Racing Action

Wednesday is limited to the local Club Challenge run offs along with time allotted for test and tune for those new to the track.

Speaking of such, the track and the very mild weather that was experienced this weekend made for excellent racing and monster wheel stands. Not in just the Airshow, but in normal competition runs, as many cars where nearly on the bumper and going well in excess of 100 feet down track before returning to terra firma.

Thursday was the first day of Top Gun qualifying. All told, seventeen dragsters and twenty-four full-bodied cars made attempts at qualifying. Three qualifying attempts are allotted, two scheduled on Thursday and one on Friday.

There must be some sort of top-secret performance industry going on in Montana. As both of the number one qualifiers came the Treasure State. Both Lee Johnson (Bozeman) and Jake Neibauer (Billings) held down the number one qualifying spots in Open Wheel and Full Bodied.

Johnson was sixty-six hundredths of a second quicker than number two qualifier Casey Tehle also from Billings, Mont., running a stellar 6.33 at 216.72-mph pass. Tehle was no slouch at 6.99/194.44. Brian Stief also from Billings was actually number two at 6.85/196.60, however he was unable to compete as some valve spring issues forced the team to park the car. Andrew Clark rounded out the sixteen car field at 8.11 and 169.36 miles per hour.

Jake Neibauer

Neibauer was four tenths faster than the number-two qualifier and perennial wheelstanding champion Jamie DenBesten from Lyman, Wy. Neibauer in the family owned ’63 split window Corvette, at 7.09-193.16, then DenBesten at 7.51/185.82. Butch Warner from Surprise, Ariz., held down the bump spot at 8.28/163.08.