Motiva Motor Speedway’s The Dirt 300 in Albuquerque, NM was the site of Race 5 of the 2014 NSDN Daily Race Coverage schedule. The Dirt 300 put on their Third Annual Nitro Nationals with a full slate of classes that featured heavy payouts in Top Eliminator (2.95 Index), Pro Open Cars, and Pro Open Quads. This event in late June once again saw many California, Arizona, and Texas racers make the haul to participate in the best sand drag racing in New Mexico. The temperatures were toasty during the day, but this year’s format saw much of the racing contested in the Evening to make for more comfortable race conditions. This made for a nice weekend of sand drag action. This NSDN Daily Race Coverage event was presented by Motiva Motor Speedway / The Dirt 300.NSDN Coverage Links
NSDN Daily Race Coverage Page
NSDN Race Recap Page
NSDN Run of the Event: There were a lot of close races all weekend in Albuquerque, but the Top Eliminator Final Round was quite a memorable battle. This was a Texas versus Nevada match up as the Blown Alcohol small block entry of Courtney Stidham went up against Las Vegas racer Terry Crawford in his Blown Alcohol big block dragster. These two were within a few hundredths of a second in qualifying with Sitdham running a best of 3.06 to Terry’s 3.11. Both cars were turned up for the final round, but on this day it would be Stidham recording his fifth win in as many races from late 2013 up to this point. Courtney once again used his starting line ability to take a .067 to .252 RT edge and turn that into a hole shot win 3.12 to Terry’s best ET of the weekend 3.10. Both teams put on a great show at The Dirt 300 all weekend long.
NSDN Racer of the Event: Looking back at this race, one racer really impressed me on race day during eliminations. Young Anthony Brown just flat out got the job done taking the Pro Open class victory at the Nitro Nationals against an incredibly competitive field. Anthony took over driving his family’s Alcohol Injected BBC-powered Altered last race season and has continually improved his driving skills. At this event, with the Altered dialed in & running extremely consistent, Anthony was also killer on the tree with a .088 in the semi’s to defeat the always tough Steve Maas & a .071 in the final to get around Shawn Maloy. These were even more impressive on a day when even the most seasoned racers were good with .100 or better RT’s. Congrats to Anthony Brown & his whole family on the huge victory at the 2014 Nitro Nationals.
NSDN Storylines
Arizona ATV Near Domination: Phoenix racer Grant Hutchinson nearly doubled up at the Nitro Nationals. He started off the weekend hot with his trademark Suzuki taking the Pro Quad Gambler on Friday night. Grant then continued his winning ways in the Pro Open Quad class on Saturday night reaching the final round against James Miller. These two raced in round one with Grant taking the win; however James bought back in as first round buybacks were in effect at this event. The second time the roles were reversed as James took the hole shot advantage and turned on the win light. Grant came up just one round short of a double up, but it was still a solid performance for the Arizona-based racer.
Hey, Are you Larry Minor?: That’s the question people were asking when Bill Meaney unloaded his Black Larry Minor Motorsports Jeep at The Dirt 300. Bill made the haul from Southern California to race in Albuquerque for the first time. Eliminations wore on Friday night and Bill was deadly on the tree with a .037 in the semi’s before a .033 in the final to defeat Steve Maas to take the Pro Gambler title. Unfortunately, the luck wasn’t on Bill’s side on Saturday, but the big victory on Friday made the trip worthwhile for the California racer.
The Kid Wins: Over the past few seasons, the Colorado-based Father-Son team of Matt & KC Springer has made the trip to The Dirt 300 to compete at the track nearest to them. These guys share driving duties of the family Land Cruiser, and have done a great job. The Springer team got larger at this event as son KC piloted the newly acquired “Bounty Hunter” Jeep from Chris Adamson. The Springer’s & Adamson’s are cousins, so it was great to see the Bounty Hunter stay in the family after Chris acquired one of the late Clayton Record’s Larry Minor Motorsports rides. KC didn’t disappoint as he scored his first victory taking the 4x4/Sportsman Bracket class on Saturday night defeating Monty Ross in the final round.
Krank-E Gets The Job Done: Albuquerque local Damon Hall hit the sand drag tour hard in 2014 running very competitively at Dome Valley, AZ in January before making the trip to the Heartland Nationals in Atoka, OK. The Nitro Nationals, however, was a home race for the husband-wife team with Damon’s wife Vickie making her debut in the “Farmer’s Daughter” Dragster. Damon had his “Krank-E” BBC-powered Fiat dialed in on this weekend and turned on the win light in Saturday’s Pro Gambler final round putting on a great show for the local crowd.