“Shockwave” and “Showtime” Square Off
North Star Dragway - Denton, TX
April 3rd, 2010
Event #1 of 8
Report & Photos: Chris Graves, Max Cackle Photos

Entering it’s fourteenth season, the Outlaw Fuel Altered series embarked on a new season of racing on Saturday, April 3rd, at North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas. The first event of the eight race 2010 OFAA season was highly promoted and those promotions paid off as a record 20 member cars attended and nitro hungry fans lined up past the finish line on both sides of the track. The weather couldn’t have been better for the OFAA season opener and after the annual group photo, teams warmed up and made their final adjustments for qualifying as twenty cars would battle for one of the ten qualifying positions.

(Outlaw Fuel Altereds 2010)

(It was a packed house at North Star Dragway on OFAA Night!)

Bobby Marriott came into Denton as your 2009 Champion after putting together a string of three consecutive OFAA Championships dating back to 2007, plus two more in 1999 and 2003. Needless to say, he is the car to beat. But with a new season comes a new crop of power and with plenty of time to test before the first race, some big expectations were set for the OFAA teams as the cars pulled into the staging lanes for first qualifying session.

Opening the action was David Purifoy in the “Thrill Factor” along side Mary Reep in the “Grim Reeper” machine. Reep had recently clicked off her first three second pass at Houston Raceway Park with a 3.99 but her luck ran out early in Denton as she launched hard and shortly ran into mechanical issues, blowing both head gaskets and ending her North Star Dragway outing earlier than expected. Meanwhile, Purifoy laid down a nice 4.13 at 167 mph on a strong and clean pass.

There was a lot of tire shake and pedaling in the first session, but Nick Poloson made a nice opening lap in the “Sundown” machine with a 4.15 at 171 mph after some promising testing results at San Antonio Raceway a few weeks prior. Mitch King fired-up and had an interesting set of hands running the starter on his “Bone Bucket” altered, those of Top Fuel Champion Spencer Massey. King got off the line but was on and off the throttle three times with the front wheels in the air for most of the 4.45 pass. Howard Knowles made the tow from Carthage, Missouri and went into a big wheelstand in his newly painted “Cheaper Than Therapy” machine, clicking off a 4.93. Anthony Whitfield and company towed from Elk City, Kansas in the “Mighty Mouse” altered and also encountered an unplanned wheelstand at the hit resulting in an aborted pass. Dick Demets, an original member of the Outlaw Fuel Altereds back in 1996, made his long overdue comeback in the “Bowtie Bandit” fuel altered, now as a tuner/owner and the team made their first squirt with a brand new car with a 6.14 at 95 mph.

(Howard Knowles)

(Anthony Whitfield)

(Dick Demets)

Terry Anglin stole the show in session one with his very impressive career best 4.06 at 175 mph to claim the second position early. On top was none other than Mr. Consistency, Donny McSwain in the “II N’Tense” machine who went 4.00 at 180 mph to notch the top spot after one. The first session was a rough outing for a handful of teams as not only Mary Reep, but Rich Howell, Mitch King, Jack Hodgson and Keith Anglin all also broke ending their raceday earlier than expected. OFAA newcomers Mark Bowman in “Blown Income” and Steve Tryon in “Bad Company” debuted their beautiful cars but struggled in their first passes at North Star and had one more attempt to get in the big show.

(Donny McSwain)

(Steve Tryon)

(Mark Bowman)

(Nick Poloson & Steve Tryon, Carl Oberman Photo)

(Rich Howell & Clint Cross)

(Rich Howell)

In the second session, Donnie Massey stepped up to a 4.24 at 164 mph along side a pedaling Bobby Marriott, who went into the session not qualified after his 4.37 was disqualified when DoDad Burton hit the finish line cones in the first session. Marriott lost traction early and pedaled the “Shockwave” altered three or four times on his way to a 4.939 at 162 mph which left him outside the field by one thousandths of a second to Howard Knowles’ 4.938. Terry Anglin came out next and backed up his previous 4.06 with a 4.10 at 175 mph. Nick Poloson and DoDad Burton lined up and both enjoyed a wonderful side by side career best pass, as Poloson went 4.02 at 174 mph good for the second qualifying position and Burton went 4.17 at 174 mph to qualify fifth. Congratulations to both teams!

