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The K&N sponsored driver races in the highly competitive GT-1 class in his carbon fiber modified, and constantly evolving Corvette.
"I'm happy to report that our finishes in the National points races this year gave us enough edge to win the SCCA Northern Pacific Divisional Championship for the second consecutive year," remarked a jubilant Rich Sloma.
Despite mechanical problems during the practice and qualifying sessions, Sloma still managed to score two first place finishes in the GT-1 class at the SCCA double Regional races at Infineon Raceway.
In spite of some mechanical issues during the practice and qualifying sessions, Sloma still managed to score two first place finishes in the GT-1 class at the SCCA double Regional races at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.
In practice prior to the first race the lower ball joint bolt in the left front suspension broke. It was a 3/4 inch grade-8 bolt that had served the team well for nine seasons of racing and chose this particular time to experience a fatigue break. It took some creative work to get the broken parts out of the upright, and a major search of Sonoma County fastener suppliers to find a replacement part, but they got it back together in time for qualifying and the first race.
With back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010, Sloma now has five total Divisional Championship in the same car.
"We then went out to qualify for the second race and on the second lap the identical bolt on the right side of the car also broke," said Sloma. "We had gotten a spare bolt and knew how to extract the broken pieces, so that repair went quickly, and we got the car back together for the second good finish of the weekend. We'll obviously have to upgrade that particular bolt over next winter but thought it was pretty amazing that the two bolts failed so close together after all that running time."
"This was actually the fifth time that I've won the Divisional Championship with my current car, but the win this year made it two in a row, which I hadn't done for a few years," adds Sloma. "It was my best finishing record so far, with three first and three second places out of six starts. The car is quicker this year because of some chassis improvements we've made which increased the car's lateral grip in corners and also improved the traction out of slower corners. But the consistently good finishing record is because we upgraded some components in the rear drive which had been less than reliable in past years."
The K&N sponsored Fortuna, California driver competes in his carbon fiber modified Corvette, against Mustangs, Jaguars and other American cars with massive V8 engines, which produce huge amounts of stress on parts.
"As we improved engine power and rear tire traction over the last few years we had gotten to the point that we were killing rear drive components at a rapid rate. Last year we broke half-shafts, constant velocity joints, and both inner and outer stub axles on a regular basis," explained Sloma.
"We tried to have reasonably fresh parts to start races whenever we could, but it was always kind of a roll of the dice to see if we could finish the race. This year we borrowed some technology from the off-road racers and significantly increased the size of all of our rear drive components, with the result that we didn't break a single part in any of our divisional points races."
After the Rich Sloma Racing team clinched the Divisional Championship they ran a couple of Regional races in the San Francisco area just for "fun."
"We use those as development opportunities to try new ideas, and sometimes our plans work and sometimes they don't. At a race at Laguna Seca in June we tried a new kind of setup for the differential in the rear end. The car worked well in practice and qualifying, but the differential exploded on the second lap of the race. So that wasn't our best idea ever."
Sloma says although his car running well now, and there are still a couple more races they could run, it's time for the engine to be rebuilt. He's learned from years of experience that discretion is indeed the better part of valor.
"We have 16 hours running time on the pistons and exhaust valves, and our experience has been that both components will most likely break if we run them much longer."
Sloma uses a K&N air cleaner and oil filter on his racecar. "I also use a cone-type K&N air cleaner on my '56 Chevy street rod, and my faithful 500,000 mile Chevy pickup only uses a K&N oil filter."
Lewien and his team currently sit in a solid three place position in the points standing, and they're looking optimistically at finishing in second.
With one race remaining in the 2010 NASCAR 360 Truck Series Season, and holding on to a solid third place in the points standing, K&N sponsored David Lewien and the Blue Moon Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado are viewing the glass as three-quarters full. Their optimism is wholly justified, as it was earned throughout the season, one race at a time.
David Lewien and his Blue Moon Motorsport are out to end their 2010 season on a high note, with another win this weekend.
"Well, the last five races have been really good. We have had three top-threes and two second place finishes in the features, along with two wins and three second place finishes in the heat races," explained the Blanco, Texas racer.
"A lot of the credit needs to go to our Truck Chief Terry Tschoerner, and our Crew Chief Aaron Brungot, for putting a fast consistent set-up under the truck. The last race with the upper respiratory infection was a tough one. We only went out for one practice to try and conserve my energy and after the race I was so drained that I had to be helped from the race truck. Fortunately, I am completely recovered and ready to go after a win!"
David and wife Patricia, owners of Blue Moon Motorsports, they brought Crew Chief Brungot onboard midway through the season. "Combined with Truck Chief Terry Tschoerner, we have had a tremendous turnaround from the beginning of the season, when we had a horrific crash in the season opener," says Lewien.
