Posted on 04/06/2006 6:20:44 PM PDT by Loud Mime
Night time racing in Vegas this Friday. I plan on being there and will post up some photos. I also received an OK from the Army crew to photo some of the returning Vets with the Schumacher car!
To start things, I'm doing a little photo piece on one of the greatest hot-rodders of all time Mickey Thompson. He challenged life many times, but lost his life when he was gunned down, along with his wife, by hit men.
The Challenger I was powered by four blown pontiac engines. It made a top run at 406.6 mph. at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Considering that the car was wheel-driven on small tires, that's quite an accomplishment. In Mickey's book he claimed he did not make the return run because a friend of his told him that he had a dream that he would get killed on the upcoming run. Does anybody remember this?
In 1962 Mickey built the car driven by Dan Gurney at the the Indianapolis 500. I went to that race and remember how the buick-powered car sounded far different than the Offenhausers. This was not the first rear-engine car to race in the modern 500's; the year before Jack Brabham drove a Cooper Climax to the end of the 500 miles.
In the 1963 Mickey made a move toward the future with a car that required a newer profile of tire that made changes in the sport. His car was over-shadowed by the Lotus Fords in performance, but it's unique make-up was the talk of the race.....along with the ford's claim of making one pit-stop.
The 1964 Indianapolis 500 saw a newer design, driven by ascending drive David McDonald. The car was powerd by gasoline instead of alcohol, which would give it better mileage.
Coming out of turn four McDonald spun out, hit the inner retainer wall, burst into flames, bounced back into the track, hit the outer retaining wall, then was hit by Eddie Sachs. Both McDonald and Sachs were killed in this terrible crash.
Thompson raced the quarter mile up to 1975 in a funny car sponsored by the US Marines.
Here the Marine car races Don Prudhomme's Army Car.
Hey, I got to hit the road! If anybody wants to add on this, please do!!
'mime
Army Dragster Driver Tony Schumacher with SFC Greg Henderson 
Working the Army Pavilion at the Las Vegas Drag Races were SPC Adriane Carney,
CPL Frank Prothero, CPL Laura Romo, Maj. Alton Alston, SSG Joso Rojo,
and in the back, SFC Dominic Merritt. 
Tony Schumacher put a 4.501/327.35 on the books to qualify #1.
Please fix the formatting on the caption of the soldier's photo?
Thanks for the pictures. It's great to see our servicemembers at an event like this. Go Team Army and Alan Johnson!
Great pics!
We'll be expecting more on Monday. Ping us to the pics.
LAS VEGAS -- First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the seventh annual NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the fifth of 23 events in the $50 million NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series. Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday.
Top Fuel -- 1. Tony Schumacher, 4.501 seconds, 329.91 mph vs. 16. Alan Bradshaw, 4.702, 309.49; 2. Larry Dixon, 4.528, 330.80 vs. 15. MikeStrasburg, 4.631, 330.15; 3. Brandon Bernstein, 4.534, 330.23 vs. 14. Bob Vandergriff, 4.608, 326.16; 4. Melanie Troxel, 4.543, 325.92 vs.
13. David Baca, 4.606, 327.66; 5. Hillary Will, 4.559, 320.43 vs. 12. Morgan Lucas, 4.604, 315.86; 6. Doug Herbert, 4.571, 320.97 vs. 11. J.R. Todd, 4.590, 315.64; 7. Cory McClenathan, 4.579, 330.47 vs. 10. David Grubnic, 4.589, 325.69; 8. Doug Kalitta, 4.580, 330.07 vs. 9. Rod
Fuller, 4.586, 327.59.
Funny Car -- 1. Robert Hight, Ford Mustang, 4.702, 327.11 vs. 16. Tony Bartone, Chevy Monte Carlo, 4.870, 320.97; 2. John Force, Mustang, 4.715, 326.16 vs. 15. Bob Gilbertson, Dodge Stratus, 4.841, 319.37; 3. Del Worsham, Monte Carlo, 4.750, 325.61 vs. 14. Mike Ashley, Monte Carlo, 4.838, 322.81; 4. Eric Medlen, Mustang, 4.758, 318.47 vs. 13.
Gary Densham, Monte Carlo, 4.821, 300.33; 5. Tommy Johnson Jr., Monte Carlo, 4.767, 327.82 vs. 12. Gary Scelzi, Dodge Charger, 4.813, 323.97; 6. Ron Capps, Stratus, 4.771, 321.35 vs. 11. Scott Kalitta, Monte Carlo, 4.804, 317.49; 7. Phil Burkart, Monte Carlo, 4.773, 325.37 vs. 10. Whit Bazemore, Charger, 4.799, 327.19; 8. Cruz Pedregon, Monte
Carlo, 4.780, 319.14 vs. 9. Jim Head, Stratus, 4.785, 325.14.
Pro Stock -- 1. Greg Anderson, Pontiac GTO, 6.787, 203.31 vs. 16. Greg Stanfield, GTO, 6.832, 202.67; 2. Warren Johnson, GTO, 6.790, 203.49 vs. 15. Mark Pawuk, Chevy Cobalt, 6.829, 201.82; 3. Erica Enders, Cobalt, 6.790, 202.94 vs. 14. Larry Morgan, Dodge Stratus, 6.829, 202.00; 4. Richie Stevens, Stratus, 6.790, 202.67 vs. 13. Allen Johnson, Stratus, 6.821, 202.58; 5. Jim Yates, GTO, 6.793, 203.19 vs. 12. Shaun Carlson, Stratus, 6.816, 201.79; 6. Kurt Johnson, Cobalt, 6.795, 203.34 vs. 11. Mike Edwards, GTO, 6.816, 203.09; 7. Dave Howard, Cobalt, 6.797, 203.28 vs. 10. Jason Line, GTO, 6.814, 202.76; 8. Dave Connolly, Cobalt, 6.806, 203.12 vs. 9. V. Gaines, Stratus, 6.810,
203.09.
Your nitetime shot of Cory is now the 'Wallpaper' on my computer. Thanks!
R1 PS - did you see Erica Enders .005 light in round one!?!...And Greg Stanfield took out Greg Anders on on a holeshot with a 013. reaction time.
I just got back from errands, missed the first round.
Here's a better copy for desktop stuff:
http://www.thotline.com/CMwallpaper.htm
I got it off of the Summit drag racing site http://www.dragracecentral.com/ which lists all the round by round with commentary. If you haven't gotten the final round results yet, I'll let you read them yourself. I will tell you that the oddsmakers in Vegas had put one Pro Stock finalist at 18:1 and the other at 30:1 - the right gamblers made a few bucks...
Gentleman Bob Bode didn't make the race...
Melanie Troxel signs autographs.
Thanks!!
Melanie Troxel advances to second round.
Tony Schumacher, low qualifier, gets beat in first round.
Second round coming up.
Keep those great pics coming!
Better than on TV.
Robert Hight, low qualifier in FC, loses in round one.
Scelzi loses in round one FC.
Second round on now.
Here comes John Force, round 2.
Force loses by half a fender in round 2, turns over 323 mph to the winner's 324.
Whit Bazemore beats Force, advances to round 3.
Melanie Troxel and David Grubnik in Top Fuel final.
Melanine's sixth final in a row!
Finals coming up now.
Pro Stock. Dave Connolly and Kurt Johnson.
6.84 for Kurt Johnson, he wins by a foot in a very close race.
Funny Car final.
Ron Capps vs. Cruz Pedregon.
Cruz wins his first race in six years. Both cars out of shap and Capps spinning tires.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.