Byron Dragway - Fall Bracket Nationals Race Weekend

This past weekend, Byron Dragway hosted the Fall Bracket Nationals. This was the last bracket race for the 2021 season. Saturday was the Super Pro Box/No Box race. There was one Time Trial pass for all cars, followed by the first round of eliminations. Here is some of the action.

The No-Box cars ran seven rounds before reaching the finals.  In the final it was Steve Roehrs, Federic Wi., against Cross Plains, Wi.' Taylor Schlueter. Steve was killing the tree all day with his worst light being a .036 on his bye run. Before that his worse light was a .014. That continued in the final with a .011 to Taylor's .066. Taylor tried to lead at the stripe, however in so doing he broke out, 7.042 on a 7.05 DI. Steve ran a 6.443 on a 6.40 to take the No-Box win a spot in the $4,000 Super Pro final.

Steve Roehrs foreground, Taylor Schlueter background

After seven rounds of eliminations, the Box final came down to Tim Vincent, St. Charles, Il., against Stephen Liss, West Bend Wi. In a very close race, it was Tim Vincent taking the win light. Tim was slightly better on the tree .042 to Stephen's .047. However, it was Stephen running closer to his dial-in 5.095 on a 5.09 DI to Tim Vincent's 5.080/5.07. Tim won by .0001. It doesn't get much closer than that!

As darkness closed in on the track, Tim Vincent and Steve Roehrs turned their cars around quickly to run for the winner's $4,000 Big Check! At the tree Tim was slightly quicker with a .018 RT to Steve's .024. At the stripe, Tim took the win light with a 5.069 on a 5.06 DI. Steve broke out slightly with a 6.423 on a 6.43 DI.

It was a long day of racing, but the racing was quite spectacular. It appeared, everyone was pushing everything to the limit.

Sunday

The day broke with a lot of rain clouds stretching as far as the eye could see. The forecast was not looking particularly good. Because of the threat of rain and the addition of classes to the schedule, Staff decided to start earlier than announced. They were in the "Hurry-up Mode". About half way through Pro Eliminator time trials, it started to rain. The action was stopped, but the rain didn't. After several hours, the rain let up and track drying started. The sun was out briefly and as the track was nearly dry, the clouds rolled in and it started raining with lightning and thunder this time. After a period of time, it was clear that there weren't enough daylight hours left in the day to get the track dry to start racing again. The decision was made to call a rainout that would not be made up. The Byron Staff did everything humanly possibe to get this race in, but Mother Nature had a different thought. This concluded the Bracket racing season.

Here are a few images from the racing prior to the rain.

I want to thank the entire Byron Staff for allowing me to cover the Big Bucks Bracket 2021 season. Due to  my early season health issues, I wasn't able to get out until around mid-season. I hope I was able to capture some of the racer's memories.  I will probably be out for the Diesel Drags in late October so I hope to see everyone there.

There are two albums covering this weekend and here are the links:

For Saturday click here.

​For Sunday click here.

If you see something that interests you, it can be ordered by clicking here or on the Ordering tab at the top of the page.