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Former NHRA Super Gas Champion Mike Ferderer certainly knows what it takes to persevere in the tough sportsman classes that he competes in with his K&N Pontiac Grand Am, after all he has a total of three championships.
Mike Ferderer has fourteen NHRA Super Gas national event wins
Ferderer is about as professional as they come and easily proved that all over again during the Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
While at other events he may run in Super Comp or even Top Sportsman, since his car is capable of running in the seven's, Ferderer chose to compete at this event in Super Gas and went in to the opening round of eliminations set on kill.
The reigning Northwest Division Super Gas Champ picked off his first round opponent in a holeshot win and continued to saw the tree in two throughout the entire event. His worst light, a .024, came in the bye during the semi-final round, which was more than likely due to the distraction Ferderer's car caused after going on the limiter.
"Went I went up on the two-step during my bye all of the sudden it went ka-bang," exclaimed Ferderer. "Right as the tree comes on and I'm like "Wow". It about blew off the K&N hood scoop, good thing they're built well."
"So when I let it go, it ran real slow and it just wasn't right and I thought, uh oh," he continued. "I get back and take a look at the coil wire and it had actually blown a hole in it. I'm thinking what in the heck is going on here."
"I ran over to Kurt Johnson's trailer, who is a personal friend of mine and asked for a coil wire. You know I have three pre-made and they are somewhere in the trailer," said Ferderer of his thrash to make it to the lanes for the Super Gas Final. "So I got one, got back to my pit and put it on the car, lit the car off and it still didn't sound right."
"I thought, ‘now what is it' and I looked inside the distributor and the two nylon screws that hold the rotor in place were messed up. One was sheared off and the other was loose, so the rotor was going out of phase and bouncing all around. I tightened the one up as much as I could and even today, I'm not sure if it really held right," continued Ferderer. "I didn't know what it was going to do in the final."
Both Washington State resident Ferderer and his rotor did their jobs in the final round match up against Super Gas competitor Dennis Paz. With another double-oh on the tree and a margin at the stripe of just one-hundredth of a second, Ferderer nabbed his fourteenth NHRA Super Gas national event win and now holds the number one spot of national wins in the category. He also has seven other NHRA national wins that he claimed in Super Comp and all of these puts him well into the Top Fifty NHRA National Event winners lost of all time.
With all of Ferderer's experience, he makes an interesting observation of the weekend's string of events.
"If you are honest with yourself, you'll judge yourself as to how you did," explained Ferderer. "If you got just luckier than heck the whole race or one round or in my case I got lucky one round because my single came on the round the car broke. But looking back, I feel I drove the best during this race as I have in a long time."
"I was taking four, five, eight thousandths at the stripe and in the final I took a hundredth against a car that was only running one-hundred-twenty-some MPH and I'm running one-seventy."
"And everything worked out," he chuckled. "I wouldn't want to do it again today, because I would probably lose. But it worked out on Sunday. The K&N car really did work well. When things go together, you just can't do anything wrong."
In addition to the results Ferderer receives from protecting his engine with K&N oil filters, Ferderer is also quite happy with the now proven strength of his new K&N Pro Stock Style Hood Scoop, not to mention the added power it gave him.
"After adding it, I instantly picked up three MPH and wow," he said. "If you are going to pay good money for a scoop, you might as well by the right one from the start. Good parts and bad parts all cost money and the K&N scoops are just designed so much better."
"With all the products K&N offers, I mean if they perform this well under the demands of a high-powered race car, they sure as heck will perform really well in a street car," he added.
What a difference a year makes for "Showtime" Danny Sheridan, the Santa Maria, California resident. Last season, regardless of what the team tried, they couldn't find a way to the podium, despite having good cars and great sponsors, as he put it. It appeared at times; he said about last season, that they had become a magnet for bad luck.
Danny Sheridan takes podium after USAC 360 Victory
Someone it seems has figured out how to turn that magnet around. This season Sheridan has earned a view from every perch on the podium, including the top tier, with his very popular USAC 360 victory in front of hometown fans at Santa Maria Speedway.
Sheridan comments, "With each race we have been sneaking up on what the car likes and it seems that lately we have found it. We have been having some really good finishes with the USAC/CRA 410 (last two finishes have been second and third), as of the last event, it has moved us to within 12 points of the point's lead, which is great for us. And yes, in the USAC 360 series we found the winners circle on Saturday night at Santa Maria, it was a well deserved win for the team too, they have been working extremely hard lately."
