October 3^rd,  Race Five/Six,  Thunder Valley Raceway

 

The PMRA WORLD FINALS !!  were held at Thunder Valley in Noble Oklahoma on October 3^rd.  They weren’t really World Finals as no one from outside the US showed up but they were invited so we are calling them the World Finals !!!   

There were racers from as far away as California and Georgia so we could call them the US FINALS…but that doesn’t sound as cool as the WORLD FINALS!!!   

This was a double race, race five in September had been rained out so we ran a make-up race on Saturday and scheduled race six for Sunday; however, it rained again on Sunday so race five became the final race of the year.   

Eight classes were contested on Saturday, from Street ET to Funnybike with everything from Pro Et to Pro Street in between.  Some of the class championships had already been decided by six of the classes were up for grabs with the tightest race in Topgas.  Less than 400 points separated the top four racers with Robert Valera holding the top spot...more on Topgas later.

Street ET:  Was won by John Choat of Tuscola (read BFE) Texas.  John squared off with Jeramy Butler of Kansas City in the finals and John took the “Motel 6 who got the light” award with a reaction time of .003.  Jeramy’s dial in of 9.50 and reaction time of .061 meant that they left the line almost simultaneously but John’s light gave him an easy win.   

Pro-Et:  The final was contested between Mike Major who won the Class Championship this year and Dwight Meek.  Mike has been ProEt champion and is always tough.  His light in the final was an excellent .018 but Dwight wasn’t snoozing at all with a .005 light.  Mike ran closer to his dial with a 9.22 on a 9.17 taking the win as Dwight fell off in the final funning a 10.40 on a 10.18 dial in, he would have been closer to his dial if his bike had enough fuel to get to the finish line….DOH.   

Super Gas:  Saw a close race between two familiar racers.  David Steel and Kevin Miller are permanent fixtures in the PMRA, it wouldn’t be a race without these two guys in the staging lanes.   

This class has been dominated by Kevin Miller and Eric Vaughn over the past two seasons but this race went to David Steel with a win that was decided at the tree.  David had a good light while Kevin was busy reading the label on his brake master cylinder, he might have been finished reading and ready to race if the label had been written in English but the race went to David with a .026 light.  Kevin’s dead-cat like reflexes left him no options other than to run it out the back door with a break-out 9.83. 

Bird Motorsports-9.50 Superbike class was close to being a lock for the points leader but the racer who was 3^rd in points pulled out a win and came out second in points and within striking distance of the leader.  If the final race were not rained out it would have been an interesting day and the points leader was off his game (he sucked) on Saturday.  But it was not to be.  

Heath “Nox” Wilhite from some little Podunk town in Arkansas was on point all day.  He was knocking the tree down by the roots along with his racing Bud “Junior”, whom he ran in the third round taking the win on dual 9.502 runs.  Runner up in the class was perennial favorite Glen Todd.  Glen won the last race of 2008 and was in the top five in points in 2009.  Heath had an 0.78 light in the finals taking the win with a 9.53 to Glen’s 9.64.   

The Mr. Paint-Super Comp has been a great class for Mark “Mr. Paint” Renduluk this year.  He has won multiple races, was runner up at this race and came out on top in points.  He is called Mr. Paint because of his company in Oklahoma City where he performs custom paint jobs and foot rubs.

This race saw Mark “Mr. Paint” Rendeluk and a new-comer Kirk Reeves in the finals.  Kirk has only been racing for 25 years and has won multiple championships in the PMRA and he won this race with an 8.896 to Mark’s 8.956.  You may wonder why a break out pass won, well, its because Mark’s light was a -.062, he gave away the win at the tree but came away from this race with the championship and a grin from ear to ear.   

Star Racing-Topgas: A couple of years ago this class was almost dead, bike count was down to a point where management was thinking it was time to cancel the class.  Well, all of that has changed.  Several racers have stepped up from slower classes, some old favorites were back and there were some totally new racers this year.  

Coming into this race there were four racers within four hundred points of each other and since you can score 700 points at one race the championship was up for grabs.  

One of the racers that left for a while but is now back was CD Watson who ran Benji (Getsome) Gibson in the finals.  Benji had run his good friend and current points leader Robert Valera in the previous round and was heard to say before the race “Don’t take this butt-whoopin personally” and apparently he didn’t.   

Benji and CD left side by side, .042 to .048 lights and they were still side by side at the stripe with a winning 8.205 to an 8.211, that was a CLOSE race.   

The results of this race gave the Championship to Robert who also garnished the coveted Rider of the Year award as voted on by his fellow racers. 

Pro-Street: has been a one-man show this year with Kenwone Fulsome winning every race.  This is the second time in PMRA history that a rider won every race.  Kenwone worked his way through the field to face O’Shea Squalls in the finals but it was anticlimactic as O’Shea’s bike expired giving the win to Kenwone who ran it out the back door to a record setting 7.27.   

Funnybike:  The finals saw Californian Roy Sears and Kansas City native Rod Mansaw lining up for the last pass of the season.  Roy used to be a PMRA regular until a move to the left coast and his long drive back to his old stompin grounds was rewarded with a win in the highly competive funnybike class.   

This turned out to be the last race of the year due to mother nature’s thorough soaking on Sunday.  Our next race will be in early April 2010, only 23 weekends to get ready.