National Sand Drag News - PTN Cleves May '10 Race Recap

The Pro Truck Nationals series kicked off its 2010 race season at the IOK 4-Wheelers “Gravelrama” Grounds in Cleves, OH during the annual IOK Spring Fling event. Excitement was definitely in the air as a new season of racing kicked off for the Midwest-based series. Racers from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois were fired up and put on a great show in Cleves.

Pro Truck

The Pro Truck field at Cleves was 24 strong, a new series record. Many new faces joined the Pro Truck class from the IOK area along with the usual compliment of MI & MO-based regulars. A new twist to the series for 2010 is that the qualifying will be based off of Reaction Time instead of ET. Defending Champ Ben Dozeman used that to his advantage and chopped the tree down in qualifying to put him in the #1 qualifying spot with MI racers Kip Martin & Mike Page closely behind.

Round one saw some big upsets as MI’s Tom Hartman turned on the red bulb against Rich Simon and #4 qualifier Trent Everett lost a close battle against 2009 PTN Fastest 4x4 Champion Ryan Wilson. Round two saw some extremely close racing with two pairs, Kyle Harney over Ryan Wilson & Kip Martin over Brent Lokker, decided by less than one-thousandth of a second.

In the quarter final round, things started to look real familiar as Ben Dozeman laid down another solid pass to defeat Kyle Harney, which would send him straight to the finals with a semi-final round bye run. In the other pairs, MI’s Dave Kramer won a close .035 decision over KY’s Justin Williams and MI’s Kip Martin defeated first time PTN competitor Mike Orness, who made the haul all the way from Iowa. This set up an all-Michigan semi-final round with Martin’s “Primal Scream” Jeep facing off with Kramer’s “Super Toy” Jeep. Kip would take the starting line advantage, but would take too much strip at the other end running a 3.788 (3.80) for the breakout handing the win to Kramer.

The final would set up to be the Defending Champion Ben Dozeman in the Bad Company Jeep against Mr. Cascade 4WD himself, Dave Kramer in his “Super Toy” Jeep. Dozeman would take a .452 to .481 advantage off the line and drive around Dave at the very end running a 3.611 (3.60) for the first Pro Truck victory of the 2010 race season.

Ben Dozeman

Dave Kramer

Kip Martin

3.5 Index

In 2010, the 3.5 Index is a point series class in the PTN series for the first time. This should strengthen this growing class even more. 11 entries showed up to do battle at Cleves in this category. The action in early rounds was ultra competitive, but as with Pro Truck, the 2009 season dominator Ben Dozeman continued his winning ways. Dozeman dodged a bullet in round one with a 3.65 to 3.52 huge hole shot win. He advance on past Ben Steele in round two, then on to a semi-final round bye into the finals. On the other side of the ladder, it was an all Missouri semi-final as two Dreher Race Cars vehicles faced off with Dan Wies and JR Dreher battling. JR would take over a tenth on the tree and force Dan into a 3.458 (3.50) break out.

This would set up a final round between the Dreher Race Cars Altered of Dreher & the Bad Company Jeep of Dozeman. However, this final didn’t turn out the same as in 2009, Dreher would take a slim hole shot and hold the lead through the finish line for a 3.60 to 3.64 victory to kick off the 2010 race season.

JR Dreher

Ben Dozeman

Pro Outlaw FE

Cleves saw the much anticipated debut of the new Pro Outlaw FE class. This is a heads-up Front Engine category. The field was eight strong at the class debut event. The two heavy weights in the class squared off in round one as Brian McWethy in “The Boss” Funny Jeep came up against Josh Stephens’ “Blown Income” Altered. These cars faced off earlier in the day during a Grudge Match with Stephens taking a 3.01 to 2.97 hole shot win. In the Pro Outlaw round one battle, the tables would be turned as McWethy would run a 2.98 for the win as Stephens red lighted his shot away at the win. The next pair would see the Naturally Aspirated SBC of Ben Steele face off with Curtis Combs in a battle of Altereds. Ben would run a 3.66 for the round win. Up next would be the Blown Ford Altered of Brian Ambs versus the Dreher Race Cars Altered Naturally Aspirated SBC of Dan Wies. Ambs would take the win in a 3.24 to 3.48 decision. Rounding out the round would be Kathy Ellington with a single as Josh Sizemore was unable to make the call. Kathy would run a 3.44.

Round two would start off with a David vs. Goliath match up, as the Screw-Blown Funny Jeep of McWethy’s faced off with the Nitrous-assisted SBC Altered of Kathy Ellington. Ellington would take nearly two tenths on the starting line and take a narrow 3.36 to 3.23 victory as McWethy did an amazing job saving the car as it headed for the wall in a big way down track. Rounding out the round would be another similar match up as the Blown Altered of Ambs would face off with the N/A SBC of Steele. Ambs would run his best pass of the weekend with a 3.13 to defeat Steele’s 3.65.

This would set up a great final round match up between MI’s Ambs & OH’s Ellington. Ellington would take a slight starting line advantage, but just didn’t have the power to stay ahead as Ambs would drive around in the lights for a 3.25 to 3.34 victory to kick off the 2010 race season.

Brian Ambs

Kathy Ellington

ATV Classes

The ATV classes put on a great show at the PTN Season Opener. In the Pro ATV class, Brad Ellington pulled out a tough win over “Shocker Father” Steve Ewing. Sarah Ems pulled out a tough victory in the regular ATV category over MI’s Brad Adams. Ellington pulled off his second win of the day in the ATV Heads-Up 1 class over Kevin Persinger while Adams emerged victorious in the ATV Heads-Up 2 category defeating Shocker himself, Matt Ewing.

Brad Ellington

Sarah Ems

Brad Adams

Brad Ellington

Steve Ewing

Matt Ewing

Bracket Classes

IOK typically runs two bracket classes with a Fast/Slow split determined by the dial-times. In the Fast class, Darryl Silvers would take his Altered to the victory, defeating Justin Ball in the final round. Bryce O’Dell shoed his “All Throttle Racing” Ford Truck to the Slow class win over Krista Randolph in an all-Ford final round.

Darryl Silvers

Justin Ball

Bryce O'Dell

Krista Randolph

Photos Courtesy Lone Star Graphics