by Damon Cuccia

    Fun Ford Weekend returns to Louisiana, the first FFW at No Problem (according to Bill Alexander) went really well. The event went sorta smoothly, if you take out the Timing and scoring problems, the wreck during the True Street cruise on Saturday and other minor technicality the event went really well. Mr. Alexander was really pleased with the turn out of racers and spectators and will bring his show to NPR next year. The next event should be even bigger after the good review the top racers gave the track. There were many cars there from all over the country, from Texas to Pennsylvania and everywhere in between. And alot of the big name racers showed like Billy Glidden, Chuck Samuel and all of the big names from FFW. Some of the big local names showed up to to race in the bracket classes also. 

 Now the names that really matter to us, the club members who competed in the event. There were no less than fourteen members racing with two in the car show. A few members also came out to the track to watch also, and most from what I saw wore there FPA shirts, so the club did have a presence for FFW.

 In the Competition classes, Bobby Achor, Richard Freidrichs and Blake Brady competed in the Tough Truck class. All three posted good qualifying times and had high hopes going into Sunday. There hopes were dashed at the beginning of First round though. Bobby and Blake were eliminated in the first round, Richard advanced by cutting a .000 light in his '99 Lightning. That wouldn't last though, he was then taken down in the second round by one of the FFW regulars, A valiant effort either way for all three of them though. Richard also ran the True Street class in his '04 Cobra. On Saturday he placed the second fastest 12-second time in the ET challenge and beat himself with a red light in the first round of the bracket race on Sunday. 

 The Bracket classes is were most club members were found. there were three bracket classes, Fast Ford, Quick Ford and Street Ford. The Fast Ford bracket is were Greg Parr, Marco Mecera. Paul Dupiere and Darrel Devenny competed. Greg Parr walked away with to semi-final trophies and some money on Saturday and Sunday. The best story was from Paul Dupiere, on Saturday he ran against on of the FFW regulars in the Muscle Mustang category and beat him, and on Sunday both him and Greg Parr toke down two 6-second dragsters back to back. There was also some drama on Sunday when during time trials Marco Mecera's transmission line blew off and oiled down the track as well as his whole car. Marco was able repair the line and give his car a quick wash n' wax to make the first round that day. Way to bounce back Marco.

  There were five members competing in the Quick Ford bracket. Charlie Robinson, Warren Parr, "Spot" Volion, Dallas Chassion and James Summerfield made some rounds at the event but none of them walked away with any prizes. Jimmy Summerfield came close though he advanced to the semis on Saturday, but could not make it back to the lanes due to an electrical gremlin preventing his car from starting, if there was a Hard Luck award that day, Jimmy would have gotten it. Good effort anyway buy every one in this bracket. There were almost 50 cars lined up for this bracket alone.

  Street Ford had two club members competing. Some chump in a blue T-Bird (Damon Cuccia) and Blake Brady, If you don't count how Blake did in Tough Truck you would say he had a really successful weekend. On Friday, he ran the street challenge bracket and toke top honors. And on Sunday he won the street ford bracket. Even though this was a small class of 11 vehicles he still did really good. Damon ran the race on Sunday and walked away with a semi-final trophy.

  In the Car Show on Sunday, two members, Justin Bordelon and Don Stout entered there car in the show. Justin's stunning Torino won numerous award and also captured best of show. The Best of show trophy was taller than Justin. That was a really good showing for a fellow club members in the car show ranks.

  All of the club members did really good in the first FFW in Louisiana in over 10 years. Even if most of us walked away with nothing we still have the memory and can claim that we raced in the Major league of Ford Racing.........at least for one day. Hope that next years event will be even bigger and that we have even more members competing in the events. 

Images courtesy of Gary Marino

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