VW THINGS AND FUN
OHIO TOM AND GENO IN TOM TROPHY ROOM
OHIO TOM STREE CAR
MEMORIAL DAY WEEK END OH T0M
I started the season with a bang today.
I took the Win in the All-Motor/Slick tire class.
There was about a 10mph headwind today so she was only running 11,90's.
I was cutting some pretty good pro-Tree lights too. (.057, .063).
That was plenty good for my competition's .250 lights. (those import guys can't cut a light to save thier life).
Either way I had a good .4s on the next fastest car in the field. All I had to do was make some clean passes...
There were only 2 other takers in All motor class, but they made me race both of them for the win.
More pics to follow...
the event was a good time and I got to have some fun and get my butt in the drivers seat.
I made 5 passes and the car ran between 11.97 to 11.92.
A good .2s and 2mph off the pace, but consistent anyways...
OHIO TOM AT QUAKER CITY RACKWAY
My day started really badly when I got a trialer flat 5m i from the house.
I plugged it on the roadside only to have the other tire go flat 5more mi down the road.
Re-plugged that one and made it to the track OK.
Mari and the Baby stayed home due to the long day ahead.
The baby wouldn't make it that long so she sent me on my way.
There was no less than 16 VW powered cars there to run the race. Not bad for the first ever event at this track.
The pay out money was over $700.
Quaker is kind of a slow running track so there is lots of time between rounds. This was OK with me since I was running late and got a chance to BS with everyone. It was a good time for sure.
2VW were running in the 10's and a bunch of 11's cars in the field as well. A very good showing for the VW's for sure.
I kept seeing V8 guys looking over thier sholders at the parade of VW's heading up to staging lanes.Things went slow, but otherwise smoothly.
I got the big Red eye in the first round. I had to wait 5 seconds before my tree fell after my opponenet left (16.80 dial to my 11.89 dial). I got a little antsy.
Lots of people were doing the same.
The car was running great and laid down an 11.82 (fast for that track).
Jim from Jim's custom VW's was there with his sand dragster (with slicks). He had problems with his air shifter and could only get 1st gear.
Darrel Reynolds (Red 67 Vert with 2276 turbo) smoked his clutch.
Eric Hegstenburger cut a tire and was out for the day.
Bill Shoenburg (sp?) cracked a piston or something bad like that.
Sometime during the semi-finals the rain came so we headed out. Not sure of the outcome (anyone know?).
It was raining pretty hard on the way home.When I got home I noticed a huge blister on one of my trailer tires. I barely made it home...
Oh well. Off to Tractor supply for some new tires...
All in all it sounded like a bad day for lots of people, but I had fun regardless just hanging out with all my friends. It was really nice to see such a good turnout and everyone participating.
OHIO TOM AT QUAKER CITY RACKWAY JULY 18 RUNNER UP
Wow, what a good time we had on Saturday. It was the 2nd "VW Bracket Eliminator" event at Quaker City Raceway.
The weather man was talking about rain for Saturday, but he ended up being wrong.
I unloaded my car fully expecting not to make any passes. The sky looked bad.
But then things cleared up and got to racing..
We had no less than 13 cars (and trikes) show up for the class.
Not bad considering the threat for rain.
I saw 4 new people show up for the first time.
Troy McNare and Darrel Reynolds thrashed to try and make it, but both had delays that made it impossible for them to attend.
Either way, we had several good rounds of drag racing and enough racers to make the payout a nice pot.I seemed to have my car dialed in pretty well for this track. As usual, I always run about .1s slow.
I predicted 11.90's and that's what she ran all day. I was cutting lights from .082 to .027s.
I ended up going rounds and found my way into the final. ....
I was lined up against a "first timer" who somehow found himself in the final. He dialed a 17.25 to my 11.90.
I got a little too antsy waiting for my tree to fall and "Redlit". I handed the "win" to the rookie (who I'm sure will be back again).
the winnner got just over $500, and I got $190 to take home.
I fealt bad that I "handed the win away", but I ran a good race up to that point....... And a newbie just got his hook sunk real deep...
