Santa Rosa resident Pete Swayne will celebrate his 10th year of drag racing at Infineon Raceway at this weekend’s CAL-STEAM/KOHLER NHRA Division 7 Drag Races, and he hopes to take home the first-place trophy.
Swayne won the 1999 Top Alcohol Funny Car championship at the Division 7 level, and he should be one of the favorites as more than 500 competitors converge on the Sonoma Valley this weekend.
This marks the second consecutive weekend of drag racing at Infineon Raceway as the drag strip hosted the FRAM Autolite NHRA Nationals, July 27-29. Swayne competed in that event in TAFC and qualified 14th, losing in the first round to event winner, Jay Payne.
“I’m really looking forward to this weekend, ” said Swayne, 46, who served as a corporal in the Marines in the 1970s. “It’s my home track and we just raced there this past weekend so we should be ready. ”
Swayne resides on 50 acres in Santa Rosa and will soon plant a vineyard on his property featuring Syrah grapes.
In all, there will be 10 categories of drag racing this weekend, headlined by the Top Alcohol Dragster and TAFC divisions. Fullerton’s Sean Bellemeur enters the weekend atop the TAFC standings and is followed by Von Smith and Anaheim Hills’ Dennis Taylor, who are tied for second with 213 points each.
Racers will vie for cash and contingency awards of $181,400 over the race weekend, which features qualifying on Friday and Saturday, with final eliminations for TAD and TAFC set for Sunday at noon. The race weekend, which is part of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, is presented by Korbel.
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