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Brett Thompson remembers his first race in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series well. It came more than a decade ago at Rocky Mountain Raceways in Utah. He had some issues in qualifying and started last. But he maneuvered his way through the field for a top-10 finish.
NASCAR K&N Pro Series Driver Brett Thompson
"That was a long race, that was probably a 250- or 300-lap race," said Thompson, a driver from Jerome, Idaho. "It was a lot of fun and that's what got me hooked on the series. We had been racing the late models and stuff like that. That felt like a big step. I was excited. It was a fun race. We started racing the series and haven't stopped."
Thompson made the 100th NASCAR K&N Pro Series West start of his career at Phoenix International Raceway last month. He's been racing in the West Series since 2000 and has seen it change significantly, from shorter races to pit stop changes to different tracks. The K&N Pro Series West doesn't visit Rocky Mountan Raceways anymore. It doesn't have 300-lap races very much anymore either.
"Phoenix is one of our longer races," Thompson said. "It's one that really hasn't changed. We still run the same amount laps like we always have. That always suits my driving style better. I usually make a steady run toward the front. But we go to these little short tracks and it's a lot of short runs. We run 10 laps and then there's caution, then run another 10 laps, then there's caution. It doesn't give you time to move through the field sometimes. You have to qualify up front and just hold your position."
He's coming off a fifth-place finish at Phoenix. He started the race 17th in the 36-car field and made his way through eight caution periods to get to the front of the pack.
"We just ran our own race. I knew I had a good race car," Thompson said. "Sometimes you got give up qualifying to race well. Slowly worked our way to the front. I think we made it as high as third. On the last restart, the guy in front of me missed a shift and we lost a couple positions and ended up fifth. It's a good start to the season. It's where we want to start. It puts us right there in the points."
Thompson has won only one race in his career in the K&N Pro Series West. It came in 2004 at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield. He had four top-five and five top-10 finishes that season and was 16th in the final West Series standings.
But when asked if any of the 100 K&N Pro Series West races he started stand out, he said, "I always think about the last race."
"Winning at Bakersfield was big," Thompson said. "That's a track everybody enjoyed and misses now. Got a win there before it tore down."
His best season came in 2008 when he posted eight top-10 finishes in 13 races and was fifth in the West Series standings. He has finished in the top 10 in the West Series standings five times.
"The enjoyable part is the fact that we're still racing," Thompson said. "It's still tough competition. I still like the cars that we drive. The biggest change that I've seen from when I started is the length of the races have gotten shorter. They're not pit-stop type races like we used to have all the time. I kind of miss that."
Another change is in support and sponsorship. K&N came in to sponsor the series in 2010 and Thompson said he's noticed a difference in how much attention the West Series is receiving since the switch. He compared it to the days when Winston sponsored the series.
"When Winston went away, it kind of floundered for a while. It was kind of a joke without any big support," Thompson said. "K&N, they're involved. They're just as involved as Winston was. That's what we expect as racers. Seeing representation at every race, that's exciting for us. That's what it takes, I think."
The next race on the K&N Pro Series West scheduled is at All-American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., on April 16. It will be the 101st start of Thompson's career. He's off to a good start in his 11th season in the K&N Pro Series West and he said he wants to make it his best season yet.
"I would expect a top-three finish there," Thompson said. "I think I'm capable, the crew is capable. The equipment's better this year and that's what we need. In year's past it seems we always lacked one of those things, whether it was crew or equipment or maybe my focus wasn't there. This year, I think we have everything we need to go after a championship. That's what we're doing."
The Ford F150 has been a fierce competitor in the race for the most dependable, most durable, and most powerful truck in its class. Ford's 2009 and 2010 4.6L V8 model is no exception to its long line of F150 trucks built to outlast and outperform other rivals like Chevy and Dodge. For the SOHC 3 valve version of the 4.6L, K&N has developed a new and easy to install intake system designed for increased performance from a truck that knows nothing less.
K&N Air Intake System for 2009 and 2010 Ford F150 4.6L
"A new intake kit design was required because of changes to the 2009 model year intake manifold, air box assembly and relocation of the throttle body," says Project Designer Bert Heck. "K&N used four vehicles and 100 plus dyno pulls during kit development. After testing multiple tube diameters a 3.5" tube was selected as it provided good performance and drivability."
The 77-2580KP
feeds air from the air filter to the engine using a polished tube that looks
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Dyno tests yielded estimated increases of 15 horsepower and 17 lb ft of torque @ 4650 RPM making the new 77-2580KP intake system an
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engineers designed an air intake system which adds significant power and
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The 77-2580KP
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Its large K&N high flow cone filter is washable and reusable. The
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Rumis Lights 'em Up in his Top Sportsman Cobalt. Photo by: Bob Johnson Photography.
