National Sand Drag News - Atoka Fall Fest '12 Race Recap

The Mid-America Sand Drag series capped off a successful first season with a visit to Atoka Motorsports Park in Atoka, OK for the Fall Fest event. With threatening skies, the Atoka crew did a great job pushing the show along and beating the weather as champions were crowned. Let’s take a look at the competition from this event.

Top Alcohol

The Top Alcohol class has struggled in MASD competition entry wise in 2012. However, at this event, Rod Trower showed up with his potent “Thunder”/Trower Racing TA Dragster. Rod narrowly missed the track record at the Heartland Nationals and would show up looking to take possession of the record once & for al. With Mike & Jeff Strasburg on hand to help the Trower team, Rod would rebound from a broken blower belt on the first qualifying pass to lay down a track record pass of 2.618 under the lights on Friday. This run eclipsed the previous record of 2.634 set by Gary Mink in May of 2011. The Trower team would come back early on Saturday to attempt to lower the record. Unfortunately, the car slowed down a couple hundredths in 60’, which in turn led to a solid 2.620/142MPH hit. Congratulations to Rod & Dee Trower as well as the whole crew including the B&J Transmissions team on setting the track record at Atoka Motorsports Park.

Rod Trower - New Atoka Motorsports Park Track Record Holder

Top Eliminator

TE had a great points battle heading into the Season Finale at Atoka. Marc Luce had a slim two point lead over Jeff Sieg, and just one more point over Mike Smith and Terry Glasscock with Courtney Stidham coming off of the big win at Thunder Valley just 12 points back. Unfortunately, Glasscock could not make the trip to Atoka, so it was a four horse race. Jeff Sieg had the hot hand in qualifying running a 3.020 off the trailer, which would put him in the top qualifying spot and move him into the lead with top qualifier bonus points. Stidham ran a solid 3.023 and put up a game effort 3.03 with his last ditch qualifying pass as he attempted to steal the top spot. Smith ended up third with a 3.13 while Russ Bailey (3.24), Marty Boone (3.28), Dee Trower (3.83), and Marc Luce (7.78) rounded out the field.

Sieg had the round one bye run where he ran Low ET of the weekend thus far with a nice 3.00/115MPH to advance on. The next pair would see Russ Bailey in his Blown BBC-powered Altered against Marty Boone in his Blown BBC-powered 4WD Dragster. Boone would guess at the tree and miss with a red light advancing Bailey on to round two with a 3.28. Up next would be a huge round in the championship battle. With Sieg advancing to round two, it mathematically eliminated Stidham from championship contention, so he would be in the spoiler’s role as he lined up with contender Marc Luce. Luce struggled with his car all weekend after wounding the engine at the previous Thunder Valley event. Marc would, however, have his problems straightened out as he ran a 3.11, but that would not be enough as the potent Small Block of Stidham ran a strong 3.02 to advance on. This left Mike Smith as the only challenger for the title. Smith would face off with Dee Trower, who had struggled with transbrake issues on her qualifying passes. On this pass, the problems would be in the other lane as Smith left a little too soon with his Turbo 4-cylinder Dragster giving Dee the win with a 3.05. This pass would clinch the 2012 MASD TE Championship for Jeff Sieg.

The semi-final round started with the Kansas City area neighbors of Sieg and Bailey facing off. Bailey would get a good launch in his Altered with a slight starting line advantage, but at the finish line it would be Sieg having the horsepower to drive around for a 3.04 to 3.23 victory. Up next would be a big battle between the Blown SBC-powered Dragsters of Courtney Stidham and Dee Trower. When the tree dropped, Stidham’s “Twisted” Dragster left first .456 to .504, but down track Stidham moved around forcing him to lift early, which allowed Trower to drive around for a 2.97 to 3.13 victory.

The final round rolled to the line with a classic Big Block versus Small Block battle as Sieg and Trower faced off with the trophy and money on the line. At the hit, Trower’s “Fast Forward” Dragster, still suffering from transmission woes, struggled to leave the line, allowing Sieg to get a huge head start and take the hole shot win 3.13 to 2.96. This was Sieg’s first win in his 2012 championship season. Luce would finish his strong season with second place in the standings. Congrats to the Sieg Family & Thunder Valley Sand Drags crew on the huge victory and championship.

Jeff Sieg - TE Winner & MASD TE Champion

Dee Trower - TE Runner-Up

Pro 1 Cars

There was very little championship drama at the Season Finale for the Pro 1 Cars class as John Acker had clinched the class title after sweeping the first three events of the season. Dennis Burrows had a pretty good lock on 2nd place, but that spot was still up for grabs heading into eliminations. But, the main question was if Acker could finish it off the sweep by taking the fourth and final race win.

