8/7/2007 Gateway-SCSS Street Car Shootout RESULTS!

Bret Kepner · 08-08-2007, 08:05 AM

AUGUST 7th, 2007 STLSR.COM SPORT TUNER SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND

Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH

W Phil Hoback, Collinsville, IL 1993 79 RX7 0.544 11.519 125.01
RU Jesse Rosenthal, Manchester, MO 2002 122 RSX 0.383 16.308 97.87

After scoring his first victory on July 24th, Phil Hoback’s black Mazda RX7 entered the winners circle for the second time in the St. Louis Street Racing.com Sport Tuner Showdown and, along the way, became the first Sport Tuner to run in the new four-car eliminations for the Street Car Shootout. Heading back to school in Florida in only two weeks, Hoback vowed after his July title to race as much as possible before returning to college and made good on his promise with his fourth career final round appearance.

Hoback, still running a much more conservative tune than that which enabled his turbocharged 79-cubic inch Wankel to clock a blistering 11.49 at over 131 mph earlier in the season, was the last driver to run in early timed trials and produced an exceptional 11.72/123.17 in abysmal conditions. Ironically, Hoback’s official qualifying runs were much slower, capped by a best of 11.74/122.38. “This car has never liked heat”, said Hoback, “and I just got it too hot too quickly. I never was able to cool it down enough during qualifying to get back to where the ETs should have been”. When Hoback got word that he had been inserted into the Street Car Shootout as an alternate, he made the decision to run in both the SCSS and Sport Tuner Showdown if only for the rare chance to do so. Although the cooled-down Mazda hit an 11.57/122.17 against Phil Reichardt’s 9.28-second run, his holeshot advantage of five hundredths of a second was the source of much pride. “I was told to hit the ‘Tree hard against the Camaro”, laughed Hoback, “but, let’s face it…it really wouldn’t have changed the outcome!”.

Hoback‘s opponent in the Tuner Showdown was the much-deserving Jesse Rosenthal, whose slick silver 2002 Acura RSX Type S has become easily the quickest and fastest Integra-bodied Honda in the Bi-state area. After a best-ever 13.50/101.08 last week, Rosenthal became one of the few racers to actually improve on their personal bests in the blast-furnace conditions with a brilliant 13.28/105.79 which actually qualified for the Super Sixteen field. Behind the RSX were Michael Mady’s new 2007 MazdaSpeed 3 Protégé, (14.41/99.51), and Jarrod Watkins’ 2005 Saturn Ion Redline, (14.47/99.70). Watkins earned the season‘s Long Distance Award (to date) as a resident of the Minneapolis suburb of Anoka, Minnesota! Of note was the fact that, even with the sluggish conditions and gooey starting line, Chris Hanley still found enough traction to break a halfshaft launching his 1.6-litre ‘89 Civic!

In the championship round, the Izzy’s Custom Cages Mazda RX7 was still a tad hot but a slowing 12.01/120.43 was enough to outrun Rosenthal’s 13.40/104.26 after nearly identical Reaction Times. Rosenthal was elated with the progress from his unique Acura which utilizes a turbocharged 2.4 litre TSX K24A2 powerplant incorporating variable valve timing and substantially better airflow in the manifold and cylinder head. “I’m still really just learning how to race it”, said Rosenthal while accepting is first STSS trophy in front of the main grandstands, “and my ultimate goal is to get it into the twelve-second zone. Lowe’s Performance helps me a lot with the development and we’re still only running 7.5 pounds of boost. When the weather cools down, we’ll step it up to around 12 pounds and see what it does”.

Hoback, who only has one more week before he heads south, has similar plans. “I want to get this thing into the tens next week”, said a beaming Hoback during trophy presentations. “Next week is my last chance, so I’m gonna fill it up with C16 and jack up the boost to get that ten-second timeslip before I‘m outta here!”.

AUGUST 7th, 2007 GATEWAYRACEWAY.COM SUPER TRUCK SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND

Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH

W Larry King, Troy, IL 1999 330 Lightning 0.085 13.450 92.68
RU Tony Cimino, Collinsville, IL 2004 330 Lightning 0.105 10.263 129.33

After his first career round loss last week, Allen “Crabby” Hannel had more than enough reason to live up to his nickname. Only seven days later, things got far worse. After an opening runs of 10.43/128.52 and 10.49/128.15 to lead qualifying for the GatewayRaceway.com Super Truck Showdown by a sizeable margin, Hannel‘s third qualifying attempt was initiated by one of his trademark “atomic burnouts“ but ended before the white ‘86 S-10 pickup ever even came out of the waterbox. “I felt it let go when I shifted“, said Hannel from the seat of Hal Marshall‘s all-conquering Chevy while the complete contents of the truck‘s oilpan drained onto the track surface; a broken connecting rod exited the motor and destroyed the engine which had won more than fifteen of the truck‘s thirty event titles (with no less than four different drivers). The clean-up necessitated an actual washing of the track surface using a full bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid, (the NHRA’s choice for track-scrubbing…seriously).

