World Sand Drag News

After zero sand drag racing in the state of California in 2020, the second race in a three week span kicked off for 2021 in Avenal, CA. Out of state racers from Oregon and Arizona joined in to increase the competition.

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Friday started off with Motorcycle Gambler competition. A field of 19 bikes came down to Eric Wells from Oregon against Bruce Lefevre out of Bakersfield, CA. Bruce got the jump at the line, but bogged handed the ET advantage to Wells who ran a 3.79 on a 3.65 dial, chopping it at the top end for good measure.

Motorcycle Pro Gambler
1st Eric Wells
2nd Bruce Lefevre

Top Eliminator hit the track next as this weekend’s only heads-up category on the property. Craig Brewster fired off a 2.957 in the first session of qualifying for the number one spot followed closely by Jim Naffziger in “Yabba Dabba Doo” with a 2.959. Adam Ross debuted his new 4WD Chevy Truck and made a quick licensing pass to take the number 9 spot with a 4.907.

Top Eliminator Qualifying Order After Q1:

1. Craig Brewster – 2.957
2. Jim Naffziger – 2.959
3. Mark Punos – 2.976
4. Steve Henry – 2.985
5. Tristan Graham – 3.049
6. Jim Rossi – 3.059
7. Nick Shultzman – 3.300
8. Wade Powell – 3.329
9. Adam Ross – 4.907
10. Ron d’Artenay – 2.866
11. Aaron Bailey – DNR

The next action to take the track, started with two unfortunate rollovers during the test and tune for the Pro Gambler class. Danny Bohard came out with his brand new Jeepster build. While making his first pass, it’s suspected that one of his upper control arms broke and sent his Jeepster rolling on the top end of the track. Mike Smith similarly somersaulted his new “Insanity” Jeep in only it’s second outing. Both drivers came out unscathed with only the vehicles being damaged.

Back in Top Eliminator’s second session, Aaron Bailey fired back with his own 2.957 to try to take down Craig Brewster’s number one spot. Going down to additional digits, Aaron did take over the number spot. Adam Ross improved his time as well to a 3.449.

Top Eliminator Qualifying Order After Q2:

1. Aaron Bailey – 2.957
2. Craig Brewster – 2.957
3. Jim Naffziger – 2.959
4. Mark Punos – 2.976
5. Steve Henry – 2.985
6. Tristan Graham – 3.049
7. Jim Rossi – 3.059
8. Nick Shultzman – 3.105
9. Wade Powell – 3.329
10. Adam Ross – 3.449
11. Ron d’Artenay – 2.891
    Best of session: Aaron Bailey – 2.957

Thankfully we didn’t see any additional accidents heading into the eliminations for the Friday Pro Gambler. We joined back in the quarter finals after the 40+ car field was down to six. Chris Wells took out Chris Adamson in a very important quarter final round to earn himself a bye in the semi-finals. Kevin Williams decided he didn’t want to go back into retirement just yet and took out Bill Meaney to be matched up against Paul Amos in the other half of the semis. Williams used a reaction time advantage with a 0.84 light to beat Amos and meet Wells in the final. Both competitors had been super strong leading into the final round. Kevin Williams was feeling good running right on his number and banking on Chris Wells trying a little too much on the top end to catch him, forcing the breakout. Unfortunately he never got to realize this strategy as he was too quick on the trigger, going red and handing the win over to Washington’s Wells who would have been hard to beat with a 0.063 package waiting for Williams.

Pro Gambler
1st Chris Wells
2nd Kevin Williams

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The 3.95 Index class would round out Friday afternoon action in Avenal. Eight competitors qualified for the field and all of them were heavy hitters. The finals came down to Joe Simeone, who caught a lucky break in the semis with a double breakout decision against Tom Groat with a 3.855 to 3.986, and Justin Adamson once again behind the wheel of Kenny Hayes’ drag Jeep. The two had an almost even start off the line, but Justin got to the stripe a little too quick running a 3.92 and handing the win over to Simeone.

