Mopar Speed news 2004-06-14

Mopar Speed
Monday, June 14, 2004

NHRA SC

Mohler wins for Mopar at Mountain Madness

Scott Mohler earned one of the biggest victories of his career yesterday at the inaugural Mopar Mountain Madness NHRA Sport Compact Nationals held at picturesque Bandimere Speedway near Denver. He drove his Mopar Dodge Neon to an impressive holeshot victory over Leslie Durst in the All Motor division.

"Winning the Mopar Mountain Madness in a Mopar is like a dream come true," said Mohler, who grew up in a Mopar-only family.

Mohler cut a great light on his opponent, edging her by nearly two-tenths of a second, and banged through the gears of his Neon to turn in his best pass of the weekend to win by 10 feet. It is Mohler's first victory of the season. "This is about the same time we turned it around last season," said Mohler, who won the class championship in 2003. "Hopefully we can keep it up and be in a position to win another championship for Mopar when the season's over."

Mohler's Darrell Cox Racing teammate Mike Crawford drove his slick Mopar Dodge SRT-4 into eliminations of the Hot Rod class and ran his best time of the weekend in the first round of eliminations with an 8.61 at 169.85 mph. Kenny Tran edged Crawford at the light in their first round matchup, however, and prevented the Mopar from advancing further.

Shaun Carlson and his NuFormz Racing team continued to make great improvements in their brand-new Mopar Dodge SRT-4, which runs in the Pro FWD class. Carlson turned in an impressive 8.10-second pass at 177.88 mph in qualifying —the quickest pass on the car which has very few runs on it. In the first round of eliminations, Ed Bergenholtz was a bit quicker than Carlson at the light and beat him to the stripe, ending the weekend for the Pro FWD Mopar entry.

The brilliant-looking car also earned NuFormz the "Best Appearing Car" award of the event. Check out the Mopar Speed "Buzz" section for more details.

Mopar had a great presence at Bandimere throughout the weekend, and many spectators brought their SRT-4s or other Chrysler Group products to race in the Sport classes.

The next NHRA Summit Sport Compact Series event is the second annual Desert NHRA Sport Compact Nationals, July 16-17 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Formula D

"We didn't want to win the event this way [with our opponent breaking], but it's very exciting to win our second event. The Mopar Dodge Viper Competition Coupe is an awesome car, and we were able to come out and put on a good show for the fans. Drifting is all about entertaining the fans, and everyone here in Houston was great. I'm excited that we could win another event for Mopar."

"We're definitely looking forward to going to Infineon Raceway in July. Winning back-to-back events gives us good momentum going to Sonoma [Calif.]. It's exciting to win two races in the inaugural Formula D Series season, and we're going to try to make it three in a row for Mopar."

Hubinette wins at Houston, two-for-two in Formula D competition

Mopar driver Samuel Hubinette won in the Drift Houston event over the weekend, triumphantly taking his second victory in as many races in the history of the SCCA-sanctioned Formula Drift Championship.

Hubinette qualified first, effortlessly powering the Mopar Dodge Viper Competition Coupe from Lateral G Racing through the figure-eight course at the Reliant Center. His flawless performance continued, as he advanced the Mopar machine through the the elimination rounds. Hubinette faced the Pontiac GTO of Rhys Millen in the quarterfinals, pitting the only two domestic machines in the event nose to nose. Hubinette chalked up the win against his rival and friend to advance and give Mopar and Dodge the advantage over GM.

The Mopar Viper defeated Chris Forsberg in semis, setting up a final round matchup with Ken Gushi. Gushi's car wasn't as reliable as Hubinette's Mopar, having suffered a broken axle during the run and handing Hubinette his second consecutive victory in Formula D. Hubinette earned the Drift Houston trophy to retain his lead in Formula D Series points.

The Formula D Series moves next to Infineon Raceway on July 11. The Mopar Dodge Viper Competetion Coupe is maintained and prepared by Nufomz Racing. Nuformz owner, Shaun Carlson, competes for Team Mopar in the NHRA Sport Compact Series.

NCTS

Musgrave wins pole, leads most at Texas in best finish of season

Ted Musgrave had his best race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway behind the wheel of his Mopar Dodge Ram Friday, leading the most laps and finishing second. Musgrave led the race four times for a total of 101 laps, but the handling of the truck deteriorated toward the end of the race, blocking him from his first victory of the season.

"It was just ready to crash, but we came home second. It's not what we're looking for, but the team's back. There was nothing I could do," said Musgrave.

On Thursday, Musgrave earned his first pole position of the season in his Ultra Motorsports entry, lapping the 1.5-mile quad-oval at 180.971 mph. Last year Musgrave led the NCTS in pole positions with four.

