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POMONA, Calif. --
The alcohol classes were decided on Sunday, with Ray Martin - competing in his third national event of the season - falling to Whiteley, who scored for the 11th time at the national event level. Whiteley, who finished third in the nation, was the No. 2 qualifier leading into eliminations in his J&A Service Rator rail and improved to a quick 5.294, 269.19 mph in the first round to beat a cylinder-dropping Brooks Brown. Another impressive 5.29, 269 was in order to put Chris Demke on the trailer, and when Mark Taliaferro had problems in the semifinals and had the chutes out and the dragster dead in the water before the 330 foot timers, Whiteley sailed past to clock a 5.315, 269.13 to earn a ticket to his fourth final of the year (notably, two of his three previous national event wins this year came at the expense of Taliaferro).
Payne waited until the final event of the season to reel in a national victory and in doing so perhaps eased a little bit of the sting from seeing the Division 7 Top Alcohol Funny Car championship slip through his fingers the previous weekend in Las Vegas. The driver of the FireIce Mustang was fifth-quickest heading into eliminations, where Payne earned the win over Jeff Ashwell, the alternate in for Brian Smith who got into trouble in the second round of qualifying when the chutes didn't deploy and he ended up in the sand and upside down. Smith was alright, but his car was not. In the second round, Payne played the tree hard, .042 to Sean O'Bannon's .052, and he crossed the finish line first with an improved 5.564 to his opponent's 5.592 to advance to the semifinals where he was .009 behind Keeter Ray at the starting line but surged ahead just past the 330-foot marker and kept the lead for a 5.606 to 5.712 victory that would place him in the final for the first time this year.
The all-Division 7 Comp final pitted first-time finalist McClay against Doug Lambeck, an 8-time national event winner. McClay, the Sonoma divisional winner earlier this year, had a .03 CIC penalty entering the round, and Lambeck came with a .07. The eventual winner parlayed a starting-line advantage into a win by wheeling his C/E dragster to a .52-under the index 7.306 to D/SMA driver Lambeck's .53-under 8.369. McClay warmed up for the final by beating Bo Butner to the finish line by about five feet in the first round, getting a freebie in round two when Ray Vierheller was a no show, and then taking a somewhat easy win over a very late John Mihovetz in round three before launching with a perfect triple zero reaction in the semifinals to sweeten the defeat of newly-christened world champion Lou Ficco Jr.
The Puyallup, Wash., racer ended an excellent year that included a No. 2 finish in the nation in Stock and a No. 9 completion in Super Stock, with a series of Pomona round wins in his GT/KA '81 Malibu that began with an automatic victory over a red-lighting Ken Etters in the first round. Next to fall was Winternationals winner Ryan McClanahan, who was looking for his third win of the year. Lang was .008 at the tree to McClanahan's .011 and ran closer to his dial to get the nod by a hundredth. After a double-breakout win over Bill Blakeney, Angelo DeCarlo fouled by .040 and Lang was queued up for a quarterfinals match with championship hopeful David Bogner. Bogner charged ahead with the advantage, .019 to .029, but gave it back at the stripe by breaking out by .020-second, and the championship title was awarded to Jackie Alley.
A 2007 Finals runner-up in Super Stock, Iacono was able to close the deal in Stock Eliminator with a final-round victory over multi-category racer Brad Plourd. The pair were dialed within two-hundredths, Iacono with an 11.16 on the window of his F/SA '69 Camaro and Plourd looking for an 11.18 target in his D/SA '68 Camaro, and they launched with nearly identical reactions, Iacono .032 and Plourd .035. Iacono ran closer to his number in their double-breakout for the win light. Iacono disposed of a too-quick at the finish line Paul Cannan in round one, was closer to his dial than Al Corda in a second-round double-breakout match and was better at the tree to survive Dallas Glenn's 10.671 on a 10.67 dial in round three. The Wading River, N.Y. driver put together a stout package in the fourth round to send Marlene Nelson back to Minnesota early, clocking a .006 reaction and racing to an 11.142 on his 11.14 target. Jim Meador had a strong start in the semifinals, but when he slowed down-track and couldn't run the number, Iacono was granted access to his first final round of the season.
Torres, of Valinda, Calif., was unchallenged in the first round when Larry Marshall was unable to make the call, and Cameron Ferre's sleepy .116 reaction to his .014 made it easy in round two, where Torres won on a 9.009 to 8.911. Chris Forsyth was close but not close enough to the 8.90 in round four, and Torres won their double-breakout with a .001-under pass to Forsyth's .013 too-quick effort. Steve Casner was pushed to a breakout 8.877 to Torres' 8.915 in the quarterfinals, and lucky for Torres, the win came with a bye run into the final. Biondo capped off the Super Gas championship with a win in the category. In the last act, he was ..010 at the tree in his '65 Corvette to Dana Keniry's .021 and held off his opponent to win by just a couple of feet, 9.915 on the 9.90 to 9.914. Biondo also won Super Gas in the delayed final round of eliminations at the national event in Reading this year.
The 2011 Full Throttle Series is in the books, but we'll be back for more on February 9, 2012, at the Winternationals in Pomona. See you then! Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series final results from the 47th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. Top Alcohol Dragster -- Jim Whiteley, 5.300, 269.62 def. Ray Martin, 5.422, 265.80. Top Alcohol Funny Car -- Jay Payne, Ford Mustang, 5.575, 259.36 def. Sean Bellemeur, Chevy Camaro, 5.676, 255.73. Competition Eliminator -- Scott McClay, Dragster, 7.306, 180.02 def. Doug Lambeck, Sunfire, 8.369, 160.37. Super Stock -- Jody Lang, Malibu, 11.474, 91.14 def. Abe Loewen, Grand Am, foul. Stock Eliminator -- Michael Iacono, Camaro, 11.128, 115.02 def. Brad Plourd, Camaro, 11.134, 115.04. Super Comp -- Val Torres, Dragster, 8.903, 169.36 def. Craig Anderson, Dragster, 8.949, 156.55. Super Gas -- Peter Biondo, Corvette, 9.915, 163.10 def. Dana Keniry, Lumina, 9.914, 156.34.
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