 This past weekend, Byron Dragway hosted a variety of drag racing, from some of the fastest to slower cars. There was Midwest Top Sportsman, Midwest Super Comp, Midwest Index Shootout, Sportsman (Sat. only) and Street Eliminator (Sat. only), along with a test & tune. On Saturday, one of the first things Top Sportsman had to do was conclude the previous Cordova race. This pitted Eric Grace against Ron Klajbor Jr. with Eric Grace taking the win.  For Saturday, there were twenty-five cars running with Troy Finner being the #1 Qualifier at 4.97/169.32 mph in the eighth. In the five rounds of racing the competition was stout. In the end, it was Vince Nannini against Eric Grace. This was an opportunity for Eric to double up. Unfortunately, Vince was a little better, taking the win.  In Super Comp, I didn't get an exact car count, but it was over twenty cars. They went five rounds with Tony Pontillo defeating Chad Lamont in the final round.  In the Saturday version of the Midwest Index Shootout Series, five of the six classes ran races. The sixth, Pro Extreme had only one competitor, Jim Hickey. I am not sure how that was handled. In Street Brawler, there were four cars in class. In round 1, Jen Rosendahl had a good light, .029, while her competitor did not and broke out trying to catch up. Anthony Parks in his race against Travis Beer and a bad .304 light, but ran closer to his dial-in and Travis broke out. In the final, Anthony improved his light again running close to his dial-in, 15.80/15.818. Jen had a serious problem with the light, .434! While trying to catch Anthony she broke out.  In Street Intimidator, there were four cars competing. Trevor Beer defeated Naomi Beer to reach the final against Bill Brubaker. In the final, it was a double breakout with Trevor running closer to his number to take the win.  The Street Heat class had twelve competitors. Jon Reynolds was chopping down the tree in the first two rounds and had a bye into the final round. In the final, Jon was a little slower on the tree but made it up by running closer to the index to take the win.  In Pro Avenger's two rounds, Dale Riha was both good at the tree and running closer to the 10.20 index to get to the Final against Scott Frost. In the Final, Scott ran closer to the index, but Dale beat him on the tree .035-.126 to take the hole shot win.  The Pro Dominator Finals was between Kevin Lancaster and Jim McMillan. To get there, both Kevin and Jim, beat the competitors at the tree and the stripe. It looked to be a great race, when both broke out, however Jim went red by the smallest amount .001 to give the win to Kevin.  The Street Eliminator regular bracket series involved eighteen cars and four rounds to get to the Final. To get to the Final, Brent Vincent and Steve Mroz had good first and second rounds. However, Steve had some type of scoring issue and had to have a re-run against Anthony Parks. In the re-run, Steve had a perfect .000 reaction and Anthony broke out trying to catch him. Brent had a bye in this round. In round 4, Brent had double redlight with Kip Harms, -.004 to -.033 to take the win, while Steve had a bye. In the Final, Brent had the better light, but gave it up at the stripe and Steve took the win. The friends wanted both cars in the Winner's Circle. Steve is in the Red Camaro.  In Sportsman, there 27 cars competing through four rounds to reach the Final. Roman Sakas and Mike Curce took different routes to the Final. Roman didn't have the greatest of reaction times, but always better than his opponent. Whereas Mike was killing the tree including a bye in the second round. In the final, it was Mike's .009 reaction time to Roman's .111 that made the difference, with Mike taking the win.  Sunday On Sunday, the Sportsman and Street Eliminator classes would not be running. The Top Sportsman series would run 22 cars, down three from Saturday. In the Final it would be DJ Mateicka against Matt Szymczak. Both DJ and Matt had similar routes to the final, with DJ's slightly easier. In the first round, DJ's opponent Alex Bosak redlighted. In the second round Matt's opponent Mark Zier redlighted. In round 4, DJ received the bye run. In the Final DJ won the race at the start with a .019 reaction compared to Matt's .072. Matt couldn't make up that time. This was DJ's first win ever!  Super Comp ran 21 cars through four rounds of eliminations to get to the final. Ben Baer lined up against the only door car in Super Comp competition today, Chuck Graves. To get there, Chuck had a first round bye and Ben's opponent, Ed Rudek, redlighted. Both had solid wins in rounds 2 & 3. In round 4, Chuck had a perfect reaction time and won when his opponent broke out. Ben had the bye into the Final. It was a great race with both running 8.902's on the 8.90. the win was determined at the tree with Ben having .003 to Chuck's .019.  