The moniker "Showtime" is a suitable fit for Sheridan, especially this season. "I got the nickname during The Non-Wing World Championships in early 2000, while racing back in Kansas, during the Jerry Weld Classic. I made a last lap pass to win the main event and the announcer shouted it's 'Showtime' and since then it has stuck," explains Sheridan.
This season Sheridan's cars are once again good and his sponsors continue to be supportive he says, and luck always favors the prepared. "Our relationship with K&N has been great. As usual, K&N supplies us with whatever we need to get in the winners circle each night. Currently we use K&N air box air filters, air filter oil, air filter cleaner, pre-chargers, crankcase filters and oil filters - all of which we are very pleased with."
The Kittle Motorsports team and Sheridan have their toes dug in and their eyes clearly focused on the 2010 USA/CRA Championship. "That has been a goal of the team for the past couple of years," says Sheridan.
"I think we have put ourselves in a great spot this year to make that goal a reality. We also plan on winning as many USAC 360 shows as possible."
Sergio Pena burst on to the NASCAR scene in January by nearly winning the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale in California. He finished second to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano.
Sergio Pena prepares for NASCAR K&N Pro Series on May 23 at Iowa Speedway
Since then, Pena's had a bit of a rough start to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. After two races, he has yet to crack the top 10, is 20th in the East Series standings and searching for a way to turn his season around.
"It was great to come out here and run good, but it's tough to follow up that race," the 17-year-old Pena said about the Showdown. "It was a perfect weekend, really. It's going to be tough. You have those bad breaks, and unfortunately, I've had two of them in a row."
Pena will have plenty of time to prepare for his next East Series race. Iowa Speedway will host a combined NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West race on May 23. That gives him nearly six weeks between East Series races.
"We're back in the shop working harder than ever, trying to get these cars ready to go out to Iowa," Pena said. "We'll see how it goes. I'm not trying to come down on myself too hard. I know that the championship and the points aren't looking too good. We have to stay focused and look ahead."
Part of his preparation will be running late models at tracks on both coasts. He returned to Irwindale to race a NASCAR Super Late Model car for Luis Martinez on April 10. He is planning on racing late models near his Revolution Racing team headquarters in North Carolina.
"It's never good to have a long break in between races. We're going to try and do as much testing as we can," said Pena, who calls Winchester, Va., home. "We ran go-karts for Luis Martinez a couple years back. After running the Showdown, he gave me the opportunity to come out and run the Super Late Model here (at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale). I'm really excited. I couldn't turn it down. I love this track. This is like my favorite track. It's nice to be back out here. It feels like home to me."
Pena finished third in the Super Late Model race at Irwindale. It was his best finish in any race since his runner-up result in the Showdown.
Pena opened the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season by finishing 27th at Greenville Pickens Speedway in South Carolina.
"Greenville was tough," Pena said. "It was real tight throughout the whole day then loose coming off. Later on in the race we got hit from behind and got put in the wall, so we didn't end up finishing that race."
He finished 14th in the second East Series race of the season at South Boston Speedway in Virginia.
"At South Boston, same deal," Pena said. "We just couldn't get the setup down. Problems with the setup and trying to get this car going. It's been a little bit frustrating these past two weeks."
Pena is one of 16 rookies racing in the East Series this year. Two rookies have won the first two races of the East Series season. Darrell Wallace Jr. won the season opener at Greenville Pickens. Max Gresham won the race at South Boston.
"I would definitely like to win not only rookie of the year, but the championship," Pena said. "Right now the championship looks a little bit tough, but we're still going to try our best to get it. There's tons of rookies this year, I think more than there's ever has been. It's going to be tough to win rookie of the year. Our goal is to win it all."
Jim Victor took home a pair of third place finishes in the Formula Continental division, and he steadily keeps improving with every race. Photos Courtesy: Jacques-O-Lat Photography
Formed in 1995, the Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin based ArmsUp Motorsports is one of the premier SCCA Formula Continental and Formula Atlantic vintage racing teams around. At the recent SCCA St Louis Region's March Wins National, the ArmsUp drivers of Pat McGinnis and Jim Victor both produced podium results. McGinnis scored the win in the regional and was second in the national event, and Victor delivered a pair of third places in the Formula Continental (FC) division.
ArmsUp Motorsports says they could not be happier with their K&N relationship, which is now entering its fourth year. Photos Courtesy: Jacques-O-Lat Photography
"For ArmsUp Motorsports the double podium was a very good way to kick off the spring," commented team owner Gregg Borland.
