Drag Illustrated Issue 152, January 2020 | Page 92

The Champions of 2019
DAN PHELPS
EARL FOLSE
less than one round’s worth of points. It was the
third major series title for Folse, who previous-
ly scored divisional championships with both
IHRA and NHRA.
In MWPMS Race Star Wheels Top Dragster,
Phelps and wife Melodie were already heading
home to Labadie, Missouri, when they learned
he’d clinched the season title.
“We had lost in the first round and it was
cold and there was nothing more that I could
do anyway, so we just decided to pack up and
go home,” Phelps explains. “After qualifying I
was 47 points ahead of Danny (Nelson), so at 20
points per round he had to at least win a semifinal
to beat me.
“I was actually listening to the race on the In-
ternet while we were getting fuel at a truck stop
in Joplin, Missouri, and when Danny lost in the
second round I knew no one else could catch
RANDY MATLOCK
me, so I hugged Melodie and congratulated her
because she puts just as much into this as I do.”
After missing the season opener in Texas,
Phelps made it to the semis in his series debut
at St. Louis, where in 2013 he suffered a serious
blowover accident that led to the purchase of his
current car, a 2014 Race Tech from Russ Farmer
in North Carolina.
He followed up with a pair of first-round exits
at Tulsa and Ferris, Texas, before returning to
Gateway in August and scoring the first major
race win of his career. Remarkably, it didn’t take
long to repeat with Phelps scoring once more at
the next race in Memphis. The win also boosted
him into the series points lead, which he never
relinquished.
The Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Pro
Mod Series will open its 2020 season Mar. 27-28,
at the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas.
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 152
and Marty Chance, who built the car’s torque
converter.
“This is a real family team and I couldn’t be
out here without them,” Wells states. “I also want
to thank our employees back home at Midstate
Traffic Control in Oklahoma City. We’ve got really
good people there that take care of business while
we’re off racing.”
In X275, Matlock didn’t start out the year run-
ning for the championship, but after his son and
crew chief, Cory, pointed out midseason they
were sitting second in points, he was convinced
to make a play for the season title.
“We kind of laid out what we needed to do for
that to happen,” Matlock says. “Then we were
fortunate enough to win in Memphis and when
we got to Tulsa for the final race there were prob-
ably 10 or 12 different scenarios that could have
happened, but realistically it was really between
just us and a couple of cars.”
When second-place holder Kenny Hubbard
opted out of attending due to business and other
racing obligations, the door swung wide open for
Matlock to seal the championship deal.
“When we ended as No. 1 qualifier I think that
pretty much wrapped it up,” he says.
Matlock’s ‘92 Mustang was put together by
Beilman Fabrication, with owner Mark Beilman
attending most races to help with chassis tuning.
The car carries a Design Performance-built 436ci
LS engine boosted by a single 88-mm turbocharg-
er with ComSync EFI by Ryan Micke at Mick’s
Performance.
“I want to thank everyone who helped make
this happen, but my son most of all for getting
us out there,” Matlock adds. “I also need to thank
my wife. We just celebrated our 40th wedding
anniversary, and I have a daughter and two little
grandbabies, a nine-month old granddaughter
and a four-year-old girl who just loves this.”
Top Sportsman veteran Folse races with wife
Nicole and son Josh by his side, along with long-
time friend Robert Colwart, who offers general
trackside support and frequently drives parts
back-and-forth to Pilcher Automotive in Alabama
for machine work. Wins at the season opener in
March at Dallas and a month later in St. Louis,
were major factors in his MWPMS champion-
ship-winning season.
Like Matlock, Folse relies on his son to make
the tuning calls on his Tommy Mauney-built ‘68
Camaro outfitted with three stages of nitrous
injected through a 776ci Sonny’s Hemi.
“Josh is my main man,” Folse declares. “He
makes it happen as far as keeping me straight,
keeping the car straight.”
Heading into the final two MWPMS events,
at Memphis and Tulsa, Folse was locked into a
tight points battle with Bob Gulitti for cham-
pionship honors, but semifinal finishes in both
events turned out to be just enough for him to
take the title home to Raceland, Louisiana, by