Wood & Poloson Dominate Denton
North Star Dragway - Denton, TX
Witko Nationals - June 5th, 2010
Event #4 of 8
Report & Photos: Chris Graves, Max Cackle Photos
The Outlaw Fuel Altered Association reached the mid-point of the 2010 racing season in their fourth event held at North Star Dragway on June 5th as a part of the Witko Nationals Summer Kick-Off, sharing the spotlight with the Texas Blown Fuel Association, Outlaw Top Gas Motorcycles and more. This is the third event in six weeks for the OFAA series and with such frequent racing, parts attrition is a part of the game. Unfortunately, Mary Reep’s “Grim Reeper” and the duo of Demets & Hale’s “Bowtie Bandit” had to miss the fourth event with broken parts and pieces, but the OFAA did welcome Howard Farris and Todd Simpson who were both making their series debut in Denton.
Farris was one of the original OFAA members fielding the heavy hitting “No Fear” alcohol burner, which last competed in 2001 before being sold to Eric Buchanan. Farris and company debuted their 1948 full bodied “War Wagon” nitro Fiat here in Denton and what a mean and nasty looking ride it is! The Simpson family debuted their blown alcohol fuel altered this weekend as well, with current NHRA / IHRA Top Fuel & Funny Car driver Todd Simpson behind the wheel. The Simpson family brings a wealth of knowledge to the table as Todd and company are many time Alcohol Funny Car Division 4 Champions, be warned, this car will be a player in a field of cars that show no mercy!
(Team "War Wagon" preparing for qualifying)
(Team Simpson warming-up for first session)
(Wood & Poloson warming-up)
Bobby Marriott, your back to back to back OFAA Champion, took home the win at the last event at the Texas Motorplex over Jack Hodgson in a wild final round. This put Marriott and team “Shockwave” back in the points lead over Terry Anglin and Nick Poloson. A total of fourteen cars came to battle the heat and put on a show for the capacity crowd at North Star Dragway. With missing names like Mary Reep, Brad Rigler, Tim Hay, Travis Bouchey, Mitch King, Demets & Hale, Rich Howell, Clint Cross, Howard Knowles, Anthony Whitfield, Mark Bowman, Steve Tryon and more not in competition it opened the door for a handful of other teams to duke it out in Denton, although many of those names were in the stands (with damaged racecars) watching and supporting their fellow OFAA racers!
(Jack Hodgson's crew mounted a safety wheel on the headers of the "Southern Outlaw" to help Jack keep the car under control, after a wild incident two weeks before in the final at Ennis.)
Aaron Leyda and John Broussard got the action started in first qualifying session. Broussard ran into big time tire shake on the burnout which damaged the body so bad the run had to be aborted, while Leyda laid down a strong 4.20 at 173 mph in the Dale “Lurch” Wilkens tuned “Hemi Hunter” machine, their best pass of the season. Donnie Massey’s “Showtime” and Bobby Marriott’s “Shockwave” lined up next in an all nitro pairing, with Massey’s 4.13 leading Marriott’s 4.15 as the air temperature reached 100+ degrees. David Purifoy and the “Thrill Factor” laid down a 4.18 at 170 mph with Todd Simpson along side at 4.43, only the third full pass on the Simpson car.
(Aaron Leyda on his way to a career best 4.20!)
(John Broussard disappointingly climbing out)
Nick Poloson and team “Sundown” put down a stout 4.09 at 172 mph in the heat with Jack Hodgson pedaling his way to a 4.46 at 176 mph in the “Southern Outlaw”. Donny McSwain wheeled the “II N’Tense” Kenny Trumble tuned machine to low elapsed time and top speed of the round with a 4.02 at 183 mph with Keith Anglin’s “Texas Gold Rush” along side at 4.47 at 151 mph. Terry Anglin rolled out next in the “Psychotic Express” and posted a 4.21 at 169 mph with DoDad Burton clicking off a 4.36 at 168 mph in the other lane. Howard Farris closed the session with his first pass on the “War Wagon” shutting off early with a 6.13.
