Umberger Wins Twice at West Coast Bracket Races Southwest Showdown

Umberger, Toia, Keys, Lorton, Marconi, and Collins claimed wins at the West Coast Bracket Races Southwest Showdown at Tucson Dragway.

Write-up & photos provided by West Coast Bracket Races

Tucson, AZ- West Coast Bracket Races returned to Tucson Dragway on March 13-16, 2025, for their Southwest Showdown bracket racing event. Despite battling unfavorable weather, they successfully completed two Super Pro $10Ks, one Super Pro $15K, and three Pro $5Ks. Unfortunately, due to time constraints with the revised schedule, the Pro 32 Shootout and the West Coast Bracket Races $20K Shootout had to be cut from the program.

See full race results below!

Golf Cart Race

Jacob Collins, making his “big car” debut at a Big Money Bracket Race this past weekend kicked it off with the “W” in the golf cart race when local hitter Joe Kidd turned it Red in the final.

Collins and his crew had the hot hand on the starting line and earned the semi final bye into the final. Joe Kidd capitalized on a double breakout against Daniel McClelland to find himself in the money round with Collins.

Kidd Performance Friday

Mother Nature may have set us back, but was never going to keep local Tucson legend Don Toia and Big Check Brandon Umberger, of Grand Junction, CO, from cashing in on the long lasting Kidd Performance Friday at the Southwest Showdown.

$10K Super Pro

Super Pro field started Friday with 234 entries, and wrapped up mid day Sunday with Don Toia and his roadster capitalizing in the final with 16 total, while Carson Campbell out of Olympia, Wa in his 2006 Mullis was .016 chasing out the gate and dead on 8!

Campbell used a .003 light to earn semi bye to the Money round, Toia earned a TruStart win going -.001 and his competitor Amelia Hentges, who was looking to make it an all Olympia Final, left -.004 behind him.

$5K Pro

In Pro, Umberger, who was on the fence as recently as the Monday of as to whether or not he was headed south, double entered “The Bean” and got after it right away on both ends of the track.

In the semis, Umberger knocked off Brett Spence, Walters,OR with a hundredth advantage at the tree and set it dead on 2 forcing Spence to get behind and was .02 above. On the other side of the ladder, local hitter Joe Kidd laid down .017 total to knock Robert Hall, Pueblo-Co, out who was .020 total by .003.

The Final left literally nothing at the Stripe as Umberger was .003 and dead zero while Kidd was .010 and 7 thou under on the dial.

Hughes Performance Saturday

As we entered Hughes Performance Saturday with the largest car count to date at a WCBR Event, Mother Nature again tried to handcuff us. But the Track Crew at Tucson Dragway didn’t see it that way and basically said,”hold my beer”!!

From the time we broke free of our last natural interruption, our racers started throwing darts on the scoreboard and it was time to get after the $15,000 Super Pro Check and the $5,000 Pro Check.

$15K Super Pro

Travis Keys rolled Into Tucson Dragway for his second showing at the Showdown, and with a ton of great Friends and racers by his side out of Colorado, he found his way to the BIGGEST Main Event Round of the weekend.

Keys entered the 1/4’s against Bradley Johnson and left no room leaving .006 and taking his 2003 Undercover to a .013 above to close Johnson out and earn the bye at 3 cars. In the other 1/4 matchups, Brad Pierce of Riverside-Ca had a throw down with Ryan O’Connor all the way from Ponoka, Alberta. Pierce was .010 dead 4 and O’Connor was .004 and .012 above giving Pierce the beneficial .002 at the stripe in the corvette. Our last pair was none other than Marko Perivolaris and Marko Perivolaris!! Marko a multi time WCBR Showdown Champion took the green to advance one entry into the semis.

With Keys having the solo, Perivolaris and Pierce squared off to see who’d follow Travis to the final and while Pierce was .008 to Marko’s .011, Brad was unable to run the number.

As the $15,000 stage was set, Keys left the dinner table .006 ahead of Marko and tucked it .005 under the 4.70 Dial while Marko chased and went .009 under. Keys earned his first WCBR Big Check!

