds. The first official Street Car Shootout qualifying period begins at 6:00 PM with sessions continuing until 9:45 PM, (barring unforeseen circumstances). At 10:00 PM, the four quickest qualifiers meet in no-handicap eliminations advancing two winners to the championship final round. Each of the Top 16 qualifiers receives a "Fastest Street Car Qualifier" decal. The SCSS trophies and decals are presented by Gateway Raceway.com (http://www.gatewayraceway.com/). Additionally, the two quickest Sport Tuner drivers, (open to all passenger cars except Rear-Wheel-Drive vehicles with engines of eight cylinders or more), also meet in a no-handicap championship round for trophies presented by St. Louis Street Racers.com (http://www.stlsr.com) and the two quickest Super Truck drivers, (open to all trucks and utility vehicles), meet in a no-handicap championship round for trophies presented by St. Louis Drag Racing.com (http://www.stldragracing.com/). All finalists in all categories also receive free digital images from the event courtesy of Bret Kepner Photos.com (http://www.bretkepnerphotos.com/) and one free entry to a future SCSS event.


GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, MADISON, ILLINOIS

2009 STREET CAR SHOOTOUT SERIES TRACK RECORDS

Class Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine ET MPH Date
RWD Steve George, Arnold, MO 71 Nova 634 Chevy 7.648 03/30/2010
RWD Steve George, Arnold, MO 71 Nova 634 Chevy 184.27 03/30/2010

TRK Kevin Autenrieth, Bethalto, IL 91 S-10 434 Chevy 8.881 09/15/2009
TRK Kevin Autenrieth, Bethalto, IL 91 S-10 434 Chevy 150.73 09/15/2009

4CYL Jon Huber, St. Louis, MO 79 Mustang 178 Ford 9.039 10/14/2008
4CYL Jon Huber, St. Louis, MO 79 Mustang 178 Ford 152.16 10/16/2007

6CYL Tony Shoaff, Mechanicsburg, IL 87 Regal 231 Buick 9.667 10/06/2009
6CYL Tony Shoaff, Mechanicsburg, IL 87 Regal 231 Buick 139.63 10/06/2009

DSL Chris Calkins, Union, MO 70 C-10 403 Chevy 9.875 9/25/2007
DSL Chris Calkins, Union, MO 70 C-10 403 Chevy 139.41 9/25/2007

RTY Eric Cheatham, Belleville, IL 93 RX-7 79 Mazda 10.048 9/26/2006
RTY Eric Cheatham, Belleville, IL 93 RX-7 79 Mazda 137.95 9/26/2006

AWD Adnan Omerovic, St. Louis, MO 95 Talon 122 Eagle 10.234 9/11/2007
AWD Adnan Omerovic, St. Louis, MO 95 Talon 122 Eagle 141.50 7/22/2008

FWD Adam Corbitt, St. Charles, MO 85 Golf 123 Volks 10.989 05/06/2008
FWD Adam Corbitt, St. Charles, MO 85 Golf 123 Volks 134.87 05/06/2008




MARCH 30th, 2010 STREET CAR SHOOTOUT SERIES QUALIFIERS
Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine ET MPH Date

EVENT 02 03/30/2010

1 Steve George Arnold MO 71 Nova 634 Chevy 7.648 184.27
2 Kevin Autenrieth Bethalto IL 91 S-10 434 Chevy 9.005 147.62
3 Daryl Jauernig St. Louis MO 89 Mustang 351 Ford 9.130 163.00
4 Matt Martin St. Louis MO 86 Mustang 302 Ford 9.143 153.23
5 Raymond Arthur Edwardsville IL 67 Camaro 496 Chevy 9.145 152.26
6 Corey Stephens Wentzville MO 88 Mustang 351 Ford 10.454 129.72
7 Bill Kurrus Pevely MO 07 Corvette 364 Chevy 10.470 130.89
8 Matt Furfaro Marine IL 89 Mustang 408 Ford 10.533 128.53
9 Ralph Dehne Red Bud IL 63 Impala 409 Chevy 10.938 122.24
10 Gary Nichelson New London MO 70 C-10 406 Chevy 11.391 119.03
11 Richard Lozano Marthasville MO 68 Camaro 383 Chevy 11.414 118.22
12 David Bross Wentzville MO 04 Mustang 281 Ford 11.418 128.05
13 Steve Hetzler St. Charles MO 95 Camaro 350 Chevy 11.432 121.14
14 Brad Kimbler Washington MO 00 Camaro 346 Chevy 11.454 93.88
15 Andrew Rhodes Hannibal MO 82 S-10 406 Chevy 11.474 117.99
16 Mark Yehling Granite City IL 97 Corvette 346 Chevy 12.081 111.83




