Poloson Doubles Up in Denton
Story - Chris Graves
The evening of April 5th at North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas started a new chapter for the Outlaw Fuel Altered Association under its new series sponsor Royal Purple Oil. After an off season that seemed busier than most, nineteen blown fuel altereds came to fight for points, prestige and pride under a vibrant spring time Texas sky. The large field tied the series car count record and amazingly six teams that earned points last season did not make the trip, showing just how much the circuit is growing (I hear rumors of up to four more teams in the works that will hopefully come play this season). The first event of the eight race tour is usually feast or famine as teams test new parts and performance combinations all seeking the slightest edge over the competition. This held true in Denton.
In past years the championship battle usually boiled down to two cars duking it out in the last event of the season, but don’t be surprised if there are a handful of teams with a fighting chance to take home the crown in the final events of the year. After speaking to many people about their progress over the winter I assure you the team who ends up on top at seasons end will have earned every bit of their title as 2008 OFAA Champions.
It has become the norm to welcome new faces and racecars to the Outlaw Fuel Altered family each year and that tradition continued as Anthony Whitfield and Roy Sanchez debuted their hot rods for the first time in competition. Whitfield, a former Eric Medlen crew member, sporting a 400 C.I. Chevrolet blown alcohol set up called “Mighty Mouse” and Sanchez wheeling a 1948 Fiat with an 85% nitro 427 Chevy branded “Nitro Coupe.”
(Anthony Whitfield in the "Mighty Mouse")
Denton also hosted the return of the Cross. Bros “Crossways” machine and Jack Heslink’s “Punisher” with son J.T. behind the wheel, who recently served in the U.S. Navy and is loving life behind the wheel. In an interesting twist, the qualifying rounds of the Denton event also served as elimination rounds from the rained out 2007 final event this past October at Pine Valley Raceway in Lufkin, TX. Not only are the teams fighting for a spot in the field, but the ten qualified cars from Lufkin were battling for an event win at the same time.
(The brand new Royal Purple Merchandise Trailer)
Prior to qualifying, the OFAA members and fans paid tribute to long time friend and driver Bob Voirin who has dedicated a half century of his life to the sport of drag racing especially in the fuel altered scene and spent the last ten years as a prominent member of the association. Voirin’s career is highlighted with many impressive accomplishments and decided at the start of this year to hang up his helmet and sell his “All American” AA/FA. The car was purchased by Roy and Chris White, owner and driver of the “White Lightning” team. The White’s plan to run the car and leave the paint as it was when they bought it in a tribute to Voirin who has helped many race teams and was involved in the formation of the series back in the mid 1990’s. The starting line was packed as series announcer Kay Wright read a dedication to Bob followed by the first cackle of the day from Dale “Lurch” Wilkens who made a squirt in the “All American” car before Voirin let it go home with the White family that night.
Nick Poloson and Donnie Massey rolled out to kick off the 2008 season with side by side burnouts and get first round of qualifying underway. Poloson went 4.37 at 166 mph while Massey got out of shape and lifted early. Jack Hodgson fields one of the baddest blown alcohol altereds in the circuit and laid down a monstrous 3.93 at 177 mph in the “Southern Outlaw.” Brad Rigler’s “Toxic” clicked off a very respectable 4.14 at 171 mph in the other lane as the two set the pace early. The OFAA’s youngest pilot, eighteen year old John Broussard set a new career best mark with a 4.20 at 163 mph in the Louisiana based “Purple Haze” machine. Defending champ Bobby Marriott brought out a new look “Shockwave” car and picked up right where he left off last year with a strong 4.06 at 188 mph. Tim Hay’s “High Voltage Hayride” went on a wild guardrail to centerline ride and tripped the clocks with a 4.55 at 131 mph. Anthony Whitfield’s “Mighty Mouse” Chevrolet went 4.60 at 127 mph which was enough to slide into the bottom half of the field. The “Nitro Madness” gang from Des Moines, Iowa made the tow to Denton with new pilot Sean Belt wheeling the beautiful Fiat bodied hot rod. Belt’s 4.78 at 113 mph was good enough to get him in the field after first session. Poloson and Hay were the two quickest winners out of the Lufkin elimination rounds and would line up in the second qualifying session to decide an event champ. Many teams did not make the laps they were looking for on their first attempts of the year and the qualifying ladder would surely see a big shuffle in the next session as these teams fine tuned their combinations in an effort to bump into the quick ten.
