(Photo: SR Driven Media)

When you race at “The Strip” in Las Vegas during April or October it can be as challenging and unforgiving as the gaming tables or card players in downtown Las Vegas.

The Southern Nevada weather in April and October creates a challenging environment to tune and drive a race car. Whether at the April 4-wide race or the October Halloween contest, the wide swings in atmospheric conditions give the most experienced crew-chiefs headaches. Every round of qualifying or competition can present an array of different scenarios that are difficult to plan for and therefore difficult to tune for. This past weekend it was no different for the DMP Awnings / KENTEX team.

From qualifying sessions in the morning to elimination rounds later in the evening, the temperature and wind changes made racing challenging. While in the staging lanes preparing for round one, the DMP Team saw the density altitude drop 800 ft., while the track temperature lost 10 degrees in that same amount of time.

A rapidly increasing air density and a quickly cooling track surface were making every crew-chief at the track extremely nervous. Their concerns were born out in a number of problematic first-round contests.

Welcome to racing Top Alcohol Dragsters (A/Fuel Dragsters) in Las Vegas.

As It Happened:

Q1: Kirk and the DMP / KENTEX team made a Nice solid lap to take the #5 spot, running 5.303 @ 270.27 mph. The car dropped a cylinder at about 1200 ft. which cost about .02 in ET and most likely 3 MPH.

Q2: In The night session Kirk ran 5.321 @ 274.27 mph. The 274.27 speed was the fastest of the session. Clay and Chase were making good Power and the speed was there to show it.

Although this run was very good, other teams were able to improve their qualifying times, dropping Kirk to #8 in the qualifying order. Twenty-two (22) cars have attempted to qualify for the 16-car field.

Q3: In the early Saturday session the car made a text-book run. The car was stable, smooth, and straight down the middle of the groove and Kirk makes his quickest run of the weekend – 5.284 @ 273.88 mph, moving the team up one position to #7. That improvement is short-lived when Angelle Sampey lays down a booming run of 5.19s to go to the #1 spot and bumps the DMP gang back to the #8 position on the ladder.

R1: In the first round Kirk would face a familiar foe in Joey Severance. They last met in the Las Vegas semi-finals of 2017.

Unfortunately, this contest would end in the same result. Severence made a clean run in the right line to take the win, while Kirk got off the line well but quickly lost traction ending his string of NHRA National Event final-round appearances.

The cold crisp air combined with a cooling race track proved to be the downfall of many teams in the first round, as the Dubbin team was not the only car to struggle with traction early in the run. It was a wild and upset-laden first round of racing for the Top Alcohol Dragsters.

Photo: SR Driven Media

The first-round loss was summarized by the team:

Chase Copeland (Co-Crew Chief) explained the situation this way: “From the time we left the pits the air got 800 feet better and the starting line was pulling over 390, (which is great for our equipment readings). But, about 100 feet out the track was starting to cool off and was going away quickly. We were set up for Q3 conditions and thought we could make it through that tricky section, but as the car left the line it pulled the tire loose in that trouble spot and we were done”

Dean Dubbin, owner of Dubbin Motorsports added: “Pick your poison. If you go up there soft with the track that good, you most likely shake. If you go up there with the car really stout, and the air gets even better, then you risk smoking the tire. It’s a simple process of how much will the track hold, and what ET you think you have to run to win. All these cars are fast and the Copeland’s don’t tune defensively, and I like that. If you are going to win these races you have to be aggressive, that’s just the way you have to race in this class”.

Kirk Wolf, driver of the DMP Awnings / KENTEX AFuel Dragster: The air was getting better and I knew Clay and Chase had it tuned up and ready to run. I kept thinking that if I could get the car to 330′ (ft) it would most likely run in the teens and win the round. At the hit of the throttle, the car made a good move but the wheel speed just kept going up. I could feel it come loose and tried to give it some brake and peddle it but Joey was already gone, so I lifted to save the parts. You just don’t want to hurt the car in those situations.

By The Numbers:

Qualifying For Kirk Wolf:

Q1: Ran – | 5.303 | 270.27 mph | – Qualified #5
Q2: Ran – | 5.321 | 274.27 mph | Now Qualified #8 with Time From Q1
Q3: Ran – |5.284 | 273.88 mph | Now Qualified #8

Round 1:

Kirk Wolf | Left lane | RT (0.076) | ET: 10.10 | Speed: 75.44 mph |
Joey Severance | Right Lane | RT (0.045 ) | ET: 5.284 | Speed 270.48 mph | – WIN

What’s Next:

Next up for the DMP Awnings / KENTEX Team is the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. Join us Nov. 10-12 for the last NHRA Event of the 2023 season.

Motorsports Media | Dubbin Motorsports | Photos: SR Driven Media