Nostalgia Super Stock Eliminator

(Jeff Burk photo)

Twenty Nostalgia Super Stockers entered and were teched in before Saturday’s eliminations for the class began. The Nostalgia Nationals is the second stop on a four-race series for Midwest Super Stockers that includes races at St. Louis, Kansas City, and two races at Cordova including the prestigious World Series of Drag Racing on August 28-29.

Of the 20 cars that passed tech, five withdrew due to parts failure of one sort or another. The quickest and fastest car in eliminations was driven by Don Bruemmer from Jefferson City, Mo.  His ’65 Plymouth ran a 9.814/138.00 in a first round loss to eventual runner-up Charlie Kuenster in his 409 “mystery motor”-powered El Camino.

The highest dial and ET honors went to Jerry Kuenster also in a ’59 409-powered Chevy. He was dialed in at 12.05 and ran a losing 12.084/110.51 to Jim Hagenhoff’s ’65 Plymouth.

The closest race in eliminations was between Wally Krueger’s ’65 Plymouth and Tom Frees in a ’65 Plymouth Krueger dialed a 10.88 and had a .06 package and Frees dialed an 11.05 and had a .11 package.

The best reaction time was recorded by Charlie Kuenster and his Elk when he put a .005 RT on St. Louis race winner Tommy Mitchell. Ask Mitchell what his RT was when you see him.

The final round was a classic Chevy versus Mopar matchup between Lancaster, Wisconsin’s Charlie Kuenster in his ‘59 409-powered El Camino dialed in at 11.59 against the Mopar of Clay Kossuth from Catawissa, Mo., and his ’63 Dodge dial in at a 10.26. Kuenster, who had a .005 light the previous round, dialed it back a little and had a .049 light to Kossuth’s .040. In trying to stay ahead of Kossuth’s mighty Mopar, Kuenster stayed in the throttle just a rip too long and ran five thousandths under his 11.59 dial to give the victory to Kossuth.  

The next stop for the series will be the World Series in August and then the Championship will be decided two weeks later at Kansas City September 11-13.

Conclusion

This race proved that AA/FC racers from the Midwest and both coasts will race under the rules that have been set down for the DRO series and for a purse that a promoter can afford, and they don’t have a problem with qualifying for a field and racing. The rules weren’t an issue.

We also found that four laps in one day for these teams are just too many. The common sense rule to allow racers to run either a 36-inch tall tire or the shorter 34.5 wide didn’t give anyone a performance edge. The speed record was set by a car using the shorter tire.

Although he got murdered financially because of the rain that caused his fans not to turn out in the numbers expected, promoter Scott Gardner said that he is convinced that the AA Funny Cars will attract a crowd of nitro fans and that had it not rained he would have been fine. Nostalgia Nitro racing is proving to be a viable alternative here in the Midwest and will attract racers from both coasts.