MARCH 30th, 2010 STREET CAR SHOOTOUT SERIES FINAL ROUND

Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH

W Raymond Arthur, Edwardsville, IL 1967 555 Camaro 0.592 9.074 151.53
RU Steve George, Arnold, MO 1971 634 Nova Could Not Appear


Ray Arthur continued to ride a wave of success with his second consecutive event title of the 2010 season in the Street Car Shootout Series held in conjunction with the NHRA Drags Street Legal Style (http://www.nhra.com/streetlegal/) presented by the American Automobile Association (http://www.aaa.com/) at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois. However, the intrepid pilot of the popular “Suspicion” 1967 Camaro knew his accomplishment was overshadowed after Arnold, Missourian Steve George unleashed the most amazing performances in the six-year history of the series. Ironically, Arthur made as much history as the new elapsed time and speed record holder during the program but George’s black 1971 Chevy Nova earned accolades from even his final round opponent when he shattered two major SCSS performance barriers during qualifying.

The second SCSS race of the year quickly became a night of career-best performances. A huge field of entries and an equally large crowd enjoyed magnificent weather as clear skies, sixty-degree temperatures and a mild breeze kept the corrected elevation between 1182 feet above sea level at the opening of the gates and 444 feet when competition ended. For the second week in a row, the combination of the recently resurfaced Gateway quarter-mile and brand-new traction compound created by VP Racing Fuels (http://www.vpracingfuels) resulted in phenomenal traction which never wavered.

Of immediate note to early arrivals was the lack of a familiar entry. Three-time SCSS season champion Tim “Moose” Mallicoat, whose son had driven the family’s notorious M&M Automotive/Dale Huff Motorsports “Hellraiser” 565 cubic inch 1968 Camaro to the final round at the previous week’s season opener, failed to enter a vehicle for the first time in fifty-eight consecutive SCSS races. Tim, Jr., was on hand in Super Truck Showdown competition with his 350-inch ‘92 S-10 pickup, (which suffered a major fire only days before during the season‘s first Midnight Madness event), but his father confirmed the Camaro was out of action followed a mechanical failure in the semi-finals of the first SCSS race. “It broke a connecting rod”, said “Moose” in the pit area, “but it’s not as bad as we first thought. The engine block doesn’t appear to be damaged, the cylinder heads are okay and, other than the hole in the oil pan, it looks like things are salvageable. It may take a bit longer than we’d like but we’ll be back!”. The last time Mallicoat failed to enter a SCSS event was March 27th, 2007!

The first qualifying session was led by Matt Martin’s unassuming powder-blue turbocharged 302-inch ‘86 Mustang; in his first SCSS appearance in almost four years, Martin erased his previous career-best run of 11.10 seconds at 126.09 mph with an ungodly 9.143/153.23! In the second qualifying session, defending event champ Arthur and his nitrous oxide-injected 555-inch Camaro used the easier launch technique discovered during his first series victory seven days earlier to clock a run of 9.145 seconds at a whopping 152.26 miles per hour which just missed the machine’s best-ever speed. The third qualifying period opened with the appearance of a solid black Chevy Nova which last appeared in SCSS trim in 2007 when the car was campaigned with a 355-inch smallblock Chevy powerplant with nitrous oxide assistance. Although driver Steve George had recorded nine-second, 148 mph runs on street-legal tires, his machine had most recently been on slicks in GIR’s Outlaw All Stars series and [/I]Midnight Madness[/I] events. In fact, George had posted a coasting 8.20 seconds at only 126 mph the previous Friday in MM action.

