Boucher Claims Third Win of Season at ASRA Race 4

ASRA
Jul 5, 2023
3 min read

8/20/2022

On Saturday, August 20th a total of 64 racers were at New England Dragway. The day’s action was being run in memory of Steve and Beth Broadbent who had passed away at the start of the 2022 year. The Memorial race was sponsored by the Broadbent family along with many anonymous donations in addition to the generous donation from Jim Boudreau. There were clear skies and the stage was set for some great action in New Hampshire.

Round 3 got underway with an I/SA heads up match-up between Mike Ganchi in his ’85 Camaro and Bill Johnson in his ’80 Volaire. This one was over at the start as Johnson went red trying as Ganchi had the performance advantage running 11.64 to the losing 11.94. Eric Cabral also benefited form a red light start as he took is G/SA ’69 Nova past Pete Merceri in his ’77 Corvette. The next pair had Nic Barsamian breaking out in his big block powered ’70 Chevelle 11.25 (11.26) while Jim Whitehead was right on his dial with a 10.82 in is C/SA ’98 Camaro. DJ Pires would leave a smidge too early with a -0.005 in his H/SA ’69 Nova as Bill Pomponi Jr. ran right on his prediction of 11.37 with his G/SA ’69 Camaro. In a double breakout matchup, Gregg Sutherland ran under his dial of 10.11 by nine thousandths while TJ Boucher was two hundredths under his 11.61 prediction. Henry Specht used a three hundredths starting line advantage paired with his 10.43 (10.39) to dispatch Dean Ribeiro who was closer to his dial with a 10.89 (10.87) from his C/SA ’96 Camaro. Eric Merryfield would be the final winner of the round as his 0.007 light and 10.64 (10.57) was enough to get past Tim Stickles 0.027 and 12.69 (12.63) in his Malibu Wagon.

Quarterfinal action started with Ganchi running dead on with a zero to his 11.65 dail in while Pomponi trailed closely behind with a 11.37 (11.36). In his beautiful B/SA ’69 Camaro, Specht turned on the win light over Sutherland in his clean SS/GA ’66 Nova. Both ran three hundredths over their dials with 10.42 (10.39) and 10.12 (10.09) respectively, but Specht had the advantage off the line. In a race decided by just 0.011 seconds, Boucher’s GT/GA ’87 Camaro got past Merryfield’s GT/TD ’96 Dakota. Boucher held 0.007 advantage at the tree and turned that into a 9.83 (9.79) win over Merryfields 10.548 (10.50). Whitehead squared off with Cabral and the round was over at the start as Whitehead left with a -0.002 red light. Cabral lifted to a 11.34 on 11.25 dial.

A very close double breakout race started the semis as both Ganchi (11.635 on 11.64) and Specht (10.385 on 10.39) ran five thousandths under their dials. The nod went to Ganchi and he would advance to the final. Boucher became the other finalist as he grabbed a little advantage at the start and the drove the stripe adequately to get around Cabral. In the final, Boucher was able to utilize a better reaction time and a 9.86 (9.81 dial) to force Ganchi into a breakout pass of 11.62 (11.63 dial). This was Boucher’s third win in 4 races of the 2022 season.