(Nancy Marriott warming up the new look "Shockwave")
(John Broussard in the "Purple Haze")
(DoDad Burton in "Free Spirit")
Donnie Massey improved on his career best with a very nice 4.05 at 172 mph, his best pass since switching to fuel. Whitfield improved to a 4.51 at 154 mph in the other lane, good enough to qualify at his first OFAA event in the “Mighty Mouse.” Rigler stayed strong with a 4.30 at 166 mph with Missouri runner Howard Knowles in the other lane who struggled to a 6.92 and failed to make the cut. The next pair resulted in an extremely scary incident with OFAA rookie Chris White in his race with Bobby Marriott. White started getting out of shape around half track and he worked the steering wheel hard in an effort to get in the show. As he closed on the finish line White lost control when some welds failed in the steering system and sent him steadily shooting across the track into Marriott’s lane. White collided with the wall past the traps which busted the fuel tank open and at this point it got very ugly. The car caught on fire as it came to a stop, luckily without colliding with Marriott who used his years of driving experience to miss White as he crossed in front of him. The fire got more intense as each second passed with White still strapped in the car. Ironically, White is a 21 year old fully trained firefighter and applied his knowledge and experience of fires to the full extent in this chilling situation.
“The car seemed to quit responding and around the finish line it took a wicked turn so I grabbed the wheel and it went up on its side with sparks shooting everywhere. Suddenly, the car took a turn for the opposite wall. All I could think about was running into Bobby. I wasn’t slowing down at all so I hit the chute and bent the brake handle because I was pulling so hard. The car hit the wall and bounced me around a lot, then started skipping to a stop and suddenly BOOM. Everything just took a bad turn. I was on fire and it was in the car with me wanting to play, but I wasn’t in the mood for any games. The car finally slid to a stop and the fire started getting worse. I knew it was time to get out, fast. My next problem my new seat belt that I had not used before. I struggled for a second or two finding the switch to unbuckle. At this point, my whole lap and the inside of car were fully involved. I tried to stand up and jump out, but I was hung up. Instead of panicking, I sat back down to calm myself as the fire just got bigger and hotter. I flipped the belts back after finally unbuckling and climbed out. I started to run and realized the fire was following me as my boots and gloves were still on fire,” explained White.
(The Chris White fire aftermath)
Marriott, in the opposing lane, had a front row seat for the experience. “My car smoked the tires and I looked over and saw Chris’ car with no right front wheel heading for my lane. The A-frame had broken off and he had no control. I got on the brake hard and he crossed in front of me and hit the guard rail in my lane. The car immediately burst into flames and before I could get stopped and get to him, he thankfully came jumping out of the car. If the North Star Dragway track crew hadn't been there quickly with their track fire truck, the car would have burnt to the ground.”
After the clean up racing resumed with the Poloson vs. Hay pairing that was also the Lufkin 2007 final round. Hay blew the burst panel in a huge ball of fire at the hit of the throttle and Poloson improved to a 4.26 to take the win and solidify his number six starting spot. Donnie McSwain returned to action after an intense final round crash at Prescott, Arkansas (ironically also against Marriott) which totaled his show car quality racecar last spring. After almost a year of hard work by McSwain’s crew, led by Kenny Trumble, the team debuted “II Intense” and got in the show with a 4.43 at 141 mph in their first race back. Broussard made his best start in his second season behind the wheel from the number five spot and went 4.30 in second session. David Purifoy made his OFAA debut in Herb Whisnant’s “Thrill Factor” machine and made it in on the bump spot with a 4.681 at 153 mph from the first session. Roy Sanchez missed the field by eight thousandths of a second in his first event with the best of a 4.689. Sean Belt, Larry Reep, Clint Cross, Howard Knowles, J.T. Heslink, DoDad Burton and Dale Wilkens all packed up early as Jack Hodgson’s 3.93 led qualifying heading into first round eliminations. Unfortunately for the Waco based outlaws, their 3.93 resulted in a crucial parts failure and ended their night early bumping Donnie Massey’s 4.05 to the top spot. Tim Hay also called it a night after his boomer in the second session. Roy Sanchez and Sean Belt were brought in from the #11 and #12 alternate spots to fill the field.
(Tim Hay in the "High Voltage Hayride")
Travis Bouchey missed the event due to an illness and recently lost his title of North Star Dragway’s track record holder to Aaron Tatum’s A/Fuel Dragster who went 3.58 at 219 mph. Bouchey closed out the most recent event at Denton with a 3.78 at 203 mph in the final round which held as the track record for seven months. Fans should plan on attending the May 17th event at Denton because Mitch King’s “Bone Bucket,” the quickest fuel altered in Texas, plans to bring that record back to the fuel altereds. King has been 3.60’s a few times and with supreme conditions feels that the record is not out of reach.
