Words by Chris Graves
Photos by Max Cackle Photography

The Texas Blown Fuel Association rolled into San Antonio Raceway to put a cap on their inaugural season and to decide the 2010 TBFA Points Championship.  This event was also special because the teams were racing for bragging rights as the Texas State Championship event winner in this historic race put on by the Texas Timing Association.  The weather cooperated with the TBFA after a wet first half of the season, and nine cars came to battle it out in the season finale.

Heading into San Antonio, Leonard Ament and the “Black Magic” 1948 Blown Fiat team held a 20 point lead over Chris Stouffer and the “Defiant” Blown Slingshot team with L.H. Newlin hanging onto third.  The first session of qualifying was run under quarter-mile elapsed times, and after completion of the session, the TBFA staff and teams voted to change the rest of the event to eighth mile to provide a safer racing environment as the teams were battling a heavy crosswind at halftrack.  The eighth mile times from the first session would be used as the action got started with Rich Witko and Leonard Ament laying down side by side burnouts.

Rich Witco

Ament tripped the clocks with a solid 4.77 elapsed time as Witko wheeled his blown funny car to a 5.05 in the other lane.  L.H. Newlin and Wes Breiton laid down a 5.29 in the “Cantankerous” blown altered ahead of Breiton’s 5.43 in the “Bad O-Man” blown altered.  Next up came a fine pair of blown front engine dragsters with Chris Stouffer and Bill Norman, who was making his TBFA debut in the “Fabulous Fat Boys” full bodied entry.  Norman laid down a 4.62, just three hundredths under the 4.65 index, and Stouffer followed with a nice 4.83 pass.  Dustin Johnson and Rick Grindstaff closed the session as Johnson wheeled the beautiful blue and blown “Fair Warning” altered to a 4.91 after Grindstaff opted to shutoff after an un-routine burnout that almost sent him into the wall.