Russell Stone breaks through to win True 10.5

BY CRAIG COOK

After reaching the True 10.5 final round at the Winter Series-opening Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, Russell Stone broke through to get the $ 40,000 win at the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod. Driving his screw-blown“ Black Widow”’ 69 Camaro, Stone set low E. T. in two of the five rounds of competition on his way to meeting Bill Lutz in the final round. Unfortunately, Lutz was shut off on the starting line due to his screwblown’ 67 Camaro leaking fluid on the racing surface. Starting line officials directed Stone to take the tree, and he coasted to a 15.315 at 43.44 to get the win.

“ I went up to stage and they were pointing at me,” Stone recalls.“ I didn’ t know if they were telling me I was broke or he was broke. I didn’ t know what was going on. I killed the car and I told them I would wait on him, but apparently he had oil everywhere and got out of the car, so that was the end of it. But I was going to do the right thing and give him time if he needed time. I don’ t like winning like that.”

The week didn’ t begin well for Stone, who popped the blower in pre-race testing, tearing up the front clip of his car in the process. As it turned out, he used up all that bad luck before the event started, and never had to abort a pass throughout all of qualifying and eliminations.

“ I almost loaded the car up and went back home after we damaged it,” admits Stone.“ After looking at everything, I decided I owed it to the

crew to keep pushing forward. We got our heads together, patched this old girl back up, and drove her straight to the winner’ s circle. My misfit crew don’ t fit the mold of today’ s drag racers, but I wouldn’ t trade one of them for anyone else in the business.”

Stone began eliminations with a huge matchup with former NHRA Pro Stock driver Cory Reed, who was driving for Manny Buginga. In a close race, Stone’ s 3.952-second pass was enough to outrun Reed’ s 4.023. Stone slowed slightly in the heat during round two, but his 4.052 was still plenty to get around Kyle Canion, who ran a 4.191.

It didn’ t get any easier for Stone in the quarterfinals, where he faced off against Snowbirds winner Larry Larson. Stone exacted a measure of revenge from the Snowbirds final, making a great 3.968-second run while Larson had issues in his’ 66 Chevy II, slowing to a 4.688.

“ I like Larry. He’ s like me and does his own stuff. He’ s not a steering wheel holder; he’ s a real deal drag racer, so I respect him,” says Stone.“ We had a little bit of stuff in that right lane when I ran him( at Snowbirds) that slowed us down. I drew the left lane this time and we got the job done.”

Stone earned a bye in the semifinals, breaking the beams to set up his final-round matchup with Lutz and securing a $ 40,000 payday DI. DI DI

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