At the Fun Ford Finals in Ennis, Texas, the Huston/Gillig team arrives at the track with the Pro championship points lead, but needs a strong performance over the weekend to take the championship. Running a belt-driven, Intercooled ProCharger F-3R, the team runs 214 mph on Saturday and qualifies #2. In an appropriate conclusion to an outstanding season, Tony Gillig drives Big Red III to the finals on Sunday, where he beats Chuck Simon with a 6.62 @ 214 mph to take another win. By doing so, the Huston/Gillig team also wraps up the 2003 FFW Pro championship by a comfortable margin. During the season this team not only reached the finals in 7 of the 10 FFW events, they also became the first supercharged Pro 5.0 team to run 6.50’s.

ProCharged racers have a very successful weekend at the NMRA World Finals in Bowling Green. In Super Street Outlaw competition, 4 of the top 6 qualifiers are ProCharged. Jim Blair not only leads the pack with a 7.76 @ 183, he also lays claim to the ET record in the process. Close behind is Dwayne James with a 7.79 @ 179, while Carlo Catalonotto posts a 7.91 @ 177, and Mike Trimandilis runs 7.94 @ 176. Four other ProCharged racers, (Todd Fluman, Jason Smith, Mauro Vitale, and Billy Laskowski) were in the 8.0’s and 8-teens. Blair’s luck runs out in round 3 of eliminations, while Dwayne James not only reaches the semifinals, he proceeds to take out teammate John Urist to make it to the final round. Unfortunately James loses his hook in the finals, but earns runner-up with his strong performance for the weekend. With Blair posting top ET for the season, ProCharged racers now hold both ends of the SSO recordbook, as Trimandilis not only finishes third in the SSO points race, he also holds top MPH.

In other action at Bowling Green, Don Walsh, jr enjoys the championship he locked up earlier in his dominating season by taking a break from Pro 5.0, and putting on quite a show in the burnout competition instead. Picking up where Walsh left off, Ross Stomp proceeds to qualify #1 and take his first Pro 5.0 victory of the season, while posting a best of 6.86 @ 206 for the weekend. In addition to Walsh finishing number #1, Doug Mangrum takes second in Pro 5.0 points, and the Stomp/Pickering team takes fourth - all powered by intercooled, self-contained ProCharger F-3M’s. In EFI Renegade action, Donna Sydor nearly breaks into the 8’s, posting a 9.07 ET @ 150 mph during qualifying, and a 9.008 during round 2 of eliminations. Donna’s bid for the 8’s ends in round 3 when the car is powered onto the parachute during a violent launch, with all 4 wheels in the air.

In testing at KCIR, the National Mortgage / ProCharger dragster runs a 7.20 @ 187 mph in testing before suffering transmission breakage. With the upcoming installation of a new Bruno transmission, this dragster should be running in the 6’s at 200+ mph in the near future. At the Fun Ford event in Cordova in early September, the Huston/Gillig Pro team qualifies #2 and maintains their lead in the championship points race with only one race to go, while Dan Schoneck runs an 8.73 @ 167 in his new Street Renegade trim, powered by an F-1R.

At the same event, Jeremy Mortorella is also advancing through the bracket. While just slightly off his previous 8-second pace, Jeremy runs a 9.07 @ 150 mph in round 4 to reach the finals, where he takes runner-up as part of another strong weekend. In Drag Radial competition, Philip Clemmons and Bob McDonald take 2 of the top 4 qualifying spots and post strong performances in eliminations, including an 8.64 @ 164 mph by McDonald, before falling in the semi-finals. Though off his previous best this weekend, Clemmons ends a great season still in possession of the MPH record for NMRA Drag Radial. Sydor, Mortorella, Clemmons and McDonald are all powered by self-contained ProCharger F-1R’s.

View 2003 Race Schedule