By “Nitro Joe” Jackson
Photos by Chris Haverly and Mark Westfall

Well, the finals are here, running between nitro Funny Car and Top Fuel. The finals are set with top qualifier Charlie Westcott Jr. in the Gary Jenning chassis, Jackson Engine Tech engine “War Fish” ’68 Barracuda running against veteran Hemi challenger racer, Bucky Hess and his all new Phil Mandella Chassis, Joe Clark-powered “King Cuda” Barracuda.



Charlie has lane choice for the finals. Charlie has been the class of the field recording 8.60’s almost every run. Bucky hurt one of his good power plants a few weeks ago at an NHRA divisional event and told me the other was really down on power and he was just trying to give a good showing for himself in the shootout.



Both drivers doing burnouts in front of NHRA prime-time crowd, Charlie has chosen the left lane. This is just like old 1970 Pro Stock wars, Charlie Westcott Jr. putting numbers up like the late and great Ronnie Sox did when Pro Stock came out saying, “come and catch me.”

Here we go…both drivers stage…Bucky Hess takes a shot at the tree with a .013 to Charlie’s .039, but the Jackson Engine Tech-powered “War Fish’ pulls ahead by the 1,000-foot mark. Log another win for the “War Fish’ Barracuda, 8.65/152 to Bucky’s 8.86/148.

The big question still is, can anybody break the Westcott stranglehold he has on the Mopar Hemi challenge. I will give some updates tomorrow after both cars go through teardown inspection before awarding the winner’s trophy and check.

In a couple of personal notes for the day, my parents (Bill and Mary Ann Jackson) both won round one in Super Comp. This is their 46th year at the U.S. Nationals.

And the other personal note is I received a phone call telling me my son is coming home from Iraq where he is serving in the Army and has been there since January. So it was a great day for me.

Round Four

Well, I thought the Fish was caught. The weather condition for this round was temperature at 86, but the altitude was over 3700 feet.

The first pair of the semifinals found the “Heli-Hemi” Dodge Dart of John Rains facing his engine builder and driver of the #1 qualifier “War Fish” Barracuda. John drilled Charlie Jr. On the starting line (.009 to 1.35) but just didn’t have enough to stop him at the finish line, with Charlie taking a .007 win margin. Westcott Jr. ran an 8.69/152 to Rains’ 8.82/150.

In the other semifinal match found Bucky Hess in the new “King Cuda” facing off with past Hemi Challenge champion (Dutch Classic) Jim Pancake and his Carriage Towne Dodge Dart. Both drivers are great when it comes to full-tree class racing and this race didn’t disappoint us for sure.

Pancake rips off a .009 reaction time to Bucky’s .039, but the “King Fish” of ran down Pancake’s Dart 8.84/148 to Jim’s 8.89/148.

Hate to say this but if Bucky doesn’t pull out the light of the day, I hear the old song coming, “Turn out the lights, the party is over.” Charlie Westcott Jr. has proven that it can be hot or cool…whatever weather conditions, the “War Fish” Barracuda is going to run 8.60’s and over 150 mph.

The upset of the day was Charlie Westcott Senior’s 0.283 reaction time against a 0.016 holeshot for Jim Pancake. Junior will be the lone ‘camo’ car in the semifinals.

Bucky Hess def. Darrell Marvel, broke

Jim Pancake, 8.857/149.50, def. Charlie Westcott Sr., 8.702/155.49

John Rains, 8.730/151.20, def. Jim Daniels, 8.744/146.73

Charlie Westcott Jr., 8.679/153.18, bye

By “Nitro Joe” Jackson
Photos by Chris Haverly

Round One
Well, gang, it’s Friday and that means Mopar Hemi Challenge. After round one there are already some big upsets.

One of the big upsets of the round was one of the pre-race favorites Larry Woo falling off of his earlier qualifying ET of 8.84 to run a dismal 9.07 against Chuck Comella’s great 8.85/148 pass. Comella’s car (above) is, by the way, one of the original 50 Hemi race cars and not a clone. Ben and John Holt of Holt Race Cars were doing some chassis tuning for Chuck before the round and that evidently paid off.
Another upset in round one was the race between the beautiful new “Silver Bullet” Barracuda of Don Bales and the great looking “Super Cuda” driven by Randy Warford. Warford had Bales covered in qualifying, but they don’t race on paper and Randy red- lighted big time giving Bales and the “Silver Bullet” team their first round win ever.

Larry Woo surprised everyone (including himself, no doubt) and was out in the first round.