In the Midwest Index Shootout Series, only 5 of the six classes would run, like on Saturday. In Street Brawler Travis Beer would first beat Saturday's winner Anthony Parks in round 1 and Robert Hill in the Final.  In Street Intimidator it would be a re-run of Saturday with Trevor Beer against Bill Brubaker. Unfortunately for Bill, his car broke handing the win to Trevor.  In Street Heat, there were fewer cars running than on Saturday. On Saturday Greg Darm was eliminated in the second round and today, he made it to the Final to meet Don Wolcott in his wheel standing VW Bug. They were close on the tree and at the stripe they both broke out with Greg breaking out less to take the win.  In Pro Avenger, it was Ed Frost got the win against Saturday's winner Dale Riha. In the two rounds leading to the Final, Ed had won both times when he and his opponents both broke out with Ed breaking out less. In the Final, Ed did not break out and finished closest to the index.  This weekend was a great weekend for Kevin Lancaster as he doubled up in Pro Dominator, winning both Saturday and Sunday! On Sunday he was hard to beat when your worst reaction time was .014! Kelly Spears tried but fell just short of winning.  This was a great weekend of racing. We saw a variety of racers and different series. Congratulations to all the winners especially to those who doubled up, Kevin Lancaster and Trevor Beer.
To see all images from the weekend, they will be these albums: flickr.com/photos/45097427@N02/albums/72177720309187399 flickr.com/photos/45097427@N02/albums/72177720309169532 If you see something you would like to order please click here or click on the Ordering tab at the top of the page.
0 Comments
 On a beautiful Saturday morning at Byron Dragway, the Super Pro and Pro Eliminator bracket racers gathered to go for a top prize of $3000. The top prize was awarded to the winner of the run-off race between the Box and No-box cars. The Pro Eliminator cars are not left out as many of the racers enter both Super Pro and Pro Eliminator classes. In the Super Pro No-box class, it took five rounds for Rich Mason and Brent Vincent to reach the Final. The only break was for Rich in the fourth round when he received a bye. Otherwise, every round was a tough competitor. Both Rich and Brent were excellent on the tree all day with Brent having a .00_ light in round 4. Rich had three! In the Final, Brent had the better light, .013 to .043, but it was Rich who ran closer to his dial-in, 6.71 - 6.717 to Brent's 6.55-6.594. This gave the win to Rich by .007. A very close race.  Rich Mason Black Buick and Brent Vinent Silver Camaro In the Box class, Jeff Jones and Eddie Banderowicz Jr. rampaged through the field with great lights. Through the eight rounds to the Final, Jeff's worst light was .030 and Eddie had a perfect .000 in the sixth. In the Final, Jeff was ever so slightly the slower car and left first, however Eddie, flirting with another perfect light, went -.001 red, handing the win to Jeff.  Eddie Banderowicz Jr. gray Camaro and Jeff Jones blue dragster This led to the Final, Final race for the big check between No-box winner Rich Mason and Box winner Jeff Jones. Rich was considerably slower and launched first with another good light, .039 and Jeff had his worst light all day with a .045. Jeff chased Rich and at the stripe, Jeff took the win running closer to his dial-in, 4.78-4.799 to Rich's 6.70-6.726. Congratulations to Jeff on the "Big Check" win In the Pro Eliminator class, it was evident two cars were the class of the field, Don Schomer and Troy Bogner. Through six rounds of competition they took on all comers beating them on the Tree or with their Dial-in's. In the final round, it was no surprise these two would match up. At the Tree, Troy had his worst light (.056) and Don had one of his best (.006). This should have been an easy win for Don, however they both got to racing and both broke out. Troy broke out less to take the win. In the Winner's Circle, Troy commented that"...it was an ugly win and Don should be parked here!". Track Bites In conjunction with Friday Night's Test & Tune, there was a "Gamblers" race. Adam Sweet took the victory.  Saturday's "Gamblers" race was won by Collin Estes.  Here's more of the day's action. It was another exciting day of drag racing at Byron Dragway. Congratulations to all the winners!
To see all the day's action photos, 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. |
Archives
September 2023
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed