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2025 NHRA Lebanon Valley Divisional Recap

The Fourth of July weekend at Lebanon Valley Dragway was a case of “Hot, hotter, hottest” in more ways than one, with the Annual NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional happening. Report and Photos by Rob McCabe.

After Mother Nature intervened on Thursday during test and tune, she graced us with beautiful, dry weather for Friday’s qualifying. The performances were hot, with all three rounds of qualifying for the Alcohol and Injected Nitro Cars.

Top alcohol dragster brought eight of the East Coast’s finest, including a couple of debuts in Anthony “Tater” Troyer who stepped up from the Factory Stock Showdown to driving for Rich McPhillips, and Megan Smith, making her first appearance at the Valley almost 30 years since her mom Rhonda Hartman-Smith match raced in Top Fuel during the “Top Fuel Challenge” shows in the mid-90s.

But when it was all said and done, it was a pure showcase for Jackie Fricke driving for John Finke and Finke Equipment, one of the sponsors of the Valley. During the first session, Fricke set the tone off the bat by uncorking a track record 5.239 and making the first 280 mph run in TAD in the history of the Valley at 281.44. “Tater” was second with a 5.317 268.58, followed by the quickest Blown car at #3 with Tom Fox with a 5.409 238.54 MPH run in the final Session after traction troubles in the first two sessions. In 4th was 3rd-generation racer Brett Winward with a 5.449 at 262.28, just four hundredths short of his best ET for the year. This was followed by “Nitro” Joe Morrison driving for Tom Pickett. Joe made career-best numbers in TAD with a 5.589 267.52 to position himself #5. He was followed by “Baby Gators” winner John Ausherman in #6 with a 5.593 at a top speed of 263.64. Megan Smith and Maple Grove Regional winner Richard Bourke struggled during the day to round out the field at #7 and #8.

Top Alcohol Funny Car had four cars show up. However, two of them were high-octane top-five players in the 2024 world points, making their LVD debuts. Phil Esz was coming off two consecutive regional wins at Maple Grove and Norwalk and a #1 Qualifying performance at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals last weekend at Norwalk. Bob McCosh made the trip from Missouri to give Esz some competition. Rounding out the 4 to challenge the two titans was defending event champ Wayne Morris and Canadian Jeff McCulloch, making his return to the Valley with his ’99 Camaro in the sea of newer Camaros.

As predicted, Esz and McCosh were at the top, with McCosh ranking #1 after the first two sessions. Esz had to catch up after problems in the first session. Still, in the final session Friday evening, Esz finally pulled through with a 5.541 at a Track Record 264.86. McCosh was second with a 5.580, 261.08. Wayne Morris was third. He ran 5.788 at 208.69 in the first session and experienced problems in the second session, which caused him to skip the final session. Jeff McCulloch only ran the first session and got a 6.252 202.34 before parking his Rodeck Chevy Alky burner for the rest of the afternoon.

Comp had 11 cars on the property, with reigning division champion Joe Carnasciale as the #1 qualifier, running .648 under (8.832) his 9.48 index in I/SM at a speed of 152.33 MPH.

Top Dragster and Top Sportsman this year ran to the eighth mile, and even with the shorter distance, they still put on a show throughout two qualifying sessions on Friday and one final session on Saturday afternoon.

In Top Dragster, 34 competitors jockeyed for 32 qualifying spots for eliminations, and four drivers were in the 3-second zone to the eighth. 2016 Summernationals at Englishtown champ Scott Luken qualified #1 with a 3.892 at a top speed of 185.13, and Marty Jones was #2, one thousandth behind with a 3.893 at a top speed of 186.25. Local fave “Fast” Freddy Perkins was 3rd, living up to his nickname with a 3.904 with the Fastest Speed in all of TD qualifying at 189.07. Bill Russell was 4th with a 3.972 182.30. The #32 bump spot of LVD Sunday was held down by regular Jamie Dymond at 4.484 155.96 driving his wife Stefanie’s “Baby Blown” Dragster.

