Weather Grinds FL2K to An Early Halt – Brett LaSala, Doug Cook, Jonathan Atkins and Marcelo Duran Among Those Left in Competition
Two years ago, the popular Bradenton Motorsports Park was hit with a massive amount of wind and rain from Hurricane Ian, and the resulting damage forced their FL2K vent north to Gainesville Raceway in northern Florida, where it was completed.
This time around, Hurricane Helene skirted the area, but Bradenton Motorsport Park survived the weather to host their FL2K event over the weekend.
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Following in the footsteps of the originator of the ‘2K’ event, TX2K, Victor Alverez keeps the FL2K event schedule as a mixture of roll racing and drag racing. The four-day event started with roll racing started on Thursday, with three fields of cars qualifying to run for north of $10,000 in prize money.
The fastest field of rides was the Outlaw Roll Race segment, with the fastest car on the property belonging to past winner Marcelo Duran. His Nissan GT-R qualified at 203.68 mph, and ran as fast as 209.95 mph before the segment ended with a four-way split of the pot on Friday night due to curfew.
The top qualifier in the Modified Roll Race segment, Jonathan Clavijo, and the Sport Roll Race class, Mirza Baig, also advanced to the third roll of eliminations before weather and curfew forced a split of the overall purse among the remaining participants.
When the racing action switched from roll racing to drag racing, the Street Car Shootout class was one to watch. With 100 tech cards sold, but only room for 64 to play in eliminations, qualifying would be an important affair.
The quickest sixteen would populate the Elite Street Car Shootout category, and Jim Braun would make the most noise in qualifying with a 7.07 at 202 from his revamped ‘Great White’ 2012 Ford Mustang.
Braun rode a string of 7.0 at 200+ mph passes to the final round where he was due to face Doug Cook and his ’72 Chevy Nova, which also found the 7.0 and 200+ mph performance arena. Rain may have ended the chance for these two to line up, but we have a feeling it will happen again soon.
Jimmy Dale, a popular small tire racer, qualified his nitrous-fed 1980 Ford Fairmont atop the True Street Car Shootout field with a 7.99 at just 159 mph. But he would be sidelined round two with a parts failure opposite Florida racer Mike Moretti, who advanced his 2012 Mustang to the final to face Will Chowanec, the third qualifier in his 2016 Mustang. Chowanec clocked a pair of 7.93 passes to move to an all-Florida Mustang final before Mother Nature shut down the festivities.
Unlike the Elite and True segments of Street Car Shootout, the Pro sixteen car field had the top qualifier out of competition in round one. Juan Vicuna, who qualified at the front of the pack, spun to lose to Tyler Hall in the opening round.
Hall then got his walking papers from Robbie Dowdy in round two, who wheeled his recently-completed 2002 Pontiac Trans Am Firehawk to the final where he was due to face the Nissan 300 ZX of defending class winner Dean Moslon Jr.
The final sixteen car field of Street Car Shootout runners was the Super segment, and although Susy Becerra survived the early upset attempts, the top qualifier exited in the semifinal round at the hands of Jill Hicks. The ZL1 Camaro of Hicks was due to face local runner and popular fabricator Tye Braun in his single turbo Ford Ranger, but the wet conditions scrubbed those launch conditions.
The second largest field of competitors would be the Stick Shift Shootout class, where the clutch-pedal and H-pattern shifter required combatants would be divided into three classes of sixteen qualifiers each. The top field was the Outlaw Stick Shift Shootout, and with $20,000 payout to the winners, we saw the notable runners, including Jonathan Atkins, Joel Grannas, Ryan Pederson, Cleetus McFarland, Sean Madden and Jon Rogers.
