Bret Kepner
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2004
These results reflect the record holders, qualifiers, and final round contestants at each of the
SX Performance Street Car Shootout Series events held each Tuesday at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
Tuesday SCSS Track Records can be set during official qualifying or championship rounds. The
Official Street Car Shootout qualifying period begins at 6:30 PM and concludes at 9:00 PM, (barring unforeseen circumstances). At 9:20 PM, the four quickest qualifiers meet in no-handicap eliminations with the championship final round held at 9:45 PM. Each of the Top 16 qualifiers receives a "Fastest Street Car Qualifier" decal. The SCSS trophies and decals are presented by SX Performance Fuel Systems. Additionally, the two quickest Sport Tuner drivers, (open to all passenger cars except Rear-Wheel-Drive vehicles with engines of six cylinders or more), also meet in a no-handicap championship round for trophies presented by St. Louis Street Racers.com and the two quickest Super Truck drivers, (open to all trucks and utility vehicles), meet in a no-handicap championship round for trophies presented by Gateway Raceway.com. All finalists in all categories also receive free digital images from the event courtesy of Bret Kepner Photos.com and one free entry to a future SCSS event.
GATEWAY INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, MADISON, ILLINOIS
2007 SX PERFORMANCE STREET CAR SHOOTOUT TRACK RECORDS
Class Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine ET MPH Date
RWD Sam Moore, East Alton, IL 93 Mustang 352 Ford 8.584 9/26/2006
RWD Sam Moore, East Alton, IL 93 Mustang 352 Ford 161.25 7/18/2006
4CYL Jon Huber, St. Louis, MO 79 Mustang 178 Ford 9.714 10/3/2006
4CYL Jon Huber, St. Louis, MO 79 Mustang 178 Ford 143.17 10/3/2006
TRK Sam Moore, East Alton, IL 92 S-10 406 Chevy 9.613 10/17/2006
TRK Steven Gleghorn, Alton, IL 94 S-10 434 Chevy 140.44 9/26/2006
RTY Eric Cheatham, Belleville, IL 93 RX-7 79 Mazda 10.048 9/26/2006
RTY Eric Cheatham, Belleville, IL 93 RX-7 79 Mazda 137.95 9/26/2006
6CYL Rob Nolan, Granite City, IL 87 Regal 231 Buick 11.041 10/11/2005
6CYL Rob Nolan, Granite City, IL 87 Regal 231 Buick 124.56 4/11/2006
FWD Adam Corbitt, St. Charles, MO 85 Golf 122 Volks 11.473 9/5/2006
FWD Adam Corbitt, St. Charles, MO 85 Golf 122 Volks 126.95 5/30/2006
DSL Phillip Blackburn, Springfield, IL 03 2500 HD 403 Chevy 11.835 8/2/2005
DSL Phillip Blackburn, Springfield, IL 03 2500 HD 403 Chevy 114.29 8/2/2005
APRIL 17th, 2007 SX PERFORMANCE STREET CAR SHOOTOUT QUALIFIERS
Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine ET MPH Date
EVENT 02 04/17/2007
1 Tim Mallicoat Collinsville IL 68 Camaro 468 Chevy 9.469 135.89
2 Tony Buhl Lebanon IL 89 Mustang 306 Ford 9.744 138.71
3 Rick Cardinale Florissant IL 66 Nova 421 Chevy 9.768 133.67
4 Tony Huff Collinsville IL 69 Nova 540 Chevy 10.024 133.79
5 Hal Marshall Collinsville IL 86 S-10 383 Chevy 10.205 131.34
6 Marc Arnold St. Peters MO 93 Mustang 359 Ford 10.259 139.04
7 Mike McCombs Jacksonville IL 87 Mustang 418 Ford 10.366 131.97
8 Ben Nungester Arnold MO 69 Camaro 400 Chevy 10.598 128.30
9 Raymond Arthur Edwardsville IL 67 Camaro 427 Chevy 10.663 127.49
10 Mike Mester Valley Park MO 00 Firebird 402 Pont 10.927 123.89
11 Robert Obermoeller Imperial MO 87 Camaro 350 Chevy 10.929 123.89
12 Ricky Thomas St. Louis MO 70 Monte Carlo 454 Chevy 11.000 124.32
13 Jack Nungester Arnold MO 71 Camaro 454 Chevy 11.118 122.19
14 Mark Rabenort Wildwood MO 69 Camaro 355 Chevy 11.390 119.45
15 Mark Gantner St. Peters MO 72 Chevelle 454 Chevy 11.468 118.17