21 Top Sportsman entries made the trip to the Valley with Dan Hill in his nitrous-assisted Camaro at #1 with a 4.289, with the Top Speed of Top Sportsman qualifying at 169.43.

The Fourth of July festivities were capped off in an equally hot way by Rich Hanna and Ernie Bogue getting to have their match race that was rescheduled from the rained-out Night Of Fire. After their smoke and fire show, Rich, in his First Strike Jet Funny Car, got the win over Bogue’s Beast From The East Jet Dragster.

Saturday featured eliminations for the Alcohol classes, and the action was hotter, with temperatures rising as well. The question was, “How will these teams be able to tackle the conditions?”

Round 1 had a lot of action going on, starting with the two blown machines of Brett Winward and “Nitro” Joe Morrison. Both drivers gave a great race to kick off eliminations with Winward turning on the win light by picking up two hundredths on his qualifying time with a 5.428 262.68, still a couple hundredths shy and a couple MPH shy of his career bests. “Nitro Joe” also made his career-best numbers going into the 40s, with a 5.448 269.25 in the loss. Next was the lone Blown vs. Injected Nitro pairing with Tom Fox’s Blown Alky burner vs. “Baby Gators” Champ John Ausherman. Unfortunately for Fox, the traction troubles reared their ugly heads, and Ausherman never looked back, with a 5.701, 250.25. The last two pairs of Round 1 would be all Injected Nitro, all the time. First, it was the two drivers making their first LVD appearances going 1-on-1, with Anthony “Tater” Troyer in his “Fendt Tractors” machine versus Megan Smith. The traction troubles bit both, causing them to pedal a bit. Smith was able to get a handle on it quicker than Troyer could and took the victory, denying the McPhillips Team a chance to repeat, albeit with a different driver from 2024. Smith won with a 6.119 at 264.08, giving up lane choice to Ausherman in the semis. The final pair was a rematch of the Maple Grove Final, featuring Jackie Fricke vs. Richard Bourke in the surprising #8 spot. Bourke finally got a handle on the track, but Fricke was better off the line and continued her prime performance by running 5.328 279.28, securing Lane choice over Winward in the semis. Bourke ran a losing 5.480 258.25.

The semis started with the two from the bottom half of the eight cars, with #6 Ausherman facing #7 qualifier, Megan Smith. Just like Fox in round one, Smith encountered traction troubles around the half-track. Ausherman ran a 5.795 240.23 to advance to the final. Jackie Fricke faced Brett Winward next. Winward’s lone Blown combination was better off the line with his .040 reaction time to Fricke’s .062 reaction time. Still, Fricke used all her speed to get to the stripe first with a 5.360 279.80 to secure lane choice over Ausherman in the final. Winward ran 5.493 259.61 in his losing effort.

Ausherman was hoping for one more swing of luck to go his way in facing Jackie Fricke in the final. Ausherman was better off the line again; unfortunately, it would not be enough to sustain his luck. Jackie Fricke finished a showcase weekend for the team with a 5.429 278.79 to win her 2nd Regional Wally in the 2025 Season, as well as being the 3rd different regional winner in 2025.

Top Alcohol Funny Cars started with Division 1 notable Wayne Morris facing #2 qualifier and Missouri native Bob McCosh, who took the victory with a 5.547 at 262.45. That set up McCosh to face the winner of #1 Qualifier Phil Esz vs. Ontario, Canada, native Jeff McCulloch. Esz won that contest at 5.571, 264.35, but gave up lane choice to McCosh.

The two titans met in the final. Esz was better out of the gate and parlayed it to victory with Low ET of the event at 5.532, tying the track ET record set by Matt Gill in 2020 at 263.76. McCosh took the runner-up spot with his best run of the weekend: a 5.544, 264.13.

Sunday was the day all the other Lucas Oil Classes crowned their champions. Under hot and humid summer conditions, they provided some of their own thrills.

