englishtown weather N - NON-points and '07 Top 16
T - Includes Pro 10.0
P,E - Includes Pro 8 Shootout and 11.50
16 - Top16 - NON-points
'08 National, VA
Featured Drivers
2008 East Coast Supercharging Corvette Challenge Event 6 Winner Edgar Perez 2008 American Racing Headers Pro 8 Shootout Race 1 Winner Mark Shaw 2008 Cartek Racing Pro 10.0 Race 2 Winner Wayne Keegan
2008 Vette Doctors Pro 11.50 Race 2 Winner Rob Farley
11/04/06 - Englishtown, NJ - Today we made up our rained out June 24th event, thus Race 3, in The Vette DoctorsPro 8 Shootout presented by Neverlift Racecraft at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Several new drivers signed up today to participate in the final P8S event of the season open to all drivers (one makeup left for Nov 18 in which the field is already qualified). Bill Maloney was back at the track sporting his new rear mounted turbo Vette Doctors prepared 1997 Black C5. Mike Conway was also back with his new combination that had rear tires the size of small houses. However, Conway only took part in the bracket racing while loaning the car to Paul Ziajski, who sold his last month, in the hopes of scoring some points while helping Mike dial in the car. Maloney's car had not made a single pass to date while Conway's had made only 2 passes earlier in the week. Mike Romain also brought out his Cartek/STS rear mounted turbo car for the first time in the series this year. Rob MacGregor also saw his first Pro 8 Shootout action bringing a 2006 Z06 sporting turbo induction as well hoping to be the first C6 Z06 in the nines. Yet another newcomer was Jay McCardle sporting an East Coast Supercharging Paxton supercharger siting on top his stock cubed C5. Dr. Rob Zona returned with his Z06 looking to break the heads/cam ET record while attempting to qualify for the Pro 8. Rounding out the entries were heavy hitters Paul Major, fresh off a huge performance at the Orlando World Street finals where he held the number one qualifying spot in the Drag Radial class before being edged out on the third qualifyier holding on the 2nd spot and Angelo Valla with the sparkling Blue '72 Corvette.
Noteably missing from today's field was the C4 owned by Dean Mitchell driven by brother Mike Mitchell and the whole Low ETs crew. The car had suffered transmission damage at the last Pro 8 Shootout and it was not repaired in time for this event. In addtion to Conway, Alan Eckert was also running the bracket race in addition to Pro 8.
For today's Corvette Challenge bracket results click here.
Runner up Angelo Valla
The Crews
Winner Paul Major
Qualifying
Eight Corvettes made it out for the first qualifying session. One driver did not make the field despite having the numbers to do it. Jay McCardle made a stellar pass running 9.77 at 141 MPH which would have placed him in the third spot had it not been for the run being discounted due to not having the proper equipment to be able to run in the nine's. I think the run even took him by surprise as he was at East Coast Supercharging early in the morning getting some final tweaks on the Paxton supercharged 346ci combination assisted by alchohol injection. Paul Ziajski was back on the track but this time in a borrowed car. Mike Conway got his Torch Red 1997 Corvette back from Cartek this week where the motor was being tweaked to 418ci and stage 2 heads to handle the planned 225 shot of nitrous that the huge 51" wide tires (okay it looked that way) and Neverlift Racecraft suspension work are sure to handle. They were not planning on hitting it all today. Conway offered up the car to Ziajski so that he can participate in the Pro 8 and try to hold on to his number 2 points position. Ziajski, not familiar with a nitrous car yet, made an easy pass at 11.768 @ 128.71 and was in the number 7 spot. Mike Romain was back on track with his 1999 FRC with his single rear mounted STS turbo, driven to the track and later to dinner, and lit the boards with a 10.952 @ 142.66 spinning the tires pretty badly but good for the number 6 position on the grid. Dr Rob Zona, the Cartek heads/cam package, was in at the 5th position with a 10.564 @ 130.08. Zona is chasing the heads/cam record set by Brent Grigsby at 10.51. He has a good shot. Alan Eckert was out running two classes, the Pro 8 Shootout and the Corvette Challenge to help him get more familiar with his new ECS twin turbo setup which he has had in the car for one race. Eckert was in at number 4 with a 10.354 @ 134.52. Rob MacGregor, who has a kid in a Jr. Dragster, was making his debut in the Pro 8 with his street driven yellow 2005 C6 Corvette sporting a P-1 Procharger built by Cartek. It was very impressive running 10.000 @ 136.88 and grabbing the number 3 position. They got a lot quicker with no car in the 9's and we went right to the qualifying pass of 8.364 @ 175.73 for Angelo Valla in the 555ci nitrous breathing, wheel lifting, very wild C3 Corvette good for the number 2 spot. And now, your number one qualifier! His car gets quicker every day. The car? 422ci Vette Doctors built motor sporting a 106 mm rear mounted turbo and Neverlift rear suspension that brought an uprising on the internet when he placed 2nd in the Orlando World Street Finals two weeks ago. The driver? A very determined driver who switched from nitrous to turbo power over the winter and would not give up until he had the quickest Corvette out there. The goal? Besides being the quickest in our Pro 8 Shootout, to beat the record for the quickest LS based motor car held at 7.51 now by Hardcore Racing. He accomplished most of it with a blistering 7.619 @ 186.48 and the number 1 qualifying spot.