I had a similar expericence when I first started drag racing years ago. I took out Veteran Bill Edwards in a final.
I was hooked myself...
P.S. there was a VW Trike there who also entered thier "bike" class. He eneded up winning that class. The bike guys were shaking thier heads at his 17.80 dial-in, .
It was crazy to watch that "big wheelie" trike show the 8 second Superbike what's up... LOL....Thanks go out to Doug Dowd for doing a great job coordinating this race. Doug keeps it simple and fair.
Also, thanks to Geno who has put up a case of Brad Penn Oil to add to the contingnecy award for the next race.
Aug 8th.
The pot just keeps getting sweeter..
I know that several more racers from Michigan are planning on coming out for the next one. We could easily see 20Vw's there laying it down....
I can't wait...
OHIO TOM NATIONAL TRAILS RACEWAY.
Well, we got up real early to tow the 2hrs down to National trails raceway.
The forcast was overcast, but no rain.
The turnout was pretty amazing really.
Import guys were coming out of the woodwork that I have never seen before. The staging lanes were packed all the way to the rear of staging.
By far the best turnout yet for this event.
We got there and got tech'd early so we would be ready for the first round of qualification for the
All Motor Pro Class.
This class is for Normally aspirated Imports. RWD cars have to run DOT tires, (while the FWD guys get to run slicks).
Sort of a "handicap" for the guys who can hook up better.
Last season's event was rained out, but I was #1 qualifyer before the rain hit.
I wanted to defend my title and kick some Honda butt.
Luckily enough, I got to face nothing but FWD Honda Civic's for the thrashing.
I ended up being #2 qualifier going into Elims by .01sec (my 12.069 to his 12.059).
I had the rest of the field by .3sec in qualifying.
the #1 qualifier screwed up a syncro and ended up running off his normal speed due to slow shifting.
My car was off the usual pace due to the DOT's, but it was still was pulling some big Wheelies (to everyone's attention).
I made the required passes to pick off each Honda one by one, to the final with the car running within .01sec for all rounds. That with my "reasonably good" Pro-tree lights (around .100's). That was enough to make the Win a matter of making some clean passes.
From last year's rainout, the Event coordinator Doubled the winning payout to $600.
(See the 6 Ben Franklin's in my hand).
I went home with a big grin on my face.
Sorry that I didn't see everyone at US131's race, but I was plenty busy being the "lone wolf" representing....
Re: Attn. NE OH and W PA Racers
« Reply #148 on: August 20, 2009, 08:30:23 pm »
Alrighty racers! The latest update for the Jim's Custom VW's Bracket Eliminator at Quaker City Raceway is here!
For the September 12 race Geno's VW from Elizabeth PA is stepping up with a case of Brad Penn 20/50 racing oil for the winner AND a case for the runner up!
Geno is also giving T shirts to the semi final runners up. Thanks Geno!!
This is in addition to the DOUBLE BONUS MONEY from Jim's Custom VW's of Columbiana OH and Dowd floors of Minerva OH!!!!As I've indicated before, we will be doing this series again in 2010. We would invite all VW drag racers to come on out to QCR to
bracket race with the best racers in the midwest. We will be coming up with a racers association for next season in an effort to grow the series and attract
more and new sponsorship. We will be trying to come up with a points system to have a year end champion and championship prizes. I'm open to suggestions
for an association name and any input on how to pull this off. Also let me know how you feel the program was handled this year and what you, as a racer,
want for next year.
How about "North Coast VW Drag Racers Association" the NCVWDRA?
Feel free to contact me at racerd6370@adelphia.net or call Doug Dowd at 330-206-3548What a weekend. 2 full days of racing back to back.
Saturday: 9 12 2009
We had an excellent turnout for the 4th and final "VW Bracket Eliminator" race at Quaker City Racway.
Some of us had rainchecks from last months event that was rained out.
No less than 17 cars showed made it to 1st round of elims. This was the biggest turnout yet for this new event. People are getting really worked up about this event getting bigger and better next year.
