Dome Valley Raceway in Wellton, AZ
held the October Showdown in late October with help from Swag Racing and the AZ
Top Fuel Group. Absolutely chamber of commerce weather greeted racers and crew
as they readied for a weekend of great racing on at Dome Valley Raceway. Once
again, Ernesto Juarez had the surface prepped to perfection and that led to
some great on track racing action.Top Fuel
Three entries showed up to compete in Top Fuel action on this weekend. Dennis Rieck and the Hammer Down team made the trip over from California to compete. Dennis was trying a few new things with his potent small block-powered Fueler and looking for some more consistency from his combination. Matt and Dwight Ludlow’s Coldwater Kid Top Fuel team debuted their new chassis planning on feeling out the new car as well as new clutch setup. John Cadzow’s Cadzow Motorsports/WSM Auctioneers Top Fueler also was testing a brand new clutch combination. Tuner John Aleman was calling the shots on both Ludlow & Cadzow’s dragsters, gaining data on the new equipment.
On Saturday, Rieck made three passes with his best being a smooth 2.460/117.56mph to take the #1 qualifying spot. This pass had a nice 1.01 60’ time and Dennis had to shut it off a touch early. Ludlow made the maiden voyage with the new chassis on Saturday afternoon during the test and tune round, shutting off about 100’ out running a 3.43/53mph on a smooth pass. Cadzow would have problems with his clutch on his Saturday afternoon test pass running a 3.19 with some cylinders out.
Race day on Sunday rolled around with Dennis Rieck having the first round bye. Rieck would run 2.57/133mph on his bye run with a couple holes out down track. His opponent would be whoever would run the quicker pass between Matt Ludlow & John Cadzow. They decided to not run side by side and let the quicker time advance as both wanted to make solo passes in this session. Ludlow would run an early shut off 2.690/113mph run to move on over Cadzow’s 2.81/128 hit.
This would set up a big final round between the Hammer Down & Coldwater Kid teams. Rieck went back to what worked on Saturday for him, while the Ludlow team and crew chief Aleman would continue to tweak the new car from the data gathered. At the hit, Ludlow would take a slight lead, but down track it was all Rieck as he ran Low ET of the weekend with a 2.42/142mph blast to defeat Ludlow’s weekend best 2.56/133mph effort. Congrats to the Hammer Down team on the victory.
Dennis Rieck
Matt Ludlow
John Cadzow
Top Eliminator/Super Eliminator
Billy Morris would be a double winner on the weekend at Dome Valley Raceway. The 2 Dolla’ Bill team, which has dominated the Super Eliminator class all season, was the lone entry at Dome Valley and ran a weekend best 2.88 for the victory. The Morris team, led by tuner Eddie Knox, also worked on their TE tune up and would face off with Ralph Adamson’s entry driven by Pat Headington. In this final round match up, Pat would leave first slightly, but Morris would have the power to take a 3.08 to 3.29 win.
Billy Morris
Pat Headington
Pro Bracket Classes
There was some great action in the Pro Bracket classes at Dome Valley. Pro 1 came down to a battle amongst Brian Root in his brother Barkley’s Jeep against defending champion Tracy Malan’s Altered. Malan would leave the red bulb on the tree handing the win to Root, who ran a 4.003 (3.99) for the win. Pro 2 was an all Jeep battle as Wes Johnson faced off with Jim Clark. Johnson left first, and forced Clark into a 4.351 (4.37) break out. Keith Ahart’s legendary bike was back to form on this weekend as he would take the Motorcycle Pro 1 victory with a .431 light and 4.352 (4.35) pass. Ratliff would come back from that runner-up finish and score the win in Motorcycle Pro 2 over Mike Brock.
Brian Root
Wes Johnson
Keith Ahart
Mark Ratliff
Pro Sport Bracket Classes
The Pro Sport/pro tree Saturday bracket classes once again put on a great show. Pro Sport cars came down to a battle between Arend Schouten’s VW-powered Buggy and Keith Ahart’s Second Urge Dragster. Both of these guys have reputations of being among the top bracket racers in the Southwest. This race would be decided at the tree, as Ahart’s Dragster rolled through the beams while staging handing the win to Schouten with a 4.411 (4.35). The Motorcycle Pro Sport class saw some excellent racing and foreshadowed Sunday’s MP2 final as Ratliff and Brock matched up with Ratliff also winning this one as Brock would red light by just .008.
Arend Schouten
Keith Ahart
Mark Ratliff
Mike Brock
Other Classes
Jim Clark’s Jeep looked much improved all weekend running in the 4.3 zone and he would take the Sportsman Car class victory over Kevin Erwin. Jack Vandergriff was the man to beat in Motorcycle Sportsman over Mark Ratliff. Lauren Rodriguez took the Junior Dragster victory while Ryan Rodriguez was the big winner in the Kids category.
Jim Clark
Jack Vandergriff
Photo Extra
Another nice shot of John Cadzow's WSM Acutioneers Top Fueler.
Kevin Erwin had the Swag Nasty Jeep flying, running a best of 3.61 and racing to a runner-up finish in the Sportsman Cars class.
Mike Brock re-set his MPH World Record in the C/Pro Bike class with an 88+ MPH blast.
Sidney Payne brought his Jeep down to race and was very impressive running in the low 4.0 range.
The Root team getting ready for another pass on their way to the Pro 1 victory.
NSDN Photos.