The top qualifier was Josh Manning, who produced a 6.67 at 214 mph to lead the field, but he went out to Grannas in a round one upset. Atkins then disposed of Grannas in round two, setting up a battle with Cleetus for the semifinal round. At the green, Cleetus was out first on the better reaction time, but Atkins produced his third-straight 6.8-second time slip to deny the 6.96 from Cleetus by just over half a car length. On the opposite side, Rogers used a pair of 7.16 runs to earn his final round slot, but what could’ve been an epic Outlaw Stick Shift Shootout final was not to be contested on an early Sunday morning.
The second group of stick shift drivers, Street Stick Shift Shootout, had Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive Stick Shift class winner Chad Fegley in the top spot with an 8.94 at an off-pace 124 mph. Unfortunately, the off-pace came with unfixable issues, sidelining Fegley before round one.
Kyle Wade of the Boosted Boiz may have qualified in the eighth spot, but his Honda hatch laid down three low 9-second passes to earn a final round spot. On the other side of the ladder, first time drag-and-drive participant Jeff Smith wheeled his Competition Orange Mustang Cobra through three rounds to slide into the other final round spot.
The third and final class is Sport Stick Shift Shootout, and Andrew Sheridan managed to overcome a busted driveshaft to qualify atop the field with a 9.94 at 137 mph. Sheridan survived three rounds of action in his Ford Mustang to advance to the final round, where he was due to face number two qualifier and fellow Mustang driver Gibson Freter. Despite bringing an untested combination, Freter found his groove to make three solid runs, but the all-black Mustang final was halted by bad weather.
The Extreme 28s class had all eyes on the new ‘Snot Rocket 3.0’ of Brett LaSala, and the fresh ride from Moore Race Chassis went right to number one with a 6.38 at 221 mph. LaSala rolled through the first two rounds to the semifinals, where he was in the lanes opposite fellow Mustang owner Brian Cummings. The other pair would be an all 6-second battle between Joe Jimenez Jr. in the ‘Dirty Taco’ Toyota pick-up, and Troy Pirez Jr. wheeling Victor Alverez’s Supra. The weather pulled the curtains on what could’ve been a solid final four of racing.
The All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) versus Dual-Clutch-Transmission (DCT) classes once again saw a solid turnout, and a trio of 16-car fields were whittled down to four before weather stopped the action. Among the four remaining in Outlaw AWD vs. DCT was 2023 winner Asier Torres, who once again clocked runs over 200 mph in his GT-R.
The Elite AWD vs. DCT class witnessed its share of upsets, but number two qualifier Mike Bandy guided his GT-R to the semifinals and looked to be the favorite based on performance. The only AWD vs. DCT segment where the number one qualifier survived to the semifinal round was Street AWD vs. DCT. Ben Forney guided his 2019 GT-R to low 9-second blasts, earning him a date for the semifinal round.
The X-Street / X-Front-Wheel-Drive (XFWD) class is one that continues to gain popularity, and the sixteen field was anchored with an 8.28 pass. The top qualifier was the AWD Acura Integra of Myles Kerr. He advanced to the third round and got the semifinal win, but broke the engine in the process. He chose to not scale the car, resulting in a disqualification and moving his opponent Aaron Lopez to the final round against Wes Spry.
Some stellar rides filled the No-Time Shootout class, where the contestants battle on small tires for a $10,000 winner purse. Among those still in contention in the semifinal round included Eric LaFerriere, wheeling the ‘Wasabi’ HEMI-powered Toyota Supra.
The A90/B58 Shootout focuses on the Mark 5 Toyota Supra and the BMW engine platform that not only the Supra uses, but also the BMW models that use it. 23 cars qualified, and after two rounds of racing, there were six cars remaining, including top qualifier Justin Lazarus, who used an 8.27in qualifying and an 8.10 in eliminations to stay in competition.
The 9.50-Second Index class was down to a quarterfinal final, with last year’s winner already out of competition, the class was in route to crown a new champion. Among those still in contention were number one qualifier Thomas Quelly, and 2022 runner-up Shawn Calabrese. The 10.50-Second Index class was a massive one, and the Fox Mustang of Carl Wilson was among those left in with six cars remaining when the rain hit.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of KWS Images.
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