Final Qualifying Order:
1) Jack Hodgson – 3.93
2) Donnie Massey – 4.05
3) Bobby Marriott – 4.06
4) Brad Rigler – 4.15
5) John Broussard – 4.20
6) Nick Poloson – 4.26
7) Donny McSwain – 4.43
8) Anthony Whitfield – 4.51
9) Tim Hay – 4.55
10) David Purifoy – 4.681
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11) Roy Sanchez - 4.689
12) Sean Belt – 4.78
13) Larry Reep – 5.17
14) Clint Cross – 6.59
15) Howard Knowles – 6.92
16) Chris White – 7.37
17) J.T. Heslink – 9.46
18) DoDad Burton – NT
19) Dale Wilkens – NT
Marriott and Whitfield got eliminations underway in a close race. Marriott got the win at 4.42 over Whitfield’s 4.58. Whitfield made it down the track on all three laps, a feat not many could claim on this night. The track temperature had dropped drastically after the sun ducked behind the North Texas skyline. A betting man wouldn’t have a chance at picking the results as the round continued and changing track conditions threw many teams a curve ball. Roy Sanchez’s 5.03 defeated John Broussard who fell off after an air bottle leak. McSwain tattooed Massey off the line with a .261 advantage needed all he could get as Massey clicked off a nice 4.32 at 170 mph but lost to McSwain’s slower 4.58 at 142 mph. Brad Rigler’s “Toxic” took out Sean Belt with a nice 4.26 at 156 mph which made him one of the quickest winner and advanced him to the final with one pair to go. At this point the final looked like a match up between Rigler and Marriott. In the final pair, David Purifoy had blower belt issues at the starting line and was forced to shutoff as Poloson’s car leaned out and died on the burnout in the opposing lane. Purifoy’s machine could not fire, so Poloson was re-started and went low for the round with a blistering 4.14 at 177 mph (a new top speed for the team) which bumped Marriott out of the final. The “Sundown” machine of Poloson had a date with Mr. Toxic in an all blown alcohol final round showdown at Denton. This was Poloson’s second final round of the evening and could possibly pull off the first OFAA “Double Up.”
(Nick Poloson in Tom Wood's "Sundown)
First Round Eliminations:
(W) Bobby Marriott (.106 rt, 4.42 at 161 mph) vs. (L) Anthony Whitfield (.209 rt, 4.58 at 149 mph)
(W) Roy Sanchez (.351 rt, 5.30 at 101 mph) vs. (L) John Broussard (.482 rt, 7.89 at 58 mph)
(W) Donnie McSwain (.046 rt, 4.58 at 142 mph) vs. (L) Donnie Massey (.307 rt, 4.32 at 170 mph)
(W) Brad Rigler (.125 rt, 4.26 at 156 mph) vs. (L) Sean Belt (.145 rt, 9.53 at 52 mph)
(W) Nick Poloson (.029 rt, 4.14 at 177 mph) vs (L) David Purifoy (Broke)
The final was a crapshoot. Poloson had been running very well for the past six or seven events dating back to last year while Rigler is always a threat proven by his 2005 and 2006 series championships and lethal final round record of 7-3 in his past ten trips to the last dance. Poloson got the advantage off the line by two hundredths and the two battled side by side down the tricky track surface. At the stripe Poloson took the win, his second of the night, with a 4.28 at 167 mph to Rigler’s 4.31 at 164 mph. What a drag race!
Final Round Eliminations:
(W) Nick Poloson (.057 rt, 4.28 at 167 mph) vs. (L) Brad Rigler (.077 rt, 4.31 at 164 mph)
(The "Sundown" team celebrating their first win)
“It was getting very chilly and the track just didn’t have enough heat for the fuel altereds. The runs were challenging. When we were downloading the data recorder after our runs, our car was shaking and spinning so bad that the drive shaft RPM graph looked like a row of shark’s teeth. We made it to the final and of course I left on Brad, (wink, wink!) but it was close. I’ll bet we swapped the lead by a couple of feet four or five times as we shook and skated to the finish line. The “Sundown” car took the stripe first by inches (from the time slip, margin of victory 0.04 sec.) and then the party started! What a great Saturday night for Tom, Keith and I, we can’t wait for Shreveport,” says Poloson.
The Royal Purple Outlaw Fuel Altered Association is set to hold the second event of the season at Red River Raceway in Shreveport, Louisiana on Saturday, May 3rd. Nick Poloson and car owner Tom Wood are proudly carrying their first points lead into competition at Shreveport. There are almost twenty more cars that are hungry for some precious Royal Purple points and the action at Shreveport should be impressive. Chris White will not be held down long and will run his new “All American” car at Shreveport while the “White Lightning” car is repaired. The series would like to thank Smiley’s Racing Products and Disciple Cycles for their continuing event bonus programs that were won by Donnie Massey and David Purifoy.
Low E.T. - Jack Hodgson (3.93)
Top Speed - Bobby Marriott (188 mph)
Event Photos:
Gallery 1 - Gallery 2
Photos by Picture Perfect Photography
