04/23/16
HOHNARTH MAKES PALTZ RUNNER-UP AGAIN
HARVEY, WACKERMANN AND STEPHENS ARE WINNERS
Art Paltz was good enough to make it to his second straight Super Pro final but was unable to close the deal as this week the Beretta of Barry Hohnarth outlasted the dragster’s bid to even his record at one and one. The digger pilot from Edison was again the quickest car in the eliminator and never strayed more than 2 hundredths from his 6.12 dial throughout the event, including in a solo run in the semis. He eliminated the dragsters of Terry Kimball and Jason Wilson before running down the Mopar entry of Michael Sulc in the quarters. A 6.12 at 167 booted Sulc’s 7.25 and 142 that secured Paltz the bye in the next to last round. John Zulla won in the QF when the dragster of Robbie Boyd pulled a red light start and Barry Hohnarth ran unopposed. 
Hohnarth was super lucky to get by the first round with mechanical troubles but won when Jean Ann Zetterberg broke out. He then eliminated the Mustang of James Arata and took out Zulla’s Monza with a 6.83 to a red lighting 8.62 for the loser. Hohnarth got 7 tenths on the tree in the final and left with a .002 RT that would have made him hard to beat under any circumstances. As it happened, Paltz caught the foul light and shut off giving the Chevy racer the title on a 6.80 time at a speed of 156.08 mph.
Dave Harvey drove his Chevy to the Pro victory over the borrowed race car of Frank Maffiori Jr. Maffiori had broken the rear in his Monte Carlo during time trials and borrowed his dad’s street driven Camry, initially just to try to go a couple of rounds for the points. As the event wore on, the Camry kept putting on the win light to get into the final with Harvey. 
Bill Van Goor fouled out to Maffiori in the QF and Harvey ran solo when his scheduled competition, Barry Van Scoten was unable to race. Scott Embley, looking to perhaps go two for two was the bye run. Embley needed to get by Maffiori for his shot at the double but couldn’t get his Chevelle to make up for the better reaction of Maffiori and the Toyota went 16.30 to the losing Chevy’s 9.22, 144.71. Harvey lined up with Maffiori for the trophy pass and put the Camry in the right lane for the first time of the event. Whether it mattered or not, Harvey cut the better light and pushed Maffiori hard at the top end to collected the double break out victory, 11.65 at113.53 versus the further under the dial 16.28 and 87.14.
Street eliminator ended up as a family battle when Bill Wackermann and his better half, Connie Wackermann faced off for the money. You would think that with it being Connie’s birthday that fate would be on her side, or maybe hubby would be gracious and let her win this one. But if you thought that, you would be sadly mistaken. Bill Wackermann turned back John Dickson in the quarter final while Connie was better than Bob Gay and Pat Conway took the measure of Michelle Harvey. 
Connie then turned a 12.02, 108 card that ran Conway out in a sub-dial 11.99, 108.17 ride. After Bill got his single in the semis, the husband and wife team tossed away the yokes of civility and went at it like two long time arch enemies. Well, not exactly that intensely, but you could tell that both wanted to come out on top in this one. Bill gained .04 on the tree and never relinquished the advantage as he flashed the win light with a ticket of 11.51 and 111.94. Connie ran up an 11.96 at 111.62 for second place.
Nothing new to report in the Bike bracket. Barry Stephens annexed his second win of the season, this week over Scott McGrath. 
After sending Jim Cascamo and Art Romaliysky to the showers, Stephens walked into the last race off a bye run. McGrath opened with a single and then marched past Vinny Cianci and the always tough Ken George to make his first final round appearance of the year. Over the past couple of seasons McGrath has made a number of final rounds but has had trouble sealing the deal. That same history played out here with
Stephens gaining a slight edge on the leave and running under his number by a little less to get the victory at 9.38, 137 while McGrath ran further under on a 9.64, 138.
The season’s first Modern Muscle event fell to Carly Wolf when she bested Art Quinby. Wolf, driving a Mustang out of Lumberton NJ made consistent runs close to her handicap throughout the eliminator and squeezed by Bob Trieschmann’s Corvette for a semi win light. 
Quinby and his Mustang had the last shot at stopping Wolf and was in command of the situation on the final when Wolf was late on the tree. Quinby must have worried that he was too far ahead of the competition and applied too much brake that slowed his entry to 14.01, 95.58 and dropped him to runner-up status. Wolf made the withdrawal from the luck bank to take the nod at 12.78 and 98.58.
Dave Hebig won the Consolation One bracket when he put down a 6.20, 157.59 that topped the Vega of Greg Georges who hit a 7.92 and 130.04 effort. 
Consolation Two fell to Craig Sonderfan over Steve Gillan. Gillan got a late start with his Monza and could not recover even with a too quick 10.18 at 131.66. Sonderfan’s Chevelle got the larger share of the payout with a time slip of 9.69 at a speed of 133.88 mph.