I was a bit nervous about the car since I recently installed new 30mm torsion springs and a set of wheelie bars.
This was changing the way the car launches and represented a possible handicap going racing w/o testing.
As it turns out, the new combination improved the launch of the car so well that on the #2 time trial, my steering wheel broke clean off in my hands as soon as let the clutch go.
We made a quick run to the autoparts store that ended up taking way longer (and farther away) than we thought. We were just getting in the car with new wheel in hand when we got a message that they were calling cars to staging for 1st round.
I was Humbled by the comaradarie of VW racers. They all waited in the pits and boycott the call to staging until we got back.
A special thanks goes out to my fellow racers.
I had the new wheel mounted in minutes and we were off racing....
I was cutting good lights and the car seemed to be consistent enough so I dialed 11.90.
By the 3rd round we were down to 3 cars. My .041 light in the previous round got me the buy into the final.
My light wasn't so good in the final and I lost by .02s to Gary Seignior of Toledo in his drag rail buggy.
With the car count so high, the payouts were really good this time. The winner got $815 and I took home $315 for Runner Up. Both of us also got a case of Brad Penn racing oil.
I will definatly be looking forward to this race next season.
P. S. Little did I know that my battery charger wasn't working all day.
When I tried to start the car to load in on the trailer, the battery was totally dead.
She didn't even have one more race in her.
I had to thrash to get my stuff ready for the race on Sunday.
Sunday: 9 13 2009After driving home, and getting the car ready for Sunday, I was pretty tired, but couldn't sleep very much due to all the things on my mind.
I had to get up at 6am Sunday morning to drive to Pittsburg for the "Pittsburg Classic" show/race at Pittsburg Raceway Park.
This race featured 3 bracket classes and a "pro outlaw" class that brought some serious cars to town.
Since my car runs right at the cutoff for Pro and Super Pro classes, I entered both classes.
The plan is to dial a 7.50 (1/8mi) for Pro class and then 7.49 for S/P. This is the cutoff so I can easily run close to either dial.
First round I red-lit in Super Pro , but won in Pro class so I just concentrated on keeping the car slower than 7.50.
As the day went on, the car started running faster. In the 2nd round, my opponenet Red-lit. This gave me the green light to run the car out hard and see what she could do for the next round.
She laid down an 7.44. Luckily, I had the win so It wasn't a breakout.
whoops. Where did that come from?
On that pass, she hooked really good and laid down a huge wheelie.
Since I am required to have a dial of no less than 7.50, I knew that a breakout was possible going into the final round.
Somehow I ended up facing Gary Seignior of Toledo in the final.. .again for a re-match of Saturday's race.
He cut a slightly better light than me whiched pushed me to breakout....
Doh..
The payout was$800 to Gary and $250 for myself.
Darrel Reynolds S.R.E built turbo won Super Pro.
There were only 4 competitors and I Redlight against Darrel for 1st round. This gave Darrel the easy win since his opponenet counldn't make the call for the final.
The Pro Outlaw class had several watercooled entries as well as Aircooled entries, this was the race to watch all day.
Both sides of the "water fence" were struggling.
The favored watercooled car caught on fire on his first pass. They towed his car back with fire extiguisher dust all over it.
He got it all fixed up and manged to make more passes. None of them were very good thou. He had a hard time keeping all they cyl firing and missed shifts.
Ollie Frey was there with his Pro Stock car (with weight removed) representing the aircooled favorite. Ollie struggled with adjusting the car to the new weight balance. Ollie had to bow-out since he couldn't get his car stopped before the track ends. He ate up his brake pads trying to stop his car after a 10.00's pass.
Doug Dowed was there to throw at it as well running consitent 10.50's with his S.R.E. prepped motor.
In the final it was Doug Dowd against the watercooled car that caught on fire.
The water cooled guy finally got his junk running right in the final and laid down a 9.11s pass leaving Doug behind.
It was a good 2 days of racing. I was soo tired after all that fun. I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep.