16 Chris Gosch Bunker Hill IL 07 Mustang 330 Ford 11.690 126.96
APRIL 17th, 2007 SX PERFORMANCE STREET CAR SHOOTOUT FINAL ROUND
Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH
W Tim Mallicoat, Collinsville, IL 1968 468 Camaro 0.036 9.424 134.24
RU Tony Buhl, Lebanon, IL 1989 306 Mustang 0.274 9.897 138.02
After two consecutive weeks of rainouts, fans and racers flocked back to Gateway International Raceway for the continuation of the SX Performance Street Car Shootout Series. Only the second event to be contested in the 2007 series, the race drew the eighth largest field ever which produced the seventh quickest “Super Sixteen” program. Despite the best efforts of every other competitor, Tim Mallicoat returned to the winner’s circle in the first victory of the year for his amazingly quick naturally-aspirated ‘68 Camaro. Mallicoat was also a key player in a rare clean sweep of all six eliminator finalist positions by Illinois drivers.
With atmospheric conditions ranging from a highest corrected altitude of 1576 feet above sea level to a best of 699 feet above during the final rounds, it was easier to count the drivers who didn’t clock a career-best elapsed time or speed. However, the event also marked a disastrous evening for several of the SCSS program‘s strongest entries. A rash of breakage kept from the field many cars which could easily have dropped the bump spot to near-record levels.
The fireworks began early; the timed trial period before the start of the official qualifying session included a 10.81/127.01 effort by Rick Cardinale’s slick new 421-inch small block Chevy-powered purple ‘66 Nova, a 10.65/128.64 pass by Mike McCombs’ bronze 418-inch ‘87 Mustang and a blazing 9.57/130.56 shot by Mallicoat’s black M&M Automotive-sponsored Chevy, complete with its trademark super-quick 1.42-second sixty feet elapsed time.
Qualifying got underway with Marc Arnold’s wild manually-shifted 359-inch ‘93 Mustang hitting a 10.25 at a ****ping 139.04 miles per hour with a sub-par 1.72 sixty feet ET but the Missourian would later return to hit a 1.45 launch before getting far out of shape. McCombs improved to a 10.47/131.60 and past SCSS event winner Ben Nungester’s orange small block-powered ’69 Camaro opened with a 10.77/126.92. Only forty-one minutes into the qualifying period, however, “Moose” Mallicoat unleashed a career-best 9.46/135.89, (with a 1.37 sixty feet ET!), which led the field for the duration.
As qualifying continued, however, the biggest shocks came from the teams which struggled. Tony Huff, the winningest SCSS driver ever, took his well-known silver ‘68 Nova on what appeared to be an easy non-nitrous aided pass at 10.02/133.79 only to suffer terminal engine damage on the run! Teammate Joe Williams, whose yellow ‘70 Nova clocked a 10.72/128 in the first event of the season, also destroyed a powerplant and withdrew. Previous SCSS event champ Gary Tripp found his 496-inch ’69 Camaro falling dead silent in the middle of his first burnout of the season, noting, “Last fall, we had a transmission pump lock up which, in turn, locked up the motor. We replaced it over the winter and everything seemed fine. I can’t believe another one would fail on the first shot but it sure looks like that’s what happened!”. St. Louis firefighter Greg Boschert debuted his revamped ten-second white ‘66 Mustang coupe but encountered repeated fuel delivery problems and SCSS Record Holder Sam Moore, at the helm of Dale Huff’s nine-second ‘66 Chevelle became yet another casualty of a major engine catastrophe on his first run of the year!