In only his second event of the 2011 season, Chip Rumis took both of his cars to the final round of their respective classes during the NHRA Pacific Division Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series held at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"It's a brand new 272 Spitzer car with Steve Schmidt 632 cubic inch power in it. We just got it finished before the first race in Phoenix," Rumis said of his new Top Dragster. "My Top Sportsman car is an 2006 Jerry Bickel Cobalt and it also has the Schmidt 632 power as well."
Chip Rumis' Beautiful New Spitzer Top Dragster. Photo by: Bob Johnson Photography.
Although Rumis had a little carburation trouble out of the trailer, he landed himself as the number two qualifier in Top Dragster and qualified the Top Sportsman car nicely in the number six spot.
"I made it out of first round on Saturday night," he said of the Top Dragster. "And Sunday morning I had a bye in round two, which was a really critical round. The car was just working fantastic and I was cutting some great lights in it."
Nice wheels up launch for Rumis as he works his way to his third Top Sportsman Final in as many events. Photo by: Bob Johnson Photography.
Rumis was consistently doing his job on the starting line and is quick to point out that his good friend was a big help in dialing both cars.
"My wife helps me and I had a young man with me and my neighbor was helping me with packing [chutes]," he said. "My racing partner, Joe Roubicek was helping me get onto the dial with both cars and things were just working real well. It was just one of those weekends where you start to get on a roll and you relax. You are not worried about the cars or the track. You can just focus on doing your job and it all gave me a nice payday."
Rumis put his Top Dragster in a comfortable number 2 Qualified position at the Las Vegas NHRA Divisional. Photo by: Bob Johnson Photography.
Although Rumis didn't have the starting line advantage in the Top Dragster final, he once again had a car that was dialed on the money and parlayed that into a 0.0112 margin of victory at the stripe running dead on his dial with an eight.
All while he was going rounds in the dragster, Rumis was also making his way to the Top Sportsman final in his K&N Cobalt, where he has had some unfinished business as of late.
"Over my last three races, I have been in three finals with the Top Sportsman car," he pointed out. "Final race last year I runnered up to Kevin Klineweber and at the first race this season in Phoenix I runnered up again by going red by one thousandth of a second and then the Vegas race, well I just keep being the bridesmaid. I'm just not doing that poor car any justice. I just keep letting the car down in the final."
A super weekend for K&N's Chip Rumis with two final rounds and his first Top Dragster victory for 2011. Photo by: Bob Johnson Photography.
"I had some really good races in the Top Sportsman car," he said of his rounds at Vegas. "The car got loose on me a couple of times. We had the wheelie bar a little too low on a couple of passes and it was driving me to the wall and we just didn't catch that quick enough. Driving both cars like that sometimes it's hard to catch the small things when you don't have a very big crew around you. But we got it straightened out."
"In that final, the track picked up on me in my sixty foot," he continued. "I had thirty mile-per-hour on the guy and I had picked up one and a half [hundredths] and it was just really tough to scrub it off. After ten rounds of racing in two different cars, I just didn't want to make any bad mistakes and hurt myself or the car."
Another thing that Rumis had to his advantage over the course of the weekend in both cars was that he was more so than not, the quicker car of the pair. This allowed Rumis not only to always watch his competitors leave and give them the first chance to red light, but also lane choice.
"I was blessed because my cars were the fastest all the way through [the rounds]," he said. "That also gave me lane choice the whole weekend, which I chose to stay in the left lane all weekend. It really allows you to get into a rhythm, knowing what the car was going to do."
"There are many racers out here that have been doing this for years and have never had a chance to hoist one of these [NHRA Wally] and I just feel very blessed every time it happens," he added.
Rumis has been a K&N product user for many years and for the 2011 season, even his tow rig is getting the K&N treatment.
"Of course the new Top Dragster has all the K&N filters on it as well as the Cobalt, plus we use all the K&N Racing Glue products," he noted. "We just installed a K&N air filter and oil filter on our motor coach."
"All of us racers are very blessed to have guys like Steve Williams and Bobby Harris out there and around us," he added. "They are a great group of guys with some outstanding products and we use them all."
Rumis has a good jump start on his 2011 season, now sitting at number one in both Top Dragster and Top Sportsman NHRA Division 7 points and with only two events in the books some room to add to that lead.
NASCAR K&N Pro Series East driver Brett Moffitt is with a new team, but the results haven't changed.
Brett Moffitt wins the season opening Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150
Moffitt won the season opening Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in South Carolina on Saturday night. He became the first driver in five years to win the race from pole to finish.
"Being able to lead from green to checkered is just awesome," Moffitt said. "To be able to start the season like that is a amazing. Hopefully we never look back."