Acker was the Friday night Quick 16 class winner, so he proved he was going to try hard for that clean sweep and his campaign started in a big way with a great #1 qualifying .440 RT in a round one victory over Tim Hatfield. Burrows would break out with a 3.792 on a 3.81 in round one against Brent Durant, but his only competitor for second place Russ Bailey would break out by .002 against Acker in round two handing Dennis that position in the standings. Acker would line up against fellow Texas racer Glenn Swanner in his SBC-powered rear-engine Truck in the semi-final round. Swanner held the advantage at the tree .435 to .459 and held on for the win with a 3.857 (3.82) to take a Margin of Victory of just .005 to end Acker’s chance at perfection. In the other semi-final battle, Brent Durant’s Jeep lined up against Gage Moore’s "Bad to the Bone" Motorcycle-powered Dragster. Moore got the RT advantage and didn’t look back to move on with a 4.319 (4.25). This set up a great Oklahoma versus Texas final round with Swanner and Moore. In the final, Moore left first .477 to .507, but it was Swanner’s night as he ran a great 3.833 (3.83) to take the win over Moore’s 4.372 (4.29). This was Swanner’s first sand drag win as he primarily runs the Texas Mud racing circuit. Tim Feuerhelm’s first round loss gave him third place in the MASD standings, but it was enough to hang on for the 2012 Atoka Motorsports Park Pro 1 Cars track championship over Gage Moore.

Glenn Swanner - Pro 1 Cars Winner

Pro 1 Quads

The Pro 1 Quads class was the most exciting point series battle heading into the final event of the 2012 MASD season. Luke Martin led the standings from the first event, but had four competitors within just seven points heading into the last race. Mollie Eades came into the last event three points behind Luke, and she had a solid round one victory over Kirk Whitlow with a 4.044 (4.04). Luke would be up in the next pair where he used a .504 RT and 4.091 (4.09) to advance on. Atoka track rules award bye runs to the closest to the dial in the previous round and Luke’s .001 off would give him the round two bye run. Up next, Rick Lovelace lost a double breakout decision to Larry Holt, but he would hang on for the 2012 Atoka Motorsports Park Pro 1 Quads championship. Luke’s dad, James, was also a contender for the title, but he broke out with a 4.062 (4.08) against Nick Allen in round one. The last championship contender in round one was Darren Dockins, who was just one point behind Martin entering the event, and he won a close battle over John Pate with a 4.312 (4.28).

Round two kicked off with a huge championship battle as Dockins and Eades squared off. Dockins would have a nice starting line edge .497 to .575, but his bike would fail him as it broke right at the hit allowing Mollie to advance on with a 4.085 (4.01). Luke finished off the round running a 4.172 (4.09) on his bye run. Mollie would be in the first pair of the semi’s lining up against Nick Allen. Eades had to win this round to keep her championship hopes alive. On this night, Allen would dash her hopes as he left first .442 to .507 and took the win with a 3.972 (3.87). This would lock up the 2012 MASD Pro 1 Quads championship for Luke Martin. Martin would line up in the next pair against Randy Kimbley. This pair was all Kimbley as he held a tenth of a second advantage off the line and held off Martin for the win with a 4.476 (4.36). The final round of the season came down to a battle between the Atoka regulars in Allen and Kimbley. When the tree fell, Allen left just .002 too soon turning on the red bulb, and giving the win over to Kimbley with a 4.438 (4.36).

Randy Kimbley - Pro 1 Quads Winner. Randy pulled off the trifecta by also winning the Pro 2 & 3 Quads classes as well.

Friday Night Bracket Classes

The Friday night Quick 16’s put on a great show at Atoka Motorsports Park as always. In the Cars final round, MASD Pro 1 Championship winner Acker lined up next to Brent Durant’s Jeep to determine the class winner. Durant dumped the clutch just a little too soon handing the win to Acker’s V-8 Dragster running a 4.258 (4.26). The Quads final round came down to the three-wheeled entry of Krista Loudermilk against Randy Kimbley. Kimbley took a huge .458 to .597 advantage off of the line, but he fell off to a 4.802 (4.56) giving Krista just enough room to drive around with a 4.229 (4.17) for the win.

John Acker - Quick 16 Cars Winner

Krista Loudermilk - Quick 16 Quads Winner

Other Bracket Classes

2012 Atoka track champion David Collins turned on the red light by just .006 in the Pro 2 Cars final handing the win to Sydney Moore, who ran a 4.467 (4.42). Randy Kimbley continued his big day on Saturday taking the Pro 2 Quads victory and securing the track championship defeating Craig McNeill in the final round. Kimbley continued on and completed a rare three class sweep of the day as he took the Pro 3 Quads win over Roy Cooper, which was also good enough to clinch that class’ track championship as well. Gus Griffith was on his game as he defeated Brianna Acker for the Pro 4 Quads win while Chloe Cooper clinched the track championship in that class.

Photos Courtesy
NSDN

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