PSCA at Fontana
rom the beginning we knew it was going to be a hot one for the PSCA Borla California Nationals at Auto Club Dragway, but 110 degrees with the track actually going over 158 on the surface was more than we bargained for! And this is still May, friends. It was very surprising that anyone could make it down the track on Saturday and Sunday. We’ve got to hand it to Shane tecklenburg and his superbly tuned Accufab team; they are just awesome. For the second straight PSCA event at Fontana both the Accufab Cougar of John Mihovetz and ‘57 Chevy of Big Ed Thornton made it to the finals in Pro Street again. The 280 c.i. Ford prevailed again with times of 6.50, just barely edging out Thornton’s 6.63!
PRO STREET
No one thought that those times would happen this hot hot weekend, but maybe the race running slightly late (until almost 7:00 p.m.) helped. Fontana is not set up with lights for night racing. During the three blazing hot qualifying sessions it was a case of who could actually get down the slick, hot surface. That man turned out to be Bob Griffith and company with his blown Hemi powered Dodge Viper, at a very nice pass of 6.614, coupled up with a 215.58 mph.
That 6.61, if anyone could run consistently all the day long, looked to be the key issue. Just 12 Pro Streeters were on hand probably due to the extremely hot weather conditions (and maybe the cost of gas to travel).
After Griffith’s clean 6.661 pass it fell off to 6.709 with a nice speed of 218.50 mph out of four cylinders and twin turbos for Accufab and John Mihovetz. Jeremy Hanger’s unique blown Hemi ‘53 Studebaker laid down a good pass of 6.721, 213.50 mph for the number 3 spot. Even PSCA ET record holder Giuseppe Gentile and Ed Thornton could not find the right combination for their turbo beasts. Three of the Pro Street cars did not even receive a qualifying time they wanted to talk about.