After the regional on Saturday the team believed that McGinnis had a very good chance of taking the win, but bringing the car back in one piece, in the rapidly changing conditions, that was a bonus. ArmsUp Motorsports has been to Gateway International Raceway a few times now and each time they have been able to keep refining the setup there. McGinnis as well has shown a ton of improvement over his rookie season, so the combination of car and driver was very strong during the St. Louis race.
Pat McGinnis took a win and second place in front of his home crowd at Gateway International Raceway. Photos Courtesy: Jacques-O-Lat Photography
"You can see how much more comfortable McGinnis is in the car after a year under his belt," remarked Borland. "Saturday he was the only FC car running below the track record and he did a solid job in the race. Victor drove well all weekend too, and he only gets better as the season goes on."
"I thought we had a great weekend at Gateway. Saturday in the regional was a lot of fun. The car was so good in qualifying and being able to take the regional win near my home town was awesome," reflects McGinnis.
"On Sunday we again had a good car and I was able to jump out into the lead on the first lap. But once I lost the lead, I had to think about the big picture, which was gathering points to make the SCCA National Championships runoffs, so I just focused on making it to the finish without hurting the car. I have to thank the ArmsUp crew for a great car all weekend and their usual hard work."
ArmsUp Motorsports says they could not be happier with their K&N relationship, which is now entering its fourth year. Every one of the team's racecars is equipped with K&N Air Filters which are maintained with K&N Filter Cleaner and oils. Their mechanics and drivers both say that they are comfortable knowing that the engines they use, and work on, are getting the ultimate protection with the K&N Filters fitted to the car.
The Gateway weekend was basically the start of the regular season for ArmsUp Motorsports, which will see their level of activity steadily increase. The teams' next event is the SCCA National, April 16 - 18, at Virginia International Raceway where they will have four drivers running in the Formula Continental division. They will also enter cars in the new Pro US F2000 National Championship this season. Currently the team is scheduled to be at three of the events, with an eye toward starting fulltime Pro effort in 2011.
Cummings Motorsports, a.k.a. The Bayou Boyz, has had numerous successes on the many levels of drag racing they compete in, from bracket racing all the way up to World Championships.
Slate Cummings Wins NHRA Wally at Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park
While one of the drivers for the team, Slate Cummings, has also added his fair share of that list of accomplishments, winning an NHRA National event had eluded him over his years of competition.
"I've been running the NHRA circuit pretty hard over the last four years," said the Hammond, Louisiana resident. "Before the Houston event, I'd made it to one other NHRA National final and that was in Stock. It was in my very first year of running NHRA. I just didn't get to seal the deal then."
While Slate will compete during the 2010 season in both Stock and Super Stock, at the NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park he entered in both Super Stock and Super Comp, since the Stock class wasn't contested.
"The weekend was great all the way around," said Slate. "My brother Britt was also able to make it to the semi-finals in Top Dragster and the cars were just great. Nothing went wrong with the cars, nothing broke and that just helps you keep a clear mind."
Cummings was definitely pretty clear about his intentions and that was a win in both classes. He had already made it to the final in Super Stock thanks to his stellar reaction times and back-to-back .002 lights over the two rounds leading to the final, not to mention that he was still going strong in his Super Comp entry with hopes of making two finals in one weekend.
Aspirations for the double were quashed after a close quarter-finals loss in Super Comp.
Coming from a long line of racers and almost bred into the sport of drag racing, Slate had the training not to be deterred by the loss in the dragster. He proved it was far from his mind just a little over an hour later when he lined his East Texas Chevy Cavalier up in the Super Stock final against Chris Chaney, who himself had been no slouch on the tree throughout the weekend.
With a .006 advantage off the line, Cummings parlayed that into a close .008 at the stripe and a margin of victory of a mere nineteen inches to take his first NHRA Wally.
"It was so great, I just don't know what else to say," reflected Cummings still basking in his victory. "I hope I can keep up the momentum as we head off to run again this weekend."
Cummings Motorsports competes on both the NHRA and IHRA circuits in Division 4, with a stop for the K&N clad entourage of race cars planned this weekend for the IHRA double event at Pine Valley Raceway. Slate looks to add to his IHRA points where he is tied for first in Super Stock and fourth in the division in Stock and take K&N to an IHRA final or two.
"We've worked with K&N as long as I can remember," said the newest NHRA Super Stock winner. "My dad and our family of cars have always used K&N oil filters and air filters on everything that we race and we wouldn't have it any other way."
