The highly anticipated season opener of the 2020 Red Line Shirt Club Funny Car Chaos Championship Series presented by Entech Oil was held March 13^th and 14^th at Pine Valley Raceway in Lufkin, Texas. Tucked deep into far East Texas, this event marked the first major event of the new decade at Pine Valley and despite an unfavorable forecast and growing paranoia of the Corona virus, over 2,000 spectators and racers made it through the gates for two days of funny car filled fun and entertainment. Thankfully, not a single drop of rain landed on the property and the Funny Car Chaos racers put on one heck of a show for the fans in Lufkin!

Ken Singleton

                Friday night held two rounds of heads up qualifying with seventeen funny cars on the property plus Ray Kelley’s jet dragster, the always entertaining Dirty South Gassers and more. After two of three qualifying sessions were completed, Ronny Young in the famed “Blue Max” sat atop the list with a 3.88 at 197 mph pass. Defending series Champion Ken Singleton and team “High Risk” dipped into the 3’s with a 3.99 at 171 good for the number two spot. Chris King posted a nice 4.04 off the trailer in Michael Harrigan’s “Fool’s Gold” fuel burner who made the tow all the way from West Palm Beach, Florida. King and Harrigan plan to run the full tour in 2020. Chuck Loftin’s 4.10 rounded out the top four qualifiers in the Rodak’s Custom Coffee ‘A’ Field while Jeff Cameron’s “Magnolia Missile” led the AlkyDigger ‘B’ Field qualifiers with a 4.61 at 149 mph.

The fans came out to watch the CHAOS

                A Saturday morning fog cleared and brought sunshine and wonderful weather conditions and funny cars rolled out of their trailers and teams began preparation for the final qualifying session. Fans found their seats in the stands and tailgaters sold out ‘redneck row’ as they call it, everyone eager for some Saturday side by side funny car action as the final session got underway. Sixteen cars survived Friday night as unfortunately the Doak & Poloson “Bucket List” team broke a rear end and were now out of competition.

Paula Martin

                In the final qualifier, Ken Singleton booted Ronny Young off the top of the list with a strong 3.85 at 197 mph to take the pole position in the ‘A’ Field. Jeff Cameron improved his time to a 4.52 at 151 mph, bumping into the ‘A’ field which settled Dustin Bradford’s “American Dream” into the pole position in the ‘B’ field with a 4.53 at 138 mph. Paula Martin rounded out the ‘B’ field in Walt Fuller’s nitro machine as the pairings were set for first round eliminations, scheduled for a six o’clock start.

Ronnie Young

Chris King

FINAL QUALIFYING ORDER:

Rodak’s Custom Coffee ‘A’ Field

1. Ken Singleton (Chickasha, OK) – 3.85 @ 197

2. Ronny Young (Wylie, TX) – 3.88 @ 197

3. Chris King (Chicago, IL) – 4.04 @ 176

4. Chuck Loftin (Seguin, TX) – 4.10 @ 156

5. Kebin Kinsley (Arlington, TX) – 4.23 @ 133

6. Steve Burck (Corpus Christi, TX) – 4.32 @ 147

7. Chris Schneider (Jefferson City, MO) – 4.45 @ 160

8. Jeff Cameron (Magnolia, TX) – 4.52 @ 151

AlkyDigger ‘B’ Field

1. Dustin Bradford (San Antonio, TX) – 4.53 @ 138

2. Andy Mears (Lubbock, TX) – 4.59 @ 150

3. Steve Vang (Norman, OK) – 4.63 @ 149

4. Tod Barker (Marlow, OK) – 4.66 @ 146

5. Scott Cousimano (Las Vegas, NV) – 4.68 @ 152

6. Jordan Ballew (Bartlesville, OK) – 5.77 @ 119

7. Damon Kuhn (Houston, TX) – 6.34 @ 108

8. Paula Martin (Phoenix, AZ) – 11.01 @ 45

         9. Nick Poloson (San Antonio, TX) – 13.58 @ 29