O’FALLON, MO (Mar. 18, 2010) – With just one day remaining before the American Drag Racing League (ADRL) opens its 2010 season with qualifying on Friday for the Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen, ADRL competitors are gearing up with varied approaches to the start of a new campaign Mar. 19-20, at Houston Raceway Park (HRP).
The ADRL’s season opener actually represents the second points-paying event toward its 2010 championships due to the series’ unique system that applies points earned in the final race of each calendar year toward qualifying for the next season’s championship playoff among the top eight finishers in each of five professional classes.
A year ago at Houston, the ADRL officially added Extreme Pro Stock to its national-event mix and Ohio’s Brian Gahm led nearly the entire season in points based on the strength of a league-leading four victories. His domination ended, however, with a narrow loss in the championship-deciding Speedtech Battle for the Belts final last fall at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas, where he also faltered in the opening round of eliminations on race day.
Not surprisingly, Gahm feels like he has unfinished business to attend to with his ’07 Mustang this season.
“Our season sure didn’t start off too good in Dallas when we had a miss in the motor, but we did some testing last week and everything is good now. Hopefully, Houston will be a lot better to us and we can rebuild from there,” he says.
Newly crowned Pro Extreme Motorcycle (PXM) World Champion Scott Gray is at the opposite end of the scale after backing up his Belts win with the Dallas event title. He arrives at HRP with the 2010 PXM points lead in hand.
“Right now we’re super excited; everything is going really well, we had a great test session and I’m feeling very confident in my team,” the Florida-based Suzuki rider declares. “We’ll just try to continue where we left off in Dallas and as long as I can stay consistent in my riding everything should be okay. We’ll just try to ride this out as long as we can and hopefully we’ll get another shot at the championship in October.”
After testing on the Houston eighth mile two weeks ago, 2009 Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 (XTF) World Champion Spiro Pappas also says he is “ready, ready, ready,” to begin the defense of his series title that began with a runner-up finish in Dallas to Chuck Ulsch—the same man he beat the night before in the XTF Battle for the Belts final to win the championship.
Still, Pappas insists he feels no added pressure; in fact, no pressure at all despite now carrying the bullseye of the number “1” on the windshield of his 2009 Pontiac GXP.
“I love a challenge,” he says. “I love to compete, and knowing I’m the champion from last year and knowing everyone is going to want to take me down is very motivating to me. Drag racing is a mind game and you need someone to race against who wants to win just as much as you do.
“I’m in the construction business, so my head is tied up in construction every day, but when I hear in the background that the (Billy) Gliddens or the Ulschs or the (Jeff) Naisers are gunning for me it just makes me want to get to the track that much more. It’s very motivating to me and I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel again.”
Thomas “Tom Slick” Myers of Granbury, Texas, also is anxious to get behind the wheel, but for a very different reason. After missing the Pro Nitrous Battle for the Belts cut with a 10th-place finish in his ’63 Corvette last year, Myers is showing up this weekend with a brand-new, never-before-tested 1970 Plymouth Duster. It’s the first car ever built specifically for Myers.
“It’s kind of hard to describe how I’m feeling right now. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to get out there and try it out, but at the same time with no opportunity to test I kind of feel like we’re behind the eight ball,” he admits.
“Realistically, we think there’s no reason we can’t run mid-3.80s with this car (the class record is 3.81 seconds by new Pro Nitrous World Champion Khalid Al-Balooshi at Dallas last year); maybe not right off the bat, but (car builder) Andy (McCoy) feels confident he’s got the chassis set up as close as possible for it without being on the track. So yeah, we’re all really looking forward to seeing what we can do,” Myers says. “But to be honest, the main thing I want out of this weekend is for people to see and appreciate this work of art that Andy McCoy built. It truly is an amazing car.”
Yet another ADRL racer arriving at HRP with at least some trepidation is current Pro Extreme (PX) points leader Alex Hossler, based on winning the event in Dallas last fall. Hossler says his team found a broken rear differential under his ’70 Camaro upon its return to Illinois early in March from the Middle East, where he managed a pair of PX wins in the ADRL-affiliated Arabian Drag Racing League in Doha, Qatar.
“We’ve had a new rearend on order since December, but it’s still not here so we had to borrow one from (PX rival) Cody Barklage to make it to Houston,” he explains. “We really appreciate Cody helping us out, but he uses a different gear ratio than we’re used to, so that will be a challenge. But hopefully, we’ll get it figured out in time to qualify and go a few rounds.”
One of those rounds may well include 2009 PX champ Todd Tutterow, who also was racing in the Arabian series, though as crew chief on the same supercharged ’06 Mustang in which he won the American Drag Racing League title. This year, however, Tutterow will race a brand-new ’68 Camaro-bodied machine as part of the ever-growing, powerhouse Al-Anabi Racing Team.
“There’s a little more pressure,” Tutterow allows, “but I’m pretty used to that. The big thing for me this year is now I have a great sponsor and the key to it all will be consistency. If we can be consistent, I think we’ll have a good shot at defending the championship.”
As the defending Dragpalooza event champion, too, Tutterow says he’s looking forward to again tackling the HRP race surface after making seven consecutive passes of more than 200 miles per hour on it last spring.
“It’s a fast track,” he says. “I’ve never been to Houston when it wasn’t good.”
Houston Raceway Park’s spectator gates to the ADRL Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen open at 9 a.m. this Friday and at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
PHOTOS:
Extreme Pro Stock racer Brian Gahm will be looking to improve his points position Mar. 19-20, in the ADRL’s season-opening Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen at Houston Raceway Park.
After winning both the 2009 championship and the first race counting toward the 2010 season last fall at Dallas, Pro Extreme Motorcycle racer Scott Gray hopes to maintain his momentum this weekend in the 2010 ADRL season opener at Houston Raceway Park.
New Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 World Champion Spiro Pappas says he draws inspiration from the efforts of his ADRL rivals and looks forward to beginning his title defense against them this weekend in the ADRL Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen at Houston Raceway Park.
Thomas “Tom Slick” Myers of Granbury, Texas, hopes his brand-new, Andy McCoy-built 1970 Plymouth Duster performs as well as it looks in its ADRL Pro Nitrous debut this weekend at Houston Raceway Park.
Pro Extreme points leader Alex Hossler enters the ADRL Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen this weekend with an unfamiliar set-up due to borrowed parts in his Chris Duncan-built 1970 Camaro’s drive train.
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