Meanwhile, 2006 SCSS Season Champion Tony Buhl picked up where he left off in winning the first ‘07 event by pushing his 306-inch Vortec-supercharged ‘89 Mustang to a great 9.74/138.71 to move into the second slot behind Mallicoat. Buhl was one of the few racers who was thrilled with the area’s wet and cold weather over the past two weeks; after winning the final round of the season-opening March 27th event while running with only five pounds of oil pressure, Buhl found his engine had spun several bearings and thrashed to rebuild it in time to race without losing any points in the 2007 SCSS Championship chase. Qualifying ended with one of the most stunning runs of the event when Cardinale used the very last run during the official qualifying session to hit the nitrous oxide button on his new Nova and bumped into the four-car field with a brutal 9.76/133.67!
When the qualifiers were called to the staging area in front of the grandstands, Huff was unable to report after his early engine damage which allowed Hal Marshall, the undisputed King of Tuesday Night, to enter the field as an alternate. Marshall, whose ‘86 S-10 pickup displayed amazing new power with a 10.20/131.34 qualifier, also elected to run in both the Street Car Shootout and the Super Truck Showdown! In the first battle of the semi-finals, Mallicoat strapped a massive holeshot on Cardinale and thundered to a 9.66/134.39 win while the Nova got loose and coasted to a 10.36/97.47. In the second bout, Marshall’s pickup moved out of the groove and forced the veteran to lift against Buhl’s 9.90/137.41.
Mallicoat, whose only previous victory came in the final SCSS event of 2006, held a solid three-tenths of a second advantage in the Chevy-versus-Ford finale but vowed to take seriously the reigning champion. “I can’t go easy on him”, Mallicoat told interviewer Jason Phillips in front of the crowd, “because we all know what he’s capable of running. He’s going to be right there. I guarantee it”. True to his word, Mallicoat hit a brilliant 0.036 Reaction Time against Buhl’s exceptional 0.056 RT and then rocketed to a tremendous 1.35-second sixty feet ET before simply driving away from Buhl’s 9.89/138.02 with a career-best 9.42/134.24!
“The only thing we did to this car during the winter was put on some new front tires and change the oil!”, said a beaming Mallicoat in the winner’s circle. “When we first ran this car last September, it was obvious that Reggie Luter at RTM Automotive had the chassis sorted out right away and it ran so well there was really no reason to touch it. Sure enough, it ran even better then it did last year and it won again so I think we’ll just leave it alone!”.
NOTES FROM THE SCSS: Chris Gosch returned with Bill Stewart’s Bunker Hill, Illinois-based all-white 2007 Shelby Cobra GT500 Mustang; after clocking a best of 12.08/125.17 during the opening event, the Ted‘s Motorcycle World-backed Ford appeared with M&H Drag Radials and a new Kenne-Bell supercharger. The result was an 11.69/126.96 best in qualifying and a late timed trial which produced an incredible 11.20 at 127.10 mph!…Ricky Thomas, St. Louis’ winningest bracket racer with over 700 event wins, made a rare SCSS appearance with his renowned ’70 Monte Carlo while testing for the upcoming Super Chevy Show event at Memphis (TN) Motorsports Park--an event Thomas has won seven times. The God of Bracket Racing made four runs between 11.05 and 10.99 while hitting Reaction Times of 0.009, 0.006 and 0.007. No, he doesn‘t use a delay box...Mike McCombs ran multiple 10.30s during the event with his bronze small block ’93 Mustang despite having to deal with a broken nitrous oxide relay which had to be held together during each run. On a late timed trial, McCombs held it together for the last half of the pass and recorded a 10.26 at a stunning 137.88 mph…While Ben Nungester hit a best ever 10.59/128.30 in his small block ’69 Camaro, his father, Jack, was busy hitting an 11.11/122.19 best in qualifying with his immaculate ’71 454 Camaro. In late timed trials after the conclusion of qualifying, Jack hit “the squeeze” and peeled off two amazing runs of 10.72/132.24 and 10.73/132.02!…Mike Mester’s LS1-powered Trans Am stayed off the bottle while on DOT tires as still ran a series of 10.90s at over 124...Raymond Arthur’s “Superstition” ‘67 427 Camaro ran a career-best 10.66/127.49...Robert Obermoeller’s silver ‘87 350 Camaro became the fifty-eighth member of the SCSS 10-Second Club with a 10.92/123.87 best…Mark Gantner’s “Hugger Orange” ‘72 454 Chevelle notched a best-ever 11.46/118.17...Ralph Dehne’s awesome four-speed equipped , 409-powered ’63 Z11 Impala, (featured in the 2006 SCSS Season Review), was rebuilt during the winter and the original factory drag racer obliterated it previous best numbers with an 11.72/116.30...The quickest and fastest six-cylinder entry was Scott Lasek’s Florissant, Missouri-based burgundy 2006 Nissan 350Z at an impressive 13.17/106.40.
