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Well, this is the sight nobody wants to see on a race day. Currently we are in a holding pattern due to Mother Nature. The radar indicates that the cell should be out of here in a few hours, so the plan at this point is to wait out the weather. We’ll be back at some point later today with some sort of update; whether it’s racing or not is yet to be determined.
We are back up and waiting on the first round to begin. Currently there is no wi-fi in the tower due to the storms from last night/this morning, so we’re connected via mobile hotspot. The plan is to go right into the first round of eliminations and skip the last round of qualifying; we’ll be running all day until this first round is done tonight.
In an effort to catch up with Bart Tobener, Brian Mitchell put the wood to his Renegade machine yesterday. As you can see, the belt didn’t like the changes, but he’s back up and ready to roll this morning.
Despite the rain, there are still a number of folks that have shown up to populate the car show area. There were more hotrods rolling in when we walked through earlier.
One of the best parts of an NMRA/NMCA race are all the pets that show up on the property. Will sit for treats!
You may remember the article we wrote last week on Emilee Hurt and her battle with diabetes. Strange Engineering has been helping to raise money for Emilee and her battle; many of the racers have stepped up to support her. Yesterday a raffle was held and a substantial sum of money was raised. You can check their cause out on Facebook – Emilee’s Race For A Cure.
This is what happens when you’re the number-one qualifier in Coyote Stock – you get to show up late and take off the car cover just prior to eliminations. Joe Charles is ready to take on all comers today.
Mike Bowen was hard at work this morning changing out a clutch disc in his Coyote Stock Maverick,. The Pennsylvania-based racer said the only reason he was under the car was to try to get coverage on StangTV. Based on the number of nuts and bolts we saw under the car, we think he was lying.
We love Steve Moberley's Factory Stock Fairmont! Up until about two weeks ago the plan was to enter Coyote Stock with the car, but Moberley decided he didn't want to deal with tuning the clutch in the class; instead he has a C4 in the Fairmont and is working out the bugs.
Round One Results
Round One Notes
Titanium Bob Cook hasn’t gotten into the 8.20’s yet, but he hasn’t forgotten how to drive. In his first-round win over Jim Breese, he uncorked a .009 reaction time, best of the round by .031-second.
Brian Mitchell ran low ET of the round in Renegade with an 8.266 at 165-plus, in soupy air. The humidity from this morning’s rain is still lingering – it’s like walking around a sauna even though the temperature here is only about 75 degrees. Number one qualifier Bart Tobener took it easy in round one, putting down the track on his bye run.
James Meredith continues to impress in Factory Stock, taking out Chris Lee in his first round matchup with a strong 10.98. Meredith and Matt Amrine are the only two competitors in the ten-second zone so far this weekend.
Bart Welte’s .008 reaction time was the best of the first round in Factory Stock; his 11.27 sees him move on to the second round against Louie Sylvester, Jr, who took out Steve Moberley with a strong 11.06.
Jay Dold is quietly having a solid season in Factory Stock, The fire inspector from Ohio took out John Leslie, Jr. in round one with an 11.07 to Leslie’s 11.26.
Two races ago, Dwayne Barbaree had the car to beat; at this race he’s been struggling to find the tuneup all weekend long. He went down to Tony Alm in the first round of Street Outlaw competition. Alm put up a 7.18 to Barbaree’s 7.58.
Filthy Phil Hines continues to make a run at the Street Outlaw title – he won over Nicole Priola on a strong 7.19 effort.
John Urist put up low ET of the round with a 7.03 at 199 MPH in his matchup against Bryan Sarsfield’s big-block Mustang. Urist was the only competitor in the 7-ohs.
Andy Manson’s also having a good weekend so far in Street Outlaw. He advanced easily in round one when Steven Wardlow didn’t make the call. Manson will face Alm in round two.
Charlie Cooper had quite the wild ride in round one of Renegade competition. His hood blew off at halftrack, cracking the windshield - but not before he turned on the win light against Johnny Lightning. He's already replaced the windshield in preparation for round two. The hood? We're not so sure.
Looks like Mike Bowen’s clutch change helped out – he turned in a nice holeshot on Brandon Alsept to take the win in Coyote Stock round one – 10.713 to 10.688.
Very uncharacteristic for Drew Lyons to lose on a holeshot, but that’s exactly what happened in the first round against Steve Gifford. Margin of victory? Six thousandths of the second.
Joe Marini turned in low ET of the round in Coyote Stock; he clicked off a 10.58 on his way to taking out Doug Johnson.
The only nine-second pass in round one of Pure Street came from Teddy Weaver, who took out Scott Barker easily when Barker didn’t make it off the starting line. Weaver has a bye into the final round.
Goose got the jump on Tommy Godfrey – too much of a jump, in fact, as he left the line .029-second early and handed Godfrey the win. Godfrey faces his JPC Racing teammate Ron Cullember in the second round; the winner of that matchup goes on to face Weaver in the final.
At this point we are complete for the day; weather has moved in. We finished up round two of some of the index classes this evening but did not make it back around to the heads-up classes. We’ll be back tomorrow with more coverage, so stay tuned!
