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o 00 0') ~ Frog Thacker beat 80 O'Brochta lin white' in New Hampshire. Thacker, Vance top NMRA N ortheast Spring N at'ls By Greg Guarinello EPPING , NH , MAY 24·25 With a combination of beautiful New England weather and some of the best side-by-side racing in the history of National Motorcycle Racing Association, Northeast Spring Nationals was a rousing success. The overflowing crowd was treated to a host of National Records including a new Top Fuel ET record. 80 O 'Brochta of St . Petersberg, FL, took his Terminal Van Lines-sponsored blown Kawasaki on a pair of identical 7.55 second runs to earn himself the Top Fuel National Record. Top Fuel 28 The new National Record holder, O 'Brochta, led all qualifiers with a 7.639 pass at 176.12 mph. Number two went to the Kawasaki team of Naff/ Lewis/Thacker, with Frog Thacker rid ing. Frog turned a 7.824 ET a t 176.81 mph . The third spot fell to vetera n fuel racer Danny Johnson , who took his blown Kawasaki to a 7.849/ 183.29. The number four qualifier was NMRA's Southeast Nationals cham p , Elm er Trett. Elmer took his double eng in ed Harley-Davidson d own th e tr ac k to the tune of 8.038 at 173.74 mph. National Number One J im Berna rd was in the number five spo t as he took th e Teson and Berna rd Yamaha to an 8.249 /157 .89 pass. The second Harley in th e field belonged to long tim e fuel rider Danny Coo per. Cooper qualified in the sixth posit ion with a run of 8.796 with no mph recorded. T he number seven qualifier was Ken Blackburn, who ran an 8.802/ 146.34 . The last man in the field was Steve Ruggerio with his double engine Harley Sportster, Ruggerio made the field with a 9.248 pass at 144.46 mph. The first alternate spot went to Marion Owens who was sorting out new bike bugs with his Harley-Davidson, O 'Brochta started out round one of e1imina tions with an easy win over Bernard as the Kawasaki ran an 8.415 at 144.92 mph to the Yamaha's 9.169 /102.50 . The second pairing saw Blackburn upset the number th ree qualifier Johnson , as Johnson got out of shape and had to backpedal to salvage the run. Blackburn ran an 8.039/171 .10 to Johnson's losing 8.270 / 182.55. Cooper brought his Harley to the line to face Frog Thacker . Thacker jum ped out on Cooper though, and ended the Harley's shopes. Thacker's winning time was 7.945 /176 .81 to a losing 8.76 5/160 .14 for Cooper. A battle of t he Harley Sportsters ended the first round as Treet rolled to the line to fave Ruggerio. When the win light flashed on, Trett was heading into the second round as he trailered Ruggerio. Trett ran a 7.955 /170 .13 to Ruggerio's game, but losing 9.063 / 143.08. The second round of competit ion got underway with a pair of blown Kawasakis pairing off against each other.Bo O 'Brochta took the win with a record breaking ET of 7.555 seconds at 183.69 mph. blackburn was put in the truck on the run .despite an 8.290 pass at 165.74 mph. The other finalist was up for grabs as Trett and Thacker were set to do battle. When the green light came on the two riders were away even but, Trett's huge Harley got up on the side of the tire, causing the bike to drift dangerously towards the guard. rai l. Trett backed off the throttle to correct the drift but then Thacker was headed into th e final. Frog ran a blis tering 7.802 /176 .81 while Treet could onl y muster an 8.730 /122.61 on the out of shape run . The Top Fuel final boiled down to Thacker looking to mak e up for his red ligh t loss at th e NMRA Southeast Nationals and O'Brochta who was looking to run at least a 7.630 to back up his National record attempt. When th e green bulb was lit , Thacker was gone, leaving O'Brochra a lot of ground to make up. Though he tried valiantly it was not to be . Thacker had won the Northeast Spring Nationals crown. The onl y thing that remained to be determined was th e ET of O'Brochta. As the fans awaited impatientl y for the public address announcer to give them the news. Everyone wanted to hear the magic words that would bring the National Top Fuel Record back to the east coast for t he first time in almost a decade. Finally a voice crackled over the PA: "T hacker 7.657 at 182.55 mph and for O 'Brochta . . . 