Newsletter by Bob Johnson 877-221-1419 September 2017 John Ross wins 2017 Pro Gas Championship Race #7 and Pro Gas Shootout Mike Lang wins Lucas Oil K&N Filters Pro Gas Finals
Ross wins 2017 Pro Gas Championship By Bob Johnson Fontana, Calif. August 12, 2017 What a weekend John Ross and the B&B Electric racing team had during the 2017 Southern California Pro Gas Assoc., finals at Auto Club Dragway. The Trabuco Canyon, California-racer went into the final weekend of the season in third place, a distant 606 points behind leader Dave Meziere and second place Kevin McClelland. With some help from the leaders and a win in the Mountain View Performance race number 7 John pulled off a stunning championship win with his 63 Chevy Corvette. The Mountain View Performance race began with Steve Parsons qualifying number one, followed by Ross, Mike Lang, and Napa, Calif., racer Bob Hefley. In the first round, Ross defeated Larry Bradshaw, but almost as important, Dave Meziere lost to Paul Wiechmann. In the second round, Greg Martin fouled with Ross advancing, and in round three he beat Ray Cordeiro. John got a bye into the final round, while Wiechmann advanced when McClelland s 27 Roadster slid through the beams with a redlight. In the final, Wiechmann had a.022 better light than Ross, but he picked up his first win of the year with a 9.904, 155.81 mph blast to Wiechmann s 9.929, 153.16. Mountain View Performance, Dave Beckley, Ray & Kitty Cordeiro, Champion Radiators, Les Harris and Harris Family Racing, his Mom and Dad, and the SoCal Pro Gas Association. The Mountain View Performance race win on Saturday for Ross was only the beginning for the team, as they also won the annual Pro Gas Shootout. Ross won his first race of the year when he beat Paul Wiechmann in the final round, 9.904 to a 9.929. The 2017 Pro Gas Championship win for John Ross features a grand prize including an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii, sponsored by Les and Jeannette Harris and Harris Family Racing. Ross credits Lucas Oil, Derek Lamb, Doug Starbuck, Paul Wiechmann enjoyed his second Pro Gas runner-up of the season, finishing 5th in the series points standings. 2017 Pro Gas Champion John Ross Thanks to our event Sponsor Mountain View Performance August 12, 2017 2
Mike Lang ends Pro Gas season with win at Fontana By Bob Johnson Fontana, Calif. August 13, 2017 Perseverance pays off. Mike Lang entered the final race of the Southern California Pro Gas Assoc., season without a round win. That came to an end for the Northridge, Calif., racer when he won the K&N Filters/Lucas Oil Products Pro Gas Finals at Auto Club Dragway. Lang drove Mike Lang won his first SoCal Pro Gas event of the season in the Lucas Oil/K&N Filters series final. He ended up fifth in the series points standings. his 09 Davis Roadster to a final round win over Mark Fenton. John Ross made his presence known in this race as he was battling for the series championship after winning the previous day and taking the Pro Gas Shootout earlier in the day. John qualified number one, followed by Matt Treadway, Melvin LeForbes, and Gary Mignacca. Round one of eliminations opened the door for Ross title hopes as he defeated Dave Meziere and Kevin McClelland lost to Greg Martin. Race winner Lang won a doublebreakout match with Paul Wiechmann in round one, and he stopped the Pinto of Randy Fabbro in the second round. Mike clicked a.002 light in the third round to beat Melvin LeForbes, and he got a bye in the semifinal. Mark Fenton has had a great finish to his first full-season of Pro Gas racing, as he went to his second final of the year with his 27 Roadster. Fenton beat Gary Mignacca in the second round, and he put a stop to Ross domination of the weekend with a 9.915 to a too quick 9.890 for Ross. In the semifinal he used a.021 light to beat Treadway, before losing in the final to Lang, 9.902, 151.29 (.028 reaction) for Lang to Mark s losing 9.886, 143.66 (.021 reaction). Mark Fenton used a.021 light to defeat Matt Treadway, losing with a 9.909 timing. Mark Fenton had a.007 better light in the final against Lang, but broke-out by.012 to Mike s winning 9.902, 151.20. 3
