Drag

JCI Motorsports Norwalk final summary

Anderson & Sickles dominate in Norwalk NORWALK, Ohio - The duo of veteran tuner Tom Anderson and driver Jim Sickles packed a powerful punch as they dominated the competition during this past weekend's Sunoco World Nationals presented by Ethanol ...

Published: Aug 27, 2003, 5:35 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Anderson & Sickles dominate in Norwalk

NORWALK, Ohio - The duo of veteran tuner Tom Anderson and driver Jim Sickles packed a powerful punch as they dominated the competition during this past weekend's Sunoco World Nationals presented by Ethanol Performs at Norwalk Raceway Park just outside of Norwalk, Ohio. The Meyers RV SuperStores backed Top Alcohol Funny Car reset both ends of the track record en route to their victory.

Sickles, based out of Caledonia, N.Y., qualified the Meyers RV SuperStores Avenger No. 4 with a 5.880 second time at 244.69 mph. In round one, he defeated John Foster with a track record shattering 5.779 at 245.81 mph, and then soloed to victory when his opponent, Tony Bogolo couldn't make the call in round two with a 5.801 at 245.49 mph. In the semifinals, Sickles again reset the track record with a 5.769 at 246.17 mph blast to take out Neal Parker.

In the final, Sickles would square off against former three-time IHRA Champ Von Smith. Sickles' Tom Anderson horsepower again proved to be too much as Sickles took his first career IHRA win with a 5.828 at 245.23 mph to Smith's 5.880 at 240.55 mph.

"It really was a great weekend for the team," said Anderson. "We had all of the great folks from Meyers out here, and we were glad to give them a win. The car was running great; we never had the pan off or clutch out of it on Sunday. We just ran it like a bracket car. We enjoyed coming over and racing an IHRA event; they're a class act. We are seriously considering going down and running Rockingham as well."

"My crew, Mike Kemnitz, Steve McQuillien and Debo Van Arsdall did an outstanding job all weekend," continued Anderson. "We also want to thank Dale and Laurie Cannister and Jeff Fowler. Their involvement this weekend helped us to get the win."

Despite coming off winning IHRA's biggest event, Anderson & Sickles have their eyes set on another prize, this week's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

"We're still happy about getting the win in Norwalk, but we have another race to focus on now," stated Anderson. "We have to change mindsets. We won Atlanta two weeks ago with the screw blower, changed everything up to run the roots, and now we're changing everything back to the screw blower for Indy. It takes a totally different mindset to tune each. It's really a juggling act. We'll have our game face on for sure when we get to Indy, you can bet on that. We might even have a few Buffalo Bills to help us get that game face on."

Qualifying begins on Thursday for the alcohol cars in Indy. Stay tuned to InsideTopAlcohol.com for the latest news from Indy.

To find out more about Meyers RV SuperStores, visit their website at MeyersRVSuperStores.com.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Darlington II: Jeff Gordon preview

Next article Dave Hirata IRP preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Chandler Smith wins Martinsville as NASCAR Truck title fight tightens

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Martinsville

2 min

Chandler Smith wins Martinsville as NASCAR Truck title fight tightens

F1 Mexico GP: Saturday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

32 min

F1 Mexico GP: Saturday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch

Max Verstappen slams Liam Lawson for FP2 clash at F1 Mexico GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

48 min

Max Verstappen slams Liam Lawson for FP2 clash at F1 Mexico GP

Colton Herta's F1 superlicence confusion explained: why he's still one point short

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

Colton Herta's F1 superlicence confusion explained: why he's still one point short

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts