LSX Challenge Bradenton 2011 Same Day Coverage

The sun just came up at Bradenton Motorsports Park. It looks like it's going to be another beautiful day with great weather! The track officials are out laying VHT to prep the track for the first round of eliminations.

Local racer Scott Murray brought out his CTS Caddy to compete in the LSX Rumble Index class running 11.50.

The BMR Fabrication folks are here this weekend with a display and tech support. Thy have a special stand and have their project Trilo G here so people can see underneath the car and the assorted suspension components they offer. They hurt the engine while testing on Gainsville's road course and plan to have it back together and racing at the Commerce Georgia event in April.

I stopped by Massingill's trailer this morning. The crew was changing the plugs and looking the car over. They didn't make any changes to the car as they are sitting in the number one qualifying spot. If they take the win today it will be for the third year in a row!

I spoke with Robert Strong this morning about his '87 Monte Carlo SS. He was having some trouble with the car yesterday in qualifying. It was leaving strong, pulling the wheels, but would fall on its face right after the launch. He thinks fuel was coming back up into the carb and causing it to bog. He made some adjustments to the carb to hopefully correct the problem.

William Kurrus had a nice launch in his '07 Corvette with a LS2 440ci during round 1 of LSX Rumble.

Michael Hansen is running his '06 Trail Blazer.

Don Dixon has been really consistant launching his '06 supercharged 402ci GTO.

Ray Bulach made a nice pass in his '99 Camaro.

David Saunders out of Houston Texas pulled a little wheelie on his first round in LSX Rumble. Last night he qualified into the number 2 spot.

Staging for LSX Rumble.

James Rowlett made a solid pass in the first round of eliminations.

Keith Vaughn out of Nashville TN making racing in first round eliminations for LSX Rumble.

Nice sounding turbo 5th gen Camaro heating the tires for the first round of eliminations.

Ronnie Hackelton from Hazen Arizona heating up the tires before round one of eliminations.

Nice looking 5th gen Camaro rolling into the burnout box.

The LSX All Motor Shootout had four racers make it for eliminations with Chris Woods putting up an 8.71 @ 156 to take out Robert Strong’s 10.84 @ 135 in his 87 Monte Carlo.

Massingill and David Lazear were up next with top qualifier Massingill logging a nice 8.41 @ 159 to get the win.

Only three entries for Real Street here in Bradenton made for a short field with Durham North Carolina’s Ted Timmerman winning his round one match with George Toll with a 12.80 @ 71 MPH over Toll’s 15.30 @ 87. Paul Falcon also hails from Durham and drove down easy on his round one single.

The LSX Rumble has twenty five cars show for round one on Sunday, a good showing for the index class here this weekend. After five rounds it would be New Jersey’s Rob Farley taking home the win with Anniversary edition Corvette taking the win over Gainesville, Florida based Derek Putnam’s 2000 Firebird.

LSX Rumble Finals

The 5th Gen Camaro Challenge had five cars here in Bradenton with Drag Radial racer Michael Meeks double entered in this class. He made it to the finals to meet up with Shawn Calabrese from Orlando, Florida. Drivers are class by index according to performance level with Meeks running the 13.5 J/LSX index and Calabrese in G/LSX with a 12.00 target. Calabrese got away first and ran 12.23 @ 104 to Meeks loosing effort 13.67 @ 103.

5th Gen Camaro Finals

The all Durham NC final had both drivers with poor reaction times and it would be Falcon there first with a nice 8.97 @ 150 over Timmerman’s early shut down 10.07 @ 105 MPH run.

Ted Timmerman - Holley Real Street Runner Up

The All Motor final had Massingill back in the 8.30’s with a clean 8.34 @ 161 over Woods 8.67 @ 157 MPH run.

Woods late on the tree and car owner Bobby Lashley vows they will be back with more power as soon as possible so they will have something for the School of Automotive Machinists backed winning entry.

The Drag Radial class had two cars make the call for eliminations, Michael Meeks nitrous assisted 98 Trans AM and Mark Carlyle’s stunning 2007 turbo charged Z06 Corvette. Meeks was leaking some fluid on the line and faced a very dissapointing DQ while Carlyle went on to his best run of the weekend with the new setup, an 8.19 @ 180 MPH.