However, George pulled to the starting line on fresh Mickey Thompson (http://www.mickeythompsontires.com/) ET Street rear tires and the Nova was now outfitted with a 634-inch carbureted, gasoline-burning engine created by legendary Steve Schmidt Racing Engines (http://www.steveschmidtracing.com/). After a thunderous burnout, George staged and then covered the first sixty feet in a relatively easy 1.31 seconds. Hitting the 330 feet timers in 3.345 seconds, George was still six hundredths of a second behind the pace of SCSS Elapsed Time record holder Matt Giblin‘s 8.00-second standard set six months earlier. It became obvious George was leaning heavily into the Induction Solutions (http://www.induction-solutions.com/) nitrous oxide system tuned by global nitrous guru Steve Johnson. At the eighth-mile, George clocked 5.00 seconds, still three hundredths slower than record holder Giblin, but at an incredible 148.44 miles per hour…more than three miles per hour faster at half-track than any previous SCSS machine! At that point, the 3375-pound Chevy simply became a missile. By the thousand feet mark, the black-and-chrome beast was running an incredible quarter-second quicker than Giblin’s previous record for the distance and, when the finish line scoreboards flashed the news at the end of the quarter-mile run, the results were met with stunned silence. Steve George obliterated the SCSS Elapsed Time Record with a blast of 7.64 seconds and annihilated Mark “Woody” Woodruff’s twenty-one month-old 178.71 mph Speed Record with a top-end charge of 184.27 mph!

“That was the first run we ever made with this combination on D.O.T. tires!”, said an elated George in front of the main grandstands after the astonishing run. “ We just came from an event in Georgia where we ran four-second eighth-miles with slicks but we really didn’t know what to expect. I definitely eased it off the line but it never spun the tires and just kept pulling. We use a ’BrunoGlide’ (http://www.brunosautomotive.com/) transmission which really helps to get the power to the ground early and the car was perfect. Dan Newman Race Cars (http://www.danneumannracecars.com/) in Florida completely rebuilt the car so that run says a lot about his work. I also owe an awful lot to Dan Saitz of Hyperformance Racing (http://www.hyperformanceracing.com/) here in St. Louis. He really helped us get the entire car sorted out to make that run!”.

It should be noted George’s incredible Nova covered the “back half” of the racetrack, (from the eighth-mile to the quarter-mile finish line), in an amazing 2.64 seconds…almost four tenths of a second quicker than any previous SCSS record-setting pass. Interestingly, the car picked up thirty-six mph in that same distance in comparison to Woodruff‘s thirty-eight mph. Regardless, George was content to sit on his new records and await the outcome of the final qualifying session.

An all-out war ensued for the remaining positions in the Super Sixteen field. Daryl Jauernig’s wild nitrous-aided ’88 Mustang, a semi-finalist at the season-opener, failed to find traction on its first effort but returned for an on-and-off-the-throttle 9.13 at a booming 163.00 mph to barely nip Arthur’s 9.145 best. Going into the final five minutes of available qualifying, the second, third and fourth spots were separated by a mere fifteen thousandths of a second but, with only six pairs of cars remaining, thirteen-time event winner Kevin Autenrieth staged his renowned orange 434-inch nitrous oxide-injected smallblock Chevy-powered ‘91 S-10, (the SCSS Elapsed Time and Speed Record Holder for Trucks), and blazed to wild, wheelstanding 9.00/147.62 to not only qualify second in the field but bumped Arthur’s “Suspicion” Camaro from the final four!

As it turned out, things were just getting interesting. As Autenrieth prepared to clear the track after his last-ditch run, the driver of the Lowe Performance (http://www.loweperformance.net) S-10 pickup looked down to check the oil pressure gauge in the cockpit only to find there was no oil pressure to check! “I shut it off as soon as I saw there was zero pressure”, said a concerned Autenrieth after the run, “and I may have caught it in time. There were no suspicious noises coming from the engine so I’m hoping for the best when we tear it down. However, there’s no way we can compete in either the Street Car Shootout or the Super Truck Showdown. We’re done”.