2017 Southern California Pro Gas Shootout Champion John Ross John Ross capped a memorable weekend by winning the Pro Gas Shootout, defeating Steve Parsons in the final round. Greg Martin continues to put his Lumina in the top qualifying spots, and leads the shootout standings. John Ross not only pulled off a near-perfect weekend to win the 2017 Southern California Pro Gas championship, he also won the annual Pro Gas Shootout. The Sunday morning eliminator featured the best qualifiers in the first seven races of the year. Parsons opened the semifinals with a 9.913 second, 172.01 mph win over red-lighting Paul Wiechmann, and Ross took a.001 win over Ray Cordeiro, 9.875 to a losing 9.874 double breakout. The final paired two 63 Corvette roadsters with Ross getting a.009 advantage at the start, and won the title with a 9.936, 156.53 to Parsons losing 9.933, 166.25. Final points 1 Greg Martin 80 2 John Ross 75 3 Kevin McCelland 70 4 Dave Meziere 61 5 Ray Cordeiro 58 6 Evan Kowalski 52 7 Steve Parsons 52 8 Paul Wiechmann 43 9 Randy Fabbro 43 10 Mike Lang 39 4
Ray s Notes I'd like to start off by congratulating John Ross for winning our 2017 Championship. Going into our last week end of racing it looked like it would be a battle between Dave Meziere and Kevin McClelland for the championship but John had a storybook weekend. He not only won the Mountain View Performance sponsored race on Saturday but he also went on to win the shootout championship on Sunday and qualified #1 for our final K&N/Lucas Oil race. Like I said earlier "story book week end". Can you say "ALOHA"? We had another great year of racing thanks to all our great sponsors. As you all know "Harris Family Racing" not only sponsors our 1st race (THE RUSS HARRIS MEMORIAL RACE") but Les & Jeanette also present our champion with a week vacation for two to Maui. We can't thank them enough for all they have and continue to do for Pro/Gas. We would also like to thank K&N and Lucas Oil for teaming up together and sponsoring three races for us this year. They have both been long time supporters of Pro Gas and both have great products. Champion Cooling Systems came on board this year not only as a race sponsor but also as a contingency sponsor. I can tell you first hand they make the best radiator out there. After installing their radiator in my car, I found I had to turn the fans off at the time slip booth or the motor would be to cool to adjust valves when I got back to my pit area. Also, we would like to thank Mountain View Performance for sponsoring another race for us again this year & we wish them good luck in the countdown. Don't forget to call Dave if you need any motor or chassis work. Meziere Enterprises has been another long-time supporter of Pro/Gas by sponsoring "The Meziere Cool Down Nationals" and they also manufacture the finest quality parts you can buy. We can't thank them enough for all they do for us and I can't say enough about what a great family the Meziere s are. We'd also like to thank all our associate sponsors - B&B Electric - Riverside Transmissions - Autos 4 Less - Mike & Robin Boner - Mike & Cindy Lang - High Gear Enterprises and our contingency sponsors, Champion Cooling Systems ($200 winner & $100 R/U) and Crew Chief Pro ($50 winner & $25 R/U). Thanks to Bob Johnson for all he does for us all year and thanks to Tracy & all his crew at Fontana for providing us a safe place to