Savage, Smallwood, Pelrine get big wins

Words by Jeff Burk
Photos courtesy IHRA

Mike Savage took advantage of a little “home cooking” to get the first IHRA Ironman for himself and owner/tuner Jim Broome at the IHRA’s Nitro Jam season opener March 23 and 24 in Tucson, Arizona. Savage drove the Candies and Hughes tribute 1970 ‘Cuda to a Saturday night win over defending IHRA Prostalgia Champ Peter Gallen.

Gallen (Broomall, Pa.), driving his brand new ’76 Monza, also came up short in Friday’s final, losing to Canadian driver Tim Boychuk behind the butterflies of his Roland Leong-tuned ’77 Firebird.

Cherissa Smallwood

Saturday’s final in AA/FC was the best of the two-day affair. Savage was beaten off the line, but charged back on the top end to pick up his first career Ironman trophy, recording a 5.823 at 240.38 mph that covered Gallen’s 5.897/242.45.

In injected nitro dragster action Cherissa Smallwood (Gainesville, Fla.)  picked up where she left off by winning on Friday night in the Pro Fuel Dragster class. Smallwood had worked for seven months last year to pick up her first Nitro Jam victory at the 2011 season ender and made it back-to-back victories, beating former IHRA World Champion Bill Evans and his “Black Pearl” digger to pick up her second Nitro Jam victory. In the final round Smallwood pushed her “Nitro and Lace” dragster to a 5.553/245.76 lap to power by Evans’ 5.645/258.22 effort.

“We had it loaded and ready to fire,” Smallwood said. “We were very optimistic going into this weekend, but we remained cautious because you never know what is going to happen. After round one we felt really good about the car and our chances and then we fired off a great run in the final to pick up our second Ironman.

“To win is incredible, but to do it against a guy like Bill makes it that much sweeter. These guys are such great competitors and that only adds to the joy of picking up a win.”

Smallwood advanced to the final with a solid pass against Robin Samsel in round one. Johnny Ahten, making his second career Nitro Jam start, finished with a consolation round win over Samsel.