Volume II, Issue 9, Page 11

This is my view of the final. 20 rows up and having an adult beverage on a perfect day for racing. At this point (about 700 feet) Houser had just pulled ahead to stay.
(Jok Nicholson photo).

THIRD AND FINAL ROUNDS

By Jok Nicholson

Strange things happened in the two hours between rounds as both of the Westcott cars had mechanical failures the previous round and couldn’t return in the allotted time. This means Jim Pancake has a bye run into the finals and Rick Houser will run Joe Teuton, Jr.

Jim Pancake won his round and made an easy pass of 9.354 at only 111.00 mph.

Rick Houser’s ‘Cuda launched and made another mild left turn but he held on to it and got past a red-lighting Joe Teuton who ran 8.740. Joe had to try for a .000 reaction time if he was to have a chance at the California Hemi and it didn’t work out this time.

The final was run during the Pro qualifying session Friday night and the grandstands were jammed. A final for the Mopar Hemi Challenge was being watched by probably 25,000 drag race fans.

The California Duster sponsored Hemi Cuda driven by Rick Houser was ready for the final. He laid down a .015 reaction time and a 8.652 at 151.32 to win the Hemi Shoot-out title over Jim Pancake. Pancake has respectable .062 light but he followed Houser through with a 8.705 at 150.68.

It looked like Pancake’s Dart might stay in front at first. He had an incredible (at least to me) 1.17 60’ to Houser’s 1.24. To put this in a little perspective, our new dragster ran a 1.169 60’ last weekend and ran 7.75 at 170.00. These Hemi cars weight over 3000 lbs and my dragster is a little over 1700 pounds. Think these guys have those suspensions working at maximum efficiency or what?

It was a great race and I enjoyed every round of it. If you ever get a chance to go watch a Hemi Challenge I hope you will go. Who knows how long valuable cars like these will be raced this hard in heads-up competition. The cost of building and maintaining these cars is staggering.

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1st Pair:

Charlie Westcott Jr. - bye run - 8.737 @ 151.58

2nd Pair:

Charlie Westcott - Winner - 8.769 @ 151.07
Joey Wilkes - 8.771 @ 149.00

Charlie wins with a .029 reaction to Wilkes’ .118

3rd Pair:

Fred Henson - Winner - 8.757 @ 149.86
Matt Hensley - 8.944 @ 151.85

A great .002 light by Hensley almost stole one but Hensley ran him down by the 1000’ marker and took the win.

4th pair:

Jim Pancake - Winner - 8.757 @ 147.68
Jim Daniels - 8.798 @ 149.07

Both driverS had great lights, .003 for Pancake and .010 for Daniels.

5th Pair:

Bucky Hess - Winner - 8.673 @ 151.83
Randy Warford - 8.846 @ 149.73

Hess set Low ET and Top Speed for the Hemi Shoot-out. Does anyone have anything for him today?

6th Pair:

Joe Teuton takes a single when opponent broke. 9.37 @ 110

7th pair:

Rick Houser - Winner - 8.700 @ 150.58
John Rains - 8.766 @ 150.50

8th Pair:

Larry Woo - Winner - 8.777 @ 150.10
David Barton - 8.815 @ 149.38

Third round pairing are:

Westcott Jr. vs Westcott Sr.
Fred Henson vs Jim Pancake
Buckey Hess vs Joe Teuton
Rick Houser vs Larry Woo