3.95 Index
1st Joe Simeone
2nd Justin Adamson

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Day 2 started once again with the bikes with solid fields in both Motorcycle Sport 1 and 2. Mike Johnson met Soboba 2020 Pro 2 winner, Matt LeFever, in the Motorcycle Sport 1 final. Matt continued a string of quick reaction times with a 0.036 in the final against Johnson who felt the starting line pressure and left too soon in pursuit of LeFever.

In Motorcycle Sport 2 it was Marcus Riedel going for back to back wins after taking the Mike Williams Sr. Memorial race in Soboba a few weeks prior. He was facing a rematch of that final against Randy Mings. Mings handed the win over Riedel on a red light making it the same outcome as the prior Soboba race.

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After some wild wheel stands, bent wheelie bars, and nitrous backfires in the Sport car test and tune that kept the sizable crowd of spectators thrilled, we headed into the third qualifying session of Top Eliminator. Aaron Bailey decided his lead wasn’t comfortable enough and unleashed a near perfect 2.951 to solidify the number one spot. Wade Powell jumped in Steve Henry’s dragster after ditching his own SBC dragster. This would reset his qualifying position to the number 5 spot with a solid 2.990 pass. Nick Shultzman continued to dial in his “Blew By You” Hemi powered ‘32 Vicky bodied altered going 3.040 for the number 6 spot. Adam Ross went his best of the weekend with a 3.208 in his new 4WD Top Eliminator truck.

Top Eliminator Qualifying Order After Q3:

1. Aaron Bailey – 2.951
2. Craig Brewster – 2.957
3. Jim Naffziger – 2.959
4. Mark Punos – 2.976
5. Wade Powell – 2.990
6. Nick Shultzman – 3.040
7. Tristan Graham – 3.045
8. Jim Rossi – 3.059
9. Adam Ross – 3.208
10. Ron d’Artenay – 2.891
    Best of session: Aaron Bailey – 2.951

Sportsman eliminations followed Top Eliminator. The high adrenaline action that had been on the property all weekend continued in Sport 1 eliminations when Allen Lawrence’s buggy broke a rear end right off the line sending it hard to the left. Allen let out in time to save the car from any additional damage. His only consolation was that his competition in the other lane, Jon Sakaguchi would go on to take the class win against a red lighting Bill Meaney in the final.

In Sportsman 2, it was an all Jeep final with David Parker against Markus Robinson. Parker would run almost exactly on his 4.52 with a 4.521, but a tardy reaction time would throw that away to Markus who ran a 5.246 on a 5.20 dial.

The exciting Sportsman 3 class featuring an allotment of stock trucks, Jeeps, and UTVs came down to Natalia Ridenour in her SXS and David Owsley in his newly built pulling truck. David would have to wait almost 4 seconds on the line as Natalia powered down the track. David managed to stay green against the long wait and used a reaction time advantage to take out Natalia in the final.

The fourth session of Top Eliminator saw a few competitors sit out as the qualifying order was settling in for the weekend. In the final session though, Jim Naffziger swapped positions with Craig Brewster running his own (and better) 2.957. Tristan Graham also bettered his time in “Whiskey Business” with a 3.016 to take over the number 6 spot.

Top Eliminator Qualifying Order After Q4:

1. Aaron Bailey – 2.951
2. Jim Naffziger – 2.957
3. Craig Brewster – 2.957
4. Mark Punos – 2.976
5. Wade Powell – 2.990
6. Tristan Graham – 3.016
7. Nick Shultzman – 3.040
8. Jim Rossi – 3.059
9. Adam Ross – 3.208
10. Ron d’Artenay – 2.891
    Best of session: Jim Naffziger – 2.957

We capped off the night with a large Pro Gambler class that came down to two Kenny Hayes owned Jeeps in the final. Justin Adamson piloting Kenny’s signature white drag Jeep got the win over Kenny in the black Jeep on the breakout. Kenny went only one thousandth too quick.

Pro Gambler
1st Justin Adamson
2nd Kenny Hayes

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The final day of competition at the Avenal Spring Nationals started with the Pro Motorcycle classes. Motorcycle Pro 2 saw a rematch of the Motorcycle Sport 2 semi-final with Marcus Riedel and Caleb Mings. This time Caleb had the reaction time advantage with a 0.056 light that he used to hold on to lead at the stripe against Marcus.