Immediately, the call went out for the first alternate to report in front of the main grandstands for eliminations and, for the second week in a row, Ray Arthur got a reprieve; he got back in the show despite being knocked out in final qualifying! Word also arrived that Matt Martin’s turbo Mustang had broken an axle on its aborted second qualifying attempt and second alternate, Corey Stephens, also reported ready to race after his beautiful royal blue 351-powered ‘88 Mustang had hit a career-best 10.45/129.72 in qualifying.

Ironically, the two alternates were scheduled to race each other and, despite a monstrous holeshot of three tenths of a second and a career-best 10.26/130.62, Stephens’ Fessler Racing Engines (http://www.fesslerraceengines.com/)/Midwest Trailers (http://www.midwest-trailer.com/) Mustang was unable to hold off Arthur’s consistent 9.17/150.30. For the second week in a row, Arthur found himself in the final round as an alternate! In the other half of the semi-finals, George pulled into the water box with fans waiting in eager anticipation of its possible performance. It quickly became clear, however, the black Nova was having problems. As opponent “Dirty D” Jauernig completed a smokey burnout across the starting line with his Mustang, the engine in the heavily-favored Chevy labored to complete a burnout and eventually headed for the starting line with no heat in its new rear tires. Jauernig, showing exceptional sportsmanship, waited patiently for George to purge his nitrous system and attempt to “clear out” the engine. At the same time, Jauernig called a crewmember to his car to verify the Christmas Tree starting system was set for a full countdown. The starting line officials, watching to make sure George could even stage, noticed Jauernig, with the driver’s side door open, talking with his crew and mistakenly assumed Jauernig was also experiencing problems and was unable to make the run. George staged and was sent on a tire-frying single run which netted only an 11.30 at 149.75 mph while “Dirty D’ tried to sort out the confusion. Always the professional, Jauernig eventually conceded the errors to “one of those things” and, with a big smile, added, “Oh, well! There’s always next week!”.

At the conclusion of his bizarre solo pass, George discovered his problems involved more than just cold tires. “It looks like we hurt an intake valve”, said the dejected pilot when he drove his support vehicle to the staging area to congratulate Arthur on his second straight victory. “Obviously, we can’t risk running it in that condition. It’s a shame because, with those kinds of numbers on the first pass, we really think there’s a lot more in it”. For Ray Arthur, a second straight solo pass in the final round after failing to qualify was not to be argued; after a 9.07/151.53 single, he returned to collect a special Gateway International Raceway jacket during winner’s circle ceremonies. “I can’t believe two weeks in a row would end up exactly the same with a single run to win after getting in as an alternate”, said the man who lost eleven final rounds in his career before finally winning a SCSS title the previous week. “It’s just fine with me, though. After all we’ve been through, I just consider it payback for the times it didn’t work out. A win is a win and I just want to keep this up as long as it will last!”.

Throughout the 2010 season, St. Louis Drag Racing.com (http://www.stldragracing.com/) will be presenting highlight videos of each week’s Street Car Shootout Series action produced by Darin Myhre of Lethal1320.com (http://www.lethal1320.com/).
To view the March 23rd SCSS event, simply click HERE (http://www.vimeo.com/10576637).








