For 60-year old dragracer Dale Boomgaarden, the road to the Good
Guys AA-Gasers Association Points Series Championship was filled
with thrills and spills.
GILROY – For 60-year old dragracer Dale Boomgaarden, the road to the Good Guys AA-Gasers Association Points Series Championship was filled with thrills and spills. But any other way would just not be as sweet.
Boomgaarden – whose Gilroy Car Care shop on Monterey Street will reach its 17th year of business in July – notched his series title at the Nov. 1-3 Good Guys finale in Bakersfield.
“All in all it was a real fun summmer for an old guy like me,” said Boomgaarden, who races in a 1968 Plymouth Baracuda owned by Gary and Jerry Mallicoat.
After qualifying in the number two position with a 6.86 at 202 miles-per-hour, the veteran driver entered the first of three rounds. Right off the starting line, Boomgaarden broke his differential and immediately thought he lost the race.
“I didn’t know he red-lighted so I thought my weekend was over,” said Boomgaarden, who only found out that day he had a chance at the series championship. “He left too soon so he was disqualified and I automatically advanced.”
Before his second round drag, Boomgaarden had to find a new rear end for his car and, thanks to the generosity of fellow racer Howard Anderson, of Sacramento, he had the borrowed part put on. Then came the oil spill on the race right before his all over the lane he had to race in.
“It was really a handful,” said Baumgaarden, who slipped and slided to a second-round victory with a 6.90 at 202 MPH. “(The borrowed rear end) had the same ratio so it was not at issue at all.”
The Gilroyan driver – who took two first places, two second places in the six races leading up to the final event – was now headed the final round. And he was up against none other then the man who gave him his rear end that got him there. Anderson lined up aside Boomgaarden in his 1937 Chevy Coupe and, in a split second, they were off.
“I was off the line first and out ahead of him. I was at the top of first gear and just as I did the 1-2 shift, the burst panel and intake manifold blew out,” Boomgaarden said. “I just heard a big explosion so I hit the fuel shutoff and kept coasting.
“I expected him to come up and fly past me,” he added. “At half track, I saw the front of his car. He was coasting a little faster.”
Anderson was having car trouble as well. The two drivers coasted along to the finish line with Anderson’s 11.97 nipping Boomgaarden’s 12.03 at 71 MPH.
“It felt like we were stopped. He had me by about three feet at the finish line,” Boomgaarden said. “It was the slowest side-by-side finish I’d ever seen.”
But by taking runner-up honors in the last of seven series races, Boomgaarden sealed the AA-Gasers Championship in only his second year of drag racing.
“It’s just a real good bunch of people who enjoy racing and putting on a good show,” Boomgaarden said. “People like watching because we’re fast and we’re loud.”
Boomgaarden will look to defend his crown next year when the series starts up in March. The mechanic/driver is also planning an East Coast racing tour.
