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Jeg's Quick 32 News, Stats & Racer Pages |
Top Sportsman News, Stats & Racer Pages Statistics |
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Updated May 19, 2008 |
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Dedicated to Sportsman Drag Racing(No Pros) Fun Weekend Planned for Norwalk But Rain Damped the RacingBill Bader's race track and facility in Norwalk was in great shape. Too bad mother nature was a bitch this weekend. All the promotion in the world can't stop the rain. The track prep. was good and all the construction work on the surface was nice. The surface was smooth and the data logger liked surface on the asphalt better than the concrete if you can believe that. The asphalt is made with a new compound. I hope it works as good in the heat as it did in the cold because the tires were hooked up on the big end. We and others could hit the 60 foot for hall it could hold but there was no spinning the big boys after 660 ft. This race track was as clean as Holiday World theme park. If you have not been to either, you are missing an adventure. The attention to detail with the landscaping, painting, and facility maintenance is incredible. Bader has sponsorship on everything. I even saw a sponsorship on the dump truck parked and the maintenance shed. The energy and coordination that facility has is beyond my description. I had an opportunity to speak with Bill Sr. He jumped out of a pick-up someone else was driving and picked up a trash bag someone has collected for him to pass by to pick up. Bill Sr. could have been sitting in the warm Media Center sipping coffee and chatting with the distinguished guests. No. He was pick up trash. I took the opportunity to tell him how much I appreciated this facility and only wished were lived 5 hours closer. He smiled warmly and gave me a friendly hug. What a warm guy. I don't hug anyone except my wife without getting a weird feeling. I am not a warm, touchy-feely person. I guess if that is what is takes to be half as successful as he is, I guess I should pay attention. Bill's son (Bill Jr.) as excited about our sport as anyone I have ever observed. His announcing is second to none. Sorry Leo, you are second to Bill, but everyone needs roll model. Leo is better than any of the NHRA regular announcing staff but Bill Jr. is second to none.
LODRS 3-2 Post-poned to National TrailMother nature would not cooperate during the eliminations on Saturday. Essentially one round of racing was completed on Sunday. Many classes had one round of eliminations Saturday and a second (one more) round on Sunday. What is confusing to me is that the continuation of this race will be held at Columbus instead of the next scheduled Division 3 LODRS event which is at Route 66 in Chicago. That event has lots of time on Friday night. Car counts are down so schedule will not be an issue. It is clear why mid-Michigan is out because the last two years, the TAD and TAFC classes have not been contested there. Route 66 is a better facility to race than Columbus but it is tough to compare most tracks to eastern US Super Tracks like Route 66, Gateway, Bristol, and Norwalk. Ending on a good note. Congrats to Tom Stultz for winning the Top Sportsman Shoot-out. Tom ran a 6.66 nudging out Badeye. It was announced that was the second quickest pass in D3 by 0.001 seconds. Number one is held by Rick Corn. I think, but I am prejudice, the Top Sportsman Race was the best one out there Saturday night. The Jet Dragsters were loud but not competitive. The Wheelstander's were interesting but one was broken. There was more broken parts with the exhibition cars than with the ones that were racing. I wonder if the exhibition cars have performance clauses written into their contract or if it is like going to the doctor's office. You know what the doctor's office is like? Usually what broken gets fixed but if not you have to keep going back until they get it right, "practicing". You keep paying and paying with no professional guarantees or warrantees. If the exhibition team shows up to the line with a broken car, do they get paid anyway? The Top Dragster field made a good showing. Fast cars and good ET's. There were many blower dragsters and there were enough fast NOS rails there that the teams needed to use the little blue bottle to get into the field. It was nice to see a little bumping unless you are the bumped. (Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt). LODRS 3-2 Post-poned to National Trail (updated May 20) The remaining members of the Sportsman Racers Advisor Group met and the summary of the meeting was as follows:
Div 3 Sportsman Racer Advisory Group together in the media center including
a couple of the SRAC members from out of division that were in
attendance.
We discussed the options
1) Stay over for Monday - (While it was expected to be dry, there was
going to be very cool temperatures until late morning.)
2) While we would certainly like to complete the event at Norwalk,
returning solely for the remainder of the event would be extra
travel for most. Since Stock, Super Street, Top Dragster and Top
Sportsman were not being contested at the Summit Nationals, any
consideration to trying to tie it in with that event, simply would not
work.
3) Our next divisional event at Route 66 - That's where many objected
simply from the logistics. For the few Div 1 racers in attendance
they have a division race at Atco the same weekend. While I did
not have a statistical breakdown of where the remaining entries were
from, it seemed logical that the Norwalk event, the majority would most
likely be in closer proximity to Columbus, Ohio than Joliet, Ill.
The very logical decision was to finish the race at Columbus. It was a group consensus. Unfortunately not all can be happy but I look at it this way. The weather forecast was poor and everyone going to the race knew they were taking a chance of returning at a later date. I am glad for the efforts the NHRA and the track did to get us a decent surface to race on. Most can now drive to Columbus and get a two-fer. :-) 2008 Fast Car Race Schedule In The Mid-westEmail me any additional date so I may post them NORTH CENTRAL DIVISION And more interesting stuff if we can think of it |
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