The 2002 Ultra Quick 8 series kicked off this weekend with quite a few new faces and cars, along with many of the E-town regulars who have helped make this class into one of the premier racing series in the northeast. After an entire winter of trash talk and rumours of outlaw combinations, it was time to show your cards and let loose. As if on cue, the first car through the wall was Brian Ferrari who laid down the fastest time of the event and reset the Q8 record with a 7.585 @ 178.61! Fast by last year’s numbers, this was accomplished with a single stage of nitrous and one Dominator. The matchup of ET and MPH illustrates the degree of suspension tuning that has gone into the car to finally realize the potential of the combination. The rest of the field would be forced to play catch up due to the 2 tenths performance gap between Ferrari and #2 qualifier Jack Boer with a 7.817. Following Boer were Anthony DiSomma, John Schroeder, Art DeCesare, Rich George, Charlie Boy and Michael DeMartino making the fastest 8 cut with Jerry Morgano, Pete Pace, Mike Grosseto, Mike Modeste and Pete Unanue outside the 8.04 bump looking in. See ladder for qualifying times. One of the stranger runs was the qualifying attempt of Gene Giroud of WildRides Racecars, racing with the blown BBC of Rob Gregory’s yellow Chevelle between the rails of Gene’s green Duster. Gene did a small burnout, prestaged and left before activating the tree, the result of staging without the transbrake.The downside is that in the process, the motor blew a head gasket and main cap, not scrapping the block as earlier reported. Other qualifying casualties included Anthony DiSomma’s Mustang, John Schroeder’s IROC Camaro, Jerry Morgano’s Camaro and Anthony Barbaro’s Nova. With the level of competition raised to pro standards, parts breakage may be a recurring story this season. Conspicuous in their absence behind the wheel were Mitch George (new CJM camaro almost finished), Leo Barnaby (motor), Scott Curtis, Henry Jackson (motor), the Cheman Brothers (new ’90 camaro almost done), the Franco Brothers (motor), Bobby Bammann, Chin and Brian Taglieri (motor) and Marino Cintron (new NPS tube car illegal for Q8). Between these and other newcomers there may be more than a few dates with 20+ cars competing for 8 positions. The race was run as a national event with organizers managing every aspect of the day's activities like clockwork. WP, Bob Kasper, Walter, Michelle and Alex as well as the rest of the E-Town crew should be commended for running a top notch program.
I had a chance to spend a few minutes with Bob Kasper, the new tech director for the Ultra Q8. Bob is one of the most down to earth people I have met in a long time and will make a very positive impact in the way that the Q8 program is run. Among some of the issues of conversation: 25.1D issue for the fast cars , would like to keep the class under 7.50 rather than letting it run away (50lb permanent trophies for winners) ; Turbos, a real concern about regulating the turbos before someone blows the class away; Limiting nitrous systems, can’t do it without killing the SB guys. This will not be an easy job to maintain parity with multiple power combinations, but it looks like some steps are being taken to maintain the integrity of the class.