7.559 seconds at 184.04 mph, a new world recordl" O'Brochta, with the help of Mike Grey of Terminal Van Lines, Kendall Oil, Dan Ch ilds of Competition Products and Jim Longo of Karata Enterprises, was indeed the world record holder in Top Fuel. Super Eli m in ator super Eliminator ra cing was extremeIy tight and th ree national records wer e broken . Mike Bruso took his Power Ent. sponsored A/F Kawa saki to the number one qualifying posi tion with a sub-record 8.094 seconds at 153.32 mph. Jon Baught on the Baugh and O'Malley, Orient Express racing team, A/DT Kawasaki was th e second qualifier with a sub-record 8.297 at a sub-record 163.04 mph. Bob Malloy qualified his A/DT third with an 8.5021 155.70. George Babor rounded out the top half of the field with an 8.598 second pass at 158.45 mph on his Kawasaki Funny Bike. Elim inations started with Mike Bruso going against Mike Murdoch's funny bike in a ba ttl e of the Kawasakis. When Murdoch was do ing his burnout he broke a piston , ha ving a piece of it find its way to the bike's injector , holding it at full throttle. Piece of broken piston began emerging from the exhaust pipes. T he motor could not stand up to th e abuse and it finally succumbed to th e strain; the cases broke and the inside of the motor was one big junk pile. Needless to say this ga ve Bruso a bye run to th e semis . Mike ran a 10.747 at 88 .75 mph but, some thing was not right with his racer either. After some tim e was spent in cleaning up Murdoch's motor , Bob Malloy took on Alan Arbor. Malloy was qu icker off the line and took an easy victory, running an 8. 537 /149.25 to Arbor's trailing 10.213/1 32.54. Next Sonny Michalowski pulled out on his Harley to do battle with Jon Baugh's Kawasaki. Jon easily took the win , running an 8.282 /164 .53 to Sonny's 9.211/ 136.57 . To end the round the other Orient Express motorcycle, ridden by George Babor, easily defeated Paul Traversa, Babor ran an 8.643 /159 .21 ' mph on the Kawasaki funny bike while Traversa could only muster at 14.055 at 109.62 on the dual engine Kawasaki. Round two saw Bruso facing Malloy for a spot in the finals . When the smoke cleared it was Bruso going to the finals and Malloy going home. Bruso ran an 8.034 /147 .05 , a new record for A/F, while Malloy could not chase him down with an 8.456 second pass at 139.53 mph. The last spot in the field would definitely go to an Orient Express bike as the two teammates met each other in the semis. Jon Baugh got the freebie into the final as George Ba be r's clutch creeped him through the light giving him a red light start. Baugh did no t lie down though as he ran the fastest time ever recorded for an A/DT when he stopped the clocks at 8.177 . He also set a National mph record on th e run of 166.05 . The final had Mike Bruso, with a possible tired transmission , squaring off against Southeast National Super Elim inator champ, Jon Baugh. When the light went gr een Bruso was out in a flash as Jon Baugh sat and spun th e tire badly. By the time Baugh took off down the track the race was over . Bruso was the new Super Elim inator Champ with a time of 8.141 at 135.95 mph while Baugh clicked off to a 14.571 /47.09 . Between them , Baugh and Bruso had managed to capture three National records. Bruso with the A/F ET mark at 8.03 seconds and Baugh with both ends of the AlDT record, 8.29 /166.05 . A touching scene at the end of the race was Mike Bruso presenting the winner's plaque to his 82-year-old grandfather. Grandpa was so touched that he burst out in tears. Pro Stock Terry Vance led all qualifiers