SX PERFORMANCE STREET CAR SHOOTOUT SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS (as of APRIL 18th, 2007)
Pos Points Name Hometown ST Vehicle Engine
1 (4) Tony Buhl Lebanon IL 89 Mustang 331 Ford
2 (4) Tony Huff Collinsville IL 69 Nova 540 Chevy
3 (2) Joe Williams Maryville IL 72 Nova 454 Chevy
4 (2) Steven Gentry Festus MO 65 Comet 557 Ford
5 (2) Tim Mallicoat Collinsville IL 68 Camaro 468 Chevy
6 (2) Rick Cardinale Florissant IL 66 Nova 421 Chevy
7 (2) Raymond Arthur Edwardsville IL 67 Camaro 427 Chevy
8 (2) Chris Gosch Bunker Hill IL 07 Mustang 330 Ford
9 (1) Twenty Drivers Tied at One Point
NOTE: Points toward the 2007 Street Car Shootout Series Season Championship are awarded on the basis of one (1) point for qualifying in the Super Sixteen field with one (1) bonus point awarded for qualifying in the top four positions.
APRIL 17th, 2007 STLSR.COM SPORT TUNER SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND
Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH
W Rick Howie, O'Fallon IL 1992 112 Civic 0.183 12.179 117.34
RU Curtis Wyatt, Granite City, IL 2002 152 WRX 0.088 13.120 107.09
For more than four seasons, Rick Howie’s plain white ‘92 Honda Civic has been the hallmark of Honda performance in the St. Louis area. With the exception of Marc King’s supercharged CRX, no other Honda has come close to the numbers clocked by the O’Fallon, Illinois, turbo car built entirely by its owner. Despite the fact that Howie has competed in the SCSS series since its inception in 2004, he had yet to win…or even qualify for…a St. Louis Street Racing.com Sport Tuner Showdown Series final round. That long dry spell is now over.
Incredibly, the carnage rampant in the SCSS field spilled over into the STSS pits; several of the area’s best-known Tuners stumbled with problems which kept them from being competitive. Adnan Omerovic’s 130 mph ‘95 Talon was unable to get a full pass from its brand-new 4G63T power plant, (replacing the one which Adnan obliterated in the final event of 2006), and SRT-4 superstar Brian Orsborn got nothing but grief from his eleven-second Neon. Howie, on the other hand, was the picture of consistency with a slew of 12.1-second runs culminating in a best-ever ET of 12.12 at 117.16 mph. Past STSS event winner Curtis Wyatt and Matthew Loomis waged a battle of Subaru Impreza WRXs to determine who would race Howie for the trophy with Wyatt’s Illinois entry claiming the honor with a 12.86/107.94 best during qualifying. Following Loomis’ 12.98/105.10 were Tristan Hanson’s red ‘93 RX7, (a best-ever 13.06/113.46), Nick Stepp’s Missouri Neon SRT-4, (13.25/107.50), Orsborn’s ugly best of 13.38/116.68 (!), Carlos Fuentes’ Neon, (13.44/106.22), and Lee Hanson, (Tristan’s dad), in his black ‘93 RX7 at 13.48/110.09.
Howie’s Civic, which is a recognized daily driver throughout the area, went into the final round with a sizeable advantage. “It’s really just a stock 1.8 liter motor”, said Howie before the title bout, “except I added aftermarket cylinder head studs since I’m running a fair amount of boost. I really do drive it every day; it’s pretty tame.” Wyatt, who won a Tuner Shootout title for the first time on May 9th, 2006, was struggling with newfound horsepower and a new driving technique. “We added quite a bit of boost over the winter and I’m really having problems with tirespin tonight, even with the All-Wheel-Drive. On top of that, I’m using a new clutchless transmission and I’m still getting used to that, too”.
