Hough Dethrones Austin at Woodburn

Federlin wins TAD

Story by David Hapgood

Photos by Hapgood and Nolan Hibbard

Brian Hough

The Division 6 TAFC scene is once again an active battlefield: Bucky Austin and Brian Hough are locked in combat, and Hough has emerged the leader on three different tracks in just a matter of weeks. It cannot be welcome news for Bucky Austin, who has been the division's one and only heavyweight for half a decade.

The latest chapter in this battle was played out at Woodburn Dragstrip's 32nd annual season opener.

Saturday's qualifying was dominated by, what else, the Oregon weather. It had been raining every day for at least a week and more rain was forecast for the weekend. Nearly all of the division’s best top alcohol teams were in attendance, a strong field bolstered by the appearance of California TAD star Hillary Will. All the ingredients were in place, but as the first qualifying session got underway, the skies were gloomy and the track temperature was a cold 73 degrees.

Of the nine TAD and TAFC cars that made this session, only Brandon Johnson was able to navigate the track with a 5.405/255.31 blast that must have left all the others scratching their heads. Gregg Lawrence's A/FD might have come close but the car went silent well before the top end and coasted through with a 5.998/219.41. The TAFCs, however, had it worse with much violent tire shake. Todd Ashwell led the half dozen entries with a 6.85/199.07 pass that showcased his driving skills.

Clint Thompson launches on a gloomy Saturday afternoon.

Gregg Lawrence's A/FD team struggled with the new nitro rules. On their third pass they finally got it right with a 5.511/253.75, but the car is still two tenths off its usual pace.

Brandon Johnson laid down a 5.405 for Saturday's best TAD pass.

Todd Ashwell led TAFC qualifying on Saturday. Note to fuel FC buffs: this shell is the ex-Jim Dunn Penthouse/Grant Downing Standard Abrasives Firebird.

Jim Peters was third best TAFC on Saturday in gorgeous new candy apple paint.

Randy Parker in the 'Mercedes Shoppe' camaro.

Dale Hearn's A/FD slingshot.

Kim Parker in the 'Mercedes Shoppe' TAD.

A number of teams elected to skip Saturday's first session, and it was curtains for them when the skies opened up and a steady drizzle washed out the rest of the program.

Sunday was the main event, yet the weather continued to pose a threat. The day began with cool temperatures, lots of clouds, and a stiff crosswind. Yet you have to love the Northwest's spectators: while they didn't exactly fill the stands, they did show up in strong numbers given the likelihood for rain.

The format called for two more qualifying sessions to establish the final round pairings in TAD and TAFC -- 'Chicago Style.' An additional handful of TAD and TAFC teams had shown up at the track overnight. The clouds unleashed some drizzle just before noon and then the sun came out. Before long, the day's first qualifying session was underway.

The TADs kicked things off and most of the field made clean passes in the mid five second range. When it was over, Steve Federlin led with a strong 5.389 while Brandon Johnson's 5.405 from Saturday held up for the #2 spot. In TAFC, the session produced good numbers all around, but the Austin/Hough rivalry took center stage. Austin made his first pass of the event and turned a conservative but strong 5.85 at 244.56 mph. Hough was in the next pairing and it would probably be fair to say that everyone on the premises held their breath as he went down on an obviously strong pass. When a 5.797/250.00 flashed on the scoreboard, it seemed like the handwriting was on the wall. Hough was the top qualifier, with just one more session to go.

Brian Hough's weekend takes off.

Bucky Austin has red paint for 2005.

Exactly how things might have turned out, nobody will ever know, because there never was a second session on Sunday. Instead, the skies opened up and this time it wasn't drizzle, it was a deluge. In the course of twenty minutes, the air temperature dropped nearly fifteen degrees and when the rains finally lifted, the place was thoroughly soaked. Of course, being Oregon, the sun then burned through the clouds, but the damage was done.

It took quite a while to dry the track. Because the second qualifying session had been rained out, each of the alcohol teams would return for one more pass. The quickest qualifiers (Federlin/Johnson and Hough/Austin) from earlier in the day and Saturday would pair up to run for the title.

