Ament Crowned Inaugural TBFA Champion,
Witko Wins Texas State Championship Event
San Antonio Raceway - October 23rd, 2010
Report - Chris Graves, Photos - Max Cackle Photography

The Texas Blown Fuel Association rolled into San Antonio Raceway to put a cap on their inaugural season and to decide the 2010 TBFA Points Championship. This event was also special because the teams were racing for bragging rights as the Texas State Championship event winner in this historic race put on by the Texas Timing Association. The weather cooperated with the TBFA after a wet first half of the season and nine cars came to battle it out in the season finale.

TBFA Top 5:
(heading into San Antonio)

1. Leonard Ament – 249
2. Chris Stouffer – 229
3. L.H. Newlin – 216
4. Paul Harris – 187
5. Rick Grindstaff - 162

Heading into San Antonio, Leonard Ament and the “Black Magic” 1948 Blown Fiat team held a 20 point lead over Chris Stouffer and the “Defiant” Blown Slingshot team with L.H. Newlin hanging onto third. The first session of qualifying was run under quarter mile elapsed times and after completion of the session the TBFA staff and teams voted to change the rest of the event to eighth mile to provide a safer racing environment as the teams were battling a heavy crosswind at halftrack. The eighth mile times from the first session would be used as the action got started with Rich Witko and Leonard Ament laying down side by side burnouts.

(Leonard Ament)

(Rich Witko)

First Qualifying Session:

Ament tripped the clocks with a solid 4.77 elapsed time as Witko wheeled his blown funny car to a 5.05 in the other lane. L.H. Newlin and Wes Breiton laid down a 5.29 in the “Cantankerous” blown altered ahead of Breiton’s 5.43 in the “Bad O-Man” blown altered. Next up came a fine pair of blown front engine dragsters with Chris Stouffer and Bill Norman, who was making his TBFA debut in the “Fabulous Fat Boys” full bodied entry. Norman laid down a 4.62 just three hundredths under the 4.65 index and Stouffer followed with a nice 4.83 pass. Dustin Johnson and Rick Grindstaff closed the session as Johnson wheeled the beautiful blue and blown “Fair Warning” altered to a 4.91 after Grindstaff opted to shutoff after an un-routine burnout that almost sent him into the wall.

(Dustin Johnson)

(Chris Stouffer)

A complete rear end and axle examination in the pits revealed no damage to Grindstaff’s “Quarterflash” blown slingshot and the prognoses was lack of water in the burnout box which resulted in a single wet slick causing the out of ordinary burnout. The TBFA teams had their quarter mile tune-ups in mind for this event and now had one final qualifying session to prepare for the eighth mile eliminations to follow.

Second Qualifying Session:

Grindstaff returned for the final qualifying session and clicked off a pedaling 5.01 at 151 mph to qualify sixth with Dustin Johnson along side at 4.99. Rich Witko stepped up to a 4.84 in his blown Trans-Am funny car to nab the fourth qualifying position along side L.H. Newlin’s 5.01 at 142 mph. Number one and two in the points paired off next as Chris Stouffer clicked off a too quick 4.60 at 152 mph along side Leonard Ament’s 4.91 at 143 mph. Bill Norman and Preston Phillips closed the session as Norman laid down a nice 4.72 at 150 mph and Phillips made the show with a 5.58 at 137 mph.

(Bill Norman)

(Preston Phillips)

Bill Norman took the “Jam Works Chassis Low Qualifier Bonus” and led the field into eliminations in his debut event with TBFA and the points contenders Ament and Stouffer were number two and three qualifiers. Ament’s points lead was now at 21 and Stouffer had a chance to steal the throne if Ament were to loose first round and Stouffer win the event. If Stouffer posted a runner-up finish he would be one point behind Ament, it was do or die time as the call went out to fire em’ up.

