TOPEKA, KS (July 4, 2009) - Veteran racers dominated victory lane for the National Guard ADRL July 4, as Mike Janis earned his first Pro Extreme title, Shannon Jenkins scored his second Pro Nitrous trophy in as many days, Billy Glidden returned to winning in Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 after just one day's absence, Scott Gray picked up his third career Pro Extreme Motorcycle win and Elijah Morton joined Janis as a first-time winner in Extreme Pro Stock at the Hardee's Independence Drags III at Heartland Park Topeka.
Though a National Guard ADRL rookie this year, Janis is a former world champion with another sanctioning body and has been working on adapting his supercharged 1968 Camaro's tune-up to running the ADRL's eighth-mile race distance. After qualifying sixth in Topeka, he outran Wes Johnston in the opening round, received a free pass in round two when Neal Wantye's car broke during its burnout, ran a career-best 3.74 at 200.71 mph in the semis against Joshua Hernandez and defeated Cody Barklage with a strong 3.85-seconds pass at 197.65 in the Pro Extreme final.
"After going without a win all of last year in another series I was starting to wonder if we'd ever get one again, but we've really been working hard at getting better at this kind of racing," Janis said. "Hopefully it won't take that long to get another one."
Jenkins didn't have to wait long at all to follow-up his previous event National Guard ADRL win, as he was victorious July 3, also at Topeka, in the rain-postponed Ford Drive One Summer Drags V event from three weeks earlier when the series visited Martin, Michigan.
"It doesn't get any better than that," declared the man they call "The Iceman" after winning a record seventh National Guard ADRL event on Saturday night.
Number-one qualifier Jenkins drove his '68 Camaro to convincing wins over Thomas Myers, a redlighting Charles Carpenter and Stan Allen before coming up lucky in the final round when he suffered a loss of traction and ran an off-the-pace 5.17, but opponent Pat Stoken's car failed to start.
"I hate that happened to Pat; you always like to race for these things, but sometimes it's even better to be lucky," Jenkins said. "This was just one of those times."
Heading into Topeka and the make-up race from Michigan, Glidden, the reigning Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 world champion, had won the last five National Guard ADRL events in a row. That streak ended Friday night when he lost in the postponed Summer Drags quarter-finals, but only 24 hours later he was back to familiar ways.
After taking out Jason Wilson and making a solo pass when Todd Moyer had car trouble, Glidden said he "burned up" the nitrous-boosted, small-block Ford engine in his '06 GTO at the conclusion of a 4.09 semi-final win over Gary White. After swapping in a new motor for the final, Glidden admitted to a little apprehension as he approached the line, wondering if every wire, fitting and hose were in place and tuned to perfection.
They must have been, as Glidden exactly matched the 4.090 posted by Jeff Paulk in the opposite lane, but won courtesy of taking a .015 advantage off the start. It was Paulk's second appearance in a final round for the weekend after coming up just six thousandths short of his first National Guard ADRL win on Friday night.
"I lost two races by a combined total of 21-thousandths," Paulk pointed out later. "So that's not a bad weekend; just a bad result. We had fun, didn't tear anything up and are getting better at every race. I'll take that."
Also appearing in both the delayed Michigan final and the Topeka decider was Gray, who reversed his fortunes with a stripe-to-stripe win over Matt Prophit. Gray rode his '08 Suzuki to a fourth-place start, then took wins over Ronald Procopio, T.T. Jones and Ashley Owens, who he'd fallen to the previous day, before taking on Prophit.
Gray left with a .021 holeshot, and then made his best pass of the event at 4.25 and 167.49 to edge out Prophit and become the winningest rider in the class with three race titles to his name.
"I just race my own lane so I didn't even know how close Matt was, but most definitely it felt good to see that win light come on," Gray said. "Last night I had to race probably the hottest rider in the class right now (Owens) and then tonight I had the points leader (Prophit), so to beat them both today feels really good."
After qualifying 11th, Morton said he felt like his 824 c.i.-equipped 2007 Mustang was getting better in each round of eliminations, though it was a holeshot that earned him the win in round two against Doug Kirk after he took down Dean Goforth. In the semis, Morton took care of top qualifier Brian Gahm with a solid 4.14 pass, then repeated the number in the final while Jeff Dobbins coasted down the opposite lane after losing traction immediately off the start.
"We weren't even planning on coming out here," said Morton, who hails from Jacksonville, NC. "We usually just hang out and take it easy to celebrate the Fourth of July, but my guys told me they'd come if I would, so here we are. I'm glad we came."
With 27 entrants in the all-run Pro Jr. Dragster field, only Trevor Wilson had to survive five rounds of racing to earn his first National Guard Junior Minuteman trophy. Wilson, of Battle Creek, Michigan, ran the Topeka eighth mile in 7.80 seconds at 80.91 mph against a 7.73 dial to win in the final over Zana Hines.
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