Musgrave will lead the NCTS competitors to their next event at Memphis Motorsports Park this Saturday, where he drove the No. 1 Mopar to victory last year. Check out live TV coverage on Speed Channel Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Ted Musgrave came oh-so-close to winning his first race of the season Friday in Texas. He and the Mopar team from Ultra Motorsports still had their best results of the season, and they look to use their Texas performance as a springboard through the rest of the season. The team jumped three spots in the point standings and now stands 12th.

NHRA PS

Scelzi drives to finals in Columbus

Gary Scelzi used his consistent Mopar power to drive into his second final round of the season yesterday at National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio. Scelzi drove his Hemi-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus past Tommy Johnson, Jr., Gary Densham and Eric Medlen before losing a tire-smoking final round against Del Worsham.

Scelzi's Don Schumacher Racing teammate Whit Bazemore drove his Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus past Jeff Arend in the first round, but was unable to outrun Eric Medlen in the quarterfinals from his position in the less favorable right lane.

Bazemore, who has won twice this season, continues to lead the Funny Car point standings. Scelzi jumped up two spots in the rankings to fifth.

Larry Morgan led the Team Mopar Pro Stockers at National Trail, which is minutes from his race shop. Morgan defeated fellow Mopar driver Darrell Alderman in the first round of eliminations, in a classic battle that was decided by approximately eight inches. Morgan was edged by only 15 inches in the second round by Rickie Smith.

Allen Johnson, teammate of three-time Pro Stock champion Alderman, missed qualifying for Eliminations by a mere .006-seconds.

The NHRA POWERade series heads to Englishtown, N.J., this weekend. Television coverage of qualifying will air on ESPN2 from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2, and repeat Sunday from 3 to 5 a.m. Eliminations are scheduled to air on ESPN in prime time, from 5 to 7 p.m. Times are Eastern.

"Everything was great. The race track just got hot and it just got loose out there. The Hemi-powered Oakley Dodge is doing exactly what Mike [Neff, crew chief] wants it to do. We can swing the bat as hard as anybody." --Gary Scelzi

WoO

NuFormz Racing received the Best Appearing Car award from NHRA officials at the Mopar Mountain Madness event near Denver yesterday.

NuFormz car selected Best Appearing

At the Mopar Mountain Madness event at Bandimere Speedway on Sunday, Shaun Carlson and his NuFormz Racing team proved that you can go fast and look great at the same time. They were selected as the Best Appearing Car at the event in their new Mopar Dodge SRT-4 that competes in the Pro FWD class.

"We've put a ton of time and quality into the car, so we were really honored to win the award, especially at the Mopar event," Carlson said. "I thought it was pretty neat that our car was the one on at event logo of the plaque. It was nice to leave with something after we had our troubles in the first round."

For more information on the team's on-track performance, check out the NHRA Sport Compact section of Mopar Speed.

USAC

Beach wins with Mopar power at Anderson

Mopar solidified another chapter in its motorsports history Saturday, when Teddy Beach won the Anderson 40 USAC National Midget Series event with an Ed Pink-built Mopar powerplant. Beach went on to lead all 40 laps at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway to capture the first win in midget history with an Ed Pink Mopar engine. Pink's facility has built engines for more than 40 years, including a long stint of building Hemi engines for drag racing from the early 1960s through the late '70s.

Team Mopar's Dave Steele and Josh Wise also turned in solid performances, with Steele qualifying his No. 2 Mopar machine from Nicholas Motorsports in second position and finishing 19th in the feature event. Wise was credited with 13th position in the feature event. Wise is currently second in USAC National Midget Series points, with Teddy Beach in sixth and Wilke-PAK Motorsports' Davey Ray in eighth.

The USAC National Sprint and Midget Series will compete in the four-day doubleheader Buckeye Nationals, which will tour Ohio this week. A Wednesday event at Attica Raceway Park will kick off the Buckeyes, followed by a visit to Freemont Speedway Thursday, Limaland Speedway on Friday and the Eldora Speedway finale Saturday.

WoO

Danny Lasoski picked up some ground in the point standings recently, thanks to three wins in the last four races. Lasoski currently stands second in the championship points race.

Lasoski cranks up the heat

Danny Lasoski picked up his third World of Outlaws Series victory in as many races last Wednesday at LaSalle (Ill.) Speedway. "The Dude" qualified the No. 20 J.D. Byrider Mopar-powered machine in 11th; finished third in the third heat race and second in the second dash event on his way to clinching team's third series win.

Heavy rain postponed last Friday's event at Hartford (Mich.) Speedway, and the No. 20 team moved on to The Raceway @ Powercom Park on Saturday where they salvaged a 17th-place finish at Powercom and cutting series point leader Steve Kinser's advantage to only 135. Daryn Pittman used a Mopar engine to power himself to a heat race victory and a third-place finish in the A-main.

The World of Outlaws will compete at Farley Speedway on Wednesday, and Eagle Raceway Friday and Saturday.

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