Comp Eliminator had a few racers succumb to breakage and unable to make eliminations. When it was all said and done, the final pit #1 qualifier Joe Carnasciale in his 5-speed V6 I/SM Cavalier against Don Eckel in his small block Chevrolet V8 powered C/DA This year’s NHRA New England Nationals Champ would go James Bond green at .007 RT and run 8.937, 151.71 (.543 Under)to get himself a Wally on the divisional level. Eckel would run 7.062, 189.08 (.478 Under). Still, his .013 RT would make him the runner-up.

In Top Dragster, out of the 32 Cars in Eliminations, the final two were a pair of Blown cars. This year’s Maple Grove Divisional champ, Walt Zalak’s Blown Dragster from the #17 qualifying spot, faced Lebanon Valley Dragway regular Jamie Dymond driving his wife Stefanie’s “Baby Blown” Dragster from the #32 Spot. Both drivers ran dead on their dial-ins. Still, Dymond was .017 on the tree and ran 4.551 on his 4.55 dial at 153.89 to throw a .018 Package at Zalak’s .028 RT and 4.296 on his 4.29 dial at a faster 166 78. This continued Dymond’s success this year at The Valley, following his win in the most recent Affordable CDL Learning Schools Top Dragster/Top Sportsman event on June 22, in his own car.

In Top Sportsman, out of the 21 cars in eliminations, it came down to a classic automobile matchup on Nitrous in a Connecticut vs. Massachusetts showdown, featuring “Fast” Freddy Perkins in his “Old Faithful” 1969 Nova against Larry Willard in his 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Perkins had a two-tenths head start. His .018 RT to Willard’s .071 RT was the difference that led to Perkins winning another divisional Wally at Lebanon Valley (along with a couple of bags of donuts for his multiple occasions of perfect reaction times during the weekend). He won his 4th career Lucas Oil Wally with a 4.935 on his 4.91 dial at 138.67 mph, beating Willard’s 4.701 on his 4.69 dial at 148.25 mph.

The rest of the Sportsman classes also featured a lot of action in their finals.

Super Stock had Justin Picillo driving the Eddie Bloom-owned, Farks SuperCars-built 1985 Pontiac Trans Am SS/BS taking the title from Greg Gay’s 1980 Dodge Mirada GT/LA. It was Picillo’s eighth career Lucas Oil Divisional win.

Stock Eliminator featured a battle of First Gen Camaros, with Massachusetts’ John Gray in his 1969 Camaro AA/SA facing off against New Jersey’s Joe Lisa in his Black 1968 Camaro D/SA. Unfortunately, Lisa had problems right off the line, and Gray was on his way to his 5th Lucas Oil Divisional Wally.

Super Comp had two Pennsylvania natives in the final, with TC Smith vs. Joey Cambria. They both hit identical .022 lights, but Smith, running 8.905 on the 8.90, got him his first career Lucas Oil Series Wally.

Super Gas had Keith Mayers in his unique 1988 Spider Quadraf roadster take the win over top 5 finisher Charlie Kenopic from last year’s Division 1 after Kenopic broke out by one thousandth under the 9.90 index.

Super Street was about the ladies as Taylor Nobile in her 1999 Chevy S-10 faced Laura Leque’s 1968 Nova. Leque was better off the line, but she ran 10.885 on the 10.90 dial and gave the win to Nobile, securing the fifth Lucas Oil Title of Taylor’s career and her first since becoming Taylor Nobile.

The Junior Dragsters were also in action. Paige Doney took the 6-10 Junior Class title, running 8.969 on an 8.96 dial and a 0.021 RT to defeat Jayden Rogers.

The 11-18 Junior Class was the Stalba Siblings, with Paul Stalba on one side and Paul’s sister, Emily, on her side. Emily was better off the line, with a light of .026 to .038. But Paul caught Emily at the stripe, running 7.964 on his 7.96 dial to get the Wally over Emily’s 7.989 on her 7.97 dial.

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