Welcome to the 5th edition of “On The Road with Kenny Racing,” the
bi-weekly newsletter featuring the Landa Pressure Washers Super Comp Dragsters of Al and Jason Kenny.
June 15-16 weekend was on off-weekend for Kenny Racing … sort of. While
Mom & I stayed home, Dad & Samantha flew down to Gainesville, Florida for
Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School. Samantha took the Super Comp course, and Dad
acquired his Super Gas license in Frank’s Pontiac Firebird.
The course was scheduled for Monday & Tuesday, however, due to several
rainfalls, Wednesday was needed to complete the program. Samantha did
very well in the dragster and acquired her Super Comp license, while Dad did
likewise in the Firebird. Of note were Sam’s very consistent reaction
times. Her last few runs saw her lights within .030 of each other.
Due to the fact that their original flight left Wednesday @ 1:30pm, they
had to switch to a Thursday flight. They arrived home Thursday @ 8:00pm, and
Dad & I were on the road ten minutes later. Wanting to get a paved
parking spot, we drove all night so we could be waiting at the gate Friday
morning. We arrived at 4:30am. At 6:30am, someone started to bang on the truck,
very loudly. We pulled through the gate, and saw that people were already
parking on the sand. Oh well, at least we did get to park next to our
good friends, the Dorr family. Dick and Rich both drive Super Comp Dragsters.
Nobody has more fun than the Dorr boys!
After another short nap, we pulled the cars out of the trailer @ 9am. The
weather was fairly humid, and very hot. Both Dad & I dialed our own cars,
and after the second time trial, we had both hit the 8.90 number dead-on.
The NHRA then announced a gamblers race to be run later that night. What
was different about this race was the fact that they would only accept the
first 32 cars. What a mess that created. I mentioned to Dad that we
should drive the dragsters to the end of our pit row, and be ready when they call
us.
After about two minutes of waiting, Dad said some people had already gone
up to the staging lanes. We immediately followed. Once we arrived, we saw
many dragsters. We went up and paid our entry fee. Dad said he saw his
name was 24th on the list. Seconds later, he heard track announcer Lewis
Bloom say “OK, this is the first call for Super Comp. Anyone in Super
Comp who wants to participate in the gamblers race, get ‘em to the lanes now.”
24 cars had already signed up, and the class hadn’t even been called yet.
Needless to say, this upset more than a few racers.
Dad lost to John DiBartolomeo, who laid a .016 package on Dad. Johnny D
cut a .409 light, and ran 8.906 to take the win. I was fortunate to get by
Bob Kodadek and Wally Roberts in rounds one and two. Then, in round three, I
matched up against Doug Doll. I went red with a .399, which is bad
enough. But, what made it worse was the fact that Doug was rather tardy with a
.455.
Remember that for later, I lost this round by .001.
Saturday brought one more time trial and first round for the “real race.”
Dad & I both ran within .01 of what we dialed, so we were pretty confident
heading into round one. As has been the case lately, I went up to the
staging lanes well before Dad, ensuring we wouldn’t race each other. I
pulled up beside Jack Donnelly, who was racing in his hometown of Atco,
New Jersey. I beat Jack off the line with a .414 to .425 advantage, but then
took too much finish line, running 8.899 on the 8.90 dial. Remember what
happened Friday? I lost by .001. Today, I lost again by .001 seconds. I
took .017 stripe, and if I could have taken .016, I would have won.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda … that’s drag racing. Side note: I have lost three times
in my Super Comp career by breaking out with a 8.899. The three tracks
where these took place were Atco, Atco, and Atco.
Dad pulled up along side Ralph Musi, and took a very solid win. I had
originally told Dad that the track was fast, but after watching several
other racers, I leaned in before his burnout and told him that he may want
to take the stripe. He did it perfectly, cutting a .418 light, and taking
the finish line by .005 seconds.
Round two came Sunday morning, and Dad was paired with Super Gas heavy
hitter Steve Drummond. Steve built himself a dragster this past
off-season, and is competing in both Super Comp and Super Gas this year. Steve took a
starting line advantage, .404 to .409, and then dumped Dad at the finish.
Dad ran 8.87 against Drummond’s 8.92.
While both Dad & I share the same goal of finishing in the Top 10 in Division 1, we both now realize finishing number one is out of the question.
Kent Hanley has gone to three races, winning two of them, and runner upping in the other. This kind of streak is absolutely incredible! We won’t have to wait long for the next “D1” race. We’ll be at Lebanon Valley Dragway in two weeks.
In closing, one more side note … we have added the IHRA race in Epping to our schedule. That means our next off-weekend will come September 21-22. This will definitely be the greatest summer of my life!
Tentative 2002 Schedule
July 4-7 = NHRA Divisional Event @ West Lebanon, New York.
July 12-14 = IHRA National Event @ Rochester, New York.
July 20-21 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
July 26-28 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Numidia, Pennsylvania.
August 3-4 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
August 9-11 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Englishtown, New Jersey.
August 17-18 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
August 22-25 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Rising Sun, Maryland.
August 31-September 1 = Bracket Race @ Grand Bend, Ontario.
September 6-8 = IHRA National Event @ Epping, New Hampshire.
September 12-15 = NHRA National Event @ Reading, Pennsylvania.
September 26-29 = NHRA National Event @ Chicago, Illinois.
October 10-13 = NHRA National Open @ Reading, Pennsylvania.
October 24-27 = NHRA National Event @ Las Vegas, Nevada.
October 31-November 3 = NHRA Divisional Event @ Las Vegas, Nevada.
November 7-10 = NHRA National Event @ Pomona, California.
November 13-17 = Bracket Race @ Bradenton, Florida.
November 20-24 = Bracket Race @ West Palm Beach, Florida.
