Greenberg Dominates Western Fuel Altereds Finale at Wild Horse Pass

October 28, 2015 Posted By Bill Pratt

The Western Fuel Altereds completed their final event of the 2015 season at the “Halloween Havoc” event at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, AZ. The event schedule called for qualifying on Friday for an 8 car “A Field” and a 4 car “B Field”. Those plans evaporated as a giant sandstorm made a direct hit on the track Friday afternoon, followed by persistent light rain. With Friday qualifying scrubbed, the format was changed to a Modified Chicago Style Shootout. Each car was given one qualifying run to set a ladder for a round of competition, with the 2 quickest winners of that round meeting in the final.

With this being the last race of the season, there was considerable attention being paid to the championship points standings. Lyle Greenberg brought a slim 7 point lead into this race over 2nd place Mitch Bowen, with Greg Holman a mere 2 points behind him.

The qualifying session started off with Lyle Greenberg setting a potential series record with a 6.39 at 214 mph in the first run of the session. Defending WFA champion Eric Gates ended up 2nd at a 6.68 and Mic Williams took his new Hemi combination to 3rd at a 6.69. The complete qualifying order looked like this:

1) Lyle Greenberg, Albuquerque NM 6.395 @ 214.93

2) Eric Gates, Fallbrook, CA 6.687 @ 200.14

3) Mic Williams, Tucson, AZ 6.694 @ 206.86

4) Jerry Hall, Sierra Vista, AZ 7.360 @ 184.47

5) Mike Scott, Glendale, AZ 7.501 @ 161.77

6) Sheldon Lofgreen, Gilbert, AZ 7.643 @ 180.98

7) Robert Winefsky, El Mirage, AZ 8.199 @ 136.68

8) Greg Holman, Kingman, AZ 8.271 @ 185.10

9) Mitch Bowen, Flagstaff, AZ 10.474 @ 79.61

10) Pat Neal, Tucson, AZ 10.929 @ 84.21

11) Ed Middlebrook, Prescott, AZ No Time

The competition round opened with #1 qualifier Lyle Greenberg upping the ante with a .036 reaction time to take the Torco Oil “Quick Willie” Best Reaction Time Award and run a 6.38 at 216 mph to take the win over Rob Winefsky’s 7.14. Greenberg’s earlier 6.39 backed up this 6.38 to give him the new WFA ET record. The next pair saw Ed Middlebrook rebound from a troubled qualifying effort to beat Mike Scott, 7.23/187 to a 7.43/179. Sheldon Lofgreen then took a single run and recorded a 6.87/188. This is the best run to date for the Art Nolte tuned twin turbocharged beast. Mitch Bowen then ran a stellar 6.52/211 to defeat Mic Williams’ 6.65/206. Eric Gates made another nice run at a 6.64/202 to take the win over Greg Holman’s 7.29/189. Both Pat Neal and Jerry Hall had problems and were unable to make their runs.

The quickest two winners that advanced to the Final Round were Lyle Greenberg with his 6.38 and Mitch Bowen with a 6.52. Greenberg had lane choice and chose to stay in the left lane. Greenberg took a slight starting line advantage and then stretched that lead, winning with a 6.40 to Bowen’s 6.63. A clock malfunction caused no speeds to be recorded for either car.

With Greenberg’s big weekend, he won his first WFA Season Points Championship by a comfortable margin. Bowen finished 2nd in the points standings, Holman was 3rd and Jerry Hall finished 4th.