And I'm not only talking about the racing. It was a very hot evening. I was expecting a larger turnout of cars because of the upcoming NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing. However, it appears that the warm weather kept many away. While the car count wasn't the highest we've had this year, there was some quality cars, as witnessed by the above Tom Motry's Drastic Plastic driven by Buddy Hull. Randy Adler showed up to test his '57 Chevrolet Pro Mod. Eric Vollmer with his Top Alcohol Dragster and John Biagi with his Top Dragster were also testing. Ron Potenzo had his 1963 Corvette Pro Mod with Bobby 'D' driving out tonight. It had a problem with its first attempt and had to pushed back and towed back to the pits. The second time it came off the line, but then started wheel hopping and Bobby 'D" had to back out of it. There were some Juniors out practicing tonight. Becky and Bob Churchill were celebrating their wedding anniversary by testing with their son Bobby. Bill Freis was also testing with son. There was some licensing runs being made including a Junior going through the program. What we lacked in numbers of cars, was made up by the variety. Everything from Juniors to the World Record holding Fuel Altered Drastic Plastic. Here are some more images from tonigjht.
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It was a great day for Ricky Pena but before we tell that story, the rest of the story must be told. Under beautiful skies and cooler temperatures, Route 66 Raceway had a great day to run the Rockett Brand Racing Fuel ET Bracket Race #7. In addition, the Midwest Top Sportsman Series ran its race #4 of the season. And to cap the day, we had the NHRA Junior Drag Racing League running. A super day of racing. The Bracket races start in the morning with two rounds of qualifying for all the series. In the NHRA JDRL it was Mikayla Highland with the Best Reaction Time. After the qualifying, the round robin eliminations started and the racing was hot and heavy. At the end of each Rockett Brand Racing Fuel Bracket elimination round the Midwest Top Sportsman Series hit the track. The first final to be completed was JDRL Sportsman Division. Cooper Hammelen edged out last race winner Braden Bowden to take the win light. The next final was High School that matched Derek Lyons against Julie Nettles. It was a good race with Derek Lyons taking the win. This is Derek's second win of the season at Route 66. Next up was the JDRL Modifieds. Allison Furman defeated Jack Nolan to take the trophy. After the High School final, the rest of the classes continued their eliminations. Here are the results: In Sportsman, it was Route 66 part-time announcer Bill Larson taking the win. Bill raced hard through the eliminations, but in the final round his competition broke prior the race and it was a walk off for Bill. This was Bill's first win this season. It was a popular win for the Route 66 staff! In Pro Eliminator, it was the AMC AMX of Ricky Pena finally taking the win light. Ricky had finished in the runner-up position four times before taking this win. In the final, he was up against Bill Chase. At the Tree, Bill red-lighted giving the well earned win to Ricky. I wished Ricky had decided to run for points this year, because with his consistency, he could very well be leading the points race for the championship. In Pro Bike it was Bill Homuth going up against Mike Bostic. There was good field of bikes today and in the end it was Bill Homuth taking the win light. In the last of the bracket finals, it was the Super Pros going at it. It was Kenny King's dragster up against the door-slammer of Dave Ancel. It was a great race with Kenny King eking out the win. In the Midwest Top Sportsman Series, it was Tony Grzelinski going head-to-head against Bob Romano, with Tony taking the light. It was another great race. On a side bar to the day, we had the 2015 Australian Pro Stock Champion Nino Cavallo testing the car he will run in the 2016 11th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing to be held at Route 66 from July 28th through the 31st. Nino was here with his family, wife (Amanda), son (Dion) and daughter (Laura), racing and vacationing for five weeks before returning to Australia to defend his title. The car he is driving is a former V. Gaines Pro Stock car. Here is a link to Nino's racing Facebook page. On top of a very successful day of racing, we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset!
After seeing the cars that were in the pits, I was really excited about tonight's O'Reilly Auto Parts Race Your Ride. There was Randy Adler with his 1957 Chevrolet Pro Mod car, Bruno Massel, Host of Garage Squad, NHRA National announcer and Two-time Competition Eliminator World Champion, with his Pro Stock Chevrolet Cobalt and Joe Zolper with his wife Jennie's Plymouth Duster. None of these cars got to run because when Brian Beck with his Top Sportsman Pontiac came to the line, it started to rain. After a short delay, we were able to start running again. The second time Brian came to the line after his burnout... ...it started raining again! After an hour of delay, the track was almost dry when it started raining again and the event had to be canceled. We did get in about an hour or so of racing. Here are some images: Notice the red light on the front Frank Krauss' blue Pontiac. The lights are the Knight Rider Kitt lights!
