Black Magic Victorious at Ben Bruce
Ben Bruce Raceway - Evadale, TX
September 18th, 2010
Report - Chris Graves
Photos - Texas Borderline Photography

The Texas Blown Fuel series made their third trip to Ben Bruce Raceway in Evadale, Texas after a rain-out in July along with the Outlaw Fuel Altered series and this time mother nature cooperated and a full night of heads up nostalgia drag racing was enjoyed by everyone. The “Defiant” blown front engine dragster driver, Chris Stouffer, took the points lead after the last event in Ardmore, just one point over Leonard Ament’s “Black Magic” blown fiat. Paul Harris, L.H. Newlin and Rick Grindstaff rounded out the top five heading into Evadale as the call went out for first round of qualifying!

(Paul Harris)

Prior to the first qualifying session, Paul Harris went up to make a test pass in the “Bockman Racing” blown altered and quickly found himself in a bad place. A part of the front end on the car broke halfway down the quarter mile resulting in total loss of control, sending Harris bouncing off both walls and eventually barrel rolling several times. Thankfully, Harris was able to walk away from this very scary incident and knowing what a racer he is, hopefully Harris will be back in action soon.

(L.H. Newlin)

Leonard Ament blasted to a 7.83 at 168 mph in his opening qualifying lap along side L.H. Newlins’ 8.09 at 169 mph in “Cantankerous”. Mike Wheeler wheeled the “Rapture” blown altered to a 7.49 at 181 mph, slightly under the 7.60 index. Brian “Booger” Harding aborted his first pass in his blown 1955 Chevy while Chris Stouffer put down the best pass of the session with a 7.71 at 175 mph. Rick Grindstaff’s 9.09 at 104 mph closed the session in the “Quarterflash” blown rail.

(Brian Harding)

Harding’s doorslammer opened the second session with a nice, yet too quick, 7.38 at 174 mph. Leonard Ament stole the top spot at the time with a great 7.70 at 168 mph in “Black Magic”. Rick Grindstaff quickly stole Ament’s thunder with a “perfect” 7.60 pass at 174 mph to nab the number one qualifying position! L.H. Newlin stepped up to a 7.99 at 176 mph and Preston Phillips made his TBFA debut with a 11.24 pass to get in the show. Mike Wheeler tamed the “Rapture” and ran a nice 7.74 at 162 mph and Chris Stouffer closed the final session with a 7.57 at 157 mph in the “Defiant” blown rail.

(Chris Stouffer)

(Mike Wheeler)

FINAL QUALIFYING ORDER:

1) Rick Grindstaff (Dickinson, Texas) – 7.60 @ 174
2) Leonard Ament (Denton, Texas) – 7.70 @ 168
3) Chris Stouffer (Stephenville, Texas) – 7.71 @ 175
4) Mike Wheeler (Paradise, Texas) – 7.74 @ 162
5) L.H. Newlin (Tolar, Texas) – 7.99 @ 166
6) Preston Phillips (Beaumont, Texas) – 11.24 @ 89
7) Brian Harding (Buna, Texas) – 18.66 @ 41
8) Paul Harris (Lewisville, Texas) – NT

(Rick Grindstaff)

Back in the pits, Rick Grindstaff discovered a screw had found a new home in the middle of one of the rear slicks on the number one qualifying “Quarterflash” dragster so he was unable to make the call for first round. With the temperature at 85 degrees and very high humidity, a pair of blown altereds opened the first round of eliminations with Newlin against Phillips. Newlin was off the line first and took the win with an 8.26 at 140 mph to Phillips who lifted early in his yellow flame belching altered. In the next pair, Brian Harding and Chris Stouffer squared off in a wild pairing. Hardling launched hard and went into a huge wheelstand, pedaled it and it came back up before he finally abored the run. Stouffer went in deep, which resulted in a red light due to the timing settings at the track, giving Harding the win. In the final pair, Leonard Ament lucked out and won with a 10.55 over Mike Wheeler who rolled through the beams and didn’t get a time.

(Preston Phillips)

FIRST ROUND RESULTS:

(W) L.H. Newlin (.614 rt) 8.26 @ 140 mph vs. (L) Preston Phillips (.988 rt) 11.47 @ 71 mph
(W) Brian Harding (.542 rt) 10.59 @ 89 mph vs. (L) Chris Stouffer (deep) 25.50 @ 55 mph
(W) Leonard Ament (.581 rt) 10.55 @ 95 mph vs. (L) Mike Wheeler (rolled through beams)

Leonard Ament and L.H. Newlin advanced to the final as the quickest two winners from the opening round and squared off in the final. Ament had already taken over the points lead at this point and looked to nab his second TBFA win of the season and pad his lead with a few extra points while Newlin was looking for his first TBFA win of the year.

As the cars crept into the beams the ambers fell and they were off! Newlin left to soon and lit the red bulb on the starting line giving Ament the win with an 8.05 at 129 mph. A big congratulations goes out to the “Black Magic” team on their second victory of the season as they are now the points leaders heading into the next event, which brings the TBFA back to Ben Bruce Raceway on Saturday, October 9th.

FINAL ROUND RESULTS:

(W) Leonard Ament (.688 rt) 8.05 @ 129 mph vs. (L) L.H. Newlin (Foul) 8.83 @ 144 mph

(Leonard Ament)

“It was great to finally make it to the finals, we used up all our luck this weekend. It was a rough weekend as we had our mind on Paul after the crash and then had to face some tough competitors, but somehow we kept turning on the win light! I guess looking back at what happened to us at Ardmore, it proves the fact that it’s better to be lucky than good!” said Ament.

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