This sounded quite simple, but in practice, it was an epic session to say the least. On nearly every pass, the best-prepared alcohol teams in the northwest laid down oil. The cleanups were lengthy and tedious. Joey Severance had it the worst, banging the blower, turning the shutdown area into an oil slick, and then bringing the car back down the return road with the engine still smoking. He remarked that he'd felt the heat from the explosion through his helmet.

Steve Federlin was flawless from the start.

It was a disappointing weekend for Hillary Will but the car looked nice.

Bill Edwards, Jr. in the family's venerable NAPA TAD. The car laid down a 5.794 best for 6th fastest of the weekend.

Joey Severance and crew ready for battle. Their 5.452 was good for third best in TAD but it came with a price.

TAD final.

The final in TAD was a classic Northwest matchup between Brandon Johnson and Steve Federlin, who had qualified less than two hundredths apart (5.389 to 5.405). They left the starting line together (.050 to .051 RTs) but Johnson's car fell off not far downtrack, coasting through with a 9.95/79.23 while Federlin never missed a beat at 5.443/252. It was a seamless victory for this team, as they had made just two runs the entire weekend, and somewhere in there they had managed to squeeze in the top qualifying position and the event title! Pretty impressive.

Donn Hosford was, in his words, 'Shaking the rust off' after a two year absence. The team was testing an all-new engine combo and finished seventh in TAFC with a 6.407/190.75

In the wildest FC run of the weekend, Forrest Le Blanc in Brad Hansen's car (near lane) carried the wheels and went down side by side with Dale Harsin. Both cars got extremely loose down at the finish line, with Harsin's car making a violent right-hand turn into Le Blanc's lane. For a moment, a collision seemed unavoidable, but somehow they made it through. Both received much applause on the return road.

Dave Hix's Bantam AA/FA.

Darin Bay in the Warhawk jet ran Bill Hosford in the Nighthawk..

After the TAD final, The TAFC field came through; all the entries on hand made a pass and the finalists would run last. Just when it seemed almost inconceivable that the program would be held up by yet another oildown, the usually clean-running Dave Hix laid down a huge oil trail while making a burnout in his AA/FA (yes, the fuel altered was running up against TAFCs!). The many cleanups ahead of Hix had kept his team waiting in the staging lanes for so long that their motor had gone cold and their accu-sump malfunctioned.

Fittingly enough, the long cleanup from this spill set the stage for the final round TAFC pairings.

As noted earlier, the rivalry between Bucky Austin and Brian Hough has heated up considerably this year. Austin is known for ruling his division and Woodburn is one of his many 'home tracks.' But he did not have lane choice in the final round. In fact, due to the rained out qualifying sessions, he had yet to make a pass the right lane, which was right where Hough wanted him. Furthermore, this lane now had an oildown from behind the starting line out to roughly three hundred-foot mark. Not that it wouldn't get cleaned up, but it was just one more variable. Austin strolled downtrack, sat down on the wall and looked on as the safety crew applied speedy-dry, lacquer thinner, and VHT, dragged rubber behind the tractor, swept up, and repeated the process over and over again. It took a while but finally the lane was back in shape, but of unknown potential.

A last pair of FCs remained before the final and Clint Thompson had the right-hand lane. When he shook (hard) sixty feet out, it appeared that the handwriting was on the wall.

TAFC final.

In what might have been the most closely watched TAFC funny car matchup at Woodburn dragstrip in many years, Brian Hough and Bucky Austin did their burnouts and pulled to the line. Hough left first (.075 to .116) and a couple seconds later it was all over. Austin's car skated and shook while Hough went on to record the best TAFC numbers of the weekend, a 5.730/251.67. The crowd went nuts.

It had been a lengthy two day event, but the 32nd annual Woodburn opener presented by Baxter Auto Parts, Bi- Mart and 99.5 'The Wolf' was finally in the record books, setting the stage for the long summer ahead.

David Hapgood