ACMrace
report
62Where: York Raceway
When: August 30th-31stWords: Dave Smith Photography: Richard Smith (rdsmith.zenfolio.com)American Super
Stock: Round 7 & 8
There’s been a long break since the
last round of American Super Stock
at the beginning of July, although
events like Dragstalgia and the Mopar
Euronationals meant that nobody had
the chance to get bored. Still, a 21-car
field for August bank holiday Sunday
at York’s Hot Rod Reunion showed that
the break had been quite long enough.
Vic Parsons set the pace in
qualifying, his red Plymouth running
a near-unassailable 11.4201 on an
11.42 dial-in to take pole position.
Two ex-cover cars – Kris Thoburn’s
Mustang and Dan Houlston’s Camaro- were second and third, both eight
thousandths of a second off their dial,
whilst the entire top half of the ladder
were within a tenth. That’s National
standard bracket racing, right there.
At the bottom of the tree were two
newcomers across from the National
Street Car Challenge, also at York that
weekend: Vix Smith in her ‘07 Shelby
Mustang and Dave Mears in his ‘77
Firebird, both guessing their dial-ins in
cars fresh to the strip.
The weather was slightly overcast
but warm, and everyone was raring
to go into eliminations. Dan Houlston
fired the opening shot, outing Sam
Carter-Chiles with a sharper reaction
time, followed by Kris Thoburn red-
lighting his chance away against Karen
Gregory’s Lightning. Chris Wilson
soloed to a win when Mark Harrison’s
‘Dirty Harry’ Dart never made it off the
start line, then newbie Dave Mears took
a surprise win against a breaking-out
Dave Billadeau. This race was later
re-run when it was spotted that the
tower had put in the wrong dial-in for
Mr Billadeau, and the re-run came
out to Dave Billadeau’s advantage.
Championship leader Mick Elsworth
cherried his day away against Joel
Kerr’s Dodge, whilst Lee ‘Cookie’ Chiles
ran 11.88 on an 11.86 dial to end Richard
Grainger’s hopes. An incredibly close
race between the bright orange Team
Nowak Road Runner and equally
orange Olds of Claire Johnson ended
with Adam Nowak taking the win
thanks to a sharper reaction, then Bri
Wood’s freshly facelifted B-body took
the win in a scrappy race against Mia
Cavanaugh’s Chevelle. Pete Youhill
took the win against a breaking-out
Boz’s Dodge, but Boz had scored a NPB
11.04 at 120mph so wasn’t too upset.
Vic Parsons went hell for leather even
though he was on a bye, and the first
round of eliminations concluded with
Kiwi showing Vix that she’s been away
from the strip too long – one second
reactions won’t cut it in A/SS!
In round two, things started well
for Chris Wilson in the beautiful
‘Goldmember’ Dodge B-body, 12.87
on a 12.80 dial, but not so well for
a red-lighting Joel Kerr in the other
lane. ‘Cookie’ and Adam Nowak –
fourth and third in the championship
respectively – met in the next pairing,
and an unusual red light from Cookie
put a big dent in his championship
hopes. Likewise the second-place man,
Vic Parsons, whose break-out handed
the win to Kiwi. Dan Houlston used a
pin-sharp reaction to end Bri Wood’s
day, whilst Karen Gregory used her bye
to further hone her skills, a 13.32 on a
13.30 dial showing she means business.
A break-out from Pete Youhill’s Chevelle
handed the win to Dave Billadeau, who
ran an 11.859 on an 11.85 dial anyway.
The quarter-finals were a festival of
fouls, beginning with Chris Wilson red-
lighting against Karen who again ran
a 13.33 on a 13.32 dial just to rub it in. A
very unusual start line cock-up from
Dan Houlston gifted the race to Dave
Billadeau, whilst a double-breakout
from Team Nowak and Kiwi Thomspon
saw Kiwi committing the lesser crime
and taking the win.Retribution found Kiwi in the semis,
though, as his red light gave Karen a
free trip to the finals, though again she
ran a 13.33 on a 13.32 dial for effect.
Dave Billadeau had a bye, but still
blasted off an 11.87 on his 11.85 dial to
show that he wasn’t messing, either.
In a day packed with action, it was
late when the finals rolled around.
Karen’s big, blown Ford Lightning
paired up alongside Dave’s ‘66 Dodge,
Old Scatterbolts, and burned each
other down. It was the race of the day,
Karen’s lights running down a second
and a half before Dave’s, and both
leaving with a 0.5 second reaction. At
the stripe, it would be Karen who took
the win, a 13.325 on her 13.32 dial-in
against Dave’s 11.847 on his 11.85 dial, a
heartbreaking 0.002-second breakout.
What a brilliant day’s racing it had
been. This was just as well, as a grim
forecast for bank holiday Monday
was borne out when it began raining
at 3am and barely let up all day. Most
competitors had packed up and
headed for home long before the event
was declared a washout at 3pm, and
who can blame them? A superb round
seven made up for an absent round
eight, which means it all boils down
to the finals on September 20th. The
championship comes down to the wire- who will take it? Be there, or follow
proceedings by searching American
Super Stock on Facebook.
american superstock.indd 62 21/09/2015 14:12:20