The very potent Manitoba-based TAD team owned & tuned by Clif Bakx made a return to it’s winning ways during NHRA Lucas Oil Series action last weekend…
Racing a new chassis for this season (a former Kalitta Racing TF car) skilled driver Gord Gingles tamed the field during featured action for the NHRA Lucas Oil Regional Drag Racing Series event held at Tri-City Dragway, near the scenic cornfields of rural Earlville Iowa.
Gingles, who is from Winnipeg, faced off against defending 2014 event champion Randy Meyer (from Spring Hill, Kansas) in the final. Gingles made a clean start and drove away to take the victory with ease posting a winning run of 5.358 seconds, 263.00 mph. Meyer was uncharacteristicly slow off the line and had trouble moving down the track recording a losing 6.156 secs, 183.39 mph.
Prior to that victory, Gingles had topped Mia Tedesco and James Stevens, driving “The Bull”. His 5.301 secs ET recorded during round #1 was the team’s best ET of the season.
“It was rewarding to get the win in more ways than one,” said Clif Bakx – team owner. “After back-to-back Lucas Oil Regional championships in 2012 & 2013, we struggled with multiple ‘gremlins’ for most all of 2014. I think we won all of 2 rounds last year — hero to zero as they say.”
“So for 2015 we went back to basics. We picked up this Top Fuel roller from Kalitta Motorsports, and loaded it up with our complete drivetrain. It’s taken a couple of outings to get used to how these frames react to our level racing — but things started looking up after some quick runs beginning at Edmonton’s IHRA Nationals – when we ran a 5.34 secs in over 4200’ of air.”
“So we were optimistic when we we booked it to Earlville,” Clif added. “We missed Friday’s first qualifier and then smoked the tires on Q2 Sat morning. But then we settled her down for Q3 and got a decent run to qualify number seven.”
“That run in E1 was our best run in a long time; 3.50 @ 225 to the 1/8th, and although we lost a cylinder early it still ran a 5.301. We made it to the final to face Randy Meyer, a good friend & top notch racer. A good reaction time & a clean run got us to the stripe first, and for the second time in four visits to Earlville, we took home the Wally!”
Right now the race team’s racing schedule for the remainder of the season is a bit undecided. But having apparently turned the corner performance wise again – Clif and Gord are looking towards the future.
“At this point we are fourth in points, and we are not sure if we will go to Oklahoma for that final points meet,” Clif added. “Right now points really are a secondary — getting this car back to winning form is the priority, and I have to say that this recent success is really the result of the crew’s incredible commitment to this car.”
Posted by: Bruce Biegler
Photos courtesy of Barry Bergeron (www.egleye.com) & Jim Kampmann
