There were five class winners at the annual IHRA Nitro Jam Southern Nationals Presented By Crower tonight at Bradenton (Florida) Motorsports Park, but Mike McIntire Jr. scored the biggest victory.
McIntire won the AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car Presented By Aeromotive final over Baton Rouge winner Tim Boychuk. In the process, he also broke IHRA Nitro Funny Car top speed and elapsed time records. One record he broke was his own, set during his run to victory in the 2015 season-opener in Tucson in February.
What made McIntire’s victory even more significant was that his father, Mike Sr., was there to witness it. Mike Jr. and the team skipped the Baton Rouge Mardi Gras Nationals when it was discovered his father required open-heart surgery.
“About a week before Baton Rouge, we found out my father needed quadruple bypass surgery,” McIntire explained. “He was admitted to the hospital and two days later was undergoing open-heart surgery on the Monday before the event so that pretty much was it. We did not even consider going (to Baton Rouge) without him. He’s the team owner. He’s the whole reason why any of us are out there doing this. So there was no way we were going without him.”
On his march to victory lane, McIntire defeated Steve Nichols in the first round and trailered defending Funny Car champion Jason Rupert in the semi-final. McIntire faced Canada’s Tim Boychuk in the final after the Baton Rouge winner dispatched Mark Sanders and John Hale. McIntire’s “MacAttack” Camaro outran Boychuk’s “Hawaiian” Firebird to the finish line at 5.662 seconds and 260.49 miles per hour – setting new records in the Nitro Funny Car category in the process.
“It’s unbelievable,” McIntire admitted. “It’s a surreal feeling. You always come out trying to win, but to win it the way we did it this weekend…it was crazy. A lot of hard work and we overcame a lot of things to get here. This is for my dad. We worked our tails off this week to get this win for him. Dad’s doing great. We got him a little too excited this weekend. But I think it was good therapy overall.”
Isaias Rojas, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, scored the first win of the Crower Pro Mod class after the popular division was reinstated in the IHRA Nitro Jam program.
“I’m very happy. We loved IHRA for years. My dad ran in the IHRA Pro Mods back in 2000. Now I have the victory here. We struggled in the first round of qualifying. We went about six months without testing and we have never been to this track.”
Rojas and his Mech-Tech crew righted the ship and the 2006 Cobalt rocketed to No. 1 on the qualifying grid. Rojas met Dina Parise in the first round. Parise’s crew made a valiant effort to repair the car after suffering mechanical damage during qualifying. Rojas then went on to defeat Ken Fiscus in the semi-final in order to face Floridian Jimmy Keen in the final.
Randal Andras of Amelia, Louisiana, scored the Nitro Harley win by defeating favorite “Tak” Shigematsu of Ehime, Japan. Shigematsu, a 16-year veteran of the Nitro Harley wars, earned No. 1 Qualifier status but was a mere two miles per hour slower than Andras in the final.
“It’s absolutely wonderful. Racing in the panhandle of Florida has been a dream of mine,” said Andras. “It’s a dream come true. This is a great place and great people to race with. We were trying to get some 30s and 40s during the day, but we just couldn’t get there because of the weather. We ran some consistent 50s and it was enough for a win.”
New Yorker John Montecalvo won the U.S. Bounty Hunters Pro Stock class over Trevor Eman of Aruba.
“It’s been a long time since we raced here in IHRA. Last time we raced his was in 2009 and we won the world championship then,” said Montecalvo. “Man, I’m tellin’ ya – I’m feelin’ pretty good. This is a great organization. They really hired some good people over here. I am impressed with the way the (IHRA) operation runs.
“This field was the cream of the crop,” continued Montecalvo, referring to the fact the Baton Rouge winner, Kevin Bealko, was unable to qualify for the eight-car field. “It’s all tough competitors. It’s only a couple hundredths of a second between us.”
Elaine Larsen scored another win in the Jet Dragster class. Larsen won the first round of eliminations when opponent Marisha Falk fouled on the starting line. Larsen faced Shea Holbrook in the final and ran 275 miles per hour to collect the IHRA IronMan trophy.
“This is amazing,” Larsen exclaimed. “It was a great night for Miller Welding. We took home the win. Now we’ll see if I can do it again next week in West Palm Beach.”
The AMSOIL Best Appearing Car Award went to Carl Weisinger. Frank Beal won the AMSOIL Best Engineered Award.
Due to local curfews, the Summit Racing Pro-Am Tour portion of the event for sportsman racers was postponed until Sunday morning.
Be sure to tune in for a special episode of Speedway Digest’s Thursday Night Thunder, featuring some of the stars of the IHRA Nitro Jam Series, at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 23. Just go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/speedwaydigestradio/2015/04/24/thursday-night-thunder-with-adam-Sinclair. Also, please don’t hesitate to check the Speedway Digest Thursday Night Thunder facebook page at www.facebook.com/sdthursdaynightthunder.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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