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IHRA
at San Antonio, PART 1
by Jeff Burk
4/5/05 |
PART 1: TOP FUEL & PRO MOD |
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The "new" IHRA -- the IHRA with Aaron Polburn
at the helm instead of Bill Bader -- finally opened the
sanctioning body's 2005 season with a two-day affair at
San Antonio Raceway. Despite losing one qualifying session
due to a cross wind gusting to 40 mph on Friday, almost
every Pro class track record from Top Fuel to Pro Stock
was reset at this race.
Perennial Top Fuel hitter Clay Millican and his tuner
Mike Kloeber and Funny Car champ Rob Atchison began defending
their 2004 IHRA World Championships by winning the first
race of the series. Millican started the 2004 season by
winning the Texas race and Atchison was runner-up to Mark
Thomas at this event last season. For Pro Mod winner Ed
Hoover, it was his first win and first final round since
Shreveport in 2002. For Pro Stock winner Dan Seamon, it
was not only his first win but his first trip to the Pro
Stock winner's circle in his career.
TOP FUEL ELIMINATOR
Fifteen Top Fuel cars showed up at San Antonio trying
to make the elite eight IHRA field. While some of the driver's
names weren't all that well known to the fans, the same
couldn't be said for the tuners plying their trade in the
Top Fuel pits. Some of the more famous names included Mike
Kloeber tuning for Clay Millican; Mike McLaughlin, who
tuned Don Lampus to an IHRA World Championship, was in
the Jack Ostrander pit; Rahn Tobler tuned first timer Paul
Athey into the elite eight field; Jimbo Ermalovich, who
called the shots for Al Hofmann's funny cars, was tuning
up Mitch King's ride; and Virgil Hartman was calling the
shots for son-in-law John Smith.
With the weather and track conditions changing drastically
virtually from minute to minute and with just two laps
to qualify, the tuners at this race probably had more to
do with the final outcome than the drivers.
The bump for the quick eight Top Fuel cars was a rather
disappointing 5.175, but Bruce Litton led qualifying with
a 4.73. Only two cars that ran a five were to qualify:
Mitch King and Roger Dean.
Considering that for the first lap the air and track temp
was hovering around 70 degrees and for the second the air
was nearer to 80 degrees and the track closer to
100, the numbers for the Top Fuel field were quite respectable.
