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ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – Monroe’s Mike
Bell drove Roy Hill’s 2007 Ford
Mustang to best-of-the-event
numbers of 6.013 seconds at 230.17
miles per hour Saturday at
Rockingham Dragway en route to the
Pro Modified championship at the
second annual ROCK Battery Spring
Blast presented by RaceWorks.com.
Bell shared the winners’ circle
with six-time IHRA world champion
Rickie Smith of King, who sailed
to an easy Pro Stock victory at
the wheel of the Skull Shine
Chevrolet Cobalt.
Bell, who like Smith is a former
IHRA Pro Stock Champion, was
clocked in 6.129 seconds at 201.76
mph in the Pro Modified final,
turning back second generation
driver Scott Cannon of Lyman,
S.C., winner of of last October’s
IHRA World Finals.
Smith, driving a Chevy powered by
an 817 cubic inch Sonny Leonard
powerplant, was clocked in 6.351
seconds at 220.37 mph in the Pro
Stock final to beat the Ford of
current IHRA national record
holder Robert Patrick of
Fredericksburg, Va., who trailed
at a shut off 16.448 seconds at
only 50.27 mph.
The Spring Blast was the
culmination of a week of pro
testing at Rockingham, site of
both the IHRA Spring Nationals and
the IHRA World Finals, two of the
12 events in the IHRA Nitro Jam
Series.
The driver with the quickest car
in each of two Saturday test
sessions advanced to the final
round in Pro Modified and Pro
Stock. Champions also were
crowned in the first round of
racing to determine the drivers
who will represent Rockingham
Dragway in the IHRA Team ET Finals
inthe fall.
Ken Batchelor of Leland, N.C.,
waded through a field of 150 to
win the Top Eliminator
championship over Huston Dial;
Chris Plott of Winston-Salem
prevailed in the Footbrake final
over Bill Ritts; and Troy Brewer
of Shannon won in the Jr. Dragster
class by beating Jessica Dean of
Washaw in the final.
Among the other Pro Mod drivers
involved in the competition were
Vinny Demieri of Babylon, N.Y. and
Dwayne White of Ridgeway, S.C.,
both driving new Pontiac GTOS;
Steve Vick of Mocksville in a 1963
Corvette; and Tracy Cockman of
Bunn Level in a Chevy Cavalier.
Smith earned one of the final
round berths in Pro Stock by
coaxing his Chevy through the
timers in 6.341 seconds and 220.22
mph. Patrick got the other spot
with a time of 6.346 at 221.49 mph
in the second session. The odd
man out in the “Chicago Style”
competition was Jacksonville’s
Elijah Morton, whose times of
6.386 and 6.387 seconds weren’t
quite good enough to get him to
the money round. |
