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Byron Dragway - We Got It In - Big Bucks Bracket w/ High Stakes Gamblers Race

8/24/2021

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Looking at the weather report Friday night for Saturday in the Byron area, it did not look good to be able to race Saturday. The report showed rain starting at 7:00 am and ending sometime around 5:00 pm. I prepared my gear as if there was going to be racing, however I thought if that forecast held there was no way. I woke early and looked at the weather report on my phone and it was totally different. There was some rain forecast for late afternoon, but there was a chance that could miss the track. I got to the track a little earlier than I had in the recent past and the racing started on time with Super Pro No Box leading off. Bob Disch, Verona, Wi., in his 71 Chevy Vega had a triple .000  reaction time to claim a bye into the second round, if necessary.
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Bob Disch
Unfortunately for Bob, he lost to Mark Nettesheim in the second round. Mark marched through the field, but it wasn't easy. He won his first round when Jim Ilosvay redlighted. In the third round, he was up against Troy Boeke. Troy had a bad 1.00 reaction time to Mark's 0.26. That was the race. In the fourth round, it was a battle of Camaros when Mark won a double breakout against Chad Cannon. Mark was 0.006 closer to his dial-in than Troy. Mark raced through another round and then a bye into the Final against Mark Rosenbaum in the 1964 Corvette.  Even though the Corvette ran closer to his dial-in, Mark Nettesheim cut down the tree  with a 0.003 reaction time to take the "Holeshot" Super Pro No Box win!
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Mark Nettesheim
In Super Pro Box, Scott LaBudde just mowed down the tree all day. Through seven rounds of eliminations, his reaction times were as followed: .012, .008, .004, .007, .011, .014 (w/Bye), and .028 to get to the final. His opponent in "Box" Final was Greg Antonioni, who took a slightly different route by redlighting in the first round and taking a "buy back" option. In the Final, Scott had the better reaction time (.022/.036) running a 4.745 on a 4.74 while Greg broke out by .007.
IIn the runoff Super Pro runoff of Box vs No Box for the big check it was Scott LaBudde vs Mark Nettesheim. Mark, in the slower car, left first with a .034 reaction time to Scott's .064. With Scott closing fast, Mark pushed it just a little to hard and broke out .007. Scott was going to be hard to beat with a 4.736 on a 4.73 dial-in.
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In the High Stakes Gamblers Race, there was four rounds of competition before Nick Mistrata and Blake Vangsness faced off. Nick had the best reaction (.027/.043). Blake, with the slower car, pushed hard to stay ahead and broke out by .012. Nick ran a 4.797 on a 4.78 to take the win.
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Track Bites

Earlier we talked about the weather. Mother Nature did give us a hit of rain in the late afternoon. It was a brief downpour that measured at .41 inches of rain. BJ and the staff fought a lot of standing water with high humidity for nearly 2 1/2 hours to get the track back into racing condition. It was a lot of hard work but the racing was completed.


Blake Vangsness usually drives a Chevy Nova. I took this picture last year and at the request of his Dad, Jeremy, I did a little work on it.
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Last week, Blake licensed in a dragster. It seems, the Nova has a transmission problem that is going to take some time to repair. In his first time in competition in the dragster he took it the High Stakes Gamblers Final. Dana Highland asked me to find a picture to commemorate this day for Blake that she could give him. I could think of nothing better than final race against Nick Mistrata.
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Don Schomer from Oswego driving his Ford Maverick was double entered in No Box and went seven straight races before losing in the Third and fourth rounds. Not to bad a day.
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Here is more of Saturday's action.
Saturday, Mother Nature did try to play games, but but was defeated by the hard working Byron staff. All should be congratulated on a great effort to complete this day's racing. Sunday will be another full day of racing with no bad weather in the forecast.

To see all the day's action please click here.

