That’ s exactly how it happened at the biggest Nitro Harley drag race on the planet, dedicated to the life and exploits of the late, great Jim“ Da Judge” McClure. With the previous two events rained out after qualifying, Finland’ s Samu Kemppainen had a commanding Johnny Mancuso’ s Circle M Ranch Top Fuel lead when he and his Chris Stewart Racing team unloaded at The Rock. Despite a successful test day, the script then turned quickly against him as he hit the finish line( on his first qualifying pass for a 6.34 at 222 mph) with the big bike twisting sideways the moment he pulled the chutes- throwing the Finn hard to the asphalt. When the helicopter arrived, it was clear to everyone that Samu was seriously injured, the bike heavily damaged, and his championship run over. The air was thick with tension as qualifying revealed struggles all around. Only two rounds were run, and many bailed on the second one after temperatures dropped during the lengthy clean-up following Juha“ Sushi” Hintukainen’ s spectacular, flaming oil-down. So Kemppainen’ s time was good |
Ryan Peery- Winner of Johnny Mancuso’ s Circle M Ranch Top Fuel
enough to hold up for number two qualifier behind Chris Smith’ s 6.22 at 223. Ryan Peery sat in fifth in the order( and second in points) with a 6.43 at 227 behind Jay Turner’ s third place 6.35 / 214 and Tim Kerrigan’ s fourth 6.40 at 215. Sushi’ s was one of several bikes that were unable to make the call on Sunday, and he was scheduled to race Peery, who improved to a 6.37 at 228. Robert“ Ziggy” Stewart was another no-show. His opponent, Jordan Peterson, advanced with a 6.52 at 232. Like Schwartz and Sushi, number four qualifier Kerrigan was also out for E1 on his Stephen Vickers( Hawaya Racing) built-and-tuned Top Fuel
|
Harley. Elsewhere in E1, Smith posted an AMRA record-setting 6.18 at 233 against Jason Pridemore, who went down fighting with a 6.48. Number six qualifier Kile had to face his own Bad Apple teammate— Cameron“ Flash” Gunter. Defending Nitro Funnybike champion Gunter was making his Top Fuel debut and qualified well in 11th. Kile advanced 6.44 to 6.83.
Other E1 winners were Turner, Billy“ Jack” Jackson, Jim Doyle on Dan Grindle’ s supercharged bike, and Rickey“ Sharkey” House— who defeated Byron number one qualifier Paul Anderson.
|
Peery responded to Smith’ s 6.18 challenge by casting consistency aside to oust Billy Jack in round two with his own. 18. After looking like the solid favorite for the race win, Smith was done in E2 when his bike drifted to the centerline and he had to let out, losing to House. Kile and Peterson also advanced. Peterson improved to a 6.30 against Kile’ s improving-but-losing. 36 in the semis. Peery slowed to a still-winning 6.25 against House, just missing backing up both ET records by“ like. 008,” according to Ryan. That set up a winner-take-all final that could go either way. Peterson couldn’ t win the championship, but the race win would secure the title for his hospitalized teammate. With the win, Peery would overtake Samu in points. And Peery wasn’ t going to be denied, nailing an. 035 on Peterson’ s. 092. Peery won with a 6.26 at 231 while Peterson slowed to a 7.26 / 139. |
As a class, Armon Furr Nitro Funnybike had a difficult act to follow. But spanning both classes was Peterson and his Phil Lower-owned bike tuned by Mike Romine. Peterson came to The Rock with the Funnybike points lead and smoothly sealed the |
>> |