LS cars in the house for the season opener of the LSX Challenge with the NMCA. As of yesterday there was about 30 cars total on the lot but I see quite a few more today for the Rumble index class.

Scoggin Dickey Performance Parts is among the many vendors and series sponsors set up with booths and support crew. They are the series sponsor for the LSX Challenge which is new to the NMCA for 2011. They have several crate engines and assorted parts on display including the new LSX DR heads and intake designed specifically for high horsepower and drag racing in mind. An out of the box CNC DR heads flows about 430 CFM, plenty of air for lots of power making potential.

James Rowlett from Nashville, Tennessee made the trip to Florida for the inaugural LSX Challenge and is running the LSX Rumble index class this weekend. He used an LQ9 truck block with a set of good rods and 9.5:1 pistons hanging off a stock crank. On top is a set of early 5.3 heads by Absolute Speed and a GMPP intake ported by Wilson Manifolds. The car run 10.50's with no power adder.

The line starts here for the LSX Rumble class. This is an entry level class designed for the casual racer to get aquainted with racing without the stress of needing cubic dollars to compete.

Another car in the LSX Rumble this weekend is this rare Indy 500 Anniversary edition Corvette owned by Rob Farley since 2005. He hails from central New jersey and has been racing the LSX index series since 2009 and won the first event he participated in at St Louis and has been hooked ever since. The engine has a forged bottom end with TFS heads, aftermarket intake, cams, headers and exhaust. He puts about 500 runs on it a season between local bracket racing and assorted traveling.

David Lazier own this All Motor LSX Camaro that runs out of Pensacola Florida. I spoke with crew chief Ryan Thornton this morning. David has had this car since he was 17 which started out as his street car and evolved into what you see here.

Lazier and Eric Kaneg from HK Enterprises did the 468 cubic inch engine with LXR canted valve heads with a Beck sheet metal intake and dual Accufab throttle bodies

Mark Carlyle from Columbus Ohio making his 1st round qualifying pass in his turbo C6 Vette.

Cliff Leblanc makes his first qualifying pass for LSX Rumble in his '99 Firebird. Ran a 10.61 @ 126mph.

Brian Palcisko's '98 Formula ran a 13.89 @ 101 in LSX Rumble's first round of qualifying.

Stan Dempsey's '01 Corvette ran a 11.47 @ 118.

Jeff Oppenheim's '86 El Camino went 10.83 @ 125mph in first round qualifying of LSX Rumble.

Paul Smith went 9.72 @ 140 mph in round 1 of qualifying.

Don Dixon went 9.84 in his '05 Supercharged GTO

Trevor Readdick went 14.44 in his '04 Silverado.

Zach Chinko went 11.82 @ 116 in his '00 Camaro.

Nicholas Massengale heating up the tires before his 11.94 pass.

Meeks was trying for a record pass when he pulled a long wheelstand and crossed into the other lane.

Nice burnout by this new Camaro in the Camaro!

Carlos Rios clicked off a nice low 9 second pass in round two of LSX Real Street in his LS3 powered Honda S2000.

Nice burnout by this new yellow Camaro competing in the LSX Camaro Challenge.

Massingill has locked in the number one qualifying spot after two back to back 8.3 second passes!

David Lazear staging for his round two qualifying pass.

Chris Woods had a nice 8.6 pass in round two of LSX All Motor qualifying.

I caught up with Ted Timmerman in the pits after his second qualifying class. He's sitting in the 2nd spot after his 9.04 @ 148mph pass. Yesterday he had a lot of traction issues so it's good to see they are getting the car all dialed in. He's looking the car over and going to make a few adjustments before next round, hoping to crack an 8 second pass!

Chris Woods seems to have the car on point. They are in the number 2 qualifying spot after a 8.62 pass rolling through the light. They are ready for next round!

Chris Woods heating up the tires before his last qualifying pass in LSX All Motor.

Robert Strong had a nice launch then the motor broke up a bit. He ran a 10.61 at 135mph placing him in the number four qualifying spot for LSX All Motor.

David Lazear ran a devilish 8.666 @ 158 mph making him the number three qualifier for LSX All Motor.