If you see something of interest, it can be ordered by clicking here or on the "Ordering" tab at the top of the page.
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Byron Dragway - Midwest Super Comp Series, Two Wheel Speed, Midwest Index Shootout Series, Buick Club and TT

8/17/2021

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Dave Livesey (Chris Lancaster car)
Sunday was another beautiful day to go racing. We have had a great run of wonderful weather weekends! This Sunday was day 2 of Midwest Super Comp and Two Wheel Speed. They were joined by the Midwest Index Series, the Buick Club and a TT.

The Midwest Super Comp Series was represented by  seventeen cars, down two from Saturday. Through four rounds the competition was stiff. When it came to the finals it was Dave Livesey against Joey Fuesting.  Joey was a little anxious at the line and redlighted by -.050. This gave the win to Dave. In Dave's five rounds of competition, he had a hole shot win over Mark Meier in the first round, two double breakout wins (rounds 2 & 3) and a redlight win in the finals. There are days you would rather be lucky than good!
In 890 Bike, it was another final between Chris Panko and Joe Robbins. Both had a .042 reaction time however, Joe broke out with a 8.876 on the 8.90 index giving the win to Chris.
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Chris Panko (Andy Bailey in background)
In SS Bike 950, it was Gil Odjick against Joe Robbins, making another final. Gil had a great reaction time (.015) and continued to the stripe to beat Joe.
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Bob Odjick
In Street Bike ET, there were three rounds until the final. In the final, it was Ted Thompson against Bob Wesley. Ted had lost in the first round, however he took advantage of a "Buy Back" to reach the final. At the start, Bob redlighted handing the win to Ted.
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Ted Thompson
In Drag Bike, for a second day in a row, it was the Mike Krueger. Mike won the race with a singles pass. It was agreed by Mike and Ted Thompson not to have a race off with Mike taking the overall win.
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Mike Krueger
On Sunday, the Midwest Index Shootout Series ran six classes of cars. Below is the class winner and Winner's Circle photo:

Anthony Parks - Street Brawler
Keith Deluca - Street Intimidator
Brian Payne - Street Heat
Jon Reynolds - Street Limited
Lee Kapustka - Pro Avenger
Marty Thornton - Pro Dominator
The Buick Club was represented by eight cars. Dan Rocco was the winner in a bracket style race.
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Dan Rocco
Here are some more of the images from the day's action.
This was another great day of racing. The staff fought through several "oil downs" and should be congratulated for their hard work.

To see all the images from the day, please click here.

If you see something of interest, it can be ordered by clicking here, or on the "Ordering" tab at the top of the page.
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Byron Dragway - Midwest Super Comp, Two Wheel Speed & Test/Tune

8/16/2021

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Chad Lamont
Saturday morning broke to a beautiful day. I had some morning business to attend so arrived at the dragway around 11:30am. There was a slow start to racing activities, so I really didn't miss much of the on-track racing. This day's racing consisted of Midwest Super Comp and Two Wheel Speed with a Test & Tune in between. 

Midwest Super Comp

The Midwest Super Comp was represented by nineteen cars from Illinois and Wisconsin. After two rounds of Time Trials it was Delvin Shepard, Colona, Il., earning the first round bye. Near the end of the round, the Chris Lancaster dragster, driven by Dave Livesey, had a problem and had to withdraw. Super Comp went a total of four rounds before the final. Chad Lamont earned the Bye into the finals and would face Delvin Shepard. Delvin had been having consistent reaction times, .025-.028, in the previous four rounds. In the finals, for some reason Delvin went red, giving the win to multiple Super Comp Champion Chad Lamont, .035/8.90/8.960/156.15. 
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Delvin Shepard
Two Wheel Speed

The Motorcycles were racing in four classes, 890 Bike, SS Bike 950, Street Bike ET and Drag Bike ET with Street and Drag Bikes facing off for the overall win.

In 890 Bike, it was Wisconsin Rapids' Chris Panko defeating Joe Robbins when Joe broke out with an 8.890/8.90 to Chris' .050/8.90/8.893/147.46
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Chris Panko
In SS Bike 950, It was Joe Robbins, in his second final, against Larry Sargis. Both Joe and Larry broke out with Joe running closer to the index.