(On-Board with Terry Anglin - 4.21 @ 169)
(Nick Poloson & Jack Hodgson)
(Howard Farris' first pass in the "War Wagon")
(Donny McSwain in the "II N'Tense")
Chris Trussell and John Broussard both had one more attempt to qualify as the second and final session got started. Donnie Massey put down another 4.13 with Broussard along side, shaking the tire and pedaling his way to a 4.39 at 138 which got him in the field on the bump. Unfortunately, Broussard’s luck continues to be less that fortunate as the tire shake caused tremendous damage to the “Purple Haze” Louisiana based machine, breaking the body and snapping the rear wing strut.
("Purple Haze" wing strut damage)
(Donnie Massey in the "Showtime")
Nick Poloson came out and drove away from Bobby Marriott with a 4.05 at 180 mph which qualified team “Sundown” second while Marriott went right down broadway to a 4.16 at 186 mph. Aaron Leyda clicked off another career best pass in the “Hemi Hunter” with a strong 4.15 at 174 to qualify fourth, his best ever. Chris Trussell made his last shot count, posting a 4.30 at 167 mph to claim the number eight qualifying spot in the “Assassin”. Donny McSwain posted a duplicate 4.02 and looked like the car to beat heading into first round, while David Purifoy stepped up to a 4.15 at 171 mph to qualify fifth in the “Thrill Factor”. Although DoDad Burton and Terry Anglin didn’t improve, their first round time slips kept them in the top ten and moved into first round.
(Terry Anglin & DoDad Burton)
Unfortunately, Jack Hodgson’s back to back 4.46’s weren’t enough for the quick ten bump spot of 4.39 and he missed the cut after posting a runner-up finish two weeks before at the Texas Motorplex. Howard Farris shaved a second off his elapsed time in his second pass on the “War Wagon” posting a 5.12 and clearing out the mosquitoes on the starting line with a heavy load of nitro cackling from the pipes, welcome back Howard!
For the second time this year, Donny McSwain led the quickest ten cars into eliminations, as predicted by North Star Dragway announcer Nic Duty. With the unfortunate damage to Broussard, Todd Simpson was inserted from the first alternate position and would move on to first round to face the red hot Donny McSwain.
(Donny McSwain in the "II N'Tense" qualified #1)
(Todd Simpson made first round, inserted for Broussard who broke)
Back in the pits, team “Shockwave” was thrashing to repair a barrel valve issue but simply ran out of time and had to throw in the towel, which opened the door for Keith Anglin to jump into first round as the second alternate. So after a few adjustments, the field was set and the first round brought some great racing to the packed stands at the North Star Dragway Witko Nationals.
(Keith Anglin's "Texas Gold Rush")
Final Qualifying Order:
1) Donny McSwain (Rockwall, Texas) – 4.02 @ 179
2) Nick Poloson (San Antonio, Texas) – 4.05 @ 180
3) Donnie Massey (Little Elm, Texas) – 4.13 @ 160
4) Aaron Leyda (Independence, Kansas) – 4.151 @ 174
5) David Purifoy (Texarkana, Texas) – 4.154 @ 171
6) Bobby Marriott (Pilot Point, Texas) – 4.158 @ 167
7) Terry Anglin (Terrell, Texas) – 4.21 @ 169
8) Chris Trussell (Canton, Texas) – 4.30 @ 167
9) DoDad Burton (Flint, Texas) – 4.36 @ 168
10) John Broussard (Lake Charles, Louisiana) – 4.39 @ 138
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11) Todd Simpson (Ponder, Texas) – 4.43 @ 162
12) Keith Anglin (Garland, Texas) – 4.44 @ 161
13) Jack Hodgson (Waco, Texas) – 4.46 @ 176
14) Howard Farris (Springtown, Texas) – 5.12 @ 144
Chris Trussell and team “Assassin” rolled out along side Donnie Massey’s “Showtime” to begin first round eliminations. Trussell left first and took the win with a 4.30 at 170 mph while Massey ran into issues and lifted to an 8.50. Aaron Leyda came into eliminations qualified in the top half after running back to back career best passes and paired up with DoDad Burton in the “Free Spirit”. Leyda cut a .005 light and immediately was out of the groove, pedaling it three times to a 4.34 winning pass against Burton’s quicker but loosing 4.22 at 168 mph.