(Wes Breiton)

(Rick Grindstaff)

Final Qualifying Order:

1) Bill Norman (Seminole, Texas) – 4.72
2) Leonard Ament (Denton, Texas) – 4.77
3) Chris Stouffer (Stephenville, Texas) – 4.83
4) Rich Witko (Denton, Texas) – 4.84
5) Dustin Johnson (Davis, Oklahoma) – 4.91
6) Rick Grindstaff (Dickinson, Texas) – 5.010
7) L.H. Newlin (Tolar, Texas) – 5.019
8) Wes Breiton (Greenville, Texas) – 5.29
9) Preston Phillips (Evadale, Texas) – 5.58

A pair of blown altereds kicked off first round as L.H. Newlin faced Wes Breiton. Breiton got the advantage off the line but ran into transmission issues about halfway down and Newlin took the win with a 5.04 at 136 mph. Dustin Johnson drew the honors of racing number one qualifier Bill Norman in first round and got lucky as Norman left too soon by -.005 then went into extreme tire shake which killed the ignition as Johnson took the win with a 5.77 at 126 mph. Rick Grindstaff was out next along side Preston Phillips in a battle of the yellow machines. Phillips over-anticipated the tree by -.220 and Grindstaff clicked off a 5.02 at 151 mph to advance. Close friends Rich Witko and Leonard Ament rolled out next in the closest race of the round. Ament needed this round win to breath easy in his hopes to become the 2010 TBFA Champion, but Ament got caught sleeping on the line and Witko’s 4.86 at 139 mph put Ament’s quicker 4.85 at 143 on the trailer. Closing the session was the man of the hour as Chris Stouffer had a fortunate turn of luck in drawing the bye run in first round, advancing him closer to that magical final round and chance to overtake the points lead from Ament who was out in round one.

First Round Results:

(W) L.H. Newlin (.339 rt) 5.04 @ 136 mph vs. (L) Wes Breiton (.295 rt) 11.81 @ 40 mph
(W) Dustin Johnson (.078 rt) 5.77 @ 126 vs. (L) Bill Norman (-.005 rt) 20.57 @ 13 mph
(W) Rick Grindstaff (.241 rt) 5.02 @ 151 mph vs. (L) Preston Phillips (-.220 rt) No Time
(W) Rich Witko (.244) 4.86 @ 139 mph vs. (L) Leonard Ament (.288 rt) 4.85 @ 143 mph
(W) Chris Stouffer (.111 rt) 5.62 @ 102 mph vs. (L) Bye Run

(Rich Witko)

(L.H. Newlin)

The quickest four winners advanced to the semi-final as Rich Witko and Chris Stouffer were the first pair out with Stouffer in a must win situation to keep the title hopes alive. Witko got a slight advantage off the line but Stouffer was quickly pulling ahead and tripped the clocks with a 4.638, just twelve hundredths of a second under the index, as Witko blasted to a 4.80 at 144 mph to take the win. A real heart breaker for the “Defiant” team and crew chief Carl Meador.

(Chris Stouffer and Rich Witko - Semi Final)

“Although the expectation amongst ourselves was at its highest, team ‘Defiant’ wasn't able to pull the rabbit out of the hat. The points were very close between us and the ‘Black Magic’ team. We were tuned to run quarter mile when we arrived in the lanes for the first qualifying run but mother nature helped toss that tune-up out the window. We knew we had to be close to the index for Witko in the semi-final and we just went a little to quick. We would like to congratulate Leonard and the entire team on their Inaugural TBFA Championship and say thanks to Rick Grindstaff, Keith Breazeal and Chris Graves for putting together a series where we feel very welcomed and appreciated,” said Meador.

It was official, team “Black Magic” with driver Leonard Ament and crew members Jay Scogin, Ralph Glass, Kevin Peck, Matt Giunn, Lacey Holland, and Colleen and Tom Ament were crowned 2010 Texas Blown Fuel Association Champions.

