Clarksville Speedway

Drag Racing

September 25^th, 2009

Tyler O’Donnell

The rain managed to hold off at the Clarksville drag strip on Friday night.  Drivers tried to avoid elimination to pick up as many points as they could for the point’s championship. 

In the trophy class, Wesley Svatba had the point’s lead over John Triplett going into Friday. Triplett, however, managed to get his car into the final round and was in a head-to-head matchup with Matthew Othaldt.  Triplett came into the round with a 9.1092 dial in compared to Othaldt’s 11.5939 dial in time.  Triplett’s reaction time of .5389 was slightly better than that of Othaldt’s .5651 when the tree fell.  Both drivers raced down the line quick enough to beat their dial in times but Triplett would come out on top.  He ran down the line in 8.95 seconds compared to Othaldt’s time of 11.45 sec.  Triplett therefore narrowed to gap between him and the point’s leader to just 30 points.  Othaldt sits in fourth, 130 pts. off the lead.

In the footbrake class, John Perry managed to gain ground on the point’s leader, Allen Wood, with a big win on Friday.  Perry had to beat out Terry Krantz in the final round.  Krantz had a 6.382l dial in compared to Perry’s 6.0620 dial in time.  Krantz was able to get a better jump at the start with a reaction time of .4738 to Perry’s .5230.  Perry was still able to boost his way by Krantz’s machine, topping 112 mph.  He crossed the finish line in 6.04 sec.  Krantz did it in 6.41 sec.  With the win, Perry sits 130 pts. out of the lead in second.  Krantz is currently 11^th, needing more good runs like Friday’s to make a run for the top.

Last to race was the street class.  The final round matchup was between the first and second place drivers in the points.  Mulderink, the point’s leader, had a 9.8208 dial in going into the final round.  Knox had a dial in of 8.0011.  When the tree came down, Knox got a better start with a reaction time of .5042 compared to Mulderink’s .6100.  That helped Knox in getting a good finish.  He picked up the win with an ending time of 9.80 sec.  Mulderink crossed the line in eight sec.  Knox still remains second in the standings but as narrowed the gap.  He is currently 50 pts. out of the lead.