"Our average finish went from 5.77 at the beginning of the year, to a solid four since. We also brought in a new Spotter, Allen Plangklang, at the same time. He has been a tremendous asset in keeping us out of trouble on the race track. We are down to our last race of the 2010 NASCAR 360 Truck Series Season, and believe that we can take home the win this Saturday.
"We are a solid third in the NASCAR points at this time, but we are within striking distance of second place. With only one race left (this weekend October 16), we are mathematically out of the Championship, but we can still feasibly finish second. This, when considering how our season started, and the myriad of mechanical problems we encountered, will be a great accomplishment. Moreover, with the team that we have in place now, we will be real contenders for the 2011 NASCAR 360 Truck Series Championship, especially with K&N Filters as a Sponsor."
After a very disappointing DNQ during the NHRA National event held at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pennsylvania one year ago, Team Mopar Pro Stock driver, Allen Johnson was very much looking forward to putting that all behind him or avenging it, if you will.
Allen Johnson's 2010 Dodge Avenger
Just coming off a number one qualifier during the previous NHRA event at Dallas, Allen Johnson has been steadying making his way back near the top in the all important 2011 K&N Horsepower Challenge point standings with hopes of gaining even more during the 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals in Reading.
Things didn't start off so well in qualifying for Johnson when his transmission gave way during the first session on Friday as he went to shift his 2010 Avenger into second gear.
One may not have ever guessed that Johnson had had any troubles earlier in the day when he came back for session two Friday evening and laid down a track record setting 6.551 elapsed time at 210.70.
"We made a really-really good run on Friday night in that good air," noted Johnson. "In those conditions, we hit it almost perfect."
Johnson would be very thankful for that pass come Saturday, as he was not able to repeat that effort in the changing weather conditions.
"We were not able to make a good run on Saturday and were just not able to back it up," he added.
During session number three on Saturday, Johnson was on able to muster a 6.570 and while that was two hundredths off his previous run, it was still right there with the rest of the field for the session.
"Saturday morning we were really expecting it [weather conditions] to get better and while it did just a little, we just didn't make the good run at all," he said. "I think we could have picked up just a little more."
Still hanging on to the pole position heading into the final session, Johnson and Mike Edwards, who was paired with Johnson, added a little extra excitement to wrap up qualifying. Both drivers posted identical E.T.'s and Johnson put a very strong 211.16 MPH up on the board, just a hair shy of the track MPH record.
Johnson was able to remain at the top of the Pro Stock heap after qualifying was completed which earned him not only the maximum 175 points for the 2011 K&N Horsepower Challenge, but the nice $3,000 bonus provided by K&N for the number one qualified team.
He has now moved even closer to the top spot in the K&N Challenge being only eighty-five points behind current leader Mike Edwards and a mere five behind Jason Line who sits at number two.
"If we hadn't had the one little Charlotte blip, we would be about one hundred points in the lead," confessed Johnson. "And maybe we can still get that back."
While there are only two events left on the 2010 NHRA schedule, there are many for the 2011 K&N Horsepower Challenge. Each team will continue to throw everything they can at qualifying for a shot to finish in the elite eight and a chance to vie for the biggest payday in all of Pro Stock, when K&N puts $50,000 dollars on the line to be handed to the last driver standing.
Multi-time NHRA Pro Stock event champion, Dave Connolly literally shook up the class during the most recent NHRA national event at Maple Grove Raceway for the 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals.
NHRA Pro Stock event champion Dave Connolly
Connolly, who just recently returned to the wheel of a Pro Stock car after announcing a very limited schedule for the remainder of the 2010 season, made a strong showing at his first appearance. But it was during his second event back when he took it all the way to the winner's circle, all while providing fans a very exciting final round.
Qualifying wasn't exactly a good indicator of how the weekend would end up for Connolly and his team.
"We actually had an issue during Q one," admitted Connolly. "We ended up changing motors going into Friday night's session. We didn't end up running all that well and ended up being number fourteen after Friday."
"On Saturday, I thought it was going to be a lot cooler and it ended up being warmer." He continued. "We knew that we were going to have to make some really good runs to get into the top half of the field."
Connolly and his Cagnazzi powered 2010 Chevy Cobalt made two excellent passes during Saturday's sessions, being the second quickest car during Q three and the quickest overall during the fourth and final session. These runs placed the team solidly in the top half of the field for Sunday.
"We knew we had a good race car going into Sunday," he said. "It was just going to be up to the driver not to make any mistakes and up to the crew to make the right calls."