with a 9.043 /147 .54 on his Suzuki-sponsored GS 1100 . The number two qualifier was "Superbike Mike" Keyte who took his red and white Kawasaki to a 9.115 / 145.39 . Chip Solley, the Southeast Nationals ch amp , was th ird qualifier with a 9.130/143 .54. The top half of the ladder was completed by Bob Carpenter of R .C . Engineering, who took his Kawa saki to a 9.146 /143 .3 1. Terry Vance led off th e first round by easily handling Cedric Johnson's Kawasaki . Vance ran a 9.103 at 147.54 to johnson's 9.348/139 .53. Southeast National Champ, Chip Solley was next up against Jay Kreider. Solley ended up with a 9.202 /142.40. The third pairing was a rematch of the Gatornationals final round as Ed Ryan and the Ryan and Korey Harley faced off against Superbike Mike Keyte . Ryan had a slight advantage as New England Dragway is his home track, Ed used the track knowledge to his best a bility and anticipated the green perfectly. Ryan's holeshot was almost two bikes by the time Keyte got int o action . On the other end it was all Ryan with a tim e of 9.356 /141.95 to Keyte's bett er but losing 9.252 /141.95. Bob Carpenter ended off the round by defeating John Sachs with a ru n of 9.198 /142 .63 to Sachs' 9.395 /140.84 . T he second round opened up with Solley and Vance facing each other for the thi rd time this yea r. Each rider had one win in th e battle and this was the bumper match. When all was said and done it was Terry Vance all the way, running a 9.046/148.27 to Solley's 9.186/143 .54 . The other semi -final duel was between th e Ryan and Korey Harley and the Carpenter Kawasaki. Ryan again tried to use his knowledge of the tra ck, but, thi s time it was not to be as he lit the big red light, handing the win to Carpenter. Ryan ran a 9.223 /143 .08 while Carpenter's numbers were 9.105 at 143.54 mph . For the umpteenth time a National event final in Pro Stock came down to a battle between Bob Carpenter and Terry Vance. What would nonnally be a super race turned into a disappointment when Ca~nter red lighted away the win with his Kawasaki. Carpenter ran a 9.128/142.63 while Terry ran the low ET of the meet at 9.022/ 147.05 . ProComp Pro Camp was another tight eliminator as the racers were ready for this race. Geoff Masters led off qualifying with his Wiseco.sponsored B/G Kawasaki running a 9.13/139.53. Number two was ' Southeast Nationals Pro Compo champ, Rick Stetson, who took his Honda to a 9.52 clocking witli no mph recorded . Number three was Duane Wilson on his Kawasaki . W ilson ran a 10.182 at 126.22 mph. The first round opened up with Geoff Masters taking a 9.233/142.63 bye run in the short field . Next up were Duane Wilson and Bill Baker. Wilson took an easy win , running a 10.337 /128.02 to the Harley's losing 12.053/117 .49. Rick Stetson took the lone Honda in the field to the last victory of the round defeating the Kawasaki of Mike Hoyt . Stetson ran a 9.394 to Hoyt 's 13.052. Round two opened with Masters squaring off with Duane Wilson for a spot in the finals . Masters earned the spot with a run of 9.027/144.92 to Wilson's losing 10.242/127,65 mph . Stetson, meanwhile. , took a 9.407/ 141.50 mph bye run into the final. For the finals it was the Southeast Nationals champ, Rick Stetson, going against the Geoff Masters' bike owned by Ron Krol and sponsored by Siseco Pistons. The racers left almost together but the win light came on for the second time this season in Rick Stetson's lane. Stetson's winning time was a 9.430/140 .62 to Masters' trailing 9.378/1 26.93. • Results COMP ELIMINATOR: 1. Jim Yodock, 9.0201151.51 IS02) . MOD ELIMINATOR: 1. Bucky Mooo-es. 10.1391118.73 IKawI. STK ELIMINATOR: 1. Ed Hedetick. 12.18197.61 {Kawl. COMBO ELIMINATOR: 1. Oave Pecoraro. 13.092/ 99.27 IY aml. . ET 1: 1. Pet. Mahler IKawl. ET 2: 1. Gary Spa ulding (Kawl. ET3: 1. Dave Rabine (Kawl. ET4: 1. Tom Daly (Hon). YOUTH ELIMINATOR: 1. Usa Silverstone IKawl.