The full field of Motorcycle Pro 1 bikes whittled down to the final two with Matt LeFever looking to double up against Nikki Bailey. Both were dialed at the bottom of the bracket with 4.49s a pair making this a heads up race. Matt was tardy off the line and gave up a holeshot win to Nikki with a 4.515 to a 4.558.

Next up were the youth divisions. Competition was split into four classes including a newly dubbed Junior Jeep category due to the lack of Jr. Dragsters.

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The number 80S Junior Jeep got a great 0.030 light in the final against Alexis Pritchard in her new Junior Jeep and forced the breakout for the win.

Over in the Junior UTV class we saw two Polaris RZR XP 4s in the final. Evan Laires got the reaction time advantage and stayed closer to his dial over Dathen Hadson to get the win.

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Sage Soares stayed out ahead against Colin Hunter on her ATC70 for the win in the Pee Wees class.

In the Junior ATV class Eric Young chased down Brielle Gleeson and had a common theme in the youth classes of forcing the breakout for the win.

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Pro Cars came up next after some track prep. Chris Wells made it to the Pro 1 final with some solid reaction times in the prior rounds. He was looking to double up this weekend, but had to take out David Costa in the final to do so. David had to either find a little more advantage at the tree or pick up some ET against Wells who had been laying down some great packages this weekend. He did pick up a little ET in the final, but Chris Wells gifted him one of his worst reaction times of the weekend and it was enough for Costa to squeak out a win.

In Pro 2, Chris Pintor and Mike Williams Jr. met in the final looking to take home their first wins of the weekend. Both had success in Soboba either taking first or runner up in the pro classes. Mike was dead late at the start and ran his Jeep out to a 3.85 breakout on a 3.90 dial. Chris had him on the reaction time with a 0.058 light and chopped at the line for good measure as well.

Pro 3 saw the old men do battle in the semis with Chris Adamson and Bill Meaney in their Larry Minor Motorsports Jeeps. Adamson killed the tree with a nice 0.024 light which was enough to cause Meaney to break out while chasing him down. Meaney broke out by only 0.018 even after lowering his dial from the previous round. Paul May in his Chevy Pickup took the bye on the other side of the ladder into the final. Adamson and the “Bounty Hunter” Jeep again chopped the tree down and left little room for May to catch back up after a tardy reaction time on his part.

Top Eliminator first round saw Ron d’Artenay Sr. finally slow his “Red Warrior” dragster down to get into the bracket, unfortunately he was up against Aaron Bailey who used a 0.054 reaction time to get the holeshot win with a 3.011 to d’Artenay’s 2.990. Craig Brewster got the competition single when Jim Rossi was unable to make the call in the first round. Mark Punos destroyed the tree with a 0.012 reaction time to make what would have been a very close race against Nick Shultzman look like easy pickings with 3.03s a pair between them. Jim Naffziger advanced to the second round taking out Adam Ross’ 4WD Top Eliminator truck 3.107 to a 3.348. The last matchup was another competition bye with Wade Powell in Steve Henry’s dragster taking a solo pass down the track as Tristan Graham couldn’t make the round due to some breakage the previous day. Round 2 had Mark Punos red light throwing away what would have been a winning 3.00 against Craig Brewster’s 3.04. Aaron Bailey was the recipient of the single into the semi finals and ran a great 2.978 with a 0.049 light. The final pair had Wad Powell go red against Jim Naffziger who had the best package of the event with a 0.001 light and a 2.955 ET. That pairing also received the bye into the final which Naffziger used to a perfect reaction time and just a slightly too quick 2.940. He’d have to try to back down a little on both ends in the final against Craig Brewster who ran a 2.956 to defeat Aaron Bailey (3.019) in the semi finals. This set up a rematch from the Soboba final between Naffziger and Brewster just a few weeks prior. Jim Naffziger was able to turn the “Yabba Dabba Doo” dragster the right way and ran a 2.956 in the final to Craig Brewster’s 3.043 in the final, but a double red light decision had Naffziger with the worst foul giving the win to Brewster who now was two for two.

Top Eliminator
1st Craig Brewster
2nd Jim Naffziger