Some Season Ending Sizzle!

As the curtain came down for the 2010 drag racing season there were a number of very impressive performances by Mopar® sportsman racers. Some of those managed to put both an exclamation point on the season past and provided a glimpse toward the future.

Words: Bruce Biegler

Super Stock Cannon Shot – Pennsylvania’s annual all Sportsman racing NHRA Dutch Classic event held each October at super fast Maple Grove Raceway has—during its fabled history—produced some of the most memorable runs in drag racing. Historically it has been some SS/AH classed HEMI® cars who have grabbed the performance headlines; however, this year that came instead from a surprising source.

Driving his SGE Racecar built SS/AM 1993 Dodge Daytona, Scott Gove, from Maine, sent shockwaves throughout the Super Stock class racing world when he recorded the quickest and fastest run “ever” in class racing history. Gove ran his machine to a simply unbelievable 7.968 secs at 170.43 mph. While that is not “officially” recognized as the first ever sub-8 second run in NHRA Super Stock class history, it is however now the all-time quickest. Note: Scott was not able to officially back up this run as a new class record—he did reset the official record for NHRA SS/AM racing at 8.01 seconds at 170.97 mph on Oct. 24. Essentially, a driver needs two runs within one percent of one another to set an official NHRA national record—7.968 seconds was too quick for that.

Gove’s machine, which was 100 percent self built at his SGE Racecar shop, features a 358 cid Mopar® engine that was originally built by Alan and Todd Patterson, and Darren Pocock Racing for Pro Stock Truck competition. Incredibly, that motor which features a Mopar R4 block and W8 cylinder heads is rated at 1,000 hp.

“I started building this Daytona for the sole purpose of being the first in the 7-seconds zone,” said Scott. “I actually first did it in October 2006 during testing and also during an IHRA divisional race. At Maple Grove it was our first ‘official’ run in the sevens with NHRA.

“It took a lot of dedication and hard work to make this happen,” added Scott, who assembles all of his own engines. “I’ve been racing Mopar products since 1990. I think this performance is my finest moment so far.”

Pennsylvania Pairing – NHRA’s Toyo Tires Nationals (which was also held at Maple Grove Raceway) featured a very significant all-Mopar final round pairing for the event’s Competition Eliminator title. In fact, it was the New Jersey-based Aragona Racing team that was front and center as team drivers Frank Aragona Jr. and Steve Szupka faced off for the event title.

Szupka, who was behind the wheel of the team’s G/EA roadster, the very car which won the 2007 NHRA World Championship with Frank driving it, earned his first ever career national event win. 
Steve was assured that when Frank Jr. had a red-light foul start in the event final driving the team’s F/ED dragster.

“Teaming up with the Aragonas has been a good deal for me,” said Szupka, who joined the team in 2005. “Things have worked out just great and I can’t thank them enough.”

The pairing capped a highly impressive showing by the two machines which both feature nearly identical 201 cid Mopar 4-cylinder engine programs built exclusively in-house by Joe and Frank Aragona Sr. at their International Motor Shop in New York.

Deja Vu Dodge – Eastern Canada’s Quick 32 drag racing series has quickly evolved into one of the competitive independent series in drag racing for 
Top Sportsman and Top Dragster class racers. For the second year in a row a Mopar has prevailed to claim the overall championship title.

The K&K Racing Team (Stratford, Ont.) which features driver Kevin Wicke and racing partner Kevin Zimmer successfully defended their points championship title for the second year in a row. The team campaigns a HEMI-powered Dodge Stratus, a car which was formally raced in IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock.

The team utilizes a nitrous-injected 604 cid Keith Black HEMI engine which is equipped with Mopar cylinder heads. That combination powered the car to a very consistent 6.8-secs zone all season which ultimately equated to the successful title defense.

“Since we acquired this car two years ago it has been nothing short of awesome,” revealed Kevin Zimmer the crew chief. “Our biggest advantage this year was consistency. We had 100 percent confidence in the car when we had to push it.”

K&K Racing has also revealed some plans to install one of the all-new big cubic-inch displacement Bear’s Performance HEMI engines in the near future. That program is being produced from highly reputed Mopar brand Mountain Motor Pro Stock racer and proponent, Larry O’Brien (Windsor, Ont.).

Bruce Biegler is a veteran motorsports photojournalist and Mopar brand drag racing specialist.