(A small portion of the 2010 Black Magic team - TBFA Champions)

“What a season this has turned out to be. I am still in shock at what the ‘Black Magic’ team has been able to accomplish in our first year with a blown combination. We have had such a good time and have really enjoyed meeting and hanging out with such a great group of people. For those that did not know, we discovered a bad rod in our motor last week and had to pull it out and tear it down Wednesday night to get it to Wayne Calvert’s machine shop first thing Thursday morning to balance the rotating assembly. We got it back around noon, assembled the motor and stuffed back between the frame rails on Thursday night. We got up Friday and got everything loaded then headed to San Antonio. I want to thank my full time crew as well as Wayne Calvert, Marvin Gersch, Clint Dobbs and John Simikic at High Performance World for their help in making this all happen,” said Ament.

Beyond all the hype that resulted from this pairing, there were two eager drivers ready to square off in Rick Grindstaff and L.H. Newlin, to see who would run Witko in the finals. Grindstaff had been hiking the front end and unloading the tires instantly on every pass and yet again didn’t get a clean launch but his 5.01 at 147 mph was enough to put Newlin’s off pace 6.94 on the trailer.

(Rick Grindstaff and L.H. Newlin - Semi Final)

Leonard Ament and Dustin Johnson wanted to put on as good of a show for the fans as possible so they lined up in a friendly grudge match behind the semi-final. Johnson’s 4.89 at 144 mph just beat Ament’s 4.97 at 139 mph, likely because Leonard couldn’t see past his cheek bones with the smile he had on his face, knowing the Championship belonged to him.

Semi-Final Results:

(W) Rich Witko (.084 rt) 4.80 @ 144 mph vs. (L) Chris Stouffer (.112 rt) 4.63 @ 142 mph
(W) Rick Grindstaff (.208 rt) 5.01 @ 147 mph vs. (L) L.H. Newlin (.290 rt) 6.94 @ 82 mph

This was the second trip to the finals for both Grindstaff and Witko as the blown funny car lined up with the blown front engine dragster to decide the winner of the Texas State Championship. Grindstaff and crew added over twenty pounds to the nose of the “Quarterflash” rail but the starting line troubles continued as Grindstaff had to pedal it immediately. Witko’s flopper went right down broadway after getting the reaction time advantage for the third straight round and Witko took his first TBFA win with a nice 4.75 at 145 mph to Grindstaff’s 5.59 at 122 mph.

(The Final Round)

Final Round Results:

(W) Rich Witko (.051 rt) 4.75 @ 145 mph vs. (L) Rick Grindstaff (.102 rt) 5.59 @ 122 mph

(Rich Witko in the Winners Circle)

“I’m so excited to get my first win with this series. I want to thank Dave, Ralph, and Leonard for helping me get to San Antonio and run my car for five rounds of racing. This was really the pinnacle of my racing career. The car responded to the tuning changes, my reaction times got better each round and somehow I beat the number one and two in points then took out the circuit president in the final! What a range of emotions and it really still hasn’t hit me yet. I want to also thank the people who make the TBFA happen and to all the fellow racers that make this series to much fun to participate in,” said Witko.

The Texas Blown Fuel Association wrapped up an impressive and highly successful debut season that witnessed seven different finalists and five different winners in six completed events. Team “Black Magic” topped them all and Leonard Ament will be back in 2011 ready to defend his title while Chris Stouffer and the rest of the gang will spend their off season preparing for what’s shaping up to be quite a sophomore season for the TBFA series. Congratulations to all those who supported, participated and cheered for the Texas Blown Fuel Association in 2010 and you may all look forward to bigger and better things to come. A very special thanks goes out to series President Rick Grindstaff for making a dream become a reality and giving so many great people a fun, competitive and respected place to race.

(Rick Grindstaff and team "Quarterflash" - San Antonio Runner Up)

Click Here to see photos from this event.

JamWorks Chassis Top Qualifier Bonus - Bill Norman