Travis Balough, Don Meziere, and Daniel McClelland hold the early points leads following the first two races of the Southern California Pro Gas, K&N 890 Series, and SoCal Super Street association events at Auto Club Dragway.

While much of the nation was dealing with fidget cold weather and snowstorms, Southern California super class racers were out in force enjoying 70-degree temperatures as the local associations opened their 2020 season at Auto Club Dragway.

Travis Balough dominated the Pro Gas racing, doubling-up in the class.  Balough started off the weekend by defeating Randy Fabbro’s ’79 Pinto in their final round match and took home the Russ Harris Memorial Race trophy.

In the semifinals Fabbro beat red-lighting Matt Treadway, while Balough drove his ’63 Corvette to a win over Ray Cordeiro. On Sunday, Cordeiro found himself in another semifinal, this time he used a .001 better reaction time and 9.909 time to beat Randy Kersey who broke-out. The final round saw a pair of ’63 Corvette roadsters match-up, and Balough clicked a .001 reaction time and ran 9.928, 157.82 for the win as Cordeiro finished second with a 9.918 and .025 reaction.

The K&N 890 Series presented by Blaster had Chris Forsyth winning on Saturday as he beat Damon Bustamante in the final, 8.909, 164.45 (.006 RT) to a losing 8.903 (.023 RT). Bustamante defeated Don Meziere in the semifinal while Forsyth got a bye.

Meziere went one round better on Sunday and took the win, defeating Steve Hamilton in the final. Meziere took the win with an 8.903, 167.26, with Hamilton breaking-out by .006. Semifinalists included Jason Rosenbaum and James Warden.

Daniel McClelland and Kenny Snow had great weekends in the Super Street class, as ’17 series champ McClelland won the Val Houmard Memorial Race on Saturday and was a semifinalist on Sunday.

In Saturday’s final Snow had a .002 advantage at the start, but McClelland took the win with a 10.913, 128.25 with his Malibu wagon, while Snow’s ’69 Chevelle trailed with a 10.925, 136.59.

Two of the best races of the weekend took place in Sunday’s semifinal and final. Snow and McClelland met up again in the semifinal, this time Snow’s Chevelle took the win with a perfect 10.900 and .003 reaction time to McClelland’s losing 10.928 (.000 reaction).

The final round paired the ’55 Chevy of Paul Giacalone and Snow, with the ’55 Chevy taking the win 10.915, 140.74 (.004 RT) to a losing 10.901, 135.48 (.018 RT) for Snow, a race decided by less than one thousandth of a second. B&B Electric sponsored the race.  (Bob Johnson photos)

The Southern California associations next scheduled race will be May 2-3 at Auto Club Dragway.  [01/24/20]

News out of the yearly MPMC conferences for manufacturers and journalists is that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will be building Street Hemi engines once again. No details yet, but for all you Mopar fans, that’s great news.  [01/24/20]

John Force Racing will return to the drag strip this season with the same four drivers as last year. Two of the cars will have primary sponsors for half of the season and a different sponsor for the remainder.

President of John Force Racing and reigning three-time Funny Car world champion Robert Hight will continue to drive the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS with his tandem of crew chiefs Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham.

On 16-time world champion John Force’s PEAK / BlueDEF Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, Danny Hood, son-in-law to John Force, will take as crew chief with assistant crew chiefs Ronnie Thompson, who helped tune Austin Prock’s dragster in 2019, and Tim Fabrisi, who was Force’s car chief in 2019. Force will be racing the BlueDEF Chevy Camaro SS for the first 11 races and the PEAK Chevy Camaro SS for the remainder of the season.

Crew chief David Grubnic and assistant crew chief Mac Savage will continue to tune 2017 Top Fuel world champion Brittany Force’s Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac dragster. Like her father, Force’s dragster will feature two primary sponsors throughout the 2020 season with Monster Energy owning 12 races and Flav-R-Pac owning 10.

Auto Club Road to the Future Award winner Austin Prock will enter his second NHRA season in the driver’s seat of his Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragster with crew chief Mike Green, a 2019 mid-season hire, and assistant crew-chief Joe Barlam, the newest member of the John Force Racing tuning roster.   [01/24/20]

General Motors will open a new technical center focused on performance and racing in the Charlotte, NC, region, a major racing hub in the United States. The facility will expand GM’s performance and racing capabilities, with a focus on transferring knowledge and resources from the racing programs to core vehicle engineering. The goal for the Charlotte Technical Center is to eventually house future technology and engineering development capabilities.

The new technical center provides GM the opportunity to expand and enhance its support for Chevrolet NASCAR race teams as well as various other GM racing teams. The facility will feature Driver-in-the-Loop simulators, vehicle simulation, aero development and other practices designed to advance racing and production capabilities.

The KB Racing Pro Stock team of Camaros is based in Mooresville too.   [01/24/20]