SAMOA DRAGSTRIP- On Sunday, September 11^th, most raced for double the money and double the points in a day mostly free of clouds, fog and bad spills. The second to last race day of the Golden Anniversary season was a two-for-one: McMurray and Sons King of the Track (rain-checked from June 19^th), and Carr Racing Enterprises/Moore Fuel/Bay Directories Super Eliminator.

Rick Ellsworth took his dragster for one of the quickest e.t.’s of the season: 8.30 in the first qualifying session, his second consecutive Top Qualifier day (his low on August 28^th was 8.35).

Preston Daniels, with one of a the track’s best reaction times of the day (.504) ran a second consecutive runner-up in Junior Dragster against Mallie Blasdell, with Kacee Mela the Consolation win over Kara Pettit (both faced off in Consolation with opposite results on the 28^th).

With Gamblers’ rounds and King of the Track – after the 1^st place runners of Super Pro, Pro, Quick Street and Street were determined – there was plenty more racing to be had in Eliminations.

Thursday Night Street Drags host Jason Henderson had his hands full with his ’66 Mustang running Third in Quick Street and his ’60 Ford F-100 a runner up to Dan Simmons’ ’67 Chevy truck in Gamblers. The bright yellow duo ran 11.69 (Henderson) to 11.809 (over Simmons dial-in of 11.80.

Glen Terry held on, despite arriving with a broken U-joint and an injured driveshaft, to take 1^st place over points leader Jackie Allen in Street, with Jim Broderson taking Third. Chuck Tibbets’ ’73 Nova prevailed over points leader Troy Beck’s ’69 GTO in Quick Street, 12.05 to the GTO’s 12.30.

Harlan Tucker’s ’68 Barracuda later took the Pro win over Greg Camerena’s ’78 Camaro, and would make a runner-up out of Tibbets in the King of the Track final. King o’ the Track rounds also featured Glenn Terry’s ’76 El Camino and Mike Giacone’s Super Pro ’67 Fairlane. Giacone’s GT took his season’s first top win in a tight race against Brad Schiewe’s ’74 Mustang. Mike ran a 10.91 against Brad’s 9.48, but victory at the ¼ mile cones was by 4/1000^th of a second. Dale Waddell’s ’27 T came in third with a 10.97 run.

Biker Sport Burns was busy all day with licensing passes- he went home with a Runner Up win against victor Wayne Cox in Sportsman Motorcycle, but got his bike into the 9-second range, and ran dead-on his dial in. Cox’ 1^st place win put him third in the points, behind Kirk Speelman and points leader John Widmann. Burns is 5^th in points.

The season reaches its finale Sunday, September 25^th, with the Pepsi Bottling/Humboldt Petroleum/Power 96 Samoa Championships, a last chance to settle one of the tightest points standings in Super Pro, with 22 points separating points leader Dale Waddell and Scott Tucker, and 33 points between Street leader Jackie Allen and Gordon Sjoquist.

The Eureka Police Dept. hosts their Street Legal Drags on Saturday the 24^th, in a free run-what-you-brung at 5 pm, before the season wraps up on Sunday, on a strip of surprises down the north peninsula.

-- Tim O’Brien

The Beard and the Voice from the Tower Above.