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Kevin Helms Takes Command Of GM
Performance Parts Top Stock; Conquers Corda
In qualifying, Helms started out by fighting (like everyone else) the hot and muggy atmosphere that clouded Cordova Dragway Park before the skies opened up with thunderstorms. He mustered a 10.552 at 125.12 mph in that first session from his naturally-classes B/S entry, placing him fifth in the order. The GM Performance Parts Top Stock drivers were granted a second qualifying pass Friday afternoon, with the weather conditions much improved. Number one qualifier, Paul Mercure of Team Checkmate, picked up his ’68 Camaro by nearly eight-hundredths of a second, and recorded Top Speed of the meet at 129.73 mph. Kevin Helms made a further leap, though, finding almost a tenth and half in his combination, pushing him past the ’64 Savoy of Gene Mosbeck and into the No. 4 qualifying position. That set up the eliminations ladder, calling for Helms to meet undefeated Top Stock ace Al Corda in the first frame, along with his feared fuel-injected small-block 2001 Firebird. Corda qualified eleventh with an off-pace 10.540, but the Top Stockers had already come to learn of Corda’s strategy of not showing his full hand. The question remained, how much was he holding back?
Come first round, Mercure easily dispatched newcomer Tom Rix and his new ’70 Buick Grand Sport combination in the first pairing, but all eyes were on the burnout box behind them, as Helms and Corda pulled into the water. There was no doubt that this time, the kid gloves were off. Right from the start, both drivers were set on kill, with Corda nipping a negligible starting line advantage, .513 to Helms’ .515… both phenomenal reaction times on the .500 Pro Tree start. Corda showed his hand at last with a stout 10.366, but it could not beat the full house 10.338 at 128.58 mph blasted out by Helm’s stick-shift Camaro. The twenty-six thousandths of a second separating the pair at the finish line was enough to guarantee a new GM Performance Parts Top Stock winner, as Corda marked his "lose" column for the first time. Nothing told Helms that his battle was going to get any easier, however, as all but one of the first round winners found the 10.3-second zone as well. Mosbek’s Mopar, Rusty Hall’s Mustang, and the Camaros of Mark "Big Y" Yamarino, Bobby Brannon, and Chris Knudson joined Mercure and Helms going into second round.
Mercure was first out of the box again, but the pressure was off for this round, as he was the recipient of the odd-lot bye run. Even so, he rowed through the gears on the Team Checkmate Camaro to serve notice to the competition with a 10.292/129.34 mph blast. Helms faced the lone Plymouth of Gene Mosbek in round number two, and used another excellent .519 reaction time to send the Mopar packing, 10.347/127.96 to 10.417/126.70. "Big Y" Yamarino ran away from the last remaining Mustang with a 10.395/128.42 in another Team Checkmate Camaro, while Shreveport Top Stock Shootout winner Bobby Brannon disposed of Chris Knudsen with a strong 10.346/126.28 mph. For the semi-finals of GM Performance Parts Top Stock, Helms found himself with the unenviable task of dealing with Mercure, while Brannon faced the other Checkmate car of Yamarino. Helms stayed steady on his game with another 10.345, which could not have been a match for Mercure’s 10.285… if it were not for the red light left glowing on the tree from Mercure’s foul start. Brannon survived a tight race from start to finish with "Big Y", who runnered-up at the inaugural Top Stock race at Norwalk. Brannon’s .519-initiated 10.344 handled the equally sharp .525 and 10.390 pounded out by Yamarino. With stellar reaction times throughout eliminations and Elapsed Times going into the finals separated by a mere one thousandth of a second, the GM Performance Parts Top Stock final promised to be a barn-burner. Seemingly wired to the starting lights, the pair of ’69 Camaros leaped from the launch pad with .504 and .506 reaction times. The race was all but over in that instant, however, as Brannon lost traction and valuable time right off the starting line. All he could do was watch as Kevin Helms hit each shift just right, and sped away to a 10.363/127.68 mph pass to illuminate the win light for his first victory in the GM Performance Parts Top Stock series. For the 2001 season, it’s the technological terror of Al Corda: 1, and the four-speed musclecar of Kevin Helms: 1. In the "what have you done lately?" world of IHRA Summit Drag Racing, though, anyone wondering who is in command of the ship can be answered with "Kevin Helms." HOME
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Cordova,
IL – Kevin Helms was a part of the inaugural Top Stock meeting at
Norwalk Raceway Park in 2000. At that event, he fell in the second round,
but he went on to drive his forest green ’69 Camaro to the Stock
Eliminator title that same weekend. Helms was back for another shot at an
IHRA Iron Man at the 22nd Annual Amalie Oil Summer Nationals,
but it was the one associated with the second GM Performance Parts Top
Stock of 2001 that he truly desired.
Kevin Helms waded through a stout
field of 14 of the fastest Stock Eliminator cars in heads-up
competition for his first GM Performance Parts Top Stock title.