Joe Robbins .046/9.50/9.448/135.52
​Larry Sargis .052/950/9.441/140.72

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Joe Robbins (w/Larry Sargis in background)
Street Bike went three rounds to reach the finals. In the finals it was Rockford's Ted Thompson against Dekalb's Andy Bailey. They had faced off in the first round and Andy had redlighted. He did a buy-back to get back in the race. In the finals, Andy again redlighted handing the win to Ted. Ted had seen the Andy's redlighted and cruised to the stripe.
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Ted Thompson
In the Drag Bike final its Lowell, Indiana's Mike Krueger against Sandwich, Illinois' John Niles. John had the slower bike and started first, however Mike was able to chase him down and take the win light.

Mike Krueger .052/8.41/8.761/123.47
John Niles .185/9.77/10.081/126.71

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Mike Krueger
The two winners, Mike Krueger and Ted Thompson of the Bike ET classes ran off against each other with Mike Krueger taking the win when Ted redlighted.
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Mike Krueger and his Dad
Track Bites

During the Test & Tune portion of the day, I say a familiar Pontiac Firebird normally driven by Morgan Hixon. However, I knew that Morgan had just recently moved to Tampa, Fl. I looked around and saw her Dad, John, crew chiefing ( who drives a copper colored buick in Super Pro), her mother, Mary. I didn't see her sister Savannah! Sav usually is crew chiefing Dad or Morgan. On closer inspection, it was Sav driving. Sav had never driven on a drag strip and driven this car only once prior in a parking lot. Sav made eight passes this day and by the end of the day, you could see by the look on her face that she caught the racing bug! Good job today, Sav!!
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Savannah Hixon
In the Two Wheel Speed portion of the event, Frank Criscione had a ride when the bike popped a huge wheely. Frank did a great job of saving the bike. I was able to catch it from two angles.
I ran into Dave Kovar Jr. I have watched Dave race since he was in Junior Dragsters. Now, he is driving in Midwest Super Comp. His car has a beautiful paint job that for the most part, painted himself. The taping of the car took over forty hours.
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​Here are some more images from the day's events.
I want to congratulate all the day's winners.

To see all the images from the day please click here. If you see something you would like to purchase please click here or on the "Ordering" tab at the top of the page.
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Byron Dragway - Big Bucks Bracket Racing - 8-1-2021

8/3/2021

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 Sunday morning  broke with another beautiful day for racing. Thank you Mother Nature for a great weather weekend! The day's racing consisted of four classes: Super Pro (Box/No Box), Pro Eliminator, Sportsman and Street Eliminator. There were two Time Trial runs for all classes except for Super Pro, which had run the previous day.

Super Pro, as usual, was run as two sub-classes, Box and No Box. The winner of each sub-class would then run against each other for the Big Bucks prize of $5,000.00.

In No Box, they ran six rounds to get to the finals. In the first round, Larry Hohn ran a near perfect race against Troy Boeke with a .000 RT/6.52 DI/6.525 ET/103.32.

​Dave Perry and Brian Dumdie marched through the field to reach the Final.
This was a fantastically close race with Dave winning by .002.

The numbers:
Dave Perry - RT .035/DI 5.65/ET 5.652/120.07 mph
Brian Dumdie - RT .037/DI 5.99/ET 5.992/114.64 mph


Like in No Box, the competition in Box was extremely close all day. In the second round, the previous day's winner, Vince Mangiaracina, ran a perfect race, RT .000, DI 5.70 ET 5.700, 117.97 mph.

​Through seven rounds to reach the Final, Dave Johnson and Vince Mistrata eliminated the competition. In the Final, Dave Johnson took the win with a RT .015, DI 5.67, ET 5.696, 122.03 mph to Vince Mistrata's RT .041, DI 4.67, ET 4.711, 142.04 mph.
As the last race of the day, it was very dark. It was decided to run the race. Dave Johnson in his 2009 Ford Mustang with a perfect reaction time defeated Dave Perry in his 1963 Corvette.

