Wayne Newman beats Jimmy Galante for Fontana Pro Gas title, and Series Points lead

By Bob Johnson
California Dragway Fontana, Calif. June 5, 2005

Mid-way through the 2005 season, Wayne Newman has had a very good season racing in the Southern California Pro Gas and Super Street series. The Lancaster, Calif.-based driver of the Wayne & Dave's Automotive-sponsored Chevy Lumina won the April SoCal Super Street Association event at LACR, and capped that with a Pro Gas win over Jimmy Galante at Fontana that moved him into the SoCal Pro Gas series points lead. He is also third in the SoCal Super Street points chase.

Product Engineering sponsored the event that attracted 70 race cars. Anthony Galati of Lake Havasu, Ariz., took home the Martin Vasquez-sponsored number one qualifier award as his 90 Corvette qualified right on the index with a 9.900. Audrey Israel equaled Galati's time for the number two qualifier with her 27 Ford roadster, and Phil Miller was third with a 9.901. Five cars—including PJ Giacalone, Carl Jennings, Randy Kersey, Doug Crumlich, and Scott Hudson all qualified with 9.902 runs. A record 21 cars qualified on the 9.90 index!

Wayne Newman went to the final round by defeating Joe Galati in round one, he dodged a bullet in round two when he left with a .092 reaction time and beat Dan Beresford's Vega as he broke out with a 9.895 and .016 reaction time. A .001 margin of victory win in round three resulted with a 9.926 (.015 r.t.) beat Gary Mignacca's 9.928 (.014 r.t.), and in round four, Newman ran a 9.938 (.012 r.t.) on a bye run.

Jimmy Galante qualified 67th with a 9.855 (-.045), but had his best Pro Gas showing when he went to the final with his flamed-black 67 Chevy Nova. In the first round he used a 9.91 and .009 reaction to beat Shannon Blowers, in the second round he advanced as Bob Duncan lost with a 9.900 after red lighting by .002 seconds with his beautiful 63 Corvette. Jimmy G beat Karen Comstock in the third round, and he ran a 9.903 to beat Doug Sedmak in round four.

In the quarterfinals, Newman ran a 9.908, 185 (.007 reaction) to beat Greg Martin's 95 Lumina, Galante and Ryan Herem had a tough battle, with Jimmy's Nova getting the win with a 9.888 (.023 r.t.) as Herem lost with a 9.881 (.021 r.t.). Les Harris got a bye into the next round. In the semi, Newman and Harris met with Harris red lighting and Newman getting the win with a 9.874 to a 9.860. Galante ran a 9.879 on a bye run.

Newman made the most of the final round, as he got the win—and the series points lead—with a perfect reaction time and 9.920, 161.94 for the win, as Jimmy G drove the DragTrans.Com Nova to a 9.566 time after a .030 reaction. Joe Roubicek racing sponsored the event trophy.

Newman will go into the sixth of eight races with 3025 points, followed by Paul Wiechmann with 2838, Rich Okerman has 2814, and Alan Hoefer is fourth with 2723. Others in the top ten include Pete Kinney (2703), Ryan Herem (2608), Doug Spencer (2513), Phil Miller (2444), Randy Fabbro (2421), and Dave Fargo (2416).

The next event on the SoCal Pro Gas schedule is the Harris Family Racing-sponsored event at Fontana on August 20 at Fontana.

Ray's Notes