To see the rest of the images from today's shortened event, please click here. To see all our images, please click here. If you see something you would like to order, please click here or on the Ordering tab at the top of the page. Next up, is tomorrow's Rocket Brand Fuel ET Bracket Race with Midwest Top Sportsman and the Junior Dragsters. We started day 2 of Rockford Speedway's Outlaw Clay Classic under the threat of impending rain storms. In conjunction with the WOO Latel Models, the Wisconsin Legends Racing Dirt Series was running. We were able to get the hot laps, Late Model qualifying and the Late Model Heat races before it started to rain. While the anticipated thunderstorms did not develop, it did rain enough to sufficiently wet down the dirt track. After three hours, the Rockford Speedway and WOO staff were able to get the track in good enough condition to continue the night's program. Due to the late hour and the condition of the track, it was decided to shorten the program. The Late Models completed the Last Chance Showdown followed by the Legends Feature Race of 15 Laps. The Legends started 14 cars. Minneapolis' and 9 time Dirt Legends Champion Tom Brokehouse fought off all challengers taking the checkered flag. At the conclusion of the Legends race the Late Models hit the track. Brian Shirley led the field of 24 to the green flag. He immediately grabbed a lead. During the race the track started to deteriorate and the cars were bouncing around. Brian Shirley maintained his lead throughout the 30 lap event taking the win. While the weather did hamper the racing, the competitors managed to put on a great show. Let's hope the World of Outlaws decide to return to Rockford next year!
To see all the images from the day, please click here. It was quite unusual to see the Rockford 1/4 mile high banked track covered in dirt. Wednesday was the first of two days of the World of Outlaws racing. First up was the WOO Sprint Cars accompanied by the Badger Midgets. The racing started pretty close to on time and continued through qualifying and the preliminary races. The Badger Midgets started their 'A' Feature, but it didn't take long for the action to come to a halt as #13 Clint Woolbright of Fayetteville, Ar., got crossed up between turns one and two on the first lap and flipped. As soon as they re-started they got to the second lap, when coming out turn two #21R, Denny Smith of Mukwonago, Wi., hit the wall and collected four other cars. The cars of Lamont Critchett, Jordan Caskey and Scott Koemer in addition to Denny Smith were unable to continue. After the restart, the racing got hot and heavy and went to the finish without further incident. Taking the checkers was Sun Prairie, Wi., driver Brandon Waelti. This was Brandon's second win in a row. Following Brandon to the finish were Aaron Schuck, Joliet, Il #53 and Robbie Ray #3 from Davenport, Ia. In the A-Main for the WOO Sprints it was Donnie Schatz taking the field to the green flag. The race was stopped twice with the first time involving Christopher Bell 77x having a problem on the front stretch and ending up on his side. On lap 18, the #14a Wayne Modjeski had an issue on the front stretch and had to retire from the race. It was Donny Schatz leading every lap and taking the victory followed by David Gravel #5 and Shane Stewart #2. This was a special night for the Rockford Speedway and the fans must have felt so also for there was not a seat to be had because of the capacity crowd. Here are some more images of Wednesday night's action. If you want to see more of the photos from all the action please click here.
The day started with predictions of doom and gloom for a day of rain. The prognosticators were, thankfully, wrong, again. However because of the threat of rain it was decided to skip the normal two rounds of Bracket Race Qualifying and go with just one and that really sped up the program. I don't know which was hotter the weather or the racing. The good racing led to a triple double. First, Nate Kelley not only won the High School Division, but also the JDRL Modified Division. In High School he defeated Tyler Lawson and in the Junior Modifieds he defeated Bobby Churchill. The second double today, was Braden Bowden winning his second consecutive Route 66 JDRL Sportsman Division race. Braden defeated Brook Becker, however Brook had the consolation of runner-up and Best Reaction Time. Zach Manaseri earned Best Reaction Time/Fastest Qualifier for the Modifieds Braden's win led to the third double of the day. His Dad, Dominic (Dom) ,drives a dragster in the Super Pro Division. Over the last fifteen years, Dom has been the perpetual runner-up, never taking the victory. Today was different, with Dom running against John Woolwine in the final. Dom took the win light! This a very popular win and led to one of the more fun Victory Lane celebrations. In the other Divisions, it was Troy Bogner, in Pro ET, returning to Victory Lane with a victory over Ricky Pena. This was Ricky's second consecutive runner-up finish. In Pro Bike, it was Jonathan Vickers over Frank Linders. In Sportsman, it was another previous winner, Paul O'Keefe, taking the win light over John Holloway In addition to the Rockett Brand Racing Fuel ET Bracket Series the Midwest Super Comp Series ran also and it was Brian Reimer defeating Jim Gerakaris in the final. Here are some more images from today's action.
