Summit RAINING Equipment Nationals Recap…

Timothy Fletcher | June 28, 2018

Norwalk, OH would be the host of the latest NHRA event for the 4-day Summit Racing Equipment Nationals. Most racers would be in and parked on Wednesday but the 100 or so rigs that did not make it in the gate by 5pm would be forced to spend the night in Linders Lot. 7am Thursday racers would be woken up to either roll into the event or get up and get ready for the day to the news of a huge schedule change, 2 time trials and rd1 by the end of day THURSDAY! With the always dismal forecast for this event the NHRA staff thought this would be the best solution to try and make sure it would be completed by Sunday. But at the same time you could have racers that came into the gate Thursday morning that would also be packed up and gone less than 12 hours later for there $330 investment. The schedule would be moved around a few more times with multiple rain delays throughout the following few days, but the event would eventually be completed on time Sunday with a few hours to spare…

Stock: Todd Hoven

3 weeks ago Joseph Welch was Wallyless and now has a pair of them as he wins consecutive weeks in the Factory Stock Showdown class. It was only right that the #1 and #2 qualifier meet in the final when Mark Pawuk pulled up to the starting line in only his 2nd time racing this car/class. Welch left 3 thou ahead of Pawuk with a .028 light and ran faster at 8.107, Pawuk ran a stout 8.115 @168.58 but just didn’t have enough as both drivers slow just a hun from there qualifying runs. The Stock Eliminatior final had Todd Hoven getting his 2nd national event win in the borrowed “Carp Coronet” over Dick Kincaid. Hoven was able to track down Kincaid down early with a .058 reaction time, which was 2 hun better than that of Kincaid. At the stripe Kincaid slowed to an 11.288 on a 11.26, giving Hoven the room he needed to go dead on 5 to his 10.08 dial.

Comp Eliminator came down to none other than David Rampy and Jim Primozic Jr. With Rampy having only a .03 CIC penalty and the starting line advantage, that was enough for him to collect his 97th win and 78th in Comp running 7.260. Primozic Jr made a good run from the #11 spot and bettered his et by going 7.377 in the final but was down too much and gave up too much at the starting line to stay ahead of Rampy. 6 rounds later the Super Stock ice cream scooper would be held by John DiBartolomeo of Beaver Springs, PA with a 9.402 on a 9.38 dial as Bob Marshall was slightly slower at 9.432 on a 9.40 dial. Both of these drivers are probably wishing they could forget all about how they let go in the final as they were distracted with 80 lights a piece.

Dan Fletcher was able to coast across the finish line in the 8.90 category to grab his 104th win as Brian Folk threw his chances away at winning with a -.004 red light. And the 9.90 trophy went to 1st time winner Tom Diamond in a double breakout victory over Joey Shipp (9.882 to 9.876).

Reigning D5 champion Dusty Meyer was able to stay ahead of Mark McDonald to claim the Top Sportsman win on the weekend. Meyer dialed his truck in at 6.96 and left with a near perfect .002 light to the .014 of McDonald, Meyer went 6.977 for a .019 total package as McDonald missed the dial on this one running 4 hun over at 6.630. Last but not least the Top Dragster winner was another 1st timer in John Biagi over Bobby Ray McMahan who made the trip all the way from D7 territory. Biagi got to the stripe by just .001 and broke it out by -.007 (6.383) after a .017 reaction time. McMahan was running dead on all weekend but unfortunately ran under in the final at 6.198 on a 6.21 dial, which was more than his opponent, giving the automatic win to Biagi.