The 49th annual Amalie motor oil NHRA Gatornationals this past weekend was everything that racers thought it would be, well at least everyone from the North. With cold temps and what seemed like nonstop snow storms hitting the NY, NJ, and PA region, racers couldn’t get the Florida fast enough hitting the rapidly growing “baby gators” then the national event for a great start to the year. With temps at night/early morning in the 30s but daytime sun, it was perfect for fast cars and a perfect weekend of racing. With the first stop on the SAM-TECH Factory Stock Showdown being hosted this weekend we had 31 drivers competing for 16 spots, with cars and technology getting better and better pretty much every car in the eventual 16 car field was able to run quicker than 8.20.

A couple drivers fell 1 round short of going 100% between the 2 “gator” events and with multiple finals being uncontested, at the end of the day Sunday drivers such as Jeff Taylor, Frank Aragona and Alan Kenny would be 1 more wally richer.

Factory Stock Showdown: Stephen Bell over Aaron Stanfield

3rd time is the charm for Bell as he collects his 1st win in his 3rd final round. Stanfield was the underdog in this race as he was the #9 qualifier at 8.130 while Bell was the #6 overall at 8.108, both of these drivers topping out at 168 mph. In every round of competition Bell was slightly out performing Stanfield by a few hundreths, so Stanfield knew if he could make that up on the tree he could get the holeshot win. While he did in fact do just that with a .010 light to the .097 of Bell, Stanfield went into severe tire shake and could not recover. Bell on the other hand stuck the tire and made a picture perfect run going 8.176 at 167.47.

Comp: Frank Aragona over Greg Kamplain

Aragona came into the final round qualified in the #1 overall spot at -.784 but was unfortunately down .12 from a prior round. Kamplain was qualified #8 at -.723 and was down .13 from prior rounds. Aragona was out of the gate first with a .030 light and was behind as Kamplain was .021 but didn’t have enough power to get ahead of Aragona as he ran 6.829 (-.501). Aragona went a little more under his index at 7.332 (-.538) but took home his 10th win in the process.

Super Stock: Kevin Riner over Pat Clifford

Taking home the 1st wally of his career, Riner is off to a fast start and is currently in the points lead after the first few events. In the what looks like a “stocker trim” SS/JA Camaro, Riner would be getting chased well over a full tree with a 10.87 dial to the 9.40 dial of Clifford in the GT/GA Cavalier. Both of these drivers were distracted when the tree came down with Riner having the advantage, .082 to a .122. Clifford ran into traction issues shortly after and blew the tires off and could not make up for it, Riner looked over his shoulder to see Clifford was nowhere near and rolled out of the throttle to be well over his dial.

Stock: Jeff Taylor over Ken Miele

With his 45th overall win, Taylor gets just his 3rd in Stock. Taylor was the first to swap feet dialed in at 9.80, exactly 1 second later Miele would be away dialed in at 8.80 in this Chevy vs Ford match up. Miele would have the advantage with a .031 reaction time to the .041 of Taylor, but at the finish line Miele could not run the number going 8.864 on the 8.80 dial. Taylor ran 9.816 on the 9.80 dial having just enough room to kill some et, staying ahead and above his dial for the win.

Super Comp: Greg Slack over Ray Miller Jr.

Another 1st time winner in the 8.90 category as Slack holds off a member of the racin’ Miller family. Slack was first to react with a .024 light to the .033 for Miller, as the cars came off the throttle stop the 15 mph spot started to close rapidly as they began to approach the 1000′. At the finish line Slack ran 8.911 giving him a .035 total package. Miller, who is in his 2nd final in as many weeks had to take .002 or less but decided to let him go and get behind to run 8.910, giving Slack the .008 MOV.

Super Gas: Jim Perry over Michelle Furr

Perry was able to get past Furr who was also in her 2nd final in 2 weeks to get his 3rd gators trophy and 5th overall. Furr got the jump with a .016 reaction time and ran just a little too far off of the class index at 9.933. Perry reacted with a .023 light and had his car dialed in better running 9.912, ending Furr’s round streak.

Top Sportsman: Ronnie Proctor over Lester Johnson

Proctor finally got the monkey of his back and gets to hoist his 1st ever wally in his 5th final round appearance. As 2 of the veteran drivers in this category were getting ready to square off, Johnson would be giving chase dialed in at 6.17 to the 6.75 for Proctor. As Johnson ever so carefully bumped in, he did so after the allotted 7 second time limit and was timed out. Proctor was clearly not ready when his top bulb came on with a .304 light and ran the car a few hundred feet then shut it down and coasted to his 1st win.

Top Dragster: Alan Kenny over Steve Cohen

Kenny gets his 1st Top Dragster win and his 8th overall in the last uncontested final of the weekend. Cohen pulled up to the line dialed in at 6.54, unfortunately he experienced problems with the car and just sat on the line as the tree came down. Kenny dialed in at 6.20 either was distracted or knew something was wrong and sat on the tree as he was .076 and ran it down to the 1000′ mark before clicking it off.