NEWSLETTER

June 13, 2009, Race Three,  Thunder Valley Raceway 

One thing about racing in Oklahoma in the summer that you can etch in stone, it’s going to be hot.   

This was a non-funnybike race but there were seven classes contested. Several points leads changed hands, some first time winners and even a few offerings to the gods of speed.  And one Championship may have been sewed up and the year is only half over…can you say domination?   

Street ET:  Was won by Lud Mounivon of Wichita Kansas, he ran Brad Turner of Cushing Oklahoma.  Lud was definitely on his game, he was No. 1 qualifier and in the final round had a .016 light on his 2001 Busa.   

Pro-Et:  The final was contested between two heavy hitters.  Mike Major of Fort Worth Texas, who is a previous Pro ET champion, ran Scott Sober of Ponca City Oklahoma.  They had almost identical reaction times and both ran within a hundredth of their dial in.   

Super Gas:  Saw a close race between Eric Vaughn of Cushing Oklahoma and Masaki Marks of Tishamingo Oklahoma.   This makes two in a row for Eric, which gives him a commanding lead in points.  Eric had a stellar light in the finals and ran a 9.97 while Masaki had a less than stellar light and broke out with a 9.85 trying to run Eric down at the stripe.   

Bird Motorsports-9.50 Superbike class is near and dear to my heart and this race saw a first time winner take the prize.  Ken “Big Daddy” Emmons of Shawnee Okalahoma ran David Lambert of Oklahoma City.  David qualified dead last but stepped up big time in eliminations.  Taking out the previous class winner in the first round and putting an almost perfect pass on Heath Wilhite in round three.  Ken Emmons put out father and son team of Randy and Alex Hughes in rounds one and two.   

This was Ken’s first win in Superbike but the way he has his bike running it won’t be his last.  Nor will it be the last time on the checkerboard for Mr. Lambert, his performance on Saturday was impressive.

The Mr. Paint-Super Comp class was won last month by Mr. Paint Himself, Mark Rendeluk of Oklahoma City.  And he repeated this month with his second win of the year, which gives him a commanding lead in points.  Mark gives $50.00 to the No. 1 qualifier who was David Clark of Ft. Worth, Texas.  

Mark ran Dwayne Gains, also of Oklahoma City, in the finals and it turned out to be a cat and mouse game.  Their lights varied by only .006 so they left side by side but they were both well over the index at a 9.01 winning time to a 9.11 loosing time.  Based on their MPH at the stripe it would appear they were doing a little wheel racing at the end.   

Star Racing-Topgas: two perennial favorites squared off in the finals, Larry Eperjesi of Lake Dallas, Texas vs Jeff House of Keller, Texas.  Larry has been racing dragbikes since the Eisenhower administration while Jeff house could be considered a rookie in comparison with only eight years and two championships on his resume.  Both racers are very good and it was a close race with Larry Eperjesi coming out with the win.   Jeff had an advantage off the line but Larry motored around him on the big end for the win.  

Lisa Bennett of Lucas, Texas was the No. 1 qualifier with an 8.201 @ 167.06, however, Lisa’s motor gave out in round two of eliminations going from a big bore four cylinder to a slightly smaller displacement triple at about mid-track.   

Pro-Street: has been a one-man show this year with Kenwone Fulsome winning all three races.  This race pitted class hard-luck racer Alex Hughes of Arlington, Texas against Kenwone.  Alex left the line first and was first to half track but both had to shut it down due to wheel spin past the eighth mile mark, Kenwone shut it down a little later than Alex and he took the win with an ET of 8.63 over Alex’s 9.09.

Kenwone does not technically have the title sewed up but for all intents and purposes it will be very difficult to catch him.  He has won three out of six races and has been at or near the top of qualifying at each race.  To catch him you would have to qualify No. 1 and win all three remaining races and hope that he starts to suck big time.   

Real Street:  This is a continuation of the previous paragraph, Kenwone Fulsome of Collinsville, Oklahoma has won both (there was no Real Street at the first race) races this year and with two more on the schedule its going to be tough to catch him.  He ran a PMRA regular, Ray “Tonto” Johnson in the finals.  Ray ran quicker in the finals but Kenwone got off the line quicker and took the win with an 8.91 over Ray’s 8.84.   

This was a great day of racing even though it was rather hot and the humidity was off the scale.  Several numbers stand out for this race, there were 123 entries, which makes this race and the previous race in May the top ten for bike count since 1997.  There were 15 bikes in Topgas and 16 bikes in Real Street, a record for this new class.  Super Street continues to have a good turnout with 19 bikes. 

The next PMRA race will be on Saturday, July 18^th at Thunder Valley Raceway in Noble Oklahoma.  Gates will open at 1:00PM, half hour of open time trials at 1:30 and qualifying will start at 2:00 PM.  Eliminations will start around 5:00 pm or whenever the track is clean after Topgas qualifying.