Sun, 18 Nov 2001, 11:07 AM It Had To The Thrill Of A Lifetime.

By Bob Frey

Once a year, if I’m lucky, I get to go to Atco Raceway, near my home in Waterford, New Jersey, and watch a good, old-fashioned bracket race. Not a high dollar affair, mind you, but a regular Saturday night, Atco Raceway program, complete with Super Pro, Pro and Heavy (or Sportsman) eliminators. To watch these guys and girls race, along with the motorcycles, is a thing of beauty. On a good night, it’s like watching Scotty Richardson run David Rampy, or Mike Ferderer against Frank Kohutek. You know what I mean, there are a whole bunch of "0" lights and everyone’s running on their dial-in. Miss the tree or your number by even a little bit and you’ ll be a spectator real soon. And it certainly isn’t the place for the faint of heart, because everyone’s a player. Well, until recently, these racers confined their activity to the local tracks in their neck of the woods. Occasionally they’d venture out for a big money race, or five days down south. But most of all, it was a nice, friendly, family affair at a track where, like "Cheers," everyone knew your name. Well, all of that changed recently when the local winners were sent to the division championships, and those winners were sent to Pomona and the NHRA Finals. And for those drivers, to race at one of the most famous tracks on the circuit, must be the thrill of a lifetime.

Summit's Skooter Peaco and Kirk Heinbuch celebrate with the winners.

At the just concluded AAA Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, 28 of the best bracket racers in the country got a chance to strut their stuff in front of the capacity crowd at Pomona, and they got to do it for fame and fortune. Four classes were contested; Super Pro (7.00 – 11.99), Pro (10.00 – 13.99), Sportsman (13.00 – 19.99) and Motorcycle (7.50 – 15.99), and the racers put on quite a show. In the Super Pro class, Mike Wiblishouser, representing Division 5 and the Nebraska Motorplex, beat Jason Rogers from Tyler, Texas, the Division 4 representative. In the Pro class, Mike LaRosa, who came all the way from West Monroe, New York, took his ’69 Roadrunner to the title when he stopped the multi-talented Jeromy Hefler who was there for Texas Raceway and Division 4. Hometown favorite, Greg Dreher, running for Los Angeles County Raceway, and who lives in Granada Hills, California, took out another Division 1 star, Dennis Parisan in the Sportsman class, and Tim Pazour from Iowa rounded out the action by beating Ed Ehrke from Florida in the bike class. Just to show you how good these guys were, I watched the first eight cars as they made their first time trial run, and the worst reaction time was a .534 (on a five-tenths tree). Not bad, huh?

The Super Pro class featured a bunch of dragsters and a really slick Chevrolet Chevelle. As good as the full-bodied car was, in the end it would be a pair of dragsters slugging it out for the money. Wiblishouser hung a .513 on the tree and ran 9.567 on his 9.55 dial-in to get the win. Jason Rogers, his opponent, dialed an 8.03 and ran an 8.049 with a .521 reaction time. I spoke with Mike about the experience of coming to Pomona and he said that it was, "…unbelievable. I can’t believe the way we were treated, the Summit folks really did it up right. They treated us like a million dollars." Mike’s enthusiasm reflects the feelings of all of the competitors with whom I spoke.

Mike Wiblishouser in the final.

For Mike Wiblishouser, the Pomona race turned out to be a real, family affair. Mike drove out with the car, a quick little 28-hour ride from his home near Omaha, Nebraska, while his wife, Jennifer, flew in for the weekend. But the real surprise came from his grand parents, who also drove out for the race. "They have a new Corvette and they drove out and surprised me," said Mike. "It was really neat." Of course, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the grandparents wanted to be at the race, since it was Mike’s grandfather who got the family started in drag racing. "I’m the third generation racer," he said. "But don’t ask me what my dad and grandfather used to race, ‘cause it’s a whole, different world today!" Indeed it is, Mike. I’m sure the first two generations never heard of bracket racing, or dial-ins, or breakouts. Of course, I’m pretty sure Mike never saw a Modified Eliminator race, either. Oh well, time marches on.

Wiblishouser takes a unique approach to racing in the Super Pro class. He has a big block, 555 cubic inch, Chevy powered dragster that could run as quick as 7.50, yet he elects to dial in around 9.50 or 9.60. "I like leaving first, especially with the "blinded tree," I think it gives me an edge," he said. It must, since his reaction times were .502, .531, and the final round .513, and it made life tough for the quicker cars that had to try to run him down. "I have all the toys on the car, and all of the weather stuff and that all played a part. But there are a million things that have to fall your way to win something like this. It was just my day." Who knows, maybe more guys will be slowing their cars down after the see Mike’s results.

Mike LaRosa

Mike LaRosa, the Pro Eliminator winner, thinks that a 28-hour ride to the track is like a commute. "It took us three and a half days going out and about three days coming back," he said. "But it was worth it. The people at Summit and the people in California couldn’t have been any nicer. To have a race like this for us is the greatest thing they could do." Mike could have elected to fly to California, because he does have a brother who lives in the San Francisco area, and he has a Chevy Nova race car, but Mike never thought about driving that. "I just didn’t think I would be comfortable in it. Besides, I’m a Mopar guy all the way," he told me. Mike, who has won about 32 races over the past five years, admits that fate might have had a hand in his winning effort. "I really didn’t have great lights, and I could have been beaten in the finals, but he "(Jeromy Hefler), took too much stripe and I broke out by the least. It was just my day to win." Mike’s ’69 Plymouth Roadrunner, complete with a 440 motor, has been a race car for about eleven years. Like a lot of cars, it started out as a street machine, and, gradually, morphed into a competition vehicle. "Actually, I have two cars, this one and a ’72 Duster," Mike said. "But I took the engine out of the Duster and put it in this car, and the results have been pretty good." I should say so!

I asked Mike LaRosa about meeting John Force at the Summit dinner earlier in the week and he had nothing but kind words for the champ. "He was so nice, I couldn ’t believe it. You could tell that here is a guy who lives and loves the sport. To meet him was a real treat." But, Mike added, maybe a bigger treat was meeting the Summit Racing flagship driver, Dan Fletcher. "Dan’s from up my way (upstate New York), and he has been quite an inspiration. At the dinner, he told folks that I have beaten him a couple times. I don’t think I have, and believe me, I’d remember it if I had. But it was nice of Dan to say that." He added that he would like, someday, to try racing as a full time vocation, just like Fletcher does. And, when you consider that he had to win nine rounds at the Division 1 Bracket Finals in order to be able to race in Pomona, you can see why a life on the track is not out of the realm of possibility for this soft-spoken, New Yorker.

Both of the racers told me what a thrill it was to race in Pomona, although I was surprised that they weren’t really aware of the huge crowds that attend the races in Southern California. In fact, one driver told me that the only time he was ever totally aware of the size of the crowd was when he was racing in the finals and he looked at Winston Vision as he was going down the track to see where his opponent was. He thought, "Wow, there are a lot of people here." Oh yeah, he also thought about not breaking out and getting the win. It’s amazing what can go through your mind in just nine seconds, isn’t it?

I’m glad that the racers all seemed to enjoy the experience and it’s nice to know that they can have a race like this to call their own. And, whether it’s a three day drive, or a three hour one, I’m sure they would all love to have the opportunity to do it again. Congratulations to all of them, and I’m sure that if you get a chance to meet them, they’ll tell you that racing for the Summit Series National Championship at Pomona truly was the thrill of a lifetime.