When you come to Route 66's O'Reilly Auto Parts Race Your Ride, you never know what you are going to get. Last night, Velocity Channel's Garage Squad lead mechanic Joe Zolper was testing his wife Jennie's new 72 Plymouth Duster. Jennie is switching cars from a 1971 eleven second Plymouth Demon. She stated, " (the Demon)... was more like a show car." She is expecting to eventually run in the 9's with the new Duster. While the car count wasn't the biggest number we have had this year, it wasn't the smallest, either. However, it did have a good variety. We had Top Sportsman: There was a good contingent of bracket racers. They were testing for tomorrow's (Sunday) Rocket Brand Racing Fuel ET Bracket Race: This year, Route 66 has added to the Race Your Ride, the Junior Drag Racing League cars: Bobby Churchill was testing both of his cars and will be running the older car in tomorrow's JDRL bracket race. There was also plenty of street cars and a few dragsters: At the end of the day, it was a fun day of racing at Route 66. Sunday should be a super race day!
Today's Rockett Brand Racing Fuel ET Bracket race wasn't just your standard bracket race, but included the NHRA Summit King of the Track Championship and the NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Challenge. Mike Murray (Super Pro), Jake Lucky (Junior Modified) and Braden Bowden (Junior Sportsman) all earned Wally's. Before we get into the what occurred today, there is a follow-up to Friday night's Race Your Ride. Late in the day we had a race stoppage. At the time, I wasn't sure what caused it. As the day started, I spoke with Joe Malfeo and learned that his Chevrolet Nova had blown its engine causing the problem. Joe had recently qualified for the NHRA National event at Route 66 and with the short time until the Nationals it was unclear whether the car could be repaired in time. Through Joe's track contacts, a new engine block was located and it should be repaired in plenty of time! Now onto the rest of the day and with the theme of engine issues, Andy Campbell had an engine problem for the second time this year. This was the burnout just prior to the run that caused the problem. On the good side of the engine problems, Frank Krauss returned to the track after an engine rebuild and ran well. As is the norm with bracket races, there was two rounds of qualifying followed by the start of the elimination rounds. Here some images from the day's action. As we learned on Friday, the Lawson family was running four cars today. Miranda made it the semi-finals of Pro ET and brother Tyler lost in the finals of High School. Here is the family and their cars. Mike and Michelle can be proud of their children, Miranda, Autumn, Tyler and Conner There was another celebration happening today and it was the Eleventh Annual Racer Ron Day hosted by driver Ron Cilek. Everyone was enjoying the great racing and good food! In the end, its all about the racing and winning. Here are today's winners: High School - Joe Kasch Sportsman - Fred Trombley Pro ET - Don Dumbie (with perfect .000 light in finals) Pro Bike - Dan McCarten Super Pro - Mike Murray and King of the Track In the Juniors it was Jake Lucky winning Junior Modified, Braden Bowden winning Junior Sportsman and Brandon Loeschen with the Best Reaction Time of the day award.
Even though tonight's O'Reilly Auto Parts Race Your Ride was themed as a Western Night, you would have thought it was a Family Reunion Night as the Lawson Family had four siblings running. There was the sisters Miranda and Autumn with the brothers Connor and Tyler. It was good to see Fred Trombley back at the track in his red Nova. The last time I saw the car, it had a serious axle problem and was parked along the wall. In total, we had 131 cars and motorcycles running tonight. This included a good contingent of Junior Dragsters who were testing for the race tomorrow. Bobby Churchill was testing his bracket War Wagon and then rolled out the new bigger War Wagon for testing, This new car will be driven in a different series from that which runs at Route 66. Also Tori Trench was testing her new car sporting a different paint scheme from her last car. There was a good mixture of cars tonight and for the most part everything ran smoothly. Late in the day there was fluid dumped near the finish line when a car had a problem. After about a 1/2 hour delay we were back to racing and completed the day's event. Here are some more images from tonight.
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