Epping: Series post event notes

Multiple records fall during huge Nitro Jam at New England Dragway
Only one race remains in chase for 2010 Nitro Jam championship

EPPING, N.H. (September 14, 2010) -- With pristine weather and a well prepped track, conditions were perfect this past weekend for records to come tumbling down and that certainly proved the case with dozens of track and world records toppled during the two-day North American Nitro Jam at New England Dragway.

Three professional world records were topped and a fourth record came just shy of being broken over the weekend as Bill Evans and Pete Gallen walk away with new marks in the Pro Fuel and Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car categories. Sportsman racer Joe Dunne added his name to the list of new world record holders as well, topping the Top Sportsman elapsed time mark by nearly two tenths on Sunday.

Evans, driving the "Black Pearl" machine, set the new marks in Pro Fuel on Saturday, rocketing past the old record set just two weeks ago by Mike Manners in Maryland with a blistering 5.240, 283.85 lap. Those numbers backed up his record-setting lap made earlier in the day. Manners and Evans have now traded the record back and fourth nearly half a dozen times as the two drivers, currently in the thick of the championship hunt, head into Richmond for the season finale next month.

Gallen and the "Poverty Stricken" team reset the Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car quarter-mile speed record with a 251.58 mile-per-hour pass in the championship round against Rick Krafft on Sunday. Although Gallen lost the race, his fast lap erases the old mark set by Tim Boychuk at Castrol Raceway three months ago.

Steve Nichols also came just shy of adding his name to the list of new record holders, running a 5.728 on Saturday, however he was unable to back up the number.

The oldest record to fall during the big weekend was the Top Sportsman elapsed time mark set exactly one year ago in Maryland. Dunne erased the old mark held by Steve Drummond with a 6.134 lap behind the wheel of his '68 Camaro during the finals of the Harland Sharp Elite 8 Top Sportsman race. Dunne set the record and claimed the win over John Prime.

After a record-breaking weekend both on and off the track, the Nitro Jam tour now gears up for a trip into the heart of Virginia October 15-16 for the Nitro Jam World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

-source: ihra