NOTES FROM THE SCSS: There was plenty of history going on beyond the amazing record run of Steve George. At the one hundred twenty-fifth SCSS held to date, longtime Corvette campaigner Mark Yehling’s all-white 346-powered ‘97 model qualified on the “bump spot” with a 12.08/111.83 best. That qualifying effort made him the TWO THOUSANDTH recipient of a “Fastest Street Car” qualifier decal since the first night of the series on Tuesday, April 6th, 2004, and GIR Drag Racing operations Manager Rich Schaefer is having a special gold qualifier decal made to be presented to Yehling at the next SCSS event. The decal will be similar to the one thousandth sticker awarded to famed four-cylinder Ford racer Joe Laramee on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006...An historic performance equal to that of Steve George came from Eric Sanzottera, the winningest rider in the history of the Big St. Charles Motorsports (http://www.bigstcharlesmotorsports.com/) Street Bike Shootout Series. The pilot of the new QuickTime Motorsports (http://www.quicktimebikes.com/) turbocharged 2004 Suzuki Hayabusa became the first to break the eight-second barrier in the class, (for self-starting motorcycles on D.O.T. rubber with no wheelie bars), with runs of 7.97/177.72 and 7.93/179.97!…It should be obvious Steve George became the first member of the 7-Second Club and the 180 MPH Club during the event…Kevin Autenrieth‘s ill-fated 9.00/147.62 qualifying lap came with the season‘s quickest sixty-feet elapsed time to date, 1.270 seconds!…Even with his bizarre loss in the semis, Daryl Jauernig is now right on the heels of Ray Arthur in the SCSS Point Standings…Matt Martin‘s turbocharged ‘86 302 Mustang became the fifty-ninth member of the 9-Second Club and the twenty-seventh to join the 150 MPH Club…”The Baron”, Bill Kurrus, pounded out a new career-best for his stock-appearing white LS2-powered 2007 Corvette with a 10.47/130.89 on eighteen-inch wheels to qualify seventh. He also ran out of gas again!…Corey Stephens’ ‘88 351 Mustang finally broke into the 10-Second Club and, in the semi-finals, Stephens also jumped into the 130 MPH club as member eighty-four…Matt Furfaro’s 408-inch ’89 Mustang ran 10.53/128.53 career-bests and got into the 10-Second and 120 MPH Clubs but couldn’t have been happier to do it than venerable Ralph Dehne, whose vintage Chevy has long been an SCSS favorite. Dehne’s original lightweight factory-built ‘63 409 Impala is one of the most exotic cars in the series; for years, Dehne refused to add a roll bar to the car which, under NHRA rules, restricted it to runs slower than 11.5 seconds. Over the winter, Dehne’s crew somehow managed to talk him into adding the required loop and he was finally able to “let ‘er eat”! The result was a blistering 10.93 at 122.24 mph to become the one hundred fiftieth member of the 10-Second Club! Last year, Dehne swapped the original four-speed manual transmission for an automatic in order to relieve stress on the body of the Z-11. The machine spends as much time in car shows around the country as it does in the SCSS!…Richard Lozano’s ’68 383 Camaro and the 2004 Cobra Mustang of David Bross both ran 11.41 to qualify but the Ford did it at a wild 128.05 mph to join the 120 MPH Club as member two hundred fifty-eight! Losanzo then returned during late timed trials after qualifying concluded and hit a 10.87/127.16; Bross also made some “late hits“ and put down an 11.02 at a wild 131.47 mph and a 10.96/129.68!…Steve Hetzler’s familiar ’95 350 Camaro Z28 qualified at 11.32/121.14 but missed its official career best runs by a mere three thousandths of a second and twelve hundredths of a mile-per-hour!…Brad Kimbler‘s amazing, stock-appearing, wheelstanding naturally-aspirated silver 2000 346 Camaro coasted across the finish line at only 93 miles per hour while still qualifying fourteenth with a best-ever 11.47 but returned in late timed trials to unload an exceptional 10.69/126.45!...The huge gap of more than a half-second between the fifteenth and sixteenth positions in the field show just how quick the SCSS field could’ve been had on more machine produced a run quicker than 11.5 seconds during the official qualifying periods. A good bet to have done the job was longtime SCSS racer Tom Bantle’s new black Mustang which murdered an engine during qualifying…No Sport Tuners qualified in the Super Sixteen but the top three Super Truck Showdown machines made the field…Remember the completely revised 2010 Gateway International Raceway Rules and Regulations are available at St. Louis Drag Racing.com (http://www.stldragracing.com/) by clicking HERE (http://www.stldragracing.com/gateway-raceway/2010-rules-regulations/).







