Four Times a Bridesmaid - Pena Wins!

It was a great day for Ricky Pena but before we tell that story, the rest of the story must be told.
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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!

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