(DoDad Burton)

“Tom, Greg and I on the Sundown team are ecstatic about our personal best time of 4.02 in qualifying. We definitely were trying to improve on that in the elimination round, but the air continued to change while we were in the staging lanes and we didn't have time to make a final adjustments to the tune-up and we slowed down. We still had a great run and didn't have any problems. We know our first three second pass is there and now we are more motivated than ever!” said Poloson.

(Nick Poloson)

(Chris Trussell)

Chris Trussell wheeled the “Assassin” machine to a nice 4.35, his second of the night, to qualify eighth. Aaron Leyda wheeled the “Hemi Hunter” from Independence, Kansas and owned by Dale “Lurch” Wilkens to a 4.31 at 161 mph to nab the seventh spot. Clint Cross, Anthony Whitfield, Mark Bowman, and Steve Tyron all made both qualifying attempts but missed the cut. Donny McSwain led the series last season with three number one qualifiers and started off 2010 back atop the list with a record twenty total cars in attendance. This is without the names like John Broussard, Tim Hay, Travis Bouchey, Brad Rigler, Mark Jones, Sean Belt or Jim Overly who are all frequent participants of the OFAA series. We hope to see all of them back in action this season, hopefully at the next event May 8th at Dallas Raceway. Mitch King’s 4.45 was good enough for the number nine spot, but per OFAA rules, the number 11 qualifier takes any broken cars position, so Marriott was inserted to the number nine position in place of King.

(Mitch King)

Final Qualifying Order:

1) Donny McSwain (Rockwall, Texas) – 4.00 @ 180
2) Nick Poloson (Bulverde, Texas) – 4.02 @ 174
3) Terry Anglin (Terrell, Texas) – 4.06 @ 175
4) David Purifoy (Texarkana, Texas) – 4.13 @ 167
5) DoDad Burton (Tyler, Texas) – 4.17 @ 174
6) Donnie Massey (Little Elm, Texas) – 4.24 @ 164
7) Aaron Leyda (Independence, Kansas) – 4.31 @ 161
8) Chris Trussell (Canton, Texas) – 4.35 @ 167
9) Mitch King (Galveston, Texas) – 4.45 @ 123
10) Howard Knowles (Carthage, Missouri) – 4.938 @ 156
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11) Bobby Marriott (Pilot Point, Texas) – 4.939 @ 161
12) Steve Tryon (Broken Arrow, Oklahoma) – 5.08 @ 110
13) Mark Bowman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) – 5.43 @ 142
14) Demets / Tryon (Dallas, Texas) - 6.14 @ 95
15) Mary Reep (Austin, Texas) – 6.49 @ 54
16) Clint Cross (Cross Roads, Texas) – 8.00 @ 66
17) Rich Howell (Yorba Linda, California) – 14.75 @ 24
18) Anthony Whitfield (Independence, Kansas) – 18.75 @ 19
19) Keith Anglin (Terrell, Texas) – Broke 20) Jack Hodgson (Waco, Texas) – Broke

First round of eliminations got underway with DoDad Burton and Howard Knowles pairing up and Knowles took this one over at the start with a .0027 reaction time which earned him the win with a 4.28 at 163 mph over Burton’s quicker but loosing 4.21 at 172 mph. Nick Poloson came out next along side Aaron Leyda. Leyda got a slight advantage off the line but his 4.34 at 167 mph wasn’t strong enough to hold off Poloson’s 4.10 at 172 mph. Bobby Marriott burned out next along side David Purifoy. Purifoy was heavily favored in this pairing as he made two successful qualifying passes while Marriott struggled in both sessions and limped into eliminations as an alternate. Purifoy cut the best light of the round with a.0020 reaction time and clicked off a career best 4.06 at 174 mph but lost to Marriott’s stunning 3.93 at 189 mph. WOW! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, David Purifoy and team owner Herb Whisnant are the most overdue for an OFAA win, much less a trip to the final round, than anyone currently running in the series. Marriott got the win by nine thousandths of a second and with two pair to go, looked very likely to advance to the final, but against who?