2010 STREET CAR SHOOTOUT SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS (Top 10 of 27 as of MARCH 31st, 2010)

Pos Points Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine

1 (14) Raymond Arthur Edwardsville IL 67 Camaro 555 Chevy
2 (12) Daryl Jauernig St. Louis MO 89 Mustang 351 Ford
3 (10) Corey Stephens Wentzville MO 88 Mustang 351 Ford
4 (10) Bill Kurrus Pevely MO 07 Corvette 364 Chevy
5 (10) Mark Yehling Granite City IL 97 Corvette 346 Chevy
6 (7) Tim Mallicoat, Jr. Collinsville IL 68 Camaro 565 Chevy
7 (7) Steve George Arnold MO 71 Nova 634 Chevy
8 (6) Curtis Paulfrey Brighton IL 68 Camaro 511 Chevy
9 (6) Matt Dycus Mount Olive IL 79 Mustang 402 Ford
10 (6) Kevin Autenrieth Bethalto IL 91 S-10 434 Chevy

NOTE: Points toward the 2010 Street Car Shootout Series Season Championship are awarded on the basis of five (5) points for qualifying in the Super Sixteen field with one (1) bonus point awarded for qualifying in the top four positions. One (1) additional point is earned for each round win during eliminations. Ties are broken by (1) the earliest date upon which the final point total is earned, (2) quickest elapsed time recorded during the current SCSS season and (3) fastest speed recorded during the current SCSS season.

MARCH 30th, 2010 STLSR.COM SPORT TUNER SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND


Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH

W Dan Harris St. Louis, MO 2004 232 Mustang 0.112 12.115 108.00
RU Phillip Van Booven, St. Charles, MO 1992 122 Laser -0.010 (foul) 11.811 122.01


After suffering breakage during the season-opening event a week prior, Dan Harris came back with a vengeance to score his first title of the year in the St. Louis Street Racing.com (http://www.stlsr.com/) Sport Tuner Showdown. With his fourteenth career battle for the trophy, the past GIR High School Eliminator season champion is now tied with the inimitable Adam Corbitt for appearing in the most Sport Tuner final rounds.

With new spider gears replacing the ones destroyed on GIR’s exceptionally hard-hooking new surface, Harris made the Tuner field with his nitrous oxide-assisted 232-cubic inch V6-powered 2004 Mustang at 12.39/108.32 but found himself almost two tenths of a second behind the qualifying leader. It was Phillip Van Booven, a three-time winner and six-time finalist in the Tuner series, who led the field with a 12.23/116.64 in his silver 1992 Plymouth Laser in its first appearance since late 2008. The rest of the quick field included a second rear-wheel-drive six-cylinder Mustang, the 245-cubic inch 2004 version of Kyle Bement, which broke into the twelve-second zone for the first time, (12.87/110.39), Justin Criswell’s primered-but-potent turbocharged four-cylinder ’89 Dodge Colt station wagon, (a best-ever 13.09/111.55), and Zack Fricke’s strong front-wheel-drive supercharged six-cylinder 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix in its first event since 2007, (another best-ever 13.10/106.12). Of note was the seventh Tuner qualifier, (behind the 13.39/106.95 of Andy Crompton’s FWD 2002 Monte Carlo), was the return to the track of SCSS Rotary Record Holder Eric Cheatham. Away from the series since late 2006 when he parked his infamous blue ’93 Mazda RX7, Cheatham appeared with his newest “daily driver”, a white ’94 RX7, which clocked a best of 13.58/111.64 in its first trip to the track. No word was given on the date for the return of “Ol’ Blue”, however.

