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There were a variety of chassis combinations
at the race. Scotty Cannon was the only car
using the swing-arm type suspension that was
so popular a few years back. The rest of the
field has the conventional four-link type suspension
except the Brad Anderson '67 Camaro which features
a non-adjustable four-link suspension designed
by Murray Anderson (no relation).
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If it weren't for Rickie Smith's last ditch
effort the field at Gainesville would have been
all supercharged. In the history of NHRA Pro
Mod competition there has only been one field
with no nitrous cars and that was last year's
E-town race where Mike Castellana's sub-6.20
lap didn't get him into the field.
Castellana had a very tough and expensive
weekend in Gainesville. He and teammate Shannon
Jenkins ran near identical laps on Friday to
temporarily get into the program. They each
ran 6.24 elapsed times at 223.99 mph. Castellana
just edged Jenkins with a 6.240 to Jenkins 6.248.
The team supposedly burned up four engines in
just three laps of qualifying and they didn't
make the fourth qualifying session on Saturday.
Ed Hoover returned to form as he qualified
his blown '63 'Vette fourth with a 6.190/228.31.
When asked if he was going to race his brand
new Tommy Mauney-built nitrous injected car,
he answered, "Not over here (NHRA). That would
be bringing a knife to a gun fight."
Mike Hedgecock, who was once one of
the premier nitrous injected engine builders
in Pro Mod, was seen in Scotty Cannon's pit
and reportedly is doing all of the engine work
on Cannon's supercharged Hemi engines. So much
for all of the talk about Hemi engines dominating
the class. At Gainesville five of the eight
qualifiers, including the top four, had wedge-headed
engines and only three had Hemis.
ROUND
ONE --
Al Billes, Chevy Corvette, 6.246,
230.29 def. Von Smith, Ford Mustang, 17.256,
44.00; Ed Hoover, Corvette, 6.246, 226.87 def.
Zach Barklage, Pontiac Grand Am, 6.325, 226.70;
Mike Janis, Corvette, 6.206, 232.25 def. Rickie
Smith, Corvette, 6.277, 210.23; Mike Ashley,
Mustang, 6.194, 229.88 def. Mitch Stott, Corvette,
6.246, 230.35
SEMIFINALS
-- Hoover,
6.216, 228.71 def. Janis, 6.726, 163.36; Billes,
6.215, 230.00 def. Ashley, 15.306, 52.91
FINAL
-- Billes, 6.206, 229.88 def.
Hoover, 15.744, 56.22
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