Moffitt won the 2010 season finale at Dover International Speedway in Delaware with Joe Gibbs Racing. He switched teams in the off-season, joining Michael Waltrip Racing for 2011 and taking over the car of Ryan Truex, who won the past two K&N Pro Series East championships. Truex moved up to the NASCAR Nationwide Series, leaving his team in the K&N Pro Series East in need of a driver.
Brett Moffitt wins the season opening at Greenville Pickens Speedway
Moffitt wasted no time in producing for his new team. He won the pole and was challenged only once for the lead in the race. Coleman Pressley made a move to the front on lap 136, but a caution flag came out when Derek Ramstrom spun out in turn 1.
NASCAR K&N Pro Series East driver Brett Moffitt
"When he got inside of me, that kind of got me nervous," Moffitt said. "Luckily, I just kept hitting my marks and didn't worry about him. Kept doing our thing and ended up on top. It was amazing."
On the ensuing restart, Moffitt pulled away and won by a margin of 0.624 seconds over Pressley.
"I really pushed hard under restarts," Pressley said. "I think we gave Brett more of a run for his money on the outside than anyone else did. That might have been a little bit of experience too. I probably used up a little bit too much too fast. I should have waited until about three to go, it might have been a different outcome. It's easy to say could have, should have, would have."
Rookie Alex Bowman was third, followed by rookie 15-year-old Chase Elliott and Matt DiBenedetto. Elliott is the youngest driver to start a K&N Pro Series East race. He started 26th and made up 22 spots during the race.
Darrell Wallace Jr., who won the K&N Pro Series East season opener at Greenville Pickens Speedway last year, finished sixth after starting on the front row with Moffitt.
There were 22 rookies in the 32-car field. Five rookies finished in the top 10.
The next K&N Pro Series East race is the South Boston 150 at South Boston Speedway in Virginia on April 16.
"I thought we put ourselves in a good position," Pressley said. "There at one time I thought we had the lead from Brett. Caution and restarts didn't fall our way. For the first time out with this X Team Racing, we'll take it and go South Boston and go for the win."
When the 2011 season began, Southern California's Stronghold Motorsports knew they had multiple teams capable of competing for championships in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. They didn't know how long it would take for those teams to emerge as contenders. But at the season opening event in Chandler, Arizona, Strongholds two Pro 2 trucks made everyone take notice.
Stronghold Motorsports' Jeremy McGrath in Pro 2 truck
After struggling in Saturdays opening round, teammates Rob Naughton and Jeremy McGrath surged to the front of the pack and pulled away, giving Stronghold their first ever sweep in the Pro 2 class. "We made a gear and tire change that helped," said Naughton, who captured his first ever Pro 2 win. "But more than anything, the mental change I made as a driver helped me really push the truck to its limit and maximize its potential."
Naughton ran his fastest lap time on the 19th circuit. It was a 20 lap race. The 2010 Pro 2 Rookie of the Year said the win has already given the team confidence it can win the championship. "We expect to continue to race up front and win races. It was awesome for the entire team. They put in a ton of work, and to have both trucks podium was very special and the best way for us as drivers to say ‘thank you' to our crew."
Rob Naughton getting some air in his Pro 2 truck.
McGrath, the 7-time AMA Supercross Champion, and the man responsible for putting Supercross on the map in the U.S.A., was happy to bring home the second place trophy in his debut weekend with Stronghold. "I didn't have a great starting position so I had to fight my way to second. Once I got there, me and Rob battled really close. I was able to get side-by-side with him, but I couldn't make it stick. I'm just happy we were first and second on the podium. The team deserved it."
McGrath was approached by Scott Bailey to drive Stronghold's Pro 4 truck in 2010. The opportunity arose for the two-wheel superstar to move into the team's second Pro 2 truck, and McGrath saw an opportunity to form the best team in the division. So far, the move has paid off, but McGrath knows they still have work to do.
Rob Naughton on the Podium with his first ever Pro 2 Win.
"We only have two rounds of racing under this new truck, and I'm seeing a lot of these tracks for the first time, so I know the learning curve is going to be steep. I know we have the package to get a championship, but the talent in the field is unbelievable."
Naughton added "I know I can win every race, but with guys like (Brian) Deegan and Jeremy, it's going to be difficult to stay on top."
Both drivers applauded K&N's industry leading filters for keeping their motors working at optimum levels.
"K&N obviously makes the best filter on the market. When you are racing 900 horsepower motors that are the best money can buy, using any other filter is just not an option," Naughton said.
McGrath added "Our Roush Fenway motors make amazing horsepower and are running through dirt and rocks while flying through the air at more than 80 miles an hour. I don't think there are any harsher conditions in racing, and because of that, K&N is the only brand of filters this team will ever use."