Low qualifier Van Booven was sorting out a brand new turbocharged 4G63T powerplant and the fresh two-liter was produced to better the all-wheel drive car’s previous 11.2-second, 125 mph efforts. In the final round, however, the diminutive Mitsubishi-powered MoPar actually suffered from too much traction; Van Booven was pulled out the beams ten thousandths of a second too soon for a redlight start which negated his improving 11.81/122.01 effort. Harris’ “Six Bang ‘Stang” also stepped up to a 12.11/108.00 but it wasn‘t needed. “We put smaller-diameter tires on it this year”, noted Van Booven during trophy presentations front of the main grandstands, “and it hooked really well in the final round. The smaller tire and less slip meant it came out of the beams quicker and that’s where that super-close redlight came from!”. Harris had battled a few problems of his own during qualifying but he took his seventh win in stride. “I had a switch problem which kept the nitrous from coming in on the runs after the 12.39 and I was really hoping to take advantage of the conditions and get an eleven-second pass out of this thing”, said Harris, “but I just got lucky in the final round when Phil fouled because my car still wasn‘t running right, anyway!”.







MARCH 30th, 2010 ST. LOUIS DRAG RACING.COM SUPER TRUCK SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND

Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH

W Andrew Rhodes, Hannibal, MO 1992 406 S-10 0.235 11.394 118.43
RU Gary Nichelson, New London, MO 1970 406 C-10 0.407 11.346 117.87


For several seasons, Andy Rhoades has presented one of the best appearing pickups in the St. Louis Drag Racing.com (http://www.stldragracing.com/) Super Truck Showdown but always seemed to be knocked out of the running during the final moments of qualifying. At the helm of his show-quality maroon-and-silver S-10 pickup, Rhodes finally found the winner‘s circle in a battle of first-time finalists.

Initially, it seemed twelve-time Super Truck champion Kevin Autenrieth had the title in hand after a tremendous 9.00/147.62 qualifying effort to lead the field with his SCSS record-holding 434-inch nitrous oxide-injected smallblock Chevy-powered ‘91 S-10. He was followed by the classic 1970 Chevy C-10 of Gary Nichelson, (a best-ever 11.39/119.03), but, when Autenrieth and the flagship of the Lowe Performance (http://www.loweperformance.net) team were sidelined with a distinct lack of oil pressure, Rhodes’ similar 406-inch small block-powered rig got a spot in the final round as first alternate after running a best of 11.47/117.99. The rest of the very quick Super Truck field included the amazing 372-inch Hemi-powered 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee of Jarod Doyle, (which improved on last season‘s 12.23/110.33 best with a 12.11/112.47!), and two-time finalist Jimmy Price, whose wild 464-inch Buick-powered ‘84 El Camino dropped a half-second during the off-season, ( a best-ever 12.29/110.41).

Nichelson’s C-10, sporting new light blue colors, was using nitrous oxide injection on its 406-inch smallblock but, ironically, Rhodes was “staying off the button”. Stated Rhodes, “I really didn’t want to hurt it and it was running consistently without the nitrous so, after realizing how closely Gary and I were matched, I decided to keep running without it”. Incredibly, Rhodes’ lack of horsepower was salvaged by his driving skills; a holeshot of seventeen hundredths of a second kept his 11.39/118.43 ahead of Nichelson’s quicker but losing 11.34/117.87 by a mere twenty-two feet at the finish line. “My truck is big and it’s all steel”, said a chuckling Nichelson after the run, “so I was giving up a thousand pounds to Andy but he stayed off the bottle like he said he would and it was actually a heck of a race!”. Rhodes, who painted his gorgeous S-10 himself and built its new 406 motor during the winter, finally couldn’t resist the temptation to push the button. After the trophy presentations, he headed back into the staging lanes for one more run and “sprayed it good”, posting a career-best 10.20/131.16!





Photos of the March 30th Street Car Shootout Series event are now available for viewing at Bret Kepner Photos.com (http://www.BretKepnerPhotos.com).




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Ray Arthur, Edwardsville, IL 1967 555 Camaro

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Steve George, Arnold, MO 1971 634 Nova
New SCSS Record Holder at 7.64 seconds, 184.27 mph!

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Dan Harris, St. Louis, MO 2004 232 Mustang

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Phillip Van Booven, St. Charles, MO 1992 122 Laser

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Andrew Rhodes, Hannibal, MO 1992 406 S-10

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Gary Nichelson, New London, MO 1970 406 C-10