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►In contrast to the meager crowd that put in
an appearance at the Atco summer championships, a record crowd was in attendance
at the final go around of the year held Sunday, October 26th. The vast number of
spectators were in turn rewarded by being witness to one of the most exciting
spectacles in the annals of East Coast drag racing. Records were made and
broken. Many of the winning times of the previous year (1968) were similar to
the qualifying times of the current year, proving that those E.T.'s are
definitely getting lower and those quarter mile speeds faster.
As always, drag racing is a field day for Harley Davidson, and Milwaukee iron
usually reigns in both gas and fuel. However, the "is" quickly changed to "was"
with the appearance of Sonny Routts Twin Engined Nitro-powered Triumph along
with his rider, the spectacular Larry Welch, of Washington, D.C. Welch exploded
down the asphalt to record a devastating time of 9.10 at a phenominal 165.70 mph
during the eliminations.
By the time qualifying was over
the crowd was in a high pitch and the anxiety was at an all time high. The
biggest surprise was Nick Palmerone, the Groten flash and winner of the Summer
Atco drag championship. Nick had more than his share of bad luck this day. Bad
fuel mixture on one of his qualifying runs caused him to turn a bad E.T. On
another run he drifted over the yellow line. Then Palmerone was wedged out of
the "Top Eight" spots by Jim De Salvo from Massachusetts, who blasted a 9.23 to
push himself into the top fuel category. Bump position was then put at 9.42.
With Gary on the bump spot the rest of the field was as follows: Larry Welch and
Sonny Routts Twin-engined Triumph at 9.12; Jim De Salvo and his Harley at 9.23;
Larry Welch making another good showing on his Harley at 9.28; Guy Leaming at
9.30 on his Harlеу; Leo Payne at 9.30 on his Harley; defending champ of 1968 Bob
Barker at 9.37, Harley mounted; Walter Yee at 9.40 on his Harley; and in the
last spot, Gary Ackermans Harley with a 9.42.
In the Top Gas qualifications
the team of Welch and Routt also held the top card with a second twin engine
Triumph achieving low Е.Т. of 10.16; John Neidengard another consistent top
qualifier from Steubenville, Ohio turned 10.40 on his super sanitary H-D; Ron
Fringers "Dragon Daddy", breathing fire turned a 10.47; Harold Steele, 10.53;
Lou Mellone, a 10.55; and 1968 defending champ Mary Jorgenson, a 10.72; Don
Sanderagger a 10.74; and in bump spot, the E & J drag team with a 10.87.
Though Harleys dominated in
terms of number, it was clear that the bikes of the day and the ones to watch
were the twin-engined Triumphs of the WelchRoutt team. They had broken the yoke
of Harley-Davidson dormancy, taking the low E.T.'s in both fuel and gas, and on
top of that, broken the national speed and E.T. records to boot.
At 2 p.m. the initial fireworks
began. Larry Welch squared off against Walter Yee, recording a 9.24, defeating
Yee with his 11.45. The Welch-Routt twinengined Triumph was proving to be a
Harley-eater. Then Leo Payne and defending champion Bob Barker blasted off the
line, running neck and neck, wheel to wheel three quarters of the way down the
line, till Barker broke away and broke the eyes with a 9.38 to Paynes losing
9.39, bringing the spectators to their feet, applauding loudly.
On deck was Cook Nielson, who
took his place on the starting line opposite Gary Ackerman. Cook was to ride
Larry Welch's single engine dragster, since he was unable to qualify his own
H-D. While Larry's bike had taken third position Larry would be well occupied
trying to "bring home the bacon" since he was riding both of Sonny Routts twin
engined entries. Going through the traps, Cook found himself the winner with a
9.72 against Ackermans 10.00.
Next up was 1968 runner up Jim
De Salvo who lost to Guy Leaming who took the win with a 10.16 as De Salvo fell
back with a 10.29.
In round one of the top gas
eliminations, Lou Melone lost to Ron Fringer, as Fringer recorded a 10.40 to
Melone's 10.71. Next, defending champ Mary Jorgenson grabbed the win from John
Niedengard with a winning 10.60 against Neidengards losing effort of 11.62. In
the Steele . Sonderagger match, Steele took the win with a 10.54 against his
competitors losing 10.66. Cleaning up the succession of events in round one, the
E & J drag team found themselves pitted against Larry Welch and caught the big
red eye, as the Routt twin-engined Triumph took the win with an easy 11.11.
As an added feature, a
consolation eliminator was set up for the riders who could not qualify. This
brought together, for the final deciding run, Nick Palmerone the summer
nationals champion and Chuck Kennedy from Reymondsburg, Ohio. Palmerone took the
easy win, coming from behind with a 10.49 as Kennedy lost with an 11.43.
Semi final round in top fuel
brought Larry Welch back to the line to pit Sonny Routts Twin Triumph Terror
against Bob Barker's H-D. Larry knew that this would be a close one, and through
experience knew that he would have to work the lights very close in order to get
the edge on the defending champ, who was getting quicker with each pass.
However, Larry "shaved" a little too close, caught the red eye, and was forced
to hand the win over to Barker who took it at 9.26. Welch registered a 9.24.
Next up was Guy Learning, who
soon found himself screaming down the asphalt with Cookie Nielson in the
opposing lane. Fighting "wheelies" all the way: Guy finally pulled it out of the
bag with a-9.46, leaving Cook inside the bag at 9.79.► |
Competition 