(Aaron Leyda)

(Aaron Leyda)

Terry Anglin and Chris Trussell rolled through the water box next and Anglin got the nod with a strong 4.09 at 174 mph over Trussell’s 4.39 at 161 mph. With one pair remaining and the quickest two winners advancing to the final, it was Marriott and Anglin set to do battle, but with the “Showtime” machine of Donnie Massey and the “II N’Tense” machine of Donny McSwain sitting in the lanes, Anglin’s 4.09 probably didn’t feel very safe. Massey got a slight advantage on the line and laid down his best pass of the night, a 4.03 at 181 mph to take out McSwain’s 4.10 at 180 mph. The only two nitro cars in the field both advanced to the all fuel final, as the other teams packed up and joined the fans along the fence to witness this cackle filled final in Denton.

First Round Eliminations:

(W) Howard Knowles (.002 rt) 4.28 at 163 mph vs. (L) DoDad Burton (.224 rt) 4.21 at 172 mph
(W) Nick Poloson (.043 rt) 4.10 at 172 mph vs. (L) Aaron Leyda (.014 rt) 4.34 at 167 mph
(W) Bobby Marriott (.122 rt) 3.93 at 189 mph vs. (L) David Purifoy (.002) 4.06 at 174 mph
(W) Terry Anglin (.022 rt) 4.09 at 174 mph vs. (L) Chris Trussell (.177 rt) 4.39 at 161 mph
(W) Donnie Massey (.163 rt) 4.03 at 181 mph vs. (L) Donny McSwain (.168 rt) 4.10 at 180 mph

(Donnie Massey, Photo by Carl Oberman)

In a repeat of last year’s final round at this event, Massey and Marriott thundered to the line and were off almost dead even at the hit. Both cars header flamed through the full eighth mile without lifting and Marriott lit up the scoreboards with the win, a 3.98 at 180 mph to Massey’s 4.10 at 182 mph. Marriott and team “Shockwave” impressed by getting in as an alternate and taking home the win at their home track.

(Massey vs. Marriott, Carl Oberman Photo)

“This was a very special win, we had a lot of family and friends there and after qualifying we weren't looking very smart, having not gotten down the track in two attempts. After getting in as an alternate, Snorter, Allen and Scott hit on the perfect combination and the car loved it,” said Marriott, who was testing his previously un-run back-up motor in Denton.

Final Round Results:

(W) Bobby Marriott (.121 rt) 3.98 at 180 mph vs. (L) Donnie Massey (.120 rt) 4.10 at 182 mph

(Team "Shockwave")

It was an event for the record books, some teams left with career best time slips while some left with carnage at the bottom of their oil pan, so is drag racing. But overall, a huge success for the Outlaw Fuel Altered Association and congratulations goes out to all the participants and team “Shockwave” for earning the first event win of the 2010 season. The series would like to welcome again Steve Tryon, Mark Bowman and Keith Anglin who all debuted their cars for the first time at Denton as well as welcome back Dick Demets and Mitch King to all the fun. The next stop on the OFAA tour is May 8th at Dallas Raceway in Crandall, Texas where another huge field is expected!

Click Here to see photos from this event.

Low Elapsed Time - Bobby Marriott (3.93)
Top Mile Per Hour - Bobby Marriott (189 mph)

Bonus Winners:

Good Vibrations Quick Reaction Time - David Purifoy