Gage Burch Leads Sportsman Racing Weekly Top 10 List – 10/11 Edition

October 11, 2018October 11, 2018

Each week DragChamp reviews the racing action from the previous week and recaps the top performances in the Weekly Top 10. With so much sportsman racing going on each week, there’s plenty of great performances to showcase. Last week’s sportsman racing events included the historic SFG Super Bowl of Drag Racing which paid three competitors $100,000, NHRA Bracket Finals from Division 2 and Division 7, the Tenn-Tuck bracket series from Beech Bend Raceway Park, the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals from Dallas, and many more. The DragChamp top performances of the week are:

Gage Burch dominates NHRA Division 2 Bracket Finals – On the heels of Jake Howard’s amazing bracket finals performance where he won three finals in less than a month, see last week’s article here, Gage went one better by winning three Wally’s on the same week after winning two Race of Champions classes and the Junior final in the main event. In the ROC, Gage won the High School portion defeating Seth Bevins in the final along with defeating Zach Goodwin in the Jr. Advance final to collect his second Wally of the day. On Sunday, Gage defeated Katrina Carpenter in the Jr. Advanced final round to wrap up his amazing weekend. This is not the first time Gage has gone off on the Division 2 bracket finals as he previously won four Wally’s in one weekend. This kid is really good and has been showcased on DragChamp multiple times just in the last couple of months. Look for more big things out of Gage as he moves full-time to the “big” cars in the near future.
Brian McClanahan wins Dallas to take over the national point lead in Stock Eliminator – McClanahan has been locked in a season long points battle with current world champion Justin Lamb and he made it even more interesting last week in the NHRA Fall Nationals. Brian captured his second national event win after defeating Jimmy “Cooter” Hidalgo Jr. in the final round on Monday. Keep in mind that Brian’s win came with in Dallas which is a long way from where he lives in California. In addition to the long haul to get to Dallas, the event was plagued by rain and a number of schedule changes. From what I understand, the Stockers sat in the lanes for over two hours on Sunday evening before eventually finishing the race on Monday. That’s a lot to deal with while your also in the middle of tight points race. The win moved him past Lamb in the points standings by a single point. His 690 points now leads the class and puts him in great position to capture his first world championship. While the points chase is far from over, Brian has proven he is a bad dude in his ’69 Camaro. Click here for the full NHRA Fall Nationals results.
Suga Shane Carr wins $100k at SFG Super Bowl – Shane was down right nasty on Friday at Rockingham Dragway collecting a cool $100k for his efforts. Carr defeated a red-lighting John Lassiter in the final round to collect the big money victory. Leading up to the final, Carr was .00 on the tree seemly every round and his car was tossing out 4.47 laps with ease. Carr has now won both the Million Dollar race and a SFG $100k race. See the Friday SFG Super Bowl results here.
“Catfish” wins $100k at SFG Super Bowl – Jason Lynch also pulled off a $100k win at the SFG Super Bowl of Drag Racing on Saturday night taking down Kyle Cultrera in the final round. Jason is one of the most talented sportsman racers in the nation and consistently proves it with huge wins as evidenced on Saturday in Rockingham. Jason has had quite the year after his runner-up in the Million Dollar race last October to go with a runner-up early this year at another $100k race, and more recently a runner-up in a $50k race, which was a no-split final. Jason also got it done on Saturday in his S-10 pickup which makes the win even cooler. See the Saturday SFG Super Bowl results here.
Kyle Cutrera double entered late at SFG Super Bowl – Kyle Cutrera put on a show Saturday night at the SFG Super Bowl when he ultimately collected runner-up honors to Jason Lynch. What was even more interesting was Kyle was double entered all the way to the round of 8 when he eventually lost to Cory Gulitti on his second entry. Kyle then defeated Cory in the semifinal round to earn a shot at the $100k payday. Kyle’s double entry run was impressive for sure.
Cory Gulitti double entered late at SFG Super Bowl – See above and repeat. Cory has been on the weekly Top 10 list probably more than anyone over the last month as he’s enjoyed an amazing run. After winning a $20k and $10k race on the same night last month at an ACE Ohio event, he followed it up by winning a dragster a few days later at the Fall Fling, and then he made a ton of rounds at the Super Bowl last week. Cory is deadly at both ends of the track and will be a force to reckon with for years to come as he’s only 17-years-old. At the SFG Super Bowl, Cory was double entered at 16 cars where he lost to Kyle Cutrera. If I’m not mistaken, I think he let go perfect but got .005 behind at the stripe. He then came back at 8 cars and beat Kyle’s second entry eventually losing another tight race to Kyle in the semi’s. Another great weekend for Kyle. Watch this video of Kyle taking care of business in his dragster.
Tim Nicholson continues Super Gas hot-streak at Dallas – Tim Nicholson continues to impress with his top-end throttle-stopped, manually shifted, 4-speed Super Gas Camaro. Tim followed up his recent win at the AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals with runner-up finish at the Division 5 double-header LODRS event in Great Bend the following week and made it to the semifinals at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals last week. To show just how good he’s been, Tim ran first round on Thursday at Dallas where he was 9.914 on the 9.90 index. He didn’t see the track again for three days and proceeds to lay down another all-out 9.912 in the second round on Sunday morning. His last two rounds were 9.903 and 9.904. He lost in the semi’s to eventually class winner Casey Plaizier who laid down a perfect 9.900. See the full event coverage here.
Marshall Grooms wins $100k at SFG Super Bowl – Anybody that wins a $100k race should make the Top 10. Marshall, who is 72 years young, raced his way to victory lane over a field of 500 plus entrants. In the semi’s Marshall paired against Scott Taylor with both racers throwing down perfect, trip-zip reactions. Taylor was perfect take 8 to be .001 thousandth under his dial sending Grooms to the final round. Groom then defeated the Vega of former Million Dollar race winner Dave Triplett.
Seth Bevins makes two Race of Champions Finals at Division 2 Bracket Finals – While Gage Burch was making all the headlines at Silver Dollar Raceway, Bevins quitely made two ROC finals taking the win in PRO E.T. by defeating bracket racing veteran Steve Foley and taking runner-up honors to Gage Burch in the High School ROC final. A very impressive weekend.
Brandon Taylor makes semifinals at SFG $100k Super Bowl – While Brandon didn’t make the final round last weekend at the SFG Super Bowl, he did get really close to his second big money SFG final round of the year. In April, Taylor won $175k at the SFG Powerball of Drag Racing event at the House of Hook, Carolina Dragway. The first win was impressive in and of itself, but to come so close to collecting two of the largest payouts of the year proves Scott is definitely at the top of his game.

That wraps up this week’s Top 10. Props to SFG Promotions for putting on one hell of a race weekend. Cogratulations to all the winners over the weekend and to everyone who made the Top 10 this week. Also, thanks to picturesbylou.com for the photos.

Remember, DragChamp is your source for sportsman racing news and results. Visit our site daily to keep up with the latest big money bracket racing action, NHRA results, and IHRA bracket racing news.

Gary Don Free