Biondo and Seipel’s K&N Spring Fling Million Wow’s ‘em in ’Vegas

Biondo and Seipel  rolled the dice in VegaS and won Big— and So did the racerS!

Several years ago, co-promoters Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel added the K&N Spring Fling Vegas event to their boffo Bristol Spring Fling race. Unaware of how many racers would support their new race, they elected to add the Pro class of cars to the program. Normally, only Super Pro is contested at your typical big money bracket race.

This two-class format proved to be hugely popular in Vegas, but with the introduction of the K&N Million this year, the promoters feared that the anticipated heavy car count combined with other possible issues (weather, etc.) might impede progress and there simply wouldn’t be enough time to complete the race. They decided, with a good deal of trepidation, to limit the event to Super Pro.

To smooth any possible Pro class competitors’ ruffled feathers, the boys came up with a Pro 32 class format, which involved pre-entry into that field. Thirty-two Pro class cars would run their own race after which the winner would be seeded directly into the sixth round of the Super Pro field. Any concerns regarding fallout from their decision were laid to rest when more than 500 tech cards were tallied up the night prior to the event’s start—on with the race.

The five-day marathon kicked off with a test and tune on Tuesday. Wednesday featured one time trial followed by nearly 13 grueling hours of eliminations. The semis (Round 8!) saw the two remaining door cars of Steve Schaefer and Rob Asbury fall to Tim Markoglu’s and Al Wickell’s dragsters. In the finals, and in the blink of an eye, Wickell handed Markoglu the $10,000 winner’s purse compliments of a red light, thank you very much.

Thursday’s $20K-to-win program began at 8 a.m. with a 512 car field. Thirteen hours later, 12 cars remained with only 11 drivers. According to the ladder, J.R. Lobner still remained in with both of his entries. Luckily for Lobner, he faced off against himself, which naturally advanced him to Round Six. Remaining were Chuck Hawk Jr., “Disco” Dean Karns, Russell Stryker, Luke Bogacki, Tommy Dutcher, Tony Marconi, Kevin Brannon, Dave Umberger, Lane Dickey and Big Show regular, Jeg Coughlin.

Advancing to the quarter-finals were Karns, Bogacki, Dutcher, Dickey, Brannon and Lobner. With six cars left, there was a bye run in the semifinals based on the best winning reaction time, which went to Bogacki with a .002. In the balance of the round, Brannon defeated Dutcher, and Lobner took the win over Karns. For the final round’s $20K, Bogacki took the reaction time advantage and won with a dead-on-the-dial “5.” Brannon also ran dead-on, but Bogacki’s leave made the difference.

Friday witnessed the very first K&N Spring Fling Million, an event that would pay one talented racer $270,000 to win by the end of the day. Vegas gets very little rain, but of course, this day there were brief showers and high winds, bringing the program to a halt periodically—but the show went on.

As mentioned earlier, the Pro 32 class made of 32 pre-entered cars, ran all by themselves until a winner was chosen. Then the winner was seeded directly into the sixth round of Super Pro. That winner on Million Dollar Friday was Paul Russell in his Nova over Justin Lamb’s Super Stocker.

The quarter-final round contenders were Thursday’s runner-up Kevin Brannon, Jeff Verdi’s Firebird, Courtland Carter, David Beedy, Lane Dickey, Jerry Ross and Pro 32 winner Russell.

The bye advancing to the semifinals went to Beedy’s GTO. Dickey took the best of Ross, Brannon defeated Carter, and in a door-car versus door-car battle, Verdi beat Russell.

The semifinals would pit door car against dragster in both halves. In the first set, Dickey took the win courtesy of Beedy’s red bulb, but don’t forget Verdi. He made the trek from Virginia, hauling his Poncho on an open trailer and experiencing several mechanical issues along the way. He earned an entry into the field by winning one of the many raffles for the Million Dollar entry and by defeating Thursday’s runner-up, Brannon. His good fortune continued into the final round when he used a .014 reaction time combined with a dead-on-the-dial “1” to negate Lane Dickey’s .009 reaction time and .017 over the dial. Verdi’s pinch of good fortune and never-say-die attitude netted him a cool $275,000!

Saturday ushered in race number four with its $20,000 payday. After five long days and thousands of passes down The Strip, the event’s final four came down to Disco Dean Karns, Paul Nero, Steve Casner and Top Fuel ace Shawn Langdon. Casner trailed Langdon, and Karns used a .014 reaction time and a dead-on-the-dial “9” to defeat Nero.

For the event’s final contest and $20K, Karns launched with a respectable .012 reaction time compared to Casner’s .047 and was once again dead on the dial with a “5.”

Again, Biondo, Seipel and crew schooled the troops on how to put on a big money drag race. All involved are champing at the bit for Spring Fling’s return to The Strip next year.

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