All the other top qualifiers advanced into the second round and it is apparent from the numbers that the Westcotts have a distinct advantage over the rest of the Hemi Challenge field.
Round One:
Jim Pancake, 8.810/149.38, def. Jeffrey Kobylski, 9.219/139.43
Dave Raybourn, 8.874/147.73, def. Mark Howes, 9.071/144.75
Don Bales, 8.917/147.58, def. Randy Warford, red-light
Darrell Marvel, 8.816/149.43, def. Jim Keyes, red-light
Charlie Westcott Sr., 8.661/155.01, def. J. Allen Sherman, 8.865/149.71
John Rains, 8.855/149.23, def. Wendell Howes, 8.968/147.17
Charlie Westcott Jr., 8.679/153.09, def. Al Smyth, red-light
Jim Daniels, 8.758/151.05, def. Bill Brooks, 8.964/147.55
Rick Houser, 8.903/146.88, def. Ton DePillo, 13.761/63.92
Bob Wolkwitz, 8.868/148.64, def. Steve Kent, 9.410/146.89
Chuck Comella, 8.857/148.94, def. Larry Woo, 9.078/148.74
David Barton, 8.840/148.85, def. Gary Wolkwitz, 9.038/145.11
Mark Viera, 8.811/148.22, def. Kevin Helms, 8.835/148.04
Bucky Hess, 8.800/149.55, def. Joe Teuton Jr. 15.777/56.41

Round Two

Big upset wins continued in the second round of the Hemi Challenge. One of the top runners, Mark Viera, bulbed away his chance to advance over the always tough Jim Pancake and his Hemi-Dart. Pancake also his the red eye, but less than Viera. The rest of the second round showed the quickest qualifiers moving on.
The weather is 89 degrees and 69 percent humidity with the corrected altitude 3400 feet and you can say it is typical Indy weather, hot and really mucky here, going into the third round.

In round three Charlie Westcott Jr. receives the bye and that is not good for the rest of the racers left. One other note: the Wescotts, both Jr. and Sr., have had the best reaction times of the field.
Round two:
Jim Pancake, (-0.038) 8.850/149.50, def. Mark Viera, (-0.061) 8.837/147.62
Charlie Westcott Jr., 10.078/96.09, def. Don Bales, red-light
Jim Daniels, (-0.33) 8.773/150.83, def. Chuck Comella (-0.74) 8.831/149.33
Darrell Marvel, 8.817/146.29, def. Dave Raybourn, 8.824/149.25
Bucky Hess, 8.822/149.53, def. Bob Wolkwitz, 8.916/148.02
Charlie Westcott Sr., 8.733/154.74, def. David Barton, 8.882/148.04
John Rains, 8.750/150.93, def. Rick Houser, 20.422/50.59 (broke)

By “Nitro Joe” Jackson
Photos by Chris Haverly

The Boys of the Elephant Cage have stepped up!

When I woke up this morning I thought there would not be a chance at all for a single SS/AH to step up in these kinds of weather conditions. Well, I was wrong big time.

Charlie Westcott Jr. once again proved he is the class of the field and ripped off a stunning 8.63/155, but right behind him is his father Charlie Sr. running a better 8.68 but top speed for the Hemi’s at 156 mph.

Others that stepped up Thursday were John Rains going 8.73 and a great run by Darrell Marvel at 8.75. Jim Daniels (shown), Bucky Hess, Randy Warford all ran in the .70’s today. David Barton is the first of the .80’s runs with his Monham Racing Barracuda.

Lots of cars are struggling still with the Midwest humidly that always plagues the U.S. Nationals. Rick Houser in the DeFrank & Son Cuda has seen only a 8.82 as his best.

Jim Pancake, the past Dutch Classic winner and always a strong runner just has been fighting his combination and still looking for a good number is in the middle of the pack with an 8.84.

Al Smyth’s Barracuda

Darrell Marvel’s purple Cuda

Randy Warford’s “Super Cuda”

Another Cuda. This one is J. Allen Sherman’s

Is there a theme for today’s photos? The Barracuda of Wendell Howes

First round of the Hemi Challenge is at the tail end of Super Stock class and should be great to see who can last five rounds of 2008 Mopar Hemi challenge. So, with 28 cars, here we go for round one pairings.

Charlie Westcott Jr. vs Al Smyth
Charlie Westcott Sr. vs J. Allen Sherman
John Rains vs Wendell Howes
Darrell Marvell vs Jim Keyes
Mark Vieira vs Kevin Helms
Jim Daniels vs Bill Brooks
Bucky Hess vs Joe Teuton III
Randy Warford vs Bob Bales
David Barton vs Gary Wolkwitz
Rick Houser vs Tony DePillo
Dave Raybourn vs Mark Howes
Jim Pancake vs Jeff Kobylski
Larry Woo vs Chuck Camella
Bob Wolkwitz vs Steve Kent

This will be some great matchups for sure come Friday morning.

In Stock class eliminations there was a great story in D/SA as Jerry Bennett bested all the new style fuel injected cars with—get this—a 1962 Savoy. It’s great looking car for sure.
David Buckner and Steve Wann had a great final run in the E/SA class finals with David taking the win both running Dusters a pair.