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DENTON, Texas --
Rigler, fresh off an impressive runner-up finish at the last event, laid down a stout 4.04 at 177 mph in the "Toxic" machine but the action wasn't over yet. Rigler had his hands full at the top end getting his machine slowed down and ended up going into the catch net at the top end. "I hit the chutes and they didn't deploy. I got on the brake and it started bouncing very hard. I hit the chutes again and felt nothing, got back on the brakes and the bouncing got even worse. I knew I was going too fast to take the turn so I figured the best move was to send it into the net. After getting out and surveying the scene, one chute was wrapped up in the wheelie bar and one never deployed. Unfortunately, we suffered quite a bit of damage in doing so which ended not only our night, but our season. We are going to re-group, take our time putting it back together and come back ready to win races in 2010," reports Rigler. Nick Poloson in the "Sundown" and Terry Anglin's "Psychotic Express" resumed action with another action packed pairing. Anglin carried the front wheels past the tree steadily drifting toward the centerline, while Poloson also fought to keep his car in the groove. Anglin took out a cone on his way to a 4.77 with Poloson clicking off a 4.42 at 147 mph. DoDad Burton clicked off a solid 4.25 at 163 mph in the "Free Spirit" machine while John Broussard had to click it off early to a 5.21 in the "Purple Haze." Mary Reep rolled out next in the "Grim Reeper" with your latest winner Donny McSwain along side. Reep blasted to an impressive 4.02 at 178 mph hugging the wall at the big end, with McSwain right behind her with a 4.09 at 175 mph.
Mary Reep led the field into the second session and backed up her 4.02 with a nice 4.12 at 153 mph with Rich Howell lifting early to a 4.39 at 123 mph. Bobby Marriott and David Purifoy rolled out next. Purifoy clicked off a nice 4.25 at 166 mph while Marriott enjoyed an oil bath on his 4.69 at 121 mph lap. Marriott completely lost vision as oil escaped the motor and coated the cockpit of the "Shockwave" machine. Unable to see and still getting a face full of oil and nitro, Marriott blindly fought to keep his car from getting in the wall, but in doing so actually drifted into the right lane and lightly tagged the guardrail in the shutdown area. All in all, the most damage to the "Shockwave" car came from the guardrail catching and destroying one of the parachutes, not a bad report card after a wild set of circumstances. John Broussard and Terry Anglin, both outside the field looking in, rolled out next and both laid down impressive runs to get in the show. Broussard's 4.26 bumped him into the ninth position while Anglin's 4.22 at 169 mph earned him the number six starting spot. Nick Poloson and team "Sundown" came out next after watching Broussard and Anglin bump them out of the show. Poloson's 5.04 was no improvement from his previous 4.42 and unexpectedly team "Sundown" found themselves at the bottom of the list in 12th. Donny McSwain improved with a nice 4.03 at 175 mph to qualify third. Chris Trussell went 4.39 at 160 mph in the "Assassin" ride. His 4.37 from Q1 fell just short of the eventual 4.33 bump spot. Aaron Leyda raised some eyebrows with that 4.33 pass to qualify on the bump in his first OFAA start! Reep held on to claim her second pole position in her rookie season, but back in the pits a few heavy hitting teams discovered some bad news.
Final Qualifying Order: 1) Mary Reep (Austin, Texas) - 4.02 at 178 2) Donny McSwain (Rockwall, Texas) 4.03 at 175 3) Brad Rigler (Heath, Texas) - 4.04 at 177 4) Bobby Marriott (Pilot Point, Texas) - 4.10 at 183 5) Rich Howell (Yorba Linda, California) - 4.15 at 184 6) Terry Anglin (Terrell, Texas) - 4.22 at 169 7) David Purifoy (Texarkana, Texas) - 4.23 at 167 8) DoDad Burton (Tyler, Texas) - 4.25 at 163 9) John Broussard (Lake Charles, Louisiana) - 4.26 at 169 10) Aaron Leyda (Independence, Kansas) - 4.33 at 164 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11) Chris Trussell (Canton, Texas) - 4.37 at 148 12) Nick Poloson (San Antonio, Texas) - 4.42 at 147 13) Jim Overly (Houston, Texas) - No Time
The first pair featured the "Power Play" machine of Rich Howell and the "Hemi Hunter" of Aaron Leyda. Howell's car sounded like an orchestra of horsepower as crew chiefs Jim Cullen and Allen Meyer had the wick turned up for this one. Howell blasted to an outstanding 3.80 at 200 mph with header flames high and mighty, which sent every fan in the house to their feet. It was all for not as his 3.80 meant nothing when the red bulb was left glowing on the starting line as Howell went -.045 red. Leyda clicked off his best pass of the night with a 4.30 at 166 mph to take his first OFAA round win! Congrats to the entire "Hemi Hunter" team who traveled all the way from Independence, Kansas for this one and plan to be at many more.