In the second round of qualifying, Major improved his ET and held the number 1 position with a 7.616 @ 185.95. Valla remained 2nd not improving his ET. Mike Romain got the hook he needed to bump his qualifying position to number 3 with 9.635 @ 146.10. MacGregor, Eckert and Zona, were bumped down a spot each thanks to Romain's pass and neither was able to improve their ET. Paul Ziajski improved slightly to 10.757 @ 128.26 and remained 7th. Bill Maloney, did not get a qualifying time in the first round as he rolled through the lights so he needed to try to get into the field despite not quite being ready to run it out on the second pass on the car. He made a half track pass and momentum carried him to a 10.893 @ 89.69 MPH but good enough to get in the field on the bump spot. Jay McCardle, after going too quick in the first qualifying pass, slowed his car by going to mid track and lifting to not chance going under again. He was successful running 10.998 @ 86.48 but unfortunately it was not enough to bump Maloney out with his half track pass so he did not qualify.
Round 1
The closest pair, the 4 v. 5 pair, was on the track first. Rob MacGregor (4) would face Alan Eckert (5). Eckert, who recently cut a very good light using his transbrake, shut it off for the Corvette Challenge he was racing where it is not allowed. He might have decided not to turn it back on for this race as he was off with a .499 RT and MacGregor had the lead with a .305 out of the hole. Eckert survived this one however as MacGregor had some trouble and could not approach his 10.00 qualifying time and only ran 11.081 @ 134.79. I would guess a missed shift in the Z. Eckert would advance with a 10.327 @ 134.16. Next out on the track was Paul Major (1) v. Bill Maloney (1). Maloney was ready to go the full track this time. He did and clocked a 9.444 @ 162.35. He was very pleased with the pass with the exception of leaving in 2nd gear accidentally but the MPH on the car shows huge ET potential. Oh, Major? He ran another new best ET this time 7.593 @ 187.31 taking an easy win and starting to think about bracket racing this thing.
Mike Romain (3) would take on the Dr Rob Zona (6) in the next pair. Zona looking to make up ground on the quicker Romain car took a shot at the light and came up red. He was -.090 red giving Romain the win. Romain went on to run 9.737 @ 143.80 moving on to the semi-final. The final pair was Angelo Valla (2) v. Paul Ziajski (7). Valla jumped out in the lead with a .105 reaction time to Ziajski's .517. Then sounds of sputtering and popping came out of Valla's car. He slowed and Ziajski was suddenly in the race making up the reaction time difference heading up the track. The cars were side-by-side as they looked across at each other and Valla struggled to finish the pass. At the finish it was only a margin of victory of nine-thousandths of a second. Valla had won in a hole-shot with an 11.528 @ 135.99 limping car to a quicker but losing Ziajski with 11.125 @ 133.61. Awesome race to watch but Valla will have some fixing to do for the next round. The fault was a broken throttle cable for Valla. He appreciates the sportsmanship of th racers and crew. Paul Major helped repair the broken throttle cable so he could quailify. Special thanks to the crew, brother Joe, little Ang, Matt, JR, John and daughter Ashley. Valla said (we have) "plenty of power on tap, just got to get it down on the track".
Round 2
First pair out for round 2 was Valla (2) v. Romain (3). Valla again got out of the gate first but this time had no issue with the car. He made an 8.43 pass @ 169.15 advancing to the final over Romain at 10.255 @ 133.61. It was getting colder and the traction was starting to leave the track and we had a major (not Paul Major) oil down to be cleaned up. All this added up to Major deciding to take a little out of the tune for this round. Eckert was missing from the lanes as he had the car on the charger and was lucky for the delay as his battery had lost most of its charge and was down to 8.2 volts on the previous pass. He made it out for the race and lined up with Major. Major made a clean pass going 7.946 @ 183.40 while Eckert was late off the line and ran 10.239 @ 136.19.
Final Round
For the final round, Valla (2) was set to take the right lane. Major (1), however, with lane choice, wanted it too. So Major made Valla move to the left lane. The cars lined them and Valla was again out first on his opponent with a .036 reaction time to Major's .259. It did not take long for jet sounding C5 to catch and pass Valla with seeming ease. No wonder, he wanted the right lane! Major had dialed it back to fast and ripped off a new record 7.549 @ 187.89 mph defeating Valla's very respectable 8.325 @ 161.44. So Paul Major leaves with the Event win and Valla leaves with a good lead in the points chase and a virtual lock to clinch the championship at the next race, November 18, 2006.
Congratulate the drivers and sponsors in the Drag Racing section of The Corvette Forum at www.corvetteforum.com.
Awards and Payouts Today
Winner Paul Major earned a payout of $100 cash and a trophy.
Runner-up Angelo Valla earned a payout of $50 cash and a trophy.
Number 1 Qualifier Paul Major received a plaque for his 7.616 qualifying run.
Angelo Valla received the Best Reaction Time plaque for the best winning reaction time in the first round at .105
The Vette Doctors Pro 8 Shootout will be final race of the season on November 18, 2006 with gates opening at 9 AM. The field is set for this race as it is a makeup of our rain delayed race. See qualifying at www.corvettechallenge.info/2006pro8-4.php. Raceway Park will allow Pro 8 competitors who are not qualified for the field to make exhibition passes with the Pro 8 field so come out and join us. See you there.
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