Dave Johnson RT .000, DI 8.67, ET 5.722, 116.74mph
Dave Perry RT .067, DI 5.65, ET 5.667,120.20 mph

​The Pro Eliminator class ran five rounds of eliminations to reach the Final. Marty Thornton defeated John Coyle when he broke out. 

Marty Thornton RT .061, DI 9.26, ET 9.320, 141.33 mph
John Coyle RT .047, DI 11.97, ET  11.950, 109.64 mph
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The Street Eliminator class ran three rounds to reach their Final. It was a battle of SUV's with Doug Goodman in the GMC /Envoy defeating Rob France's Chevrolet Trailblazer. Rob broke out.

Doug Goodman RT .067, DI 17.42, ET 17.443, 82.12 mph
Rob France RT .113, DI 12.50, ET 12.453, 97.90 mph
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In Sportsman, it was Rob France, in his second final of the day taking the victory, Rob was entered in Sportsman and Street Eliminator.
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Track Bites

As with Saturday, there was a contingent of former Rt. 66 racers attending or participating in the races. I had the opportunity to talk with Bill Larson. Besides racing at RT. 66, he was one of the track announcers. Bill stated he had retired and was now working at an engine shop three days a week.
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Bill Larson
​I was also speaking with Jim Ilosvay who over the off season had rebuilt the car with a new King motor and a new suspension.
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Here are some more images of Sunday's action.
I want to congratulate all the winners for putting on a fantastic show. For those who didn't make it to the end, there's always the next race!

To see all the images from Sunday, please click here.

If you see something you would like to purchase, please click here or click on the "Ordering" tab at the top of the page.

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Byron Dragway - Big Bucks Bracket Race, Super Pro #5

8/2/2021

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Saturday at Byron Dragway was a magnificent day to go racing. As Track Announcer Randy Simpson stated "Chamber of Commerce weather".  The racing was the season's fifth bracket race for the Super Pro cars along with a Test & Tune. The Super Pro cars are further broken down into two sub-classes of (Delay) Box and No (Delay) Box. The final race was between the Box and No Box cars with the winner taking home the "Big Bucks"! Saturday's winner's check was for $3000.00. Early on it was decided to also have a "High Stakes", no points race.

After time trials, the first cars up were the No Box cars.
After the first round of eliminations,  losing drivers have the option of "buying back" into the race. John Coyle was racing Todd Hohn and both redlighted. Larry was closer to green, -.001, than John's -.007, so gained the win. Todd would get to the 5th round before being eliminated by Brian Dumdie. However, John took the option of a buy back and marched through the field with excellent reaction times. His worst was on a single run in the 5th round with .052. Starting in the second round his R/T's were .004, .010, .005, .052, .013. In the Finals of No Box, John was up against Brian Dumdie, who also had been cutting down the tree. John took the win with a R/T .015, D/I 7.63, ET 7.644 and 88.00 MPH to Brian's .029/6.02/6.039/113.84.
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In Box, there was stiff competition all day.
After seven rounds of racing, it came down to Vince Mangiaracina in his Monza against Jim Taylor in his Vega. With his .009 reaction time, a 5.70 DI, 5.728 ET at 115.28 mph, Vince took the win and would face off against John Coyle to take home the money.