race. Thanks to Mike Boner for taking care of the points for us this year and Dave Gotts for posting everything on our web site. Thanks to all the directors, Kevin McClelland, Dave Meziere, Mike Lang and Ryan Herem for all you guys do to make things run smoothly. Last, but not least I'd like to thank my wife Kitty for all she does for all of us. Next year we will be celebrating or 40th anniversary. We should all take a lot of pride in our association. I believe we are not only the longest running drag racing association, we were responsible for NHRA starting all the.90 class racing. For those that might not know NHRA invited So Cal Pro Gas to run an exhibition race, of our style of racing, at the 1978 Winternationals and the rest is history. We will be working on our banquet soon, so if you know of anyone who can help with top 10 prizes or merchandise or raffle items please contact us. Good luck to everyone in their racing endeavors the rest of this year and hope to see you all again next year. If you know someone that has a race car setting in their garage try and encourage them to come out and race with us next year. Let s try and make our 40th year the best yet. Race Safe, Ray Cordeiro 5
Pro Gas Scoreboard Race Date Winner Runner-up #1 Qualifier Event Sponsor 1 3/11/2017 Dave Meziere Paul Wiechmann Kevin McClelland Harris Family Motorsports 2 3/12/2017 Kevin McClelland Bob Harris Gary Mignacca Champion Cooling Systems 3 6/10/2017 Dave Meziere John Ross Greg Martin Meziere Ent. 4 6/11/2017 Dave Meziere Kevin McClelland Ray Cordeiro K&N Filters--Lucas Oil Prod. 5 7/8/2017 Larry Bradshaw Mark Fenton Vince Campa Cordeiro Motorsports, Riverside Transmission, B&B Electric 6 7/9/2017 Mike Boner Randy Fabbro Evan Kowalski K&N Filters/Lucas Oil 7 8/12/2017 John Ross Paul Wiechmann Steve Parsons Mountain View Performance 8 8/13/2017 Mike Lang Mark Fenton John Ross K&N Filters--Lucas Oil Prod. Shootout 8/13/2107 John Ross Steve Parsons Greg Martin Special Thanks Mountain View Performance For sponsoring Pro Gas Race #7 Special thanks to K&N Filters & Lucas Oil Products For sponsoring Pro Gas Race #8 Southern California Pro Gas Association 6
2017 SoCal Pro Gas Points 2017 Final -Full listing at www.socalprogasracing.com POS DRIVER #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 Drop Race 1 John Ross 302 613 718 416 309 411 820 518-300 -300 3507 2 Dave Meziere 805 313 820 811 313 313 301 307-300 -300 3383 3 Kevin McClelland 518 813 313 709 310 311 610 309-300 -300 3293 4 Mark Fenton 401 300 511 300 609 508 506 708-300 -300 3243 5 Paul Wiechmann 711 311 607 310 715 308 2962 6 Ray Cordeiro 617 509 407 417 404 312 502 310-300 -300 2878 7 Evan Kowalski 300 612 402 511 308 417 410 303-300 -300 2663 8 Randy Fabbro 301 406 300 402 416 618 407 413-300 -300 2663 9 Larry Bradshaw 410 300 507 304 715 304 305 0-300 2545 10 Mike Boner 300 306 300 510 312 709 403 305-300 -300 2545 11 Bob Harris 502 707 307 412 300 311 2539 12 Greg Martin 401 312 417 415 415 314 411 401-300 -300 2486 13 Steve Parsons 411 415 312 603 316 402 2459 14 Matt Treadway 414 401 300 403 312 618 2448 15 Mike Lang 300 300 300 312 304 309 314 805-300 -300 2344 16 Bob Hefley 303 502 307 509 414 306 2341 17 Vince Campa 409 302 300 300 518 409 2238 18 Gray Mignacca 304 417 303 509 300 313 2146 19 Rodney Scarlett 305 502 300 303 403 1813 20 Gary Hasselbrock 312 300 409 303 1324 21 Charlie Waggoner 614 502 1116 22 Jim Isreal 402 302 300 1004 23 Travis Balough 603 300 903 24 Gene Carter 517 300 817 25 Randy Kersey 306 405 711 26 Mark Lewis 300 411 711 Drop Race Total Southern California Pro Gas Association 7
Pro Gas Sponsors www.knfilters.com www.lucasoil.com Harris Family Racing Les and Jeannette Harris B & B Electric Gary and John Ross Champion Cooling Systems Mountain View Performance 8