August 08
Aug 1-2

Who would of guessed the weekend would of turned out as it did? The weekend started out on
Friday with the US Army Street Legal Night at Coles County Dragway and finished with live music
from Good Morning Midnight sponsored by PerformLink.net at the end of racing. The band's
members include Kyle Swalls (guitar & vocals), Elgin Combs (guitar & vocals), Andrew McGinnis
(bass), and Woody Woodring (drums). The crowd enjoyed and rocked to Good Morning Midnight's
list of original hard rock music.

Saturday started out as any race day with the exception, as I cleaned up the car prior to the first
time run, I got an extreme cramp in my right hand loosing most of the strength in that hand. Oh by
the way, that is the hand that control's the trans-brake button. Off to the medicine cabinet for some
pain killers I went. A little while later, out of nowhere, I got something in my right eye and before I
could get it out I managed to scratch the inside of my eye lid. The two things I use the most in drag
racing are my eyes and my hands. I'm already at a disadvantage and haven't even turned a tire.
I limped my way though time runs in discomfort and in the 1st round, I went red by .002 against
Rick Willenborg so I'm headed to the buy back shack and really not certain if I should continue but
the Ibuprofen and Visine is starting to help. The only thing I really have in my favor is my car. Like
I've said in the past, I have one bad ass consistent race car and it generally carries me through my
personal inconsistencies. In the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th round, I was able to take care of Larry Limes
in his bright lime green AMC, Valerie Woods in her dragster, Clayton Patrick in his dads cool white
Mopar, and Lee Davis in his former track champion Chevelle. By now we're in the semi finals and
there are 3 cars left, Rick Willenborg,  you remember him from 1st round, Cory Butler and myself.
Of course, I get Rick again and this time I turned the table and got the win. On a side note, Rick's
daughter Keli Dhom racing her beautiful 68 Dart GTS won the Pro class and was runner up in the
Queen of The Track race. The Super Pro final is now set up with me running Cory Butler.  Cory is a
very respectable young racer and even had a pair of nearly perfect reaction times in the two earlier
rounds. At the light of the tree, I had a slight advantage and carried it through for the double
break-out win.

This is what true competition is all about, pulling yourself through adversity and getting the win!!
Aug 9

What a beautiful weekend for a drag race. We showed up at Coles County Dragway on Friday
night to spend some time grilling, socializing with friends and enjoying the weather.
Of course, Saturday is a different story, it's time to get down to business. We won the week before
so the goal is to win back to back races, something I have yet to do. The PerformLink.net,
Motorsports Unlimited, Lang's Body Shop and Painting, Lidy Graphics, APT Powdercoat, Davison
Service & Equip, Crow's Hybrids, Mean Machine Dragster was up to the task, running times in the
upper 5 teens and low 20's.

1st round, I matched up with Phil Bryant and his blue and silver Chevy Monza. Phil is a good
competitor and luckily I had the reaction time advantage and was able to carry it through for the
win.
In the 2nd round, I ran a car I wasn't familiar with and at the light of the tree it wasn't looking good
for us but that killer car I drive did it's job and we got another round win. Rodger Burdell was my
3rd round match and after an .008 light and my 5.253 on a 5.21 dial, I was able to advance to the
4th round. Keith Woods used a .011 light to end my night pushing me into a breakout 5.214 on a
5.22 dial. A repeat win wasn't in the cards this weekend, but we will return to try again.

See you at Coles next weekend and then we head to Beech Bend Raceway Park for the Div 3
NHRA event and then to Indy for the US Nationals.  
Aug 16

Who would have guessed, by this time of the year, I could be in a position to attend the Summit
Racing Div 3 ET Finals at O'Reilly Raceway Park. At the beginning of the year, our plan was to run
most of the NHRA Div 3 divisional points meets, but with the cost of travel, we decided to stay
closer to home and race mostly at Coles County Dragway which put us in this position.  The
points to go to Indy for the ET Finals isn't over till the weekend of Aug 23, so it was important that
we go some rounds this weekend because we won't be running Coles on the 23rd due to the
Bowling Green Div 3 race and go some rounds we did.  7 rounds and a long list of tough drivers,
we made it to the final round before being downed by Bob Paul. In eliminations, we started off by
eliminating Scott Gordon in the 1st round when I was able to run closer to my dial even though he
beat me off the line. In the 2nd round, I had to run Jason McConnell and had a near perfect .501
reaction time and ran dead on the dial 5.208 on my 5.20 dial. This run earned me the bye run in the
3rd round. In the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds, I raced and beat Terry Willard, Sarah Morse, and Jason
Bailey with a string of good lights and a deadly car. The final round was a different story, Bob had
a better reaction time and carried it to the stripe where I let him have the stripe by .003 of a second
for the win.  

All in all, we had a good weekend and accomplished most of our goals and hopefully it's enough
to get us in the ET Finals. I will be headed to Bowling Green and then to Indy. If you're at either of
these tracks stop by and say hi. Talk to you again after these races.