ADRL Inaugural Texas Drags – July 23-24^th, Baytown Texas

 Double Wins Highlight ADRL Weekend

 For three American Drag Racing League (ADRL) drivers, winning once this weekend at Houston Raceway Park (HRP) wasn’t enough.

For Pro Extreme driver Joshua Hernandez, one rousing victory in front of a boisterous hometown crowd proved to be plenty.

After winning the rain-delayed ADRL Universal Technical Institute Dragpalooza VI presented by Safety-Kleen, which was completed at HRP on Friday after being postponed in March, Pro Nitrous driver Rickie Smith, Extreme 10.5 standout Billy Glidden and Extreme Pro Stock’s John Montecalvo all made it a two-win weekend by coming up victorious at Saturday’s ADRL UTI Inaugural Texas Drags.

Hernandez and Ashley Owens (Pro Extreme Motorcycle) pulled out the other two class wins on Saturday, with Hernandez and his ’57 Fight Me MMA Chevy bringing the crowd to its feet on several occasions.

The last came in the final, when the Houston-area native went 3.720 – the low round of the weekend – at 204.91 miles per hour to knock off Steve Wiley that set off a memorable celebration in front of plenty of friends and family.

The victory double-dip proved especially rewarding for Smith, who dedicated both victories to his ill father.

Smith was impressive on Friday in running the best times in the class, but he was dynamite a day later, reaching 3.90 in both the semifinals and finals.  After qualifying in the top spot, Smith went 3.90 to defeat Shannon Jenkins in the semifinals, before knocking off Johnny Pilcher on a red-light win in the finals.

Glidden weaved his own memorable tale at HRP, winning for a second straight night just weeks after a devastating crash in Topeka.

The XTF standout returned quicker than expected to the track and the payoff was his best weekend in more than a year.  Glidden also extracted revenge on Gary White after losing to the Titan Motorsports driver at Michigan in June.

This time, White red-lighted and handed the victory to Glidden, who managed to come up victorious despite plenty of struggles in his 2010 Mustang on Saturday.

Montecalvo shot to the top of XPS after a weekend the New York native will never

Montecalvo was nearly flawless on Saturday, again saving his best for last in the final. After knocking off Elijah Morton – whom he beat in the finals on Friday – to advance, Montecalvo turned in a class-best 4.11 in the finals, knocking off Brian Gahm for the second straight race.
Montecalvo also has three straight wins to his credit, making him the hottest current driver in the ADRL.

After Owens had his streak of dominance snapped on Friday, the thought of it not being his weekend seemed to apply after he also broke two transmissions in three passes.
But Owens and his team kept at it and the payoff proved to be a trophy that the entire Fast by Gast team enjoyed.

His performance on Saturday was also an indication there might not be any chinks in his armor in PXM.
After going 4.13 to advance to the finals, Owens denied Travis Davis a double-win weekend by running another 4.13 that smashed any other elapsed time for any competitor in PXM.  Those times and the win came over the second-fastest PXM field in ADRL history.

Pro Nitrous Winner - Rickie Smith

(Bruce Biegler Photo)