Terry Anglin and Chris Trussell lined up next and Trussell's car unexpectedly failed to come to life. Anglin blasted to a solid 4.202 at 170 mph to take the solo win. Trussell discovered a faulty magneto kill switch back in the pits, one of those silly little gremlins that just hit at the wrong time for Trussell and company. DoDad Burton and John Broussard fired up next and Broussard was given the signal to shut off immediately as fluid came flowing from the front seal of the transmission ending their evening. Burton went on to a 4.37 at 166 mph to take the round win in the "Free Spirit" machine. Donny McSwain was the last car to run and had a single, but needed to run better than Purifoy's 4.208 to get into the final round. At this point, a pair of 4.20's from Anglin and Purifoy were set to advance to the final as the two quickest winning elapsed times of the round so far, but if McSwain could lay down a quicker pass here, he would end Purifoy's shot at his first final round appearance. McSwain did just that, with a 4.06 at 175 mph, to advance to his second straight final where he would face Terry Anglin, who was making his first trip to an Outlaw Fuel Altered final round.
First Round Results: The Texarkana, Texas based "Thrill Factor" team owned by Herb Whisnant with driver David Purifoy were yet again just fractions of a second away from their long overdue first trip to the finals. Aaron Leyda and Dale Wilkens were impressive in their first outing and will bring nothing but more to the table in events to come. Wilkens is a founding member of the OFAA series from the late 1990's and made a big splash at Denton with a new hot rod and brand new team. "I haven't had my own racecar since 2004 and forgot what a great group of people and racers the OFAA has. Aaron last drove my blown BBC Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster in 2003 and to see him jump back in the seat of a blown car and do so well was very exciting. Aaron wants to thank the North Star Dragway crew and the OFAA for being so supportive. I want to thank my new crew member Raymond who attended his first drag race here at Denton, and my fiance Marsha. We all know it takes a strong group to make every team work. We are looking forward to having a lot more fun in the future with this new team," said Wilkens.
Terry Anglin, in his rookie season with the series, hoped to notch the team's first win while Donny McSwain hoped he could make it two in a row and had the performance advantage on paper, but anyone knows you don't drag race on paper. The call went out to fire em' up and the final pair rolled through the water box. Anglin jumped out with a big lead on the starting line and clicked off a 4.22 at 168 mph to take the upset win over McSwain! McSwain was late on the tree and did everything he could to run down Anglin, but his 4.08 at 168 just wasn't enough. To make things worse, McSwain tagged the guardrail in the lights which took out the front wing of the "II N'Tense" machine and caused some slight body damage, but thankfully McSwain kept the car out of trouble for the most part and brought it to a safe stop. As the dust settled at the big end, the celebration erupted on the starting line as the "Psychotic Express" team loaded up and went down to pick up their winning driver.
Final Round Results:
It was an evening of ups and downs for the members of the Outlaw Fuel Altered series and the group has a busy month and a half approaching as they head to Mo-Kan Dragway in Asbury, Missouri to headline the two day Labor Day Weekend festivities on September 5th and 6th. Then the group heads down south to Ben Bruce Raceway in Evadale, Texas on September 19th for the OFAA Fall Nationals. The eighth and final event of the 2009 season will bring the group back to North Star Dragway on October 3rd for the OFAA Finals, where the Southwest Junior Fuel Association will also hold their final points race of the season, so make your calendars and come join the fun!
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