(Chris Trussell in the "Assassin")
(DoDad Burton's "Free Spirit")
Donny McSwain and Todd Simpson rolled out next and McSwain put down his third “four o” in a row with a 4.03 at 182 mph to take out Simpson’s 4.59 at 160 mph. David Purifoy and Keith Anglin were up next with Anglin posting his best numbers of the night with a 4.40 at 161 mph but Purifoy had the power and got the nod with a 4.15 at 171 mph. Purifoy’s 4.15 and McSwain’s 4.03 were the quickest winners with one pair left in the waterbox. Nick Poloson and Terry Anglin laid down side by side burnouts and crept into the beams in the final pair of the round. They were almost dead even on the tree but Poloson pulled away blasting to a career best 3.96 at 184 mph to knock out Anglin’s 4.18 at 170 mph. Poloson and McSwain would advance to the final with Aaron Leyda taking his second “Good Vibrations Quick Reaction Time Bonus” in a row with his .005 light in first round!
(David Purifoy in Herb Whisnant's "Thrill Factor")
First Round Eliminations:
(W) Chris Trussell (.083 rt) 4.30 @ 170 mph vs. (L) Donnie Massey (.168 rt) 8.50 @ 53 mph
(W) Aaron Leyda (.005 rt) 4.34 @ 164 mph vs. (L) DoDad Burton (.159 rt) 4.22 @ 168 mph
(W) Donny McSwain (.104 rt) 4.03 @ 182 mph vs. (L) Todd Simpson (.053 rt) 4.59 @ 160 mph
(W) David Purifoy (.016 rt) 4.15 @ 171 mph vs. (L) Keith Anglin (.017 rt) 4.40 @ 161 mph
(W) Nick Poloson (.096 rt) 3.96 @ 184 mph vs. (L) Terry Anglin (.095 rt) 4.18 @ 170 mph
This was Poloson & Wood’s second final round appearance and second three second pass of the season while McSwain was advancing to his first final of 2010. On paper, a winner was unpredictable and the two strongest cars of the evening survived to line up one last time to decide an event champion.
(The final round!)
As the cars crept into the beams the crews had done all they could do and it was up to the drivers as the amber bulbs flashed and McSwain got a slight starting line advantage. McSwain still had the advantage at half track, both cars were carrying the front wheels and haulin’ the mail to the stripe. McSwain’s car started spinning the tires as they neared the finish line and Poloson drove around with a 4.05 at 174 mph to take the win over McSwain’s 4.09 at 159 mph.
Final Round Results:
(W) Nick Poloson (.068 rt) 4.05 @ 174 mph vs. (L) Donny McSwain (.062 rt) 4.09 @ 159 mph
(Team "Sundown" in the winners circle!)
“What a night for the Sundown team! Tom (Wood) was making small changes in our tuning combination and in the first round we were rewarded with our best E.T. and MPH ever! In the final, Donnie McSwain and I were locked together for the entire race and we got to the stripe first by just inches. Thanks to North Star Dragway for a great race track all night and to all the fans that came out to watch and spend time with us in the pits,” said Poloson.
Team “Sundown” took their third career OFAA win in a great final round which catapulted them into the points lead by ten over Bobby Marriott, with Terry Anglin hanging strong in third. David Purifoy and Aaron Leyda round out your Top 5 halfway through the 2010 season. On a side note, former OFAA regular Tom Butherus and the “Rude Rat” team took the win in the Texas Blown Fuel series defeating Chris Stouffer in the final. Congratulations to Tom & Phyllis Butherus! Congratulations is also due to Keith Anglin, Aaron Leyda and Nick Poloson who all laid down career best numbers! The next stop on the OFAA 2010 tour takes the series to Ben Bruce Raceway in Evadale, Texas for their Independence Day Weekend event that will be held July 3rd.
Click Here to see photos from this event.
Low Elapsed Time - Nick Poloson (3.96)
Top Mile Per Hour - Bobby Marriott (186.80 mph)
Good Vibrations Quick Reaction Time - Aaron Leyda