In the Final, Final
​At the start of the race, both John and Vince had exactly the same Reaction Time of .018. At the stripe it was Vince taking the victory by .009. It was a great race and he enjoyed his time in the Winner's Circle!!
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In the High Stakes (Gamblers) race there was a surprise winner. TJ Trench normally drives a dragster in Super Pro (Box).
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Mid-race, his dragster came to a halt in the shut down lane. When I spoke to him, he stated the car started to hop so he shut it down. They suspect a broken transmission and they were through for the weekend. To my surprise, I see Joe Malfeo's car approach the Tree, except Joe is sitting on the wall watching. Joe offered up the "Widow's Son" Chevy Monza to TJ to run this race. TJ had never driven the car before and it had been several years since he had even driven a door car in competition. He did a great job putting it in the Winner's Circle.
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Track Bites

Upon my arrival in the morning at Byron, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few ex-Route 66 regular drivers. One of the first was John Schober. He stated he was here with Zach Manaseri and Liz Manaseri (who is dating TJ Trench), his grandkids. He will be driving the dragster. Zach and Liz will be sharing the Orange S-10 with Zach doing box and Liz no box. Here is an image of Liz driving and Zach far right.
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I saw the Lasik family on the west side of the track with their new dragster. I had heard this was to be their first time out in Jesse's new car. Jesse is graduating from Juniors to a full size car.  He earned his Super Comp license at Frank Hawley School at Indy in June. The car launched well however there seemed to be a problem down track. I spoke to Mom, Lisa, then noticed Jesse sitting in the golf cart. Dominic Bowden was testing the car for Jesse to ensure it was ready to go. It is an apparent engine problem, possibly a blown head gasket. I am sure Jesse is a little frustrated waiting to drive the car. An image of Dominic in the car.
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Here are some more images of the day's action, including the test & tunes:
One of my favorite of the T & T'ers was Steve Malek's "Xtreme Bird".
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With good weather and great racing it was a fun day to be at the track.

To see the images of all the action, please click here.

If you see something of interest and desire to order something, please click here on "Ordering" at the top of the page.
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Road America-Chase Elliott Road Course Master

7/5/2021

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On Sunday afternoon, Chase Elliott streaked to his sixth road course victory of his career at Road America's Jockey Made in America 250 presented by Kwik Trip. Elliott started 34th, deep in the field, because of two crashes in qualifying. The crashes occurred on his attempts at a fast lap. After the clean-up there wasn't enough time left to get in a qualifying lap. Elliott worked his way through the field along with playing strategy to take the lead from Kyle Busch with 16 laps to go. Elliott pulled out to a lead and finished six seconds ahead of second place Christopher Bell #24.
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Chase Elliot exiting Turn 6 heading to Turn 7
When it was clear that, without any mishaps, Chase would win, a large crowd gathered around Victory Lane. A loud cheer rang out as Chase streaked by Victory Lane on the way to the checkers!
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After Chase took the Checkered Flag, he celebrated with fans  on his cool down lap returning to the start/finish line for a smoky burnout. Then, as he stated later, "he must not have gotten the memo" he was informed to return to Turn 5 for the TV interview. At the conclusion of the interview, the Turn 5 fans were clamoring for another Burnout. Chase gave the fans what they wanted. Unfortunately, he flattened his rear tires.  Unable to maneuver the car, he was pushed around the track by a tow truck. He stopped on the main straight while his team, who had been waiting for him in Victory Lane, then changed his rear tires. Finally, Chase was able to make it to Victory Lane.
A surprise visitor to the Victory Lane celebration was the newly minted Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, who was offering his congratulations on Chase's 13th win of his career. Shortly later, Jeff was talking to another Hall of Famer, Chase's Dad, Bill Elliott. You will notice Bill's right hand is in a cast. He was injured in a SRX Series race last week and drove in Saturday night's race at Lucas Oil Raceway.
The remaining top five finishers were as follows: Christopher Bell #20, Kyle Busch #18, Kurt Busch #1 and Denny Hamlin #11.
Here is some of the racing action that was exhibited at Road America!
Track Bites

