Fog Banks win at Bradenton By Steve Gruenwald 2/2/05

radenton Motorsports Park in South Florida held their Street Legal event over the weekend of January 28-29-30. Over 100 “Street” cars from across the U.S. and the Caribbean descended on Bradenton, and a track which regularly produces stellar speeds and elapsed times from doorslammers. Some of the biggest names in the sport showed up for the event, although the 101 cars that entered were considerably fewer than had been expected. Despite a crash before the finals and a fog bank that rolled in

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reducing visibility to near zero which forced the promoters to call the race for safety reasons, the race produced some memorable times from some of the best known racers.

In the Outlaw Street division NHRA Pro Mod star Mike Castellana dropped down in class and raced his “Ragin’ Bull” Camaro Pro Mod. As expected he dominated the class by qualifying on the pole and recording the Low ET of each round. Annette Summer’s twin-turbocharged ‘Vette finally showed its potential by running a solid 6.508 and set Top Speed of the meet with a stellar 225.45. Also the imports were well represented in the class with no fewer than four imports qualifying for the field led by Brad Personett from Elkart, IN whose 183-inch turbo-charged Celica gave away 300-500 cubic inches to the competition but still qualified fifth with a 6.574/213.57after the semi-finals. In the Ten-wide action Billy Glidden and Chuck Ulsch were the class of the field with both cars running 7.05 during the event. Unfortunately for Billy Glidden he got his .05 in testing prior to the event and Ulsch got his on race day and used it to trailer the favorite. Heavy street saw a couple of six-forty cars driven by Tony Nesbitt and Robbie Hudlow go to the final round and in the ever exiting Raidial Tire class the racer with the staff’s favorite name Smooty Hall. Smooty had the field covered by a couple of tenths but broke his car in the second round.

Hulk Hogan was seen on the starting line checking out the action.

Todd Tutterow ran a superb 6.399/219.67 to lead Outlaw Pro Street qualifiers on Friday night.  That held up until the very last pass on Saturday afternoon when Mike Castellana stole the $1,000 bonus with a stout 6.360/221.89 blast from his Ragin Bull Camaro.  Tutterow lost a squeeker with Tommy D'Aprile in Round Two.  Todd was off the line first with a .061 reaction time to D'Aprile's .064 reaction time.  At the stripe it was D'Aprile's 'Vette with then win at 6.567/207.7 to an oh so close 6.575/209.5.  Tutterow had wounded his motor on that Friday night pass and had spent all of Saturday replacing the engine.  He never made a pass on Saturday.