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Page 1 :: Next Page >>
O'Reily Raceway Park, Indianapolis IN (September 21 - 23, 2007)
UMDRA Inaugural Meet-and-Greet
Friday, September 21, 2007 - by Shelly Boruta (Owner)
T We headed back to INDY again this weekend. This time, the purpose was to meet up with some of our fellow UMDRA.com members at the 2-day Drag News Magazine “Superbowl of Drag Racing”. However, instead of sitting at Gate 8 for 3-4 hours (behind BingBing’s race rig) as we did last weekend, we arrived on Friday just after the gates had opened so we were able drive right in. Also, unlike last weekend’s cool weather, the weather this weekend was sunny, HOT, and humid. (The “normal” INDY weather we expect.)
Some of the UMDRA group had already gone in before us and reserved some spots behind the Top Eliminator club stands close to the west staging lanes (at the other end of the ¼ mile from where we had parked last weekend). These primo parking spots provided us with a quick access to the stands at the starting line.
We knew ahead of
time that we’d only be able to make some runs on Friday since the “Superbowl”
did not have a motorcycle class but we wanted to go down to meet some of our
fellow snowmobile-power racers. Friday was an open
test & tune night so we, and many other bikes, made some passes. (There were a
lot of ‘Busa’s!)
It would be the only time that the other UMDRA members could see our bike run during the weekend. It was a badly run affair, first starting late, and then with none of the track staff managing the lanes, it was a melee of various car classes and bikes streaming from both the east and west staging lanes and trying to all fit into the two run lanes. Needless to say, we only managed to make three runs in about 4 hours but the bike performed as expected. For the last pass, we bumped up the engagement a little (to what we had been running earlier in the year) and the 60 ft time rebounded as we had expected it to do.
The adjoining “roundy round” track had a big 3-day race weekend too so we and the neighbors had both the roar of the dragstrip and that of the “roundy round” to listen to on Friday and Saturday nights. We had to use the AC for a while both Friday and Saturday night due to the heat and humidity so it helped drown out the roar a tiny bit. As usual, we were both tired enough that we fell asleep immediately despite all the sounds around us.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
We awoke Saturday morning to similar weather but there was a light cool breeze for the early part of the day. Later in the day, some clouds passed over now and then to give us a brief break from the high heat and humidity but much water was consumed and shade sought out on Saturday. (Bob was kind of glad he didn’t have to wear his leathers all day.) We spent part of the day checking out the other UMDRA members’ cars and the rest of the day cheering them on and taking photos and videos. We also had our bike and the start of the chassis for the new bike on display and answered questions for those who stopped by to browse.
The UMDRA team
for this meet consisted of Eric (E McKinney) with his Medusa looking snowmobile
dragster as well 
as Doug
(Doug3170), Larry (Mac), and Allyn Neff (BingBing) with their snowmobile
dragsters. Mac also brought one of mini funny cars for display/sale. Also
present was Buck (Noisy Toys) with his turbo ‘busa powered dragster. (He had
worked on the motor 24/7 to get the motor going for this weekend and had
succeeded but was then put on the sidelines by chassis problems! See E’s
coverage on the UMDRA site for details). Along with him came honorary member
Bill who doesn’t have a UMDRA qualifying vehicle (yet) but he brought along his
Top Gas ‘busa dragbike (ala P. Gast) to show to a potential buyer. (Bill is #4
in PROSTAR Top Gas at the moment – ahead of M. Konoapcki.). He showed us up by
running in the low 8’s on Friday night. The Wicked Quick Team (Dan and family)
were also present with their Jr Comp dragster powered by a 1000GXSR motor
(driven by Kristen).
We also met and
had a nice chat with Craig (Handicappedracer) about vintage snowmobiles and
2-stroke technology
from
“back in the day”. Handi seems to have a wealth of knowledge about all types of
vehicles. He also brought along some official UMDRA shirts so we looked like a
team on Saturday. Cool! Also present were family members of the UMDRA drivers.
We met a lot of friendly people and had a great time even though we weren’t
racing.
The Nostalgia Pro
Comp (NPCA) race group was also part of this weekend so we got to see a lot of
vintage race vehicles. A lot of the crew and drivers were vintage too (one of
the members/drivers is Larry Dixon Sr.). While standing in front of the tower
watching these cars, we were hailed by the announcer in the tower, whose voice
we recognized to be Roger from our old US131 dragway days. (We seem to run into
him at least once a year at some race or another.)
The old cars, some smelling of alcohol and nitro (yea!), were fun to watch.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
We held our first
club meeting on Saturday evening after a feast (BBQ’d by Doug’s wife, Stacy in
the hot sun!!) at which we voted for best-appearing, etc. and awards were handed
out. (Thanks Eric and Skip for all the time you put into preparing the awards.)
Everyone was in agreement that we should pursue another meet-and-greet somewhere
next fall.
We said our good-byes on Sunday and headed back home while the others stayed and
raced another day.
_______________________________________
O'Reily Raceway Park, Indianapolis IN (September 13 - 16, 2007)
Great weekend at Division Finals!
