TOPMA: Dallas Raceway July

Text by Celeste Smith ~ Photo by Gena White

Last night's show was a late show but I want to commend the track clean-up crew for giving us a great racing surface everytime it was oiled down and they earned their pay last night. There were 10 Pro Mod teams that rolled into the concrete palace and after two rounds of qualifying, here's what went down:

#1 Gaylen Smith - 3.940 at 196 mph
#2 Gene Hector - 3.993 at 181 mph
#3 Thomas Myers - 4.038 at 186 mph
#4 Chris Smith - 4.144 at 161 mph
#5 Don Wootton - 4.281 at 165 mph (Expired the motor)
#6 Ken Thomas - 4.441 at 141 mph
#7 Jackie Deaver - 4.510 at 157 mph
#8 Randy Brewer - 5.106 at 159 mph
#9 Michelle Wilson - 7.356 at 61 mph
#10 Chuck Nuytten - 7.499 at 89 mph

First round:

Chris Smith (W) 4.090 at 163 mph (.057 RT)
Michelle Wilson (RU) 8.281 at 53 mph (.062 RT)

Michelle filled in for Don Wootten who expired an engine in 2nd round qualfiying. Michelle never got a hold of the track meanwhile Chris Smith cruised right down the LenMar Motorsports lane and takes the win on a nice strong pass.

Thomas Myers (W) 4.082 at 180 mph (.067 RT)
Ken Thomas (RU) 4.104 at 178 mph (.063 RT)

This was a GREAT race. Ken Thomas had a slight starting line advantage but Thomas Myers had the ET to get the job done.

Gene Hector (W) 3.986 at 182 mph (.048 RT)
Jackie Deaver (RU) 4.315 at 166 mph (-.001 RT)

Jackie needed a holeshot advantage but unfortunately for him, he left .001 too soon and Gene backs up this qualifying number.

Gaylen Smith (W) 4.587 at 126 mph (.054 RT)
Randy Brewer (RU) 4.460 at 162 mph (.275 RT)

Randy struggled during qualifying trying to get a combination for this race track and even though he finally got A to B somewhat under power, he left the starting line way late and that worked to Gaylen's advantage. Gaylen left on 7 cylinders and bulldozed his way to the win then pulled over to the side of track because he knew something broke in the rear-end (he didn't want the track crew to have to clean up another mess).

Semi Finals:

Thomas Myers (W) 4.056 at 182 mph (.067 RT)
Gene Hector (RU) NO Time (.076 RT)

Thomas left first and never looked back and that was a good thing cuz he would have seen Gene Hector on 2 wheels in his lane. It looked like Gene blew the tires off and the "original" Small Block Mafia Corvette started washing the back end out and finally ended up swiping the wall in Thomas' lane before coasting to a stop. Glad you're ok, Gene.

Gaylen Smith (W)
Chris Smith (RU)

A computer glitch prevented the timing system from working on this run but Chris aborted his run after encountering traction problems and Gaylen was on a great run after changing spark plug wires, rear-end and transmission. We really needed to know what we ran but we did get our own computer reading and had the car ready for the final round.

Final round:

Thomas Myers (W) 8.10 at 67 mph (.116 RT)
Gaylen Smith (RU) 3.98 at 194 mph (-.021 RT)

As Gaylen was rolling into the beams the car never stopped rolling and he couldn't hold it so he rolled the beams giving he automatic win to Thomas Myers. I talked to Thomas later and he said he had his hopped up and as soon as he unclutched it, he just lit the tires up. Congratulations to Thomas & Rebecca Myers for your first 2009 Victory. Congratulations to Team TBH as well for your runner-up finish. 10-2 round record AIN'T bad. Thanks to all the fans who came out and especially to those who were still around for a very late final round. We appreciate you very much!