Connolly sailed through round number one over Ron Krisher, nailing both a better reaction time and a better E.T. over his opponent.
His fortunes continued in round two, when his K&N scoop clad Cobalt was already past Larry Morgan by the 330 foot mark, to taking the win and doing so only .005 off his first round numbers.
In the semis, Connolly would find himself paired up with Shane Gray for the first time in his career.
He more than doubled up in reaction time on Gray at the hit, which helped propel him to the final, since his car fell a little off pace when he only posted a 6.597 after back to back 6.55 passes during the previous two rounds.
"Making calls on the car is still all a little bit new to us," he noted. "Maybe we are all still a little bit inexperienced come race day. The air kind of took off one on and got a little worse. The changes we made with the clutch, well the car just didn't respond too well and we just made a bad run there. We knew we were going to have to make some wholesale changes for going into the final with Greg [Anderson]."
With already twenty-one NHRA National event Pro Stock wins, not to mention the numerous victories in many sportsman classes, Connolly was firmly prepared for his final round match up with multi-time World Champ, Greg Anderson, not only mentally but also with a machine very capable of taking the win light.
"Greg had outrun us every run [during early rounds] basically," said Connolly. "Going up to the final round we made some changes to the car and it responded or we would have been on the losing end of it."
The Pro Stock final would have fans and teams alike on their feet and proved to be one of the most exciting finals in any class in a while.
It would be the twenty-first time KB Racing and Cagnazzi Racing would match up in the finals, each having ten wins. Anderson having a 7 - 6 record against Connolly in prior final rounds and Connolly set to even up the score.
Connolly would take his ever so slight yet monstrously important two-thousandth of a second starting line advantage and turn it into a holeshot victory over Anderson by taking the stripe by a mere .0011.
"That was just a great race," said an elated Connolly. "It was just a meant to be thing for us that day. That's all I can chalk it up us, it was just our day to win."
"Going into it obviously, they are a very good team and Greg is trying to race for the championship and he's got the pressure of the points," he continued. "We are just trying to go out there and perform well for our sponsors and try to land a fulltime deal. So I guess you could say we had different kinds of pressure. It was just two great teams and we both show each other a tremendous amount of respect."
"For it to all be decided by a thou was just incredible," he added.
When the announcement was made that Connolly would return to the seat of a Pro Stocker, it was stated that the plans were only for three of the events remaining on the 2010 NHRA schedule. But with already grabbing an event championship in just two of those, Connolly hopes that it will help him and his team add the Vegas event and be able to finish out the rest of the schedule, which already included the Finals at Pomona.
"The Vegas race is still up in the air yet and we haven't given up hope on it," he admitted. "I mean a decision will have to be made in the next week or two. It's coming down to the wire and we are going to keep our fingers crossed until the deadline runs out."
"Hopefully someone will come on board and keep the good streak going," he added.
Although Connolly will be taking a weekend off from the driver's seat, he still has a very full plate between now and the end of the 2010 season, both as a pro and a sportsman racer and a lot of traveling from one coast to the other.
"We are going to do some testing in the Pro Stock car, then I have the five-day race in Florida, back out to Pomona and then finish up November in West Palm Beach, Florida," he said.
When not behind the wheel of the Pro Stock car, Connolly keeps more than busy racing several NHRA sportsman classes. From the Top Dragster, Super Comp and Super Gas cars, among others, all much like the newest champion Pro Stock car and its specially designed K&N Pro Stock scoop, Connolly's sportsman race entries utilize numerous K&N Filter products from high flowing air filters, oil filters and more.
Vaughn Gittin Jr. came out to Round 7 of the Formula Drift Professional Championship with high hopes of putting himself on the podium one last time to finish off his successful season. Not only did Vaughn accomplish that goal when he took 2nd place at Irwindale Speedway - his sixth podium out of seven rounds - but he secured himself as the official 2010 Formula Drift Champion and as the "Driver of the Year" in the Monster Energy Falken Tire 2011 Ford Mustang.
2010 Formula Drift Champion Vaughn Gittin Jr.
Over the weekend, a sold-out crowd filled the paddock and the grandstands at Irwindale Speedway, otherwise known as "The House of Drift". Vaughn has had much success at Irwindale in the past, and he is always welcomed as a crowd-favorite. In 2005 he made history when he won the D1GP USA vs. Japan, becoming the first American to win a D1 Grand Prix event. In 2007 at this southern California track, he brought America home the gold once more by winning the D1GP World Championship. He also won his first Formula Drift ever at Irwindale Speedway in 2008.
