Super Stock Smack Down
It’s become one of the top sidebar attractions within the world’s largest annual drag racing event. The 10th anniversary Mopar® Hemi® Challenge was once again a raving success during NHRA’s marquee Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.
Pitting the most elite HEMI®-powered SS/AH cars on the planet, the 2010 running of the Mopar® HEMI Challenge was probably the most competitive in its history. In a very unexpected early development broken pistons in qualifying knocked out favorites and 3X defending champions Charlie Westcott Sr. and Charlie Westcott Jr. With that, this year’s field was suddenly more wide open than ever before. It was, however, the multi-car consortium led by legendary HEMI engine builder Ray Barton that rose to the occasion and which shined bright in the end.
Jim Daniels, who is a Bristol, Pa., based dentist by profession, scored what was arguably the biggest win of his career. Driving a 1968 HEMI Dart, which he acquired from Ray Barton three years ago, Daniels tamed the field with a combination of consistency and superior driving. In the final round Jim used a quicker starting line reaction time (.018) to defeat his racing stable mate David Barton, winning the 2010 title with an 8.560 secs run compared to Barton’s slightly quicker 8.559 secs effort. In fact, Daniels’ event victory included three different holeshot round wins. Daniels had defeated Randy Warford, Larry Perkins and Jim Pancake in earlier rounds of competition.
The Daniels win was however anything but automatic. His team overcame some rather significant drama immediately prior to his round one win when his car actually caught fire during the pre-event. That required some subsequent quick action.
“When I was cruising up during the parade lap the engine backfired through the carburetor and that lifted the manifold lid,” Jim explained. “I saw the flash of fire so I hit the fire bottles. The damage wasn’t too serious but it sure caused my son (Jimmy) and I some tension. We had to scramble back to make repairs and return in time for the first round.
“But once I got past Randy (Warford) in round one I felt pretty good,” Jim continued. “As eliminations went along we got the car working really well and my driving was pretty good. I had three rounds where my opponents had me covered ET wise – but I still prevailed. That makes you feel pretty good as a driver.”
David Barton’s runner-up finish driving his 1968 Barracuda matched his 2009 Mopar HEMI Challenge event effort. Three of the four cars in the semi-final round featured Ray Barton HEMI engine programs.
“Ray had four of the top five cars in the Challenge and the final round was all Barton so that makes this very special too,” Daniels added. “It seemed like the fans were really into it this year too—overall the event was really the way we all wanted it to happen.”
The 2010 Mopar HEMI Challenge featured a very tightly qualified field, with only .107 of a second separating the top 10 qualified cars. Following the exit of the Westcott Team, New Jersey’s Gary Wolkwitz assumed the pole position at 8.564 secs.
Other 2010 Mopar HEMI Challenge event highlights included a superb semi-final round finish by Tyler Hard’s Pennsylvania-based ’68 Barracuda (which also features Ray Barton power). Tyler was credited with low ET of the event overall after his 8.480 run in round four, which unfortunately for him was wasted on a red-light foul start.
Wendall Howes also ran well at the event, going three rounds and recording a career best 8.561 seconds ET during the competition driving his ’68 Barracuda. For Howes, who is based from the far eastern maritime province of New Brunswick, the finish was the best ever by a Canadian-based driver in Mopar HEMI Challenge history.