In addition, Kevin Autenreith, who won the most recent title driving the Lowe’s Performance S-10, suffered major mechanical problems during an outing at the most recent Midnight Madness program. That left the battle for the eighteenth event of 2007 up to a pair of supercharged Ford Lightnings. Larry King, whose all-white ‘99 Lightning earned its first final round appearance on June 12th and suffered a heart-breaking redlight by eight thousandths of a second against Tim Mallicoat driving Marshall’s S-10, found himself with a significant performance advantage with a 12.68/110.83 best in qualifying and a “Fastest Street Car” qualifier decal after making the Super Sixteen field. The only driver remotely close was the gorgeous customized and lowered ‘04 Lightning of Tony Cimino at 13.48/103.11.

In the title bout, Cimino gained a tenth of a second holeshot but King’s white steed cruised to a 12.82/110.64 to beat out Cimino‘s consistent 13.47/102.79. Accepting his first winner’s trophy, King admitted, “The truck has gone 12.30s but, in this air, 12.60s is about all I can hope for. I didn’t change the tune at all and just let it run in the air we had. The timeslip alone tells you how hot it was out here!”.

Photos of the August 7th SX Performance Street Car Shootout Series event are now available for viewing at Bret Kepner Photos.com.

Tim “Moose” Mallicoat, Collinsville, IL 1968 565 Camaro

Phil Reichardt, Festus, MO 1967 350 Camaro

Phil Hoback, Collinsville, IL 1993 79 RX7

Jesse Rosenthal, Manchester, MO 2002 122 RXS Type-S

Larry King, Troy, IL 1999 330 Lightning

Tony Cimino, Collinsville, IL 2004 330 Lightning

08-08-2007, 08:05 AM	#1
Bret Kepner GAGT - Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 412 Vehicle: 2004 Grand Am 3800	AUGUST 7th, 2007 STLSR.COM SPORT TUNER SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH W Phil Hoback, Collinsville, IL 1993 79 RX7 0.544 11.519 125.01 RU Jesse Rosenthal, Manchester, MO 2002 122 RSX 0.383 16.308 97.87 After scoring his first victory on July 24th, Phil Hoback’s black Mazda RX7 entered the winners circle for the second time in the St. Louis Street Racing.com Sport Tuner Showdown and, along the way, became the first Sport Tuner to run in the new four-car eliminations for the Street Car Shootout. Heading back to school in Florida in only two weeks, Hoback vowed after his July title to race as much as possible before returning to college and made good on his promise with his fourth career final round appearance. Hoback, still running a much more conservative tune than that which enabled his turbocharged 79-cubic inch Wankel to clock a blistering 11.49 at over 131 mph earlier in the season, was the last driver to run in early timed trials and produced an exceptional 11.72/123.17 in abysmal conditions. Ironically, Hoback’s official qualifying runs were much slower, capped by a best of 11.74/122.38. “This car has never liked heat”, said Hoback, “and I just got it too hot too quickly. I never was able to cool it down enough during qualifying to get back to where the ETs should have been”. When Hoback got word that he had been inserted into the Street Car Shootout as an alternate, he made the decision to run in both the SCSS and Sport Tuner Showdown if only for the rare chance to do so. Although the cooled-down Mazda hit an 11.57/122.17 against Phil Reichardt’s 9.28-second run, his holeshot advantage of five hundredths of a second was the source of much pride. “I was told to hit the ‘Tree hard against the Camaro”, laughed Hoback, “but, let’s face it…it really wouldn’t have changed the outcome!”. Hoback‘s opponent in the Tuner Showdown was the much-deserving Jesse Rosenthal, whose slick silver 2002 Acura RSX Type S has become easily the quickest and fastest Integra-bodied Honda in the Bi-state area. After a best-ever 13.50/101.08 last week, Rosenthal became one of the few racers to actually improve on their personal bests in the blast-furnace conditions with a brilliant 13.28/105.79 which actually qualified for the Super Sixteen field. Behind the RSX were Michael Mady’s new 2007 MazdaSpeed 3 Protégé, (14.41/99.51), and Jarrod Watkins’ 2005 Saturn Ion Redline, (14.47/99.70). Watkins earned the season‘s Long Distance Award (to date) as a resident of the Minneapolis suburb of Anoka, Minnesota! Of note