Day, Lagana, Padilla claim opening night wins at Salt Lake Nitro Jam

[rebelracewriter]

Day does it again with Friday Prostalgia NFC victory - Lagana, Padilla claim opening night wins at Salt Lake Nitro Jam

 

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (June 17, 2011) – It wasn’t pretty, but James Day proved that if you don’t give up, good things can happen.

 

Day, piloting the famous “War Eagle” Trans-Am owned by the legendary Dale Pulde, won his second career IHRA Nitro Jam Ironman on Friday with a gutsy victory over Tim Boychuk that required a little luck and a lot of steering during the opening day of the Salt Lake Nitro Jam at Rocky Mountain Raceways.

 

Other winners from Friday’s action included Bobby Lagana in Top Fuel and Nitro Jam newcomer Tom Padilla in Nostalgia Fuel Altered, while sportsman winners from Friday included Tom Debartolo (Top ET), Jeff Zogg (Mod ET), Andy Reese (Motorcycle), Jeff Cornick (RMR Pro) and Jake Jones in the Junior Dragster overall championship.

 

Other Junior champions included Parker Haarbrink (Advanced), Nikka Powell (Beginner) and Jones (Advanced).

 

“We knew we had an amazing car, but about 800 feet into the run I started drifting toward the wall and had the wheel nearly upside down trying to save it,” Day said. “I just never lifted and we were able to slowly pull away. Tim is a great racer and we knew we had to give our all to get the win and we did.

 

“We really love racing with the IHRA and are glad to get another trophy. It was a lot of fun.”

 

Despite the small hiccup in the run, Day still put down an impressive 5.922, 237.59 to get the win, producing back-to-back five-second runs to qualify first in round one and then eliminate one of the top drivers in the game today. Boychuk, all the way from Edmonton, Alberta, ran a 6.058, 225.16 in the runner-up spot.

 

Day opened the weekend with an equally impressive 5.952, 235.17 to top round one in a win over Todd Lasenko, producing the only five-second runs of the night, while Boychuk clocked in second best in the opening round in a win over Mike Savage.

 

Consolation round winners from Friday included Savage over Roger Garten, Michael Grekul over defending Salt Lake Nitro Jam winner Mark Sanders and Lesenko over local favorite Jack Harris.

 

In Top Fuel both cars had a little trouble figuring out the tricky Utah track, but Lagana was able to find the most consistency producing a pair of wins over longtime rival Bruce Litton.

 

In the battle of the Lucas Oil machines, Lagana opened the night with a 5.453, 208.23 to best Litton in round one and then bettered that mark in the final with a 5.354, 218.07 in picking up his seventh Ironman of the year. Litton lit the tires in the final, crossing the line with a disappointing 5.528, 193.50.

 

Wrapping up the pro categories was the incredible Nostalgia Fuel Altered class as Nitro Jam newbie Padilla in “Nasty Benjamin” extinguished Jason Richey in “Pure Hell” with a 6.587, 201.83 in the final to pick up his first career Nitro Jam win. Richey ran a 6.861, 207.32 in the runner-up spot.

 

Padilla also had the fastest lap in round one, downing Randy Bradford with a 6.875, 162.74. In the consolation pairing Ron Maroney in “Nanook” came back from a wild opening round that saw him take out the blocks at about halftrack to defeat Bradford.

 

Wrapping up the professional portion of the evening was another battle between the Grave Digger monster truck and the Super Shockwave jet semi, along with a fun intermission starring Megasaurus, fireworks and more.

 

In sportsman action all of the IHRA regular touring classes got in a pair of qualifying shots on Friday, while the local bracket racers and Summit SuperSeries competitors were able to take advantage of one of two points events over the weekend.

 

Local favorite Tom Debartolo (Grantsville, Utah) kicked off the weekend winners with a victory over Steve Priest with a 7.666, 173.84 in the Top ET final, while Jeff Zogg (Corinne, Utah) downed J.R. Calkins to claim the Mod ET crown with a winning 9.514, 112.13.

 

In other RMR action Andy Reese (West Valley City, Utah) drove his ’79 Kawasaki to a win in the Motorcycle class over Jason Tueller with a 10.623, 117.30, while the local Pro winner was Jeff Cornick (North Salt Lake City, Utah) with a 12.547, 105.94 in a win over Dan Pratt.

 

Finally, after narrowing the Junior Dragster fields to only the three class champions, Jake Jones (West Jordan, Utah) was able to best fellow class winner Parker Haarbrink with a 8.083, 81.04 to claim the Ironman.

 

Don’t miss another full day of racing featuring all of the professional and exhibition classes plus a full day of sportsman racing Saturday during day two of the Salt Lake Nitro Jam at Rocky Mountain Raceways.