2009 LSX Shootout Final Coverage
Posted at 6:03 PM / October 24, 2009
Racers once again flocked to Memphis Motorsports Park for the third annual LSX Shootout. This event is organized and managed by the NMCA and GM Performance Parts reprised its role as the title sponsor. Despite inclement weather on Thursday, the annual pre-party was a huge success. A number of companies donated highly popular prizes. Qualifiers were run starting 6:00PM Friday and experienced delays due to some light rain.
The event classes again included Drag Radial, All Motor, Index Rumble, and True Street. A new for 2009 addition was the 2010 Camaro Shootout. This new invitational class drew a dozen builds from all over the country, some sporting turbochargers, nitrous and other modifications.
During Friday night qualifiers some impressive times were clicked off, including Steve Turley's 7.51 @ 194 MPH, which was not far off from his personal best of 7.44. Weather and a cold track eventually shut down the racing, so while some racers elected to wrench on their rides, others made their way to Beale Street.
Saturday morning warmed up and some racers were able to run stronger qualifying times. Drag radial racer Mark Koehler cranked of a 7.68 @ 187 MPH, and fellow entrant Jim Filipowski ran a strong 7.69 @ 195 MPH. Judson Massengill ran a 8.65 @ 156 MPH in All Motor and by all appearances would be a formidable opponent for the other three entries.
By the time Sunday rolled around, the weather had turned a corner and all of the various NMCA and LSX classes started running eliminations. LSX True Street was won by Doug Ring, owner of East Coast Supercharging. Doug was the first racer in the event's history to run an 8 second average. This C5 ragtop has run a best of 8.7 and Doug eventually hopes to take the quickest stock suspended crown at some point in 2010.
Drag Radial originally had 10 entries, but breakage and problems whittled that number down to 6 cars. First round eliminations saw Steve Turley succumb to long time friend Mike Brown, spinning to a 7.98 @ 192 MPH to Mike's impressive 7.51 @ 190 MPH. Nick Field's 2007 Trailblazer fell victim to Jim Filipowski's 1993 Camaro, as Nick's stout 9.56 @ 147 MPH could not match Jim's 7.57 @ 196 MPH. Mark Koehler in his show and go 2000 orange Firebird got a bye and ran 7.69 @ 188 MPH, as did Steven Fereday in the LMR 1995 Firehawk who ran a solid 7.85 @ 183 MPH with some issues.
In the first round of LSX All Motor, Judson Massengill cranked off a blistering 8.58 @ 157 MPH, a personal best, and drove around his opponent Jon Moyers. Joe Honeycutt, last years winner, tried driving out of a huge wheelie but ended up in the other lane and also breaking. Dave Lezear took the win.
The first round of the 2010 Camaro Shootout had three cars racing. Andy Ricketts in the red LIvernois Camaro drew LInda Massengill in SAM's bright red entry, and won the round with an 11.26 @ 124 MPH to her 15.05 @ 76 MPH. Daniel Moore of Katy Texas had a bye and ran an 11.13 @ 127 MPH.
Beset by delays as well as a huge turnout, the heads up classes spilled over into Monday. Mark Koehler ran Steven Fereday, and clicked off a 7.63 @ 189 MPH while the LMR entry red lit. Mike Brown triumphed over Jim Filipowski, running a person best of 7.47 @ 194 MPH to Jim's slower 7.58 @ 195 MPH.
The Drag Radial finals resulted in Mike Brown and fellow teammate Mark Koehler running each other. Mike's dark blue TransAm defeated Mark's orange Firebird, running 8.10 @ 189 MPH over a 8.23 @ 185 MPH. While Mark spun a bit, he also ran over part of his exhaust but luckily did not cut a tire. While entrants to the class are highly competitive, more than one racer mentioned that Mike was highly deserving, what with transmissions problems in 2008, and then several issues throughout 2009.
In All Motor, Judson Massengill bested Dave Lezear, running 9.07 @ 156 MPH to Dave's slower 9.49 @ 143 MPH.
The 2010 Camaro Shootout saw Daniel Moore pitted against Andy Ricketts, and Daniel took the crown with a 10.90 @ 128 MPH versus Andy's equally strong 11.02 @ 126 MPH. Daniel's .183 versus Andy's .302 made the race exciting to watch.
Looking out to next year, expectations are that the event will again be held at Memphis Motorsports Park, and all racers and spectators look forward to some more exciting heads up racing.
Here is a link to a photo gallery with over 400 pictures:
Photo Gallery Link
