Wed, 26 Mar 2003, 12:09 AM Happy Birthday John And Guess Who’s Going Pro Stock Racing??

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2003 Auto Imagery, Inc.

David Connolly

Hot off the press (well it was when I was writing this), guess who the newest entry in the Pro Stock wars is going to be? How about that David Connolly of “Bullet Racing” fame? Yep, David will enter the PS class by about the Chicago race and guess who’s going to be building his engines? How about Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins? And, helping out the “Grump” will be none other than Jeff Taylor. Now that’s some firepower, isn’t it? David had a C/Altered built that he was going to run in Comp Eliminator this year but the early driving tests went so well, from what I understand, that the team decided to make the big leap into Pro Stock. The “Bullet” team, under the direction of Michael Dzurilla, has always done well in the sportsman ranks (including an Indy win last year) and it will be interesting to see how they do in the PS class. As the other teams would say, “Come on in boys, the water’s fine!”…In other Pro Stock news I’ve heard that Tom Hammonds will be in a “re-group” mode for a couple of races, which means that he probably won’t be in Las Vegas or Houston.

Steve Johnson

Before looking ahead any more, I thought that I’d wrap up some unfinished Gatornationals business. First of all, how about the Steve Johnson saga, huh? First he’s in, then he’s out, now he’s back in again. I’m sure that you’re read about it, but the NHRA tech department has reversed itself and said that Steve’s engine was legal in Florida and that he will be awarded his points and will forever be listed as a guy who qualified for the 34^th running of the MAC Tools Gatornationals. That means that when our ancestors find the time capsule with the Florida results in it some years in the future, they will see that there were seventeen qualifiers, since Steve’s reinstatement doesn’t affect the 16^th qualifier, John Smith. That’ll keep them busy trying to figure that out, won’t it? Let’s see, just how do you make up a 17-bike ladder? Anyway, congratulations to Steve for taking a stand and holding his ground and a tip of the cap to the NHRA for admitting a mistake. It’s things like that that make this a great country….One of the other things that came up in Florida was the happy birthday wish that was on the scoop of Jim Yates’ car. It said, “Happy 50^th Birthday, John. Love, Bobbi.” I must have had a dozen folks ask me what that was all about, well, I’ll tell you. John Gallina is a big drag racing fan from North Collins, New York, and his wife, Bobbi, and a friend, Rich Benson, contacted Jim Yates and his wife, Toni, and asked if they would help with a surprise for John’s birthday. The Yates family, who had never met any of the parties involved, agreed to do it and so the birthday wish was on the scoop of the car for most of the weekend. You can imagine how surprised Mr. Gallina was when Rich took him into the pits on Friday and he saw his name on one of the best-known Pro Stock cars in the sport. Needless to say, it was a happy birthday for John. It’s got to be great to have friends like that, and Jim and Toni Yates are just a couple of reasons why this is such a great sport…..And, finally from the Florida race, I found the statistics between Jeg Coughlin and Kurt Johnson very interesting. Did you know that in the head-to-head battles between them, Jeggie leads the series 18 – 9, but in final rounds he has never beaten Kurt? Never! As amazing as it is, the two guys have squared off five times in the final round and KJ has won all five of them. Now that’s an interesting little tidbit. It’s also a bit surprising to me that of all his wins, this is the first that Kurt has ever earned in Gainesville.

Mike Berry

OK, so there’s still some more stuff from Gainesville and this pertains to the motorcycle class. With his win in round one, Craig Treble ran his streak to 25 races in a row in which he hasn’t lost in round one. Did you know that the last time that he dropped an opening round decision was in Englishtown in 2001 when Shawn Gann took him out….And did anyone else miss the fact that Chris Bostick qualified, lost in round one and then announced that he’s retiring from the Pro Stock Bike class? Chris has always done a nice job in trying to promote awareness for autism, and we wish him well as he gets to spend more time with his family…And is Mike Berry the best kept secret in the bike class or what? A top ten finisher the past two seasons, Mike opened up this year with a strong semi-final round performance and is currently in 3^rd place in the points. With all of the attention that is focused on Angelle Savoie and Andrew Hines, I just thought I’d point out one of the other top performers in the class…Mike Berry. And even though the count for the Pro Stock Bikes was huge, 35, in Gainesville, it could even be bigger at the next race in Houston when some teams show up for the first time. Good luck to all of them and make sure you stay away from that Berry guy!!

Corky Markwart

A couple of divisional races have already been completed and a couple of things are starting to become very apparent, at least to me. Peter Biondo and Harvey Emmons are the early leaders in the battle for Super Stock honors. Peter has won two D-2 races and was the runner-up at the “Gatorlandonationals,” while Harvey has put a couple of wins up at the first two D-4 events, in Houston and Memphis. Go get ‘em, boys….Corky Markwart did the unthinkable in Florida when he won Super Comp in a door car. Of course, that makes three final rounds in three different classes already this year for Corky. Did you know that Corky also won Super Gas at the Gainesville divisional race and was the runner-up in the Division 2 Top Sportsman class in Orlando? Oh yeah, he’s also raced a Pro Stock car, so if you need a driver, look for him in the yellow pages under “Versatile”…Lee Zane has also gotten off to a good start, winning Stock Eliminator at the Gainesville D-2 race, and finishing as runner-up at the Nationals. It’s got to be a good feeling for those guys to get off to such good starts…Speaking of which, Tony Bartone has won two national events and a divisional race for a total of 11 consecutive round wins in his first three races this year. Of course that pales in comparison to his streak of 37 round wins in a row back in 1996, but, hey, every streak has to start somewhere doesn’t it?…It will be interesting to see who shows up in the Top Alcohol Dragster class in Tucson this weekend. Morgan Lucas will be there along with about a dozen other D-7 regulars, but I still hear that there may be some “outside influence” in the class this weekend. If so, it should be fun….By the way, congrats to Jeff Wilson who ran in the 5.30 range and won the Memphis race this past weekend and to David Wells, who not only has an old Rick Santos car but now has Rick’s old crew chief, Norm Grimes calling the tuning shots. Now that could be a tough team when they get to Las Vegas next week, or if they stop off somewhere else between now and then. Hummmm!!

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