The Circuit’s Second Event of 2025 – Short Circuit – Provides a 2-Day Drag and Drive Experience Around Racing at Tulsa Raceway Park
After successfully hosting ‘The Circuit – A Charity With Horsepower’ drag and drive events, Michael Narx and Eric White decided to up the ante for 2025 and add a second event to the brand, ‘Short Circuit.’
Based on a two-day format, Short Circuit would employ Tulsa Raceway Park for the drag racing element, incorporating racing on Friday night and Saturday afternoon / evening. A Saturday morning cruise with a goal of 100 miles would provide the ‘drive’ portion of the event, and awards would take place Saturday night.
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Six classes were on the docket, with all but one of them run on the quarter-mile distance. Originally four runs, two per day, were the basis for the racing portion of the event. This was later amended to two runs on Friday, and one run on Saturday, to allow participants to enjoy the drive.
The largest class would be the ‘You Vs. You’ one, with 38 vehicles registered. The basis of the class is consistency, with the winner determined by the smallest spread of elapsed time between the three runs.
A top five spot would require three runs less than four hundredths of-a-second apart, with the top three spots separated by just five thousandths of-a-second. Despite weather changes from day to day, Dalton Howard would secure the win.
Wheeling a full-size Chevrolet pick up, Howard put together a trio of 11.2-second runs just .020-seconds apart, earning him the top spot. Michael Baker grabbed the second spot with a .022 of-a-second spread from his 16-second Suburban, and Eric Gibson’s .025 of-a-second tally snagged third.
The quickest average came out of the second largest class, the Power Adder category. Friday night witnessed Johnny Heller make the lone 7-second pass on the quarter-mile distance with a 7.944 pass with Boo Kvamso in second thanks to an 8.091 lap.
The Saturday drive would sideline Heller, as a noisy rear end would be his downfall. Kvamso posted his best run of the event, an 8.065, to complete his average at 8.149 and capture the class win.
Neil Torbett’s 8.338 average scooped up second, and Dan Saitz grabbed third with an 8.616 from his Fox Mustang notch.
Right behind the Power Adder class in performance is the All Motor category, and David Miller showed he would be a force in the class from the first pass. Clocking an 8.983 and 8.968 on Friday’s evening sessions, Miller survived the Saturday drive, and then returned to Tulsa Raceway Park to post his best time of the event, an 8.854, to finalize his average at 8.935 and capture the class title.
Three rides clocked times in the 10-second range, and John Daugherty would be the quickest with a 10.277 average for second place in All Motor, while Scott Barker claimed third with a 10.585 average.
For those that like a clutch pedal and H-Pattern manual transmission, the Stick Shift class is the ticket. Becoming more popular at drag and drive events in the last few years, the class had a good variety of rides at Short Circuit.
Topping the class would be drag and drive veteran, Phil Balmaceda, who once drove his Corvette ZR1 from Texas to Alaska for the first Alaska Speedweek drag and drive event in 2023. Balmaceda would be the only competitor with a 10-second average, a 10.613, to secure the victory in Stick Shift. Second was Rich Van Allen, and David Brewer earned third.
The 12.00 Index class opened with Jeff Short clocking a near-perfect 12.009 to grab the early lead, and a final shot of 12.014 on Saturday gave him a 12.023 final average for the class win.
Norman Cornell made the best pass in the class, a 12.002, which factored into a final average of 12.070, good enough for the second place spot. Don Harmon’s 12.111 average gave him the third slot by a narrow margin of six thousandths of-a-second.
The lone class on the eighth-mile standard was 6.50 Index, and Aaron Fowler opened with the best run of 6.557 on Friday for the initial lead. But Fowler dropped out with problems, and Scott Varker took advantage to put together a 6.719 average for the class victory.
Some specialty awards were also handed out Saturday night, with the Furthest Traveled going to Phil Balmaceda, who wheeled his Corvette ZR1 572 miles one way from Texas.
The Quickest Female award was captured by Abby Larsen for her 10.256 average finish, while the ‘Biggest Energy’ award to Michael Baker, Eric Carroll and Dustin Peterson. The ‘Quickest 60 Foot Time’ award was claimed by Boo Kvamso, and the ‘Geezer’ award was secured by the 74 year-young Don Gould.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Drag Drive Repeat / Morrow Photography.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com