Tom Kempf (far lane) ousted Paul Major and his Corvette in Drag Radial.
LSX Shootout Holds Surprises
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Michigan’s Tom Kempf overcame an early week testing accident in his 2000 Camaro to win the Drag Radial portion of the GM Performance Parts LSX Shootout over Paul Major and his 2001 Corvette held at Memphis Motorsports Park on Sunday, Oct. 14. Kempf, a favorite to win the class, thought he wasn’t even going to be able to compete after his car blew a tire near the finish line during a test session at a track near his home in Harrison Township, Tuesday before the event. The blown tire forced the car into the retaining wall, doing what seemed to be major damage to the car and the chassis. As it turned out, the car was repairable, and Kempf and his crew worked into the night Wednesday to get the car prepped for the race.
Judson Massingill (near lane) qualified on top of the All Motor field with a 9.04, but fell off pace in the final against Kevin Patterson
(far lane).
Kempf ended up qualifying second with a 7.85 at an impressive 185 mph. The number one qualifier was Steve Turley who drove his ’98 Camaro to a 7.79 at 181 mph.
In eliminations Kempf used a combination of performance and driving to keep his hopes alive, defeating Ken Quartoccio in the first round with an 8.00 to Quartoccio’s 8.47. In the second round Kempf used a two tenths of a second holeshot to stop a quicker Mike Brown and his Trans Am which ran 7.96 to Kempf’s lagging 8.04.
In the semis it was all Kempf in a race against Wade Hopkins. Leading from start to finish, Kempf fired off a 7.82, which was low e.t. of the day. In the final Kempf combined starting line prowess (.054 to .204) and performance to beat Major in a 7.87 to 7.89 race.
“I can’t believe this ended like this,” Kempf said in the winner’s circle. “In less than a week we busted up the car and blew up the transmission. We stayed up night and day to make this race, and we got the payoff. I can’t explain how great this feels,” Kempf added.
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In the All Motor eliminator, Kevin Patterson and his ’95 Firebird, drove away from number one qualifier Judson Massingill in the final with a 9.56 at 140 mph to Massingill’s aborted 9.20 at 122 mph effort. Patterson, from Roseville, Mich., began his journey to the winner’s circle with a first round win over Steve Hopkins and a semifinal win over Ashley Gable. “We were down a little bit here this weekend and qualified third, but we were able to work on it and make the car consistent which helped get us the win,” Patterson said.
In the LSX Index shootout, only Leopold Mcocki and Derek Carter remained in contention for the win in the marathon six-round race with Mcocki and his ’98 Trans Am besting Carter and his ’98 T/A. Both drivers left with nearly identical reaction times, but it was Mcocki and his 11.78 on an 11.50 index, which took the win over Carter’s number one qualifying entry, which posted a hard-braking 14.03 on a 13.50 index.