BAD LUCK FOR BROZOVICH
Nitro Coupe tuning wizard Jeff Brozovich, driving the '38 Chevy Coupe that carried teammate Dave Greytak to the 1999 Super Chevy title, qualified number two at Atlanta, then dispatched Kuhlmann-protégé Bill Hill in the opening round.

Brozovich was a surprise loser to Nickelson in the semis after both drivers were forced to stage twice because of a malfunctioning Christmas tree. He had a terrible .602 reaction time, then the blower belt came off about the 1,000-foot mark, just as he was passing Nickelson.

"That's racing," a philosophical Brozovich said later. Nickelson, who used a .452 to .683 holeshot to get around the quicker and faster Jim Nordhougen in Sunday's first elimination round, suffered his own bad luck in the final when he kicked the rods out of his 526 c.i. Chevy after just five passes on the engine.

IN LOVING MEMORY . . .

Cleveland, Tenn.-based Nitro Coupe driver Gary Ellis was racing with a heavy heart in Atlanta after his brother Mark, 29, was killed May 27, in a single-vehicle highway accident. Ellis, 34, said his brother was returning home after helping install the blower on the Southern Thunder '34 Chevy Coupe and apparently fell asleep at the wheel.

"He was really looking forward to this race and I know he'd have wanted us to be here," said Ellis, who hosted a racer's barbeque in his brother's honor. "Mark was the cook for our team and these are all his recipes."

Each of the Nitro Coupe cars in attendance carried "In Loving Memory of Mark Ellis" decals supplied by Ellis at the pre-race drivers' meeting. A trust fund for Mark's two young sons is being established, Ellis said, with details to be available at www.southernthunderracing.com.

IT'S NOT A WILLYS

Last year's Super Chevy Nitro Coupe champion probably won't successfully defend his title - but his car might. In 1999, Dave Greytak drove the 1938 Chevy Coupe that Brozovich now wheels in pursuit of Bill Kuhlmann for the 2000 championship. This season, Greytak is driving a radically different '37 Chev Sedan that's even more of a crowd pleaser than his old car.

"It's a nostalgic thing. You think back to the cars of the 1930s and '40s, and a lot of them had fender skirts. So that is what this is meant to replicate," Greytak says, pointing to the distinct enclosed rear wheels of his ride. "I was bent on having removable fenders this year just to make it easier to change the slicks, and then I figured I would just be different by putting the fender skirts on it, so I incorporated the two together."

This latest version of "Grand Pop's Toy," as Greytak's car is affectionately known, is relegated primarily to an R&D role for Brozovich's efforts this year. It takes advantage of a new Super Chevy rule admitting a 120-inch wheelbase, up five inches from previous years, and Greytak says the extended chassis is taking some time to adjust as it's not transferring weight from front to rear quickly enough at the start. The car also incorporates a last-minute cable addition to limit front-end travel during wheels-up launches because the big Chevy was developing a severe toe-in when the suspension unloaded, making it unpredictable when the front tires touched down. Greytak admits the cable is "ugly, but it does the job," and adds a permanent fix is in the works.

"Grand Pop" insists aerodynamics were not considered in developing the new look, although he figures the covered rear wheels probably do clean up the airflow a bit.

"We've turned a couple of 226 mile per hours, so they don't seem to hurt, but truthfully, I did it more for looks," he says. "I wanted to have a car that's different. When I had the car that won the championship last year, people kept coming up and asking, 'Is that a Willys?' Well, they don't come up and ask that about this one. They come up and ask, 'What is it?' and I like explaining that better."

page 2 of 3

Copyright 1999-2001, Drag Racing Online and Racing Net Source