Chris Woods ran an 8.60 @ 157 mph on his final qualifying pass to secure the number 2 spot.

Mark Carlyle was running really good today. In his last qualifying pass he had an easy launch but still managed an 8.33 @ 179mph.

Meeks was running nice and consistent today. In his last qualifying pass he ran another 7.9 at over 170 mph.

The School of Automotive Machinists All Motor 99 Camaro sits on the poll with a very nice 8.32 @ 162 MPH. New for this year is a rule change allowing them a 400 pound weight reduction. The updates to the car were just completed last Wednesday but still needed some minor finishing touches once here in Bradenton. The team is very pleased with the performance so far and in fact Massingill pedaled the car slightly on the .32 run. The car has a Liberty 5 speed with a dual disc eight in clutch from East West Engineering out of Nevada. They brought about 15 students here for a hands on field trip, prepping the cars and doing routine maintenance or whatever else is necessary to keep the team running smooth.

It's a beautiful morning here at Bradenton Motorsports Park! The racers are in line for registration as the track is being prepped for a great day of test and tune!

Judson Massingill is here from Houston, Texas with his orange LSX Camaro. He's been the LSX All Motor Champion two years in a row! With a 435ci motor making 1,025whp and weighing in at only 3,000 lbs. he's looking to run in the 8.20's. Sponsors: Royal Purple, Weisco Pistons, MSD Ignitions, Don Bailey, and Holley Carbs.

Mark Carlyle is here from Columbus Ohio with his IPS Motorsports built turbo charged Corvette. In the off season they upgraded from a 91 MM cast wheel turbo to a billet 106 MM unit on the same Livernois Motorsports engine freshened up from last year and updated to a 25.3 spec. cage.

Just a week ago the car was a shell and 6 pallets of parts, they made a mad thrash to get the car back together for the season opener and are looking to be the first car in the sevens.

Dave Lovendahl is the technical advisor for JRI Shocks and the company has signed on for NMCA sponsorship for the 2011 season. They will be providing tech support on site at all the NMCA points races this year for any racers that so desire and have a shock dyno in the trailer to check and fine tune their own or competitors products.

Bobby Lashley runs the All Motor class in the LSX Challange and has run a best of 8.29 @ 163 just two weeks ago in testing making it the fastest All Motor car to date. He is looking to repeat that performance here this weekend provided the track holds and set an official record. Proline Race Engines is responsible for the C5R 427 while Vengance Racing built the car.

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Mark Carlyle ran a 9.62 @ 154 on his first hit with the new set up after spinning some at the hit, peddaling it then again approaching the 330' cone.

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Michael Meeks is here for the LSX Challange this weekend. They burned a head gasket in February at SGMP and just put the enging back in two days ago. A miswired purge activation turned on when he activated the system after the burnout and he was pushed back to try again after repairs. For 2011 he has a new glass front clip and carbon doors for weight reduction, he ran a 7.99 @ 172.

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William Kurrus's motor has survived past everyone's expectations. Back in October a bad valve put a hole in one of his pistons and in order to get it back out for the next round he got the crazy idea to weld the piston as a make-shift fix... It actually held up and he's been running the same 440ci motor with a welded piston ever since without any problem!

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Judson Massingill's holeshot before his steering problem.

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Judson Massingill nearly collided with Jeff Lutz's Pro Street car when his steering broke after a pretty violent launch.

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Bobby Lashly is back with his C5R 427ci Camaro. He's running the LSX All Motor class. Sponsors: VP, Aeromotive, Mickey Thompson, Big Stuff, and Comp Cams.

Bobby Lashley doing a big smokey burnout before his test pass.

Nice launch by this ProCharged GTO. Look at those slicks wrinkle.

This G-Body spun the tires and fell out of the groove on his launch during testing.

Nice looking C5 Vette in the staging lanes waiting to make a test pass for LSX Challenge.

Massingill staging for his round two eliminations run.

Chris Woods heating them up before his round two eliminations run.

Chris Woods vs. Robert Strong in LSX All Motor.

Meeks was DQ for leaking fluid on the track before his pass.

Carlyle had an easy solo pass to take the win for LSX Drag Radial but he still gave the crowd a show!