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King of the Hill: Northstar Dragway
Photos by Gena White ~ Text by Danny White
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| Gaylen Smith has been on a tear in his Outlaw 10.5 Camaro with 3 wins and two runner ups. |
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| Andrew Wheel ran 5.0's in his Stang. |
It was a hot but windy day when the King of the Hill circuit came back to Denton's North Star Raceway. Ten cars made the trip to race. The field was split between eight nitrous cars and two turbo cars.
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| Matt Jones and Tony Thorn in qualifying. |
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| Fernando Ayala lasted until the semis. |
Chris Shortridge and Gaylen Smith were the first pair to qualify tonight. Chris Shortridge ran 4.72 171.39 and Gaylen Smith ran 4.87 133.91. Mike Kelley, the last winner of the KOTH at North Star Dragway, ran a 5.159 149.56 against the turbo Mustang of Andrew Wheel that ran 5.498. Fernando Ayala took the Spanish Fly Camaro to the second spot with a 4.83 147.35 and his opponent Travis Orr had handling problems on a 6.404 79.23.
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| Mike Kelley won the last KOTH race at Denton but lost in the second round. |
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| Al Sneed ran 5.09 on small tires! |
Al "Snake" Sneed took his Limited Street Camaro to a great 5.098 141.11 on a solo pass. Matt Jones ran a 5.848 130.25 in a borrowed ride, while Tony Thorn had troubles while running a 6.962 67.21. Raymond Longoria pedaled his Camaro to a 5.403 140.23 to end the first round of qualifying.
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| Gaylen layin' down the rubber. |
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| The Spanish Fly of Ayala ran a 4.83 best. |
1 4.72 Chris Shortridge
2 4.83 Fernando Ayala
3 4.87 Gaylen Smith
4 5.09 Al Sneed
5 5.15 Mike Kelley
6 5.40 Raymond Longoria
7 5.49 Andrew Wheel
8 5.84 Matt Jones
9 6.40 Travis Orr
10 6.96 Tony Thorn
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| Raymond Longoria lost in the first round tonight. |
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| Chris Shortridge won with a 4.61 best. |
Shortridge and Smith started the second round with Shortridge running a 4.76 149.15 and Smith a 4.83 150.35 to get the second spot. Mike Kelley and Raymond Longoria both improved in the next pair, Kelley ran 5.04 146.15 and Longoria ran 5.08 141.15. Whale improved to a 5.13 140.58 against Sneed who ran a 5.10 143.51.
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| Matt Jones was shaking down a new car tonight. |
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| Travis Orr's Clowing Around truly has to be seen to be appreciated. |
Travis Orr broke into the fours with a 4.94 148.12 in the Clowing Around Camaro and Ayala shut off to a 5.306. Tony Thorn ran 5.33 141.78 in his purple Camaro to Matt Jones's 5.43.
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| Tony Thorn's small tire Camaro made it to the second round. |
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| Wheel's turbo Stang. |
1 4.72 Chris Shortridge
2 4.83 Gaylen Smith
3 4.83 Fernando Ayala
4 4.94 Travis Orr
5 5.04 Mike Kelley
6 5.08 Raymond Longoria
7 5.09 Al Sneed
8 5.13 Andrew Wheel
9 5.33 Tony Thorn
10 5.43 Matt Jones
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| Shortridge broke a trans, but repaired it and won! |
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| Shortridge beat Longoria in the first round. |
Fernando Ayala ran 5.03 148.15 to beat the 5.32 154.08 of Andrew Whale to begin the first round. Gaylen Smith ran a Consistent 4.82 146.82 to beat Al Sneed who shut off to a 6.47 87.41 after a wild wheel stand. Chris Shortridge had trouble on a 5.10 116.85 run, but it was enough to beat the wild wheel standing 5.59 138.89 of Raymond Longoria. Matt Jones gave Mike Kelley the easy win after he red lighted, Kelley ran a good 4.97 146.20 to win. Tony Thorn upset Travis Orr 5.45 127.05 to 7.53 67.43 to end the first round.
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| Smith beat Sneed when the wild wheelstand of Sneed got too high! |
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| Tony Thorn upset Travis Orr in the first round. |
Fernando Ayala sweaked out tight victory with a 4.89 151.56 to Mike Kelley's 5.02 145.66. Gaylen Smith ran another 4.83 138.85 to beat the up in smoke 15.23 52.59 of Tony Thorn. Chris Shortridge broke a transmission on the first pass and barely made the second round call. In fact it was so close they were installing the transmission as the other cars were going to the staging lanes! Shortridge took the light and shut off to go back to the pits and finished the job.
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| Travis Orr. |
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| Matt "Big Daddy" Goss. |
Gaylen Smith got the bye run in the semis, he took it easy on a 10.30 61.43 to advance to the finals. Fernando Ayala ran a good 4.84 147.51 but it was crushed by a 4.61 169.30 by Shortridge. The run by Chris Shortridge would stand as Low E.T. and top Speed of the night.
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| Fernando Ayala. |
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| The finals were over when Smith redlighted with a .397 reaction time. |
The finals was anticlimactic as Gaylen Smith red lighted with a near perfect .397 giving the win to the turbocharged Camaro of Chris Shortridge. Smith ran 5.77 82.19 to the 9.85 42.35 of Shortridge.
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| The victory douse! |
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| Chris Shortridge and team. |
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