In qualifying, it was William Byron #24 winning the pole with a speed of 110.359. William was also the winner of Stage 1. Unfortunately for William, he was involved a late race spin and was relegated to 33rd place.
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Tyler Reddick #8 was the winner of the Second Stage and finished in the 8th position.
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This was the first NASCAR Race at Road America since 1956. The crowd was large and very enthusiastic. Here is a little taste of the event.
The flyover consisted of four US Air Force T-38 Talons and the men that flew them.
Congratulations to Chase Elliot and the entire Hendrick Motorsports team for a great race.  Road America and the entire staff deserve kudos for their work in ensuring all the fans had a great time. 
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Road America-NXS Henry 180, Kyle Busch Wins #101

7/3/2021

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After two spins during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Henry 150 at Road America, Kyle Busch came from the back of the field to take his 101st Series win.  Kyle took the lead with four laps to go and never looked back. This is Kyles fourth win in four attempts this season. 

The field was led to the green by pole winner Ty Gibbs. Ty, later, had transmission problems and was forced from the race. 
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AJ Allmendinger #16, led much of the early race winning both stage 1 and 2 eventually finishing fourth.
Into the latter stages of the race, the aggressiveness seemed to tick up with several crashes, which eliminated several good race cars. This allowed Kyle Busch to get away from the pack and take a substantial lead to the checkers. Here are some images of the race action.
Daniel Hemric, Michael Annett, AJ Allmendinger and Harrison Burton filled out the top five.

Earlier in the day, the Cup Series held one of the few practices it has held this season. It was supposed to be a fifty minute practice, but was interrupted by several racing incidents. Two of these crashes caused Kyle Busch and Ryan Preece to pull out the back up cars. They will be forced to start from the back of the field. Due to the stoppages, NASCAR added 5 minutes to the practice. It was Kurt Busch in the #1 Monster Energy Chevrolet winning practice.
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Here is some more action from the practice session.
The Cup cars will qualify Sunday morning, followed by the early afternoon start of the Jockey Made in the USA 250 Presented by Kwik Trip.
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2021 Road America-NASCAR Weekend Friday

7/2/2021

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Today, was our reacquaint yourself with a road course day. As in the past, the racetrack was looking spectacular! Upon our arrival the Trans Am cars were practicing. Unfortunately, by the time we accomplished all of our set-up duties, practice was completed. We should be able to watch and report on some Trans Am racing on Saturday.

There was a fifty minute practice session for the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Austin Cindric won practice with a time/speed of 135.096/107.87 mph. He was almost a second faster than Jeb Burton's #10 Chevrolet. Justin Allgaier,#7, was third, followed by #16 AJ  Allmemdinger and #18 Daniel Hemric.
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Austin Cindric
During this practice session several drivers experienced issues:

#9-Noah Gragson blew an engine
#98-Riley Herbst hit the wall and will go to a backup car
#8-Sam Mayer hit the wall
#26-Kris Wright and #74-Bayley Currey wheel hopped and spun into gravel traps
#17-Cody Ware and #51-Jeremy Clements went off track
#07-Josh Bilicki stalled on track
#4-Landon Cassell and #39-Ryan Sieg made contact.

​While approaching the Carousel a few other drivers had small issues. Here is Ty Gibbs getting slightly off track.
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And Daniel Hemric:
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Tomorrow, there will be more Trans Am action, Xfinity Series Qualifications, Cup practice and the Xfinity Series Henry 180 race. The anticipation for action is very high. Here is a little more of today's action.
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Byron Dragway Junior Fest D2 & Drag Week 500 D3

9/22/2020

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Adam Jakupcak (background) and Jesse Lasik (foreground)
Sunday was the second day of the Junior Fest and Day 3 of Drag Week 500.  Drag Week 500 was created when the Hot Rod Drag Week was canceled due to Covid-19. In conjunction with Rock Falls (Wi) Raceway, this three day event fills the void created by the cancellation. The racers held the first race event on Friday at Byron. Packed up their equipment and drove the race cars the 250 miles to the Rock Falls Raceway to compete Saturday. At the conclusion Saturday, they drove back to Byron for Sunday's race. The race cars had to be street legal and driven to the events, no trailering allowed.