$5K Pro

Pro field once again found “The Bean” not once……but twice at 5 cars where Matt Hawk had the single, and Umberger squared off with last years Double Up Pro winner Henry Roberson, North Highlands-Ca. Umberger grabbed a cushion at the starting line and parlayed that into a 1 above to lock one spot down at 3 cars. He then circled back to lock horns with the dragster of another legendary Arizona based racing family with Austyn Downing wheeling. Downing dropped it Red at the gate and gave Umberger the opportunity to guarantee a spot in the money round as he got the bye in his X entry.

In the semis, local Hitter and previous WCBR Showdown Main Event Winner, Matt Hawk had the task of having to beat Umberger to have a shot at……Umberger!! The first pairing went the way he intended as he gained .029 advantage at the tree and gently set it to .01 above making Umberger ineligible.

In the Final, tides reversed and nearly did again, but history repeats itself with Umberger and with .000 at the stripe, Brandon uses a .020 and .027 above to edge out Hawks .035 and .012 above the dial for the Hughes Performance Title!

RB Components Sunday

As the RB Components Sunday set on Tucson Dragway and the final Main Event of the 2025 Southwest Showdown, 2 racers were closing in on the, unaccomplished to date, mission of racing in the final of both classes with the same car.

Arizona standouts, Paul Lorton of Peoria, and Tony Marconi of Suprise, double entered the weekend with one car in both classes. Sunday afternoon, we were real close to having another Milestone. However, Lorton bowed out at 8 cars in Pro to Northwest HOF’er Mark Faul but went on to collect the RB Components $10,000 Check while Marconi lost in Super Pro at 11 and never looked back winning the Pro $5,000 Final.

$10K Super Pro

In Super Pro, after an “interesting” solo at 11 cars, Lorton came back around to face Mark Darsow at 6 cars and after initiating a .017 advantage on the tree, he forced Darsow to fight at the stripe and pushed him under. Travis Ringguth, Sherwood Park-Alberta, and local racer Brandon Dolezal of Queen Creek battled it out in the dragsters with Ringguth able to hold off Brandon with .007 advantage and both above. Our last pair was Team Mexico battling it out with Luis Valenzuela from Tucson in the Camaro and Beto Dominguez from Hermosillo in the Nissan. When Dominguez rolled the beam it gave Valenzuela the ticket to 3 cars.

In the semis, Ringguth had the solo and looked on to see which doorcar would sit aside of him for the RB Components $10,000 Title. With an early edge, Lorton took the sharp Red 76 Vega to Dead 2 over Valenzuela , setting another dragster/doorcar final!

In the final, Ringguth was in control out the gate with .004 to Lortons’ .023, but just barely mis-negotiated the stripe giving Lorton .001 back at the stripe for the doorcars to claim the majority!

$5K Pro

On the Bottom Bulb side, a familiar face late in the rounds of any Big Money Bracket Race this side of the country, and former WCBR Main Event Champion, Tony Marconi came to life RB Components Sunday after having a little “coming to Jesus” meeting with himself after the first two days.

In the 1/4’s Marconi edged out Jeff Taylor of Forest Grove-Or, while Mark Faul bumped Lorton out of Bottom Bulb Competition, Colin Poist of Joshua Tree-CA took a lap ahead of Monty Beagle, High River-Alberta, red lighting by .002 and Darin Taylor of Rigby-ID stopped Austyn Downing in the dragster.

The semi finals brought the best out of Darin Taylor as he could smell the money round and left .004 Green with Faul chasing by .017 and as Faul closed in Taylor tucked the nose .002 under and Faul broke out by .028. On the other side, Marconi did find .001 worth of luck as Poist was that Red and Marconi was .041 Green.

The RB Components $5,000 Final was over 12 hundredths after it started, with Marconi getting the TruStart Win as he was .005 early behind Taylor’s .014 Red.

Congratulations to all winners and finalists from the West Coast Bracket Races Southwest Showdown at Tucson Dragway.

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