Vaughn Gittin Jr. gets Podium finish at Round 7 of the Formula Drift Professional Championship
Vaughn qualified in 6th place out of the 40-plus drivers in attendance and he was matched with Formula Drift rookie, Nikolay Konstantinov, in his top 32 battle. Vaughn led first and put his car in all the right places, while blazing through the course with intense angle. Nikolay struggled to keep up with the powerful Monster Mustang. When it was Vaughn's turn to give chase, Nicolay couldn't properly initiate his drift. Vaughn tried to mimic his competitor, but passed him as Nicolay sunk down the bank. Vaughn finished out his run, leaving a thick trail of Falken Tire smoke in his path.
Vaughn Gittin Jr. has taken to the podium six times out of the seven rounds.
By winning his battle in the round of 32 and gaining some crucial points, Vaughn officially secured the 2010 Formula Drift Championship. "This is just simply unbelievable," says Vaughn. "Winning the Championship has been a dream of mine for the past seven years and everything we have been working towards fell into place this season. Consistency and reliability were huge factors to our success over the last seven years. Huge thanks to K&N for their amazing products and unconditional support during this quest for the Formula Drift championship. We did it!"
Vaughn Gittin Jr. took 2nd place at Irwindale Speedway
But the day wasn't nearly over for the newly-announced Champion. Vaughn still had one last podium to shoot for. In the top 16, Vaughn was paired with "Rookie of the Year" Fredrick Aasbo, who was the only driver the entire year thus far besides Daijiro Yoshihara to win in a tandem battle against Vaughn. This would be the fourth time of the season that these two fierce competitors would meet on the track.
Monster Energy Falken Tire 2011 Ford Mustang battles for position
Vaughn led first and entered early, maintaining a high line on the bank with a ton of angle. Coming off the bank, he was able to pull a gap and put the Monster Mustang right up on the infield wall as Aasbo tried to close the gap and followed with a more shallow line. Vaughn gave chase next, sticking close to his competitor and mimicking Aasbo's every move on the track. After the Falken Tire smoke had settled from the two vehicles, the judges declared Vaughn the winner; he would be moving on to the Great Eight.
Vaughn found himself faced with Matt Powers in the top eight. Powers had placed fourth in Irwindale last year, so Vaughn knew not to count him out. Vaughn led first and put down another picture-perfect run, with much more angle and speed than his competitor. When it was his turn to give chase, Vaughn put intense pressure on Powers and didn't let up once throughout the course. Vaughn took the well-deserved win, and would be moving on to the semi-finals!
Vaughn would battle it out with Michihiro Takatori in the final four. Vaughn led first and immediately was able to pull a sizable gap on the bank after his initiation. He hit all the clips while Takatori was not able to catch up to the engine-screaming and tire-smoking Monster Energy Falken Tire Ford Mustang.
Vaughn gave chase next and was able to reel into Takatori immediately, keeping close to him throughout the course. Vaughn tapped the infield wall and maintained his drift, showing the crowd and the judges that he deserved to be in the finals. The judges agreed and sent him into the finals to face two-time Formula Drift Champion, Tanner Foust.
After two insanely aggressive and incredibly close runs by Vaughn and Tanner, the judges (and the crowd) called for a One-More-Time. During the OMT, Vaughn gave it everything he had, but the judges deemed Tanner an advantage and gave him the win. Vaughn would take the 2nd place spot atop the podium for Round 7 at Irwindale Speedway.
With his 2nd place finish in Irwindale, Vaughn has taken to the podium six times out of the seven rounds - a record number of podiums in one season by one driver in the history of Formula Drift. This was just icing on the cake for Vaughn, as his real victory was being crowned the 2010 Formula Drift Champion. Vaughn is the second driver in the history of Formula Drift to come from a strictly-drifting background - the first driver being K&N drifter, Chris Forsberg, who won the Championship in 2009.
Not only was Vaughn deemed the 2010 Formula Drift Champion, but he was voted the "Driver of the Year" by his competitors, their teams, and industry affiliates.
"Wow, what a year of dreams coming true," says Vaughn. "I turned 30, launched the Mustang RTR, got engaged, and now I am the 2010 Formula Drift Champion. This dream of winning the Championship has been chased since the first Formula Drift in 2004. Our sport has grown a lot since then and I have grown as a driver, learning more and more every year. This year the hard work and dedication paid off huge."
"While I am the guy behind the wheel," Vaughn continues, "there a lot of people behind me on that work extremely hard to make sure I have the tools to do my job and without them, there is no way I could have done it. I sincerely want to thank everyone that has been a part of this journey; I couldn't have done it without you. I'm not sure how I am going to top this epic year, but believe me, I plan to try! 2011... here we come!"