In the Junior Fest, it again was two classes, Novice and Elite, running for a Wally. In Novice, there were four rounds of competition before the final. In the final for a second day in a row, it was James Pfohl. His opponent was Aiden Malek from, Beloit Wi. This race was won at the start line as James had a significant better light than Aiden, .125 to .188.  Aiden ran closer to his dial-in, but could not overcome the start. This would be classified as a "Hole Shot Win".
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James Pfohl
In the Elite Class, it was Algonquin's Ryan Mackey against Joe Schubbe of Plainfield. Joe had been cutting great lights all day. His worst was a .077! At the start of the final, Joe must have gotten a little anxious  because he went red by -.014. This gave the Wally to Ryan.
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Ryan Mackey
For the Drag Week 500, there was a bracket style race for Street Eliminator and two classes where the winner was declared by their average of the three races-two tracks. 

The Street Eliminator Class ran three rounds of competition before the finals. In the final it was JT Barnes against Tony Churchwell. Tony was the slower car so launched first with JT playing catch up. Both drivers pushed each and both broke out. JT took the win by running closest to his D/I of 10.28 with a 10.274 to Tony's 11.55/11.500.
In the Street Class Power Added, it was Cameron Alley with an 8.58 average. In Super Street Power Added it was Scott Keplinger with an 8.05 average.
Here are some images from the entire day.
Track Bite

I had to leave the track before the completion of the Junior Fun Run. I understand Hayley Becker won the race. Congratulations to Hayley and the Becker Racing Team!
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It was another beautiful weather day and a day full of great competition. I want to give kudos to BJ and the entire Byron Dragway Team for filling the void of the Hot Rod Drag Week with the Drag Week 500. All I heard Sunday was how grateful the Drag Week racers were for being able to compete in this event.

To see all the images from Sunday's event, please click here.


If you see something you would like to purchase, please click here or click on the Ordering tab at the top of the page.
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Byron Dragway Junior Fest Day 1

9/21/2020

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Saturday was Day One of the 2-day Junior Fest at Byron Dragway. In addition to the competition, there were awards for best costumed crew and best decorated golf cart. Above was one of the competitors. As far as the crews, here are some examples.
I almost didn't recognize Bill Freis in the black wig! 

The first cars to hit the track were the Test & Tuners. Almost immediately a car had a problem with a transmission seal blowing out causing a major oil-down.

Staff worked extremely hard to fix the track, however it took some time. So what do you do with kids who were expecting to be racing, let's check out the track!
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After the delay, it was time to go racing. Today's racing included Wally's for each class of Novice and Elite. Both classes went four rounds to get to the finals. In the Novice class, it was Clinton, Iowa's James Pfohl against Berlin Wi.'s Thomas Konen. Thomas had cutting good lights in each round, however he went red by -.025. It would have been a very close race as James had a .009 light and ran an 8.930 on an 8.90 D/I.
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James Pfohl
In the Elite Class, it was Jack Nolan, Lemont, against Jesse Fritts, Greenup. This race was similar to the Novice because Jesse had good lights all day, but in the final he left just a little early, -.005, to give the win to Jack for the Wally. Both broke out, but that red light was Jesse's downfall.
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Jack Nolan
In addition to the Juniors running today, the Buick Club was on hand and ran a competition amongst themselves. In their final it was Perry Carlini against Joe Garcia. Again, the win was a gift of a red light, when Joe went red by -.121.
Track Bites

It was a good day for Pfohl family. Not only did James win the Wally, but his sister, Jillian, won the Fun Race.
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Pfohl Family
In the Test & Tune portion of the day, Launching Larry with his wheel-standing Barracuda asked me to get a shot from the rear as the car went up. Here is an example.
The North Shore Corvette Club was also on-track Saturday with some beautiful Corvettes.
Other than the little blip in the morning, everyone had a great time with some great weather and great racing.

To see all the images from the day, please click here.

If you see something you would like to purchase, click on the ordering tab at the top of the page or here.

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