Infineon Raceway Drag Racing Results (January 3, 2010

By Jim McCombe

The 2010 Infineon Raceway drag racing season is now officially under way, as some 190 racers were on hand for the first of 2 warm up events before the start of the Summit ET Points Series starts on January 24.

Opening day winners were Stephanie Paz (Pro ET) Kevin Neft (Sportsman) Elizabeth Glenn (High School) and Matt Brians in the Trophy division.

Paz, a former 3 time track High School champ now living in Santa Rosa took her Paz Performance 68 Nova into the final after receiving a bye in the semis which led to a match up with the ever improving 63 Nova driven by Novato's Steve Wellman.

Unfortunately for Wellman, he fouled out by a mere -.002 RT giving Paz the win with a shutting off 21.21 ET (11.07 dial-in) at 57.12 mph

Napa's Alan Cardwell in a 78 Camaro cashed in with his semi final showing

Santa Rosa's Roy Haas in a 64 Nova with backing from MP Motorsports collected the $100.00 best-combined package award from Vault Security Systems in Vacaville in the opening round that totaled .027

Going into the Sportsman final was Petaluma's Kevin Neft 07 Dodge Ram truck and Wednesday night regular John Victorino of Novato behind the wheel of his MP Motorsports, Lightfoot Investments 95 Pontiac

In the semi's Neft eliminated Fairfield's Bob Hanson's 67 Barracuda while Neft earned the bye into the final to set the stage and his meeting with Victorino.

Neft left first with a .042 RT to Victorino's .073 and scored the win with a
17.322 (17.30) 79.41 to Victorino's close and losing 13.788 (13.75) 94.26

The High School Trophy was claimed by Novato's Elizabeth Glenn in a 70 Nova over a late leaving David Anderson of Petaluma driving a 67 Mustang.

Glenn had a huge starting line advantage and ran a 14.968 on her 14.20 dial, which forced Anderson to break out by .06 on his 15.60 dial.

It took 6 rounds of racing before a champion could be crowned in the hotly contested Trophy class.

The day began with 52 entries with only Rick Mcllmoil's Newark based 90 Toyota Supra, Patterson's Javier Vasquez's 91 Mustang and Petalumas's Matt Brians 68 Camaro. Advancing to the semi's Brians got the nod over an out of shape Vasquez and Mcllmoil winning the coin toss and a bye to the final.

McIllmoil put a .096 RT to Brian's better .034, which resulted into a too quick 14.545 for Mcillmoil's Toyota (14.66) 89.59 to Brian's winning 10.624
(10.67) 126.59

Going into the semis in Motorcycle, just 3 riders remained which were Randy Monte of Petaluma riding a 96 Buell, Tyger Ray Garcia of Ceres on board his
03ZX9 Kawasaki and Petaluma's Ray McNamara's 01 Superglide Harley.

Due to cooling track temperatures and safety concerns, it was decided not to run and instead divide the money between them.

The same decision was made in the Super Pro class and the money was split between John Murphy (Yountville) in a 55 Chevy, Tom Johnson (Santa Rosa) 70 Camaro, Bob Wagner (Glen Ellen) 71 Datsun 240Z, Jack Nilson (Redwood City)
63 Chevy Nova, Dennis Paz (Stockton) 41 Willy's, and Ted Seipel (San
Leandro) 56 Austin Healy

Eric Reyes of Petaluma earned a $100.00 cash bonus in his dragster from Vault Security Systems John and Ruthie Ledford for the best package in round
1 that totaled .017

The next event is the annual Martin Luther King Holiday race on Monday January and will be the last in the series of the non points warm up races to be followed by the first event in the 2010 Summit ET Series points races on Sunday, January 24.

It was also announced today that all Sunday races in the Summit ET Series will be preceded by a non-denominal Chapel Service hosted by Racers For Christ and conducted by Chaplains Anthony & Joanna Calabrese which will take place at 7:30 AM in the Infineon Raceway drivers lounge.

For additional information, visit: www.infineonraceway.com or call the DRAG RACE HOT LINE: 1-800-870-7223 EXT 209