Bellemeur Goes to Semi-finals

For most of us it was a long cold winter - we wanted some sunshine and needed a nitro fix! The Goodguys 46th March Meet filled the bill. The 2005 edition of Nostalgia Drag Racing's premier event was marked with a mixed bag of weather, several new winners - some close calls and upsets. In spite of outrageous gas prices, for the forty sixth year in a row a full complement of race cars (including a record 25 Top Fuel cars) invaded the hallowed grounds of Fomosa Raceway and gave the SRO crowd one hell of a show.

Backing up to Top Fuel Friday, this years March Meet followed the successful 16 car format used at the 2004 CHRR. There would be only two qualifying sessions (one Friday and one Saturday) with the first round going off Saturday afternoon. This would leave eight cars for Sunday and make for a smoother running show. When all was said and done the field was much tighter than previous years with a 6.17 bump spot. However, Murphy's ET and Harris' speed records were never in jeopardy with most cars in the 5.90 range all weekend. The Plaza Hotel & Casino car made the elite show. More below.

 
Before the first qualifying session on Friday, the crew took the Plaza car to the top end of the track for a John Ewald photo shoot. Over the winter the car was fitted with a new full body and adorned with a classy paint scheme. Here is the crew posing behind the 2005 edition of High Speed Racing's Plaza Hotel entry.

Sean Bellemeur (aka, The Penguin)

 

The first session of Top Fuel qualifying got under way at 2:48 p.m. Friday. The air and track temperatures were high and that made for tricky tune-ups.

Bellemeur draws the left lane and was paired with Dan Rusk.

After backing up from the burnout the crew makes final adjustments before Bellemeur moves into stage (below).

Bellemeur left hard then struck the tires at the 330' mark. Sean, one of the best drivers in the business, quickly recovered and salvaged a 6.277 at 239.29 time slip.

After the run the car had some minor engine damage so the crew did a full maintenance to have it ready for session two on Saturday.

Walt Stevens, Dale Singh and Brett Johansen discuss strategy.

Tom Shelar goes over the computer info collected on the run. This is a great tool to let them know what changes to make for the next pass.

Starting over 90 minutes late, the second TF session got underway at 11:38 a.m. Saturday with the same weather conditions as Friday.

For his second and last attempt Bellemeur was paired with Rick McGee. This would be the first of three meetings between these two over the weekend. At this point Bellemeur was bumped out but McGee was solidly in.

Walt Stevens backs Sean up keeping him in the "tracks" he laid on the burnout.

With a hard leave and solid run Bellemeur puts the Plaza Hotel & Casino car back into the show with a 6.080 at .239.61

Bellemeur is matched with Rick McGee - again. This third pair of round one would pit two young guns in evenly matched cars. It would be the closest race of the event.

Bellemeur in the Plaza Hotel and Casino car cut and incredible 0.029 light and he needed every bit of it.

At the stripe it was Bellemeur's 6.003 at 244.43 just (and I mean just) nipping McGee's 5.948 242.70. Sean's margin of victory: 0.0200 seconds (approximately 9 inches). This is not the first, nor will it be the last, holeshot win for the former A-Fuel champion. His reaction times are second to none.

With both cars still in the shot and the second round of eliminations due to run at 10 a.m. the following day, the Plaza pits were in full thrash Saturday night.

After two warm and sunny days Sunday dawned overcast, drizzly and cool... it never got much better. Due to the weather the entire show started an hour late. Bellemeur and his opponent, Terry Cox would be were running under totally different conditions today with clouds and 20 degree cooler temps.

In spite of the cool weather a large part of the record Saturday crowd stayed for Sunday.

Bellemeur left first by a bunch but it didn't matter as Cox just blew the tires off right at the hit. He pedaled several times but nothing was going to hook the M and H's.

Bellemeur hurt some parts on the top end and wisely shut off to a 6.347 at 194.13 to move on the the semi-finals.

Liking the night air, the car responded and improved on its first run with a solid 6.105 @ 236.84.

After getting the engine repaired from round two, the Bellemeur team discovered a seized oil pump drive shaft which initiated a panic thrash. Having been there before, vet Frank Hedge and the guys got the old shaft out and a new one in just in time. Unfortunately it left them with no time to warm the engine and seat the clutch which surely contributed to their loss to McGee.

Speed Channel TV was on hand to catch the action.

Speaking of TV, into the final rounds the Speed Channel crew was doing commentary and positioning cameras like the ones at the top end (below).

Any one of the four cars left in the semis could go all the way. Pair one was, for the third time in three days, Rick McGee and Sean Bellemeur. Although Sean beat him in round one, McGee got back in on the break rule and won his second round race to advance to the semis.

In round one Bellemeur beat McGee on a holeshot but Sean needed more than that here as the Plaza Hotel fueler didn't sound (or look) like its usually ground pounding self. As expected Bellemeur left first but the car was puffing death smoke out of the left bank at the hit and it never cleaned up. McGee motored away for a stout 5.929 @ 238.85 win and a trip to the finals.