Burk's Reporter's Notebook

56th Annual World Series of Drag Racing

Cordova, Ill     Opening Day of the 56th Annual World Series of Drag Racing saw massive oil downs, rain both early and late in the day and a failed main computer but despite all of that the fans who came early and stayed late were treated to some spectacular racing from both the sportsman classes and the historic debut of the Don Garlit's 2009 Challenger A/SA race car with "Big" doing the driving of his latest "Swamp Rat"....number 35 to be exact.

Don Garlits and Swap Rat 35

The last time Don Garlits drove a Mopar door slammer race car was in 1963. It was a Dodge with a "Cross Ram" carbureted  Dodge V-8 powerplant. According to Garlits he never drove that car to lap of 12 seconds or quicker. Now nearly 50 years the Garlits is once again behind the wheel of a Mopar doorslammer. Garlits made two passes today and ran a best time of 10.62 and 10.46 and near 130mph. The man tuning the car is John Donato a former Chrysler Engineer. Donato was working for Chrysler when the Charger project was conceived and designed the cars. Look for a complete feature on this car in the September issue of DRO sister publication Mopar Max next Tuesday. Garlits Drag Pak Challenger is the number one car and is a A/SA car. Also on hand is the number 2 Drag Pak car which is owned by Chicago area racer Larry Griffth and will run as a B/SA.

AA/FC DRO Challenge Report

Five AA/FC made a lap Friday night between rain showers and massive oil downs at the 56th Annual World Series of Drag Racing. Those making laps of Friday night included Paul Romine, John Dunn, Larry Bowen, The Stanke Bros and Doc Halladay.

Romine's Man O War 79 Mustang makes the quickest and fastest pass of the night with a 6.10/238+ lap. That speed and ET are good enough to qualify as the first leg for  new DRO AA/FC series records.