Race 5 of 6 - Medford Dragstrip

Aug 19th, 2023

Funny Cars at Medford Dragstrip

The California Independent Funny Car Association made the haul to Medford Dragstrip August 18-19th for their annual funny car race. 8 CIFCA funny cars were able to make the haul to race number 5 of their 6-race series presented by Good Vibrations Motorsports. The CIFCA Funny Cars had two qualifying passes before the top four ran off in a sportsman style ladder. Bobby Cottrell, driving Ken & Denise Wynn’s Bad Intentions Mustang ii, took home the System One Number qualifier. They were also awarded the Control Cables Longest two making the haul from San Diego, CA to Medford, OR! Cottrell clocked a 7.19 on the 7.10 index right off the trailer. Rick Alvarado was right behind them with a 7.20 for the number two spot. Chris Bates, driving the rough-n-ready mustang, qualified in the number 3 position with a 7.23. James Maher rounded out the top four with a 7.24. Jim Maher & Mark Tarabochia both struggled in qualifying spinning the tires on both qualifying passes. Pete Ortiz Jr & Jim Varner put together a nice best of three match races. They laid down some killer burnouts and Ortiz won the Mike’s Transmission Burnout Contest!

The semi-finals kicked off with James Maher, in the Junior Vibes 84’ Tempo & Rick Alvarado, in the Mighty Mouse Corvette. The last time these two matched up was in the final round at Samoa dragstrip where Maher got the better of Alvarado. History repeated itself with Maher getting the win light running a 7.286 to Alvarado’s 7.364. On the flip side of the ladder, it was a battle of the Mustangs. Bobby Cottrell in the Bad Intentions 72’ Mustang ii vs Chris Bates is Rough-N-Ready 65 Mustang. Cottrell with a slight starting line advantage over the Bates and after a few blips of the throttle Cottrell got the win line over Bates a 7.20 to a 7.21

The conditions were set for a final round under the lights. Cottrell and Maher faced off earlier this year at Sacramento Raceway’s Funny Car Fever and Cottrell got the win light. Cottrell is multi-national champion in Nitro Funny Car, A-Fuel & 7.0 pro. Maher was off the line first with a .020 reaction time to Cottrell’s abnormal .190. Then both drivers smoked the tires requiring them to get in and out of throttle and after a quick recovery Maher got to the stripe first with a 7.874 at 191 mph to Cottrell’s quick but losing 7.7825 at 189 mph. The Junior Vibes team got their second win of the CIFCA season and took the Points lead over the Rough-N-Ready team.

Thanks to the crew at Medford Dragstrip for giving us a great place to race with the challenging weather conditions. CIFCA’s final race of the 2023 is at Sacramento Raceway Park September 22-23!