Showdown Final
As Sunday night fell on Memphis, the temp dropped to 62 by the time the final round started a little after 9 p.m. The huge drop in temperature during the moonlit final round threw finalists Leopold Mlocki and Derek Carter for a loop when it came to matching their dial-in. The two '98 TAs-Leopold in D/LSX and Derek in H/LSX- both left well, but each struggled to match their previous times with Carter going 14.03 (with a 13.50 dial-in) and Mlocki running 11.78 (with an 11.50 dial-in) to take the win, a thousand bucks, and an LSX block! Carter's runner-up position netted $500. | 
All Motor Final
Kevin Patterson took advantage of the cool night air and Judson Massingill's poor reaction time by leaving only .083 after the tree dropped, and went on to beat his previous best time in qualifying with a 9.56 at 140. The KFP Racing tech and owner fattened up the mixture for the night air and stayed true to his 4200-rpm launch off the TH400's transbrake and 7400-rpm shifts-and won $2,000 and an LS7 crate engine! After taking a bye in the quarterfinals, Judson's sleepy .267 reaction time and 9.92/112 meant he'd have to settle for the second place plaque, and a cool grand in prize money. | 
Drag Radial Final
The stage was set for the best race of the weekend: Tom Kempf, who had battled through a wreck only days earlier and went 7.82 in the semis, and Paul Major, who went 7.94 in the semi bye run. Major's 427 was having problems over 20 pounds of boost so that's all they ran. Paul's tuner, Job Spetter of Turbo People, told us in the pits pre-final, "We're fighting lots of issues, Paul's lucky to have made it this far." After burnouts they staged up, and when the Pro Tree flashed, Kempf nailed a solid .054 light to jump ahead. Major was late with a .204 light, but his Vette pulled hard, and flew to a 7.89 at 180 mph. But there was no denying Kempf, as his Camaro took the win with a 7.87 at 183 miles an hour! Kempf was $3,000 and an LS7 crate engine richer, and Major was consoled with $1,500. Along with Tom's semi run against Wade Stevens, this was the second side-by-side 7-second LS drag race-and we have a feeling there will be many more! |