Wow, what a start for 2010! Thank you to all the racers who made it happen.
Thursday Carpet Oval racing had a great turnout, even for New Years Eve.
Jeff Dupey earned the win with a stock slash, running against strong competition in the Pro Short Course class. Stampede had Dirt Oval driver Jon Miller come in to sneak out the win (even after more than a few motor problems).
Junior Short Course (formerly Stock Slash) had Autumn back on her game, only to fall to Tina Dupey (who also kicked butt on Saturday, more on that later). This class is still very popular for those into this for the sport and camaraderie. Gregg Frank will also be one to watch, coming on strong with only a few weeks under his belt.
Our Bomber class is on the edge of hitting 50 laps with two drivers this week hitting 49. Art had to leave early, but had some great runs in qualifying. Keith and Bob swapped the lead a couple of times with Bob earning that podium spot.
Gearbox is returning with Keith just beating MacKenzie. She had the lead a few times, but an accident on lap 32 let Keith get ahead. She says she let him win, but only just this one time!
Good racing, with no school the next day we ran 3 qualifiers and the mains so everyone had a bit more fun.
Friday night had the annual New Years Bash. Normal class’s were run plus in infamous Figure 8. While all the competition was close, we enjoyed that the Hartford group came up with their Mini Late models to field an 8 car race. Jason More won the Figure 8, with Dave Leung taking 2nd and Chris Kuehne taking 3rd. I’ll mention Alex who did earn 4th. He had a strong and stable race going, and worked he way up the ladder (and also had a good race in Pro Short Course, earning the win in the B and bumping up to the A.
Yes, there was drama. The flyer said this should be a 15 minute race. I misunderstood a conversation during the day and set the computer for 60 minutes, finally calling it at 20. My error, but a review of the results show it would have been the same either way. We will tweak the parameters for next time, but all had some different type of fun.
In all, 89 registrants, some very special racers and a whole lot of action is what its all about. Plus, the top three drivers in each of the normal class’s walked away with trophies for their efforts! I didn’t intend to push Scott out of the announcers booth, I was there for support and assistance. But I got carried away. My compliments to Scott for his normal running of the Friday program and his help over all the days and extra projects.
Saturday we thought would be quiet compared to Friday, boy was I wrong. Seventy three registrants competed. Three in our new Novice class, 5 in our HTO Vintage. Again a lot of excitement over the day.
A new layout greeted everyone with most in approval. Again the hot action was in Junior Short Course where the bump drivers made it exciting. Tina (remember her win on Thursday) battled the big dogs and took third, after holding on to second for parts of the A main (she bumped from the B earlier in the day).
Tanner Gould took the win in JR Short Course with Ken Nelson working hard for second.
Similar down in Pro Short Course, with A-D mains again, the bump drivers making it interesting, Willy took first (driving Davin’s truck who had to leave before we ran). Mark Kollock taking 2nd and Blaine Gould taking 3rd.
Gearbox had the brothers Brueske battle for the 1 and 2 spot. Jack Sommers (bump driver from the B, boy did he have trouble in qualifying) took 3rd, earning my accolades for not giving up and proving his skill on the track.
Our Vintage race was exciting, with the bump driver being again a stand in. Jim Tollard driving the Jeff Dupey vehicle took the grid. Willy led for a while, Mark Kollock stretched his legs taking over the lead on lap 10 and never looked back. Willy held in until lap 46, when a gear let loose (not bad for a ride he picked up Friday at 5). Larry B took the third place spot in this class and Vaughn took 4th.
Our HTO Vintage class resumed. Brandon Radtke tried to make it (he has a boo boo on his knee) and finally decided best not to push it. Greg ran his ride the first qualifier. We all offer our best wishes to Brandon, it is serious, but we all hope you recover OK).
Summary- there was a lot of great action over the three days. Hundreds of registrants had fun. So did a lot of spectators. Anyone who stopped by was greeted by racers and shown the ropes, it was pretty cool.
Thank you to all, it was a blast.
Bill