Words & Photos: Ian Tocher--Drag Racing OnlineSeries promoter Ronnie Davis won the CSR Performance Products Automatic Pro Mod Association (APMA) race May 20, at South Georgia Motorsports Park, near Valdosta, GA. Davis drove his TracStar-backed ’63 Corvette to the final-round win over Joe Baker and his 2002 Neon.
“It went straight down the track, no problem at all,” Davis said. And despite temperatures hovering in the low 90s all day and surface temps up to 128 degrees, “the track was awesome,” he added, “I didn’t see one thing wrong with the track all day.”
Three rounds of qualifying were planned for the one-day show, but with the first session pushed back to 5 p.m. because of the heat, the final qualifying round was scrapped in favor of starting eliminations.
That hurt a couple of racers who were still getting their tune-ups together as the day wore on, including Stephan Stringer, who discovered a faulty tire gauge was reading about 2.5 pounds high.
"We’d been fighting a little problem with the car with too much wheel speed out of the gate and it took all the way up to today to find it,” the Somerset, KY-based racer said after falling to Baker in the race opener. “We found it in the second qualifying round, but didn’t get down the track. Then we didn’t get to run that third round and even though we had a lot more to throw to it, we were scared to try because we wanted to make sure we made a race out of it.”
Russ Crump, who won the previous APMA race at Jackson, SC, in his ’63 ‘Vette, led qualifying with a 4.337-seconds pass at 167.74 mph over the eighth mile, followed by Davis, Baker, and Michael Neece in his 1937 Chevy to set the top half of the field. Number-eight qualifier Joe
Morgan, the third-place finisher in NMRA Pro 5.0 points last year, suffered the only accident of the day at the end of his second qualifying attempt, which allowed Stringer’s brother, Tom, to leave the DNQ ranks and move into the final racing slot.
“It just drifted left out of the groove and before I could get it back it got into the ‘mooshy’ stuff,” Morgan explained of his 2002 Mustang’s trip to the right wall. The car sustained significant right, front suspension damage, but other than that most of the carnage was cosmetic. “It’s just part of racing,” Morgan said. “We can fix it.”
Round one saw Davis get past the 1982 Corvette of W.K. Smith, setting top speed of the meet at 170.15 mph in the process, while T. Stringer drove his ’68 Camaro to a win over Michael Reece in a 1937 Chevy. Meanwhile, Crump eliminated Rick Davis and his 2002 Firebird, and as mentioned, Baker took care of S. Stringer and his 1968 Camaro.
In the semis, Crump headed straight for the wall off the launch, allowing Baker to post a 4.376-seconds win at 161.73 mph. “We got a little greedy and just put a little too much power down,” Crump said. “The chassis wasn’t quite right, so it veered off to the left and with the wheels in the air it doesn’t steer too good that way.”
Next up it was Davis versus T. Stringer, who started with an unreal .000 reaction time.
It wasn’t enough, though, as Davis powered through with a winning 4.366/169.89 to Stringer’s 4.456/161.59 package.
“It was really close up there. Ronnie steps out on you real hard about 500 feet out. I mean, you’re right there touching paint with him and I don’t know if he just has a strong tune-up or if he’s hitting another system there, but he sure walks the dog in high gear. Whatever he does, he does it right,” Stringer said later.
That left just the final round, where Davis left first with
a stellar .004 light, followed by another great leave by Baker with a .017 reaction in the right lane.
With Baker trailing thick, dark smoke due to a faulty rear main seal that allowed oil to reach the car’s red-hot headers, he went 4.398/153.90 to Davis’ 4.362 at 169.85 mph.
“I tried to push it a little harder and it didn’t like it; that’s what happened,” Baker said of turning on his car’s third nitrous stage for the first time all day. “I think I had him up ‘til about 500 feet and then he just started pulling me.”
Davis also has three nitrous hits available and usually turns them all on, but only two were used at Valdosta, “simply because the converter’s so loose.” Despite the dominating performance, Davis revealed he’d been in test mode all day, trying out four different torque converters in order to improve his car’s 60-foot times. “When I went out for the first round I was totally green—brand-new converter, brand-new tranny, never been down the track. Once I got to racing I left it alone, though, because I don’t like to make changes during the race.”
With just 11 APMA cars making qualifying attempts, Davis conceded he’d like to see more entries from his 40-plus members, but then pointed out most are touring IHRA/NHRA Sportsmen racers who often have conflicting schedules.
“I do wish we had more cars coming, but the quality of the cars that do come out is outstanding and I’m very happy with that,” he said. “We put on a good show and have fun and that’s what’s most important.”
Final Rd Results
