Dirt
MARCH MEET
was looking for an upset win. Hilton left earlier,
but Wittenberg ran him down and beat him with
a 5.678 at 254.49 to Hilton’s 5.927 at 229.20.
After Dan Horan Jr. went into the sand trap at
the end of Auto Club Raceway during his exhibi-
tion run at the 60th anniversary Winternationals,
he and his crew not only had the car back together
in one piece, but also showed the 23 other AA/
FC teams the way, qualifying in the No. 1 spot
with a track record-setting 5.547 at 264.49. Talk
about a comeback.
Unfortunately, the team’s possible Cinderella
story was prematurely ended by No. 16 quali-
fier Matt Melendez, who upset Horan in the first
round in his “Cackling Critter” Dodge. Melendez
went on going rounds and ended up in the final
against the No. 3 qualifier, Matt Bynum. Bynum
himself ran consistently the quickest numbers of
the field round after round and continued to do
so in the finals, beating Melendez in an exciting
round with his 5.617 at 250.13 to defeat Melendez’s
5.749 at 224.73.
The wild and wacky Fuel Altered class was as
spectacular as ever. Sixteen cars tried to qualify
for an eight-car field. Among them was none oth-
er than NHRA Funny Car star Ron Capps, once
more driving the “Good News” Fiat Topolino for
the Hertzig Motorsports team. Capps struggled a
bit through qualifying and barely made the field.
But after taking the first-round upset win over No.
1 qualifier James Generalao, he went on to beat
Mark Whynaught in the semifinals and suddenly
saw himself against Robert Winefsky in the finals.
Winefsky showed some nerves and red-lighted,
handing over the win to an overwhelmed Capps.
Joyfully, Capps later stated in an emotional top-end
interview that his childhood dream just came true.
Another highlight was the addition of the
highly anticipated Nitro Comp Class, which puts
dragsters, Funny Cars and altereds in a mix under
a 5.90 ET index. The class entertained with the
diversity of cars and close, side-by-side runs. One
of the closest decisions was the final between No.
1 qualifier Chris Davis in his Funny Car against
Billy McDevitt in a rear-engine Top Fuel dragster.
McDevitt beat Davis with a 6.089 at 206.35 to
Davis’ slightly slower 6.097 at 243.77 run.
The March Meet winners in the additional
categories were Drew Austin in A/Fuel, Brad
Woodard running in Jr. Fuel, Derrick Moreira
in 7.0 Pro, Lloyd Harder in NE1, Terry Linblad
in NE2, Ed DeStaute in NE3, Brian Rogers in A/
Gas, Brent Handley in B/Gas, Trey Sommors in
C/Gas, DeAndre Fitzgerald in D/Gas and Wesley
Eisenga in Hot Rod.
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DI DI DI DI
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38 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 155