Plueger & Gyger (file photo)
Funny Car Fever, Sacramento Raceway, April 24-25, 2009 — (Filed in absentia from a debris-laden desk in SoCal; cobbled from tweets and phone calls from the track) According to twitter.com/nitrokitty, Mendy Fry and McCain’s Bomb Squad ’73 Duster is #1 qualifier at Funny Car Fever by 5/1000ths of a second; they turned a 6.003 @ 235 mph. #2 is Kris Krabill in Gary Turner’s Pedaler, at 6.008… After “Fast Jack” Beckman’s crash in the American Revolution Camaro Friday night, there are fourteen cars left to compete in the first round of eliminations….
Opening results: (via a cell phone conversation, dictated from the back of a time slip as the tower had run out of xerox paper (!)) The first round featured an improvised a 14-car eliminator of which, twelve cars actually made the call: Jim Adolph didn’t make it to the lanes, so Kris Krabill soloed to a 6.005, 242 mph. Leah Pruett got a bye in the Holy Toledo Jeep (she staged and then shut it off) after the Jeff Gaynor-tuned Mike Halstead machine failed to show; Mike Savage in the Candies & Hughes tribute car beat Bucky Austin, who got loose at half-track in the left lane; Garrett Bateman set low ET thus far, with 5.87 @ 237 mph in the Plueger & Gyger Mustang and beat Steve Nichols, who turned a respectable 6.24 in the notoriously-bumpy left lane.
Mark Sander and his Mr. Explosive Nova posted a victorious 6.04, 237 and beat newly-licensed Josh Crawford in his ’69 Mustang, who ran 8.04, 122. Next up, John Powers’ 6.27, 230 beat Sean Dale’s 10.08. And finally, Mendy Fry clocked her first five-second elapsed time in a Funny Car: 5.96, 239 mph and dispatched Dennis La Charite in the first round (I didn’t get his time; the phone went dead). McCain’s Bomb Squad has a bye-run in the 2nd round. Mendy will face the winner of next round’s Bateman vs. Savage contest.
Second round results: Garrett Bateman defeats Mike Savage, with a 5.81 (wow!) and a top end speed of 239 mph for the Plueger & Gyger entry to Savage’s valiant 6.20. Kris Krabill posts a 5.94 at a scintillating 243 mph to defuse Mr. Explosive, who trailed with a 6.45 at 215 mph. John Powers beat Leah Pruett. Powers’ 6.03, 231 was more-or-less unopposed, as her Holy Toledo Jeep was wounded, and limped down the track in 21 seconds.
By virtue of her low qualifier status, Mendy Fry got a single and swung for lane choice, posting her second-consecutive 5, this time a 5.94 at a simmering 241 mph. Practically speaking, these numbers, while impressive, are for naught as her semi-final opponent is Bateman, who ran the aforementioned .81.
The other semi-final pair is Krabill vs. Powers, with Krabill picking his lane.
Third round results: The last report I recieved says that Krabill beat Powers, but I didn’t get the times. Krabill hurt it in the lights (hydralicked it, even); the damage was insurmountable, as least as per returning for the final round.
In the other semi-final pairing, Bateman blithely recorded another 5.80-something, disposing of Mendy and McCain’s Bomb Squad, who got got out of shape and out of the groove in the lefty-loosey lane and clicked it.
Final round results: The final was a solo effort by Bateman and the badass Plueger & Gyger machine. He was on and off the throttle for the win. Your indisputable 2009 Funny Car Fever Champion: Garrett Bateman and Plueger & Gyger. — Cole Coonce
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