was the fact that, even with the sluggish conditions and gooey starting line, Chris Hanley still found enough traction to break a halfshaft launching his 1.6-litre ‘89 Civic! In the championship round, the Izzy’s Custom Cages Mazda RX7 was still a tad hot but a slowing 12.01/120.43 was enough to outrun Rosenthal’s 13.40/104.26 after nearly identical Reaction Times. Rosenthal was elated with the progress from his unique Acura which utilizes a turbocharged 2.4 litre TSX K24A2 powerplant incorporating variable valve timing and substantially better airflow in the manifold and cylinder head. “I’m still really just learning how to race it”, said Rosenthal while accepting is first STSS trophy in front of the main grandstands, “and my ultimate goal is to get it into the twelve-second zone. Lowe’s Performance helps me a lot with the development and we’re still only running 7.5 pounds of boost. When the weather cools down, we’ll step it up to around 12 pounds and see what it does”. Hoback, who only has one more week before he heads south, has similar plans. “I want to get this thing into the tens next week”, said a beaming Hoback during trophy presentations. “Next week is my last chance, so I’m gonna fill it up with C16 and jack up the boost to get that ten-second timeslip before I‘m outta here!”. AUGUST 7th, 2007 GATEWAYRACEWAY.COM SUPER TRUCK SHOWDOWN FINAL ROUND Pos Name Hometown ST Vehicle R.T. ET MPH W Larry King, Troy, IL 1999 330 Lightning 0.085 13.450 92.68 RU Tony Cimino, Collinsville, IL 2004 330 Lightning 0.105 10.263 129.33 After his first career round loss last week, Allen “Crabby” Hannel had more than enough reason to live up to his nickname. Only seven days later, things got far worse. After an opening runs of 10.43/128.52 and 10.49/128.15 to lead qualifying for the GatewayRaceway.com Super Truck Showdown by a sizeable margin, Hannel‘s third qualifying attempt was initiated by one of his trademark “atomic burnouts“ but ended before the white ‘86 S-10 pickup ever even came out of the waterbox. “I felt it let go when I shifted“, said Hannel from the seat of Hal Marshall‘s all-conquering Chevy while the complete contents of the truck‘s oilpan drained onto the track surface; a broken connecting rod exited the motor and destroyed the engine which had won more than fifteen of the truck‘s thirty event titles (with no less than four different drivers). The clean-up necessitated an actual washing of the track surface using a full bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid, (the NHRA’s choice for track-scrubbing…seriously). In addition, Kevin Autenreith, who won the most recent title driving the Lowe’s Performance S-10, suffered major mechanical problems during an outing at the most recent Midnight Madness program. That left the battle for the eighteenth event of 2007 up to a pair of supercharged Ford Lightnings. Larry King, whose all-white ‘99 Lightning earned its first final round appearance on June 12th and suffered a heart-breaking redlight by eight thousandths of a second against Tim Mallicoat driving Marshall’s S-10, found himself with a significant performance advantage with a 12.68/110.83 best in qualifying and a “Fastest Street Car” qualifier decal after making the Super Sixteen field. The only driver remotely close was the gorgeous customized and lowered ‘04 Lightning of Tony Cimino at 13.48/103.11. In the title bout, Cimino gained a tenth of a second holeshot but King’s white steed cruised to a 12.82/110.64 to beat out Cimino‘s consistent 13.47/102.79. Accepting his first winner’s trophy, King admitted, “The truck has gone 12.30s but, in this air, 12.60s is about all I can hope for. I didn’t change the tune at all and just let it run in the air we had. The timeslip alone tells you how hot it was out here!”. Photos of the August 7th SX Performance Street Car Shootout Series event are now available for viewing at Bret Kepner Photos.com. Tim “Moose” Mallicoat, Collinsville, IL 1968 565 Camaro Phil Reichardt, Festus, MO 1967 350 Camaro Phil Hoback, Collinsville, IL 1993 79 RX7 Jesse Rosenthal, Manchester, MO 2002 122 RXS Type-S Larry King, Troy, IL 1999 330 Lightning Tony Cimino, Collinsville, IL 2004 330 Lightning __________________ Bret Kepner http://www.bretkepnerphotos.com BRETKEPNER@Prodigy.net Saint Louis, Missouri, USA