In the final battle, Wyatt did gain a tenth of a second holeshot and stretched the lead to fifteen hundredths at the sixty feet mark. Howie reeled in the WRX by four hundred feet, however, and clicked off a 12.17/117.34 win over Wyatt’s trailing 13.12/107.09.
APRIL 17th, 2007 GATEWAYRACEWAY.COM SUPER TRUCK SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND
Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH
W Hal Marshall, Collinsville, IL 1986 383 S10 0.479 10.386 127.85
RU Al Ingram, Belleville, IL 1990 572 Silverado 0.146 12.544 109.21
Hal’s back!
The first event of the season didn’t go well for the King of Tuesday Night but it didn’t take long for the winningest driver ever in the GatewayRaceway.com Super Truck Showdown to start winning again. En route to his twenty-first victory, (and twenty-eighth final round), the Collinsville, Illinois crowd favorite had no problems…for once.
After a best -ever 10.25 at 132.24 mph during timed trials in the March 27th event, Marshall was pushed off the line with a trail of oil behind the white S-10. “It turned out to be just the front seal leaking”, said Marshall before this week’s championship match, “There was no damage and it was an easy fix”. Marshall made sure of his repairs with an early timed trial which resulted in an even quicker 10.19/131.33 from his new 383-inch small block Chevy. In qualifying, Hal carded a 10.20/131.34 to lead the Super Truck field by light years.
In fact, it was opening night victor Jeff Fritz whose Steigemeier-sponsored Lightning made another attempt at the eleven-second zone but ended up with a 12.17/112.62 effort which held for a berth in the final round with Marshall. When the finalists were called to the lanes, however, Fritz was already off the property. The first alternate, Al Ingram, was prepared for that very occurrence, having seen Fritz leave the track. Ingram, who won the third Super Truck Showdown event ever contested back on May 24th, 2005, had qualified his rare ‘90 SS454 Silverado with a career-best 12.69/107.55 ahead of Bill Gallahue’s amazing 5500-pound 2005 Dodge Ram SRT-10, (which unloaded a best-ever 12.95 at a thundering 110.31 mph!), Josh Koch’s stout Cummings-powered ’01 Dodge 2500 diesel, (13.32/102.07), and the trio of Gerald LaPlant, Brett Evans and Michael Mehne, all of whom drove new Jeep Cherokee/Liberty All-Wheel-Drive SRT-8 Hemis and all of which ran between 13.73/100.05 and 13.78/99.82!
Ingram’s Silverado has always been powered by a 454 equipped with a B&M supercharger but the Belleville, Illinois racer was having a blast showing off his new powerplant, a carbureted 572-cubic inch Chevy “crate motor” to anybody who wanted a look. Although he was aware of his slim chances in the final round, Ingram noted that, if Marshall had any problems similar to those he encountered in the semi-finals of the Street Car Shootout, the outcome could change. Either way, Ingram was to be a part of SCSS history as one half of the first final round ever to have a total drivers age of over 100 years; Ingram is one year younger than Marshall at age 54.
In the trophy dash, “Animal Hal” allowed Ingram a nearly half-second headstart and then mowed down the mega-inch SS454’s best-yet 12.54/109.21 with a 10.38/127.85. “Ya know, everything in this truck is new”, said Hal in the winner’s circle in front of the main grandstands. “When I blew this thing up at the last race of the year in 2006, everything from the motor back had to be replaced. We really did a ton of work on this thing but this makes it all worth it”. Hal looked down at his twenty-eighth trophy as if it were his first. “Yep. This makes it all worth it”.
Photos of the April 17th SX Performance Street Car Shootout Series event are now available for viewing at Bret Kepner Photos.com.
Tim Mallicoat, Collinsville, IL 1968 468 Camaro
Tony Buhl, Lebanon, IL 1989 306 Mustang
Rick Howie, O’Fallon, IL 1994 112 Civic
Curtis Wyatt, Granite City, IL 2002 152 Impreza WRX
Hal Marshall, Collinsville, IL 1986 383 S-10
Al Ingram, Belleville, IL 1990 572 Silverado