Thursday, September 13, 2007 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)
T We
came down last night and stayed in the Wal-Mart parking lot on the opposite side
of Brownsburg than the race track. We were kind of late and there were already
some people here. Some for the Bracket Finals, some were going to the infield of
the circle track on the other side of Indy for some dirt racing of some kind.
They defiantly must be serious
about it because they had hundreds of thousands of dollars just in the towing
rig. The paint job on the thing must have cost as much as my house alone! On the
way to the track, we always get to drive through "Nitro Alley" which is a bunch
of the pro guys' home race shops. We even got to see the new Eric Medlen statue
they dedicated a couple weeks back during the US Nationals. I took a quick shot
of the new John Force building that now houses the Eric Medlen Project which is
all the new safety stuff that Force is working on.
When we got to the track, about 8:00 AM, we were fairly close to the front of the line. It wasn't until noon that we got through the gates and found our nice parking spot right at a junction in the pit roads for easy access. The rest of the Mid Michigan Team trickled in over the next few hours. So we did the usual waiting game that they call "Indy" and even took a stroll to the East side pits to visit the Route 66 guys.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Up early because
our neighbor gave us a nice "wake-up call", which I never did properly thank him
for, we finished unpacking everything and set up for the day ahead of us.
Nothing unusual for any other race but in the back of our heads we know the Race
of Champion is coming tonight so we check things a little more closely. The
first time trial was around
12:30 PM for all the bikes
and we were supposed to rush back up for our second time run because all the ROC
contestants get two time trials before first round. We made sure the bike was
sufficiently cooled and headed back up for the second. Another hour passed and
the call came out for all ROC participants to come up for the opening
ceremonies. It was cool seeing Bob up on stage. The same one that they used just
two weeks ago for the US Nationals. The same one Craig Treble was on to receive
his trophy! (CONGRATS!!) A little help in the first round with a competition
single and a smooth second round pitted us against a good friend on another two
stroke. This one a H2. That turned out to be quite a close round that we were
able to come out on top and I can not quite describe how good it sounded to here
a par of 2 strokes making the only noise going down the track. And I have to say
it was a little satisfying to look into the Route 66 stand and watch all the
bike racers looking. Coming in I felt a little below the regular crowd because
we didn't make it through Chicago but now I realized it didn't matter how you
get there as long as you make it. And even though were are on separate teams,
that bond is still ever present.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
It was a great night
last night with all of the winners circle ceremonies and the Pot Luck dinner for
all the Mid Michigan 
racers.
Even though we were runner up, everyone was very proud of our accomplishments.
The third and final time run was about the same time as our first yesterday but
today was SIGNIFICANTLY colder. When we woke up, the DA was well below sea
level. There was a little problem with a keyway on the flywheel but was
quickly remedied by swapping parts off the backup motor. And later the sun came
out eventually and warmed things up and made it quite pleasant. I heard back in
Michigan the clouds stayed around and it was bitter cold for September.
Finally first
round came around in the afternoon. We were all ready to go and made it up to
the front of the pack.
Paired with Chad Eisely who runs a Hondamatic at a very consistent low 13.00, I
knew it was going to be a tough first round. Up to the line, and the bike made a
hard turn to the center line but Bob did a great job of reeling it in and
staying off the cones but it was to late late. Bob and Chad had nearly identical
reactions but as he often does, Chad had a very consistent time and left no room
for Bob to come around him. So that brought our weekend to a close on Saturday
night and gave us plenty of time to pack up and watch our friends and teammates
race in their first rounds.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Today was a finish
picking up stuff and watching our team day. Several of our Mid Michigan
teammates made it through first round and many made it all the way into and
through the third round which is when the money started to get paid out. Also,
two of the Route 66 bikes made it to the fourth round. Tom Florey and Paul
Waters were running very
well. Plus as we were leaving Paul had just made it through the quarter-finals
and as we found out later, ended up losing the semi-finals. So a great job all
around for the bikes this year, and to the Mid Mich team who ended up in 12th
place over all in the team standings.
Everyone performed admirably but inevitably, only 4 people out of the 1,000 can go home without a lose by their name. Good luck to all the Division 3 winners as they make their way to Pomona, CA and race at the national event there in November against the other divisions to be name National Champ. Last year none of the Div 3 reprehensive made it to the finals and Joe Deck, who we lost to, made a round one exit. So hopefully we can get at least one of the crowns back home to Division 3 "The Land of The Winners"!
_______________________________________
Mid Michigan Motorplex, Stanton MI (September 1 - 2, 2007)
Labor day Fun-Fest = Lots of fun!
Saturday, September 1, 2007 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)
T These are the last two races before the Division Finals in Indy. Maybe a test session, but who knows. Last weekend when we suspected the bike wasn't running quite right, Bob went home and found bad things with it. That turned into, basically, a complete rebuild of the engine. Initially the plan was to run the backup motor, but when UPS delivered on time and Doug got us the crank back, things were set in motion to get our #1 bullet back together in time for today.
We knew the first
couple runs wouldn't tell us much because the engine had to be broke back in,
and we were right. And being that there were SO many cars on the holiday
weekend, two time trials and a run for the money was all they
offered. So we had to take
the run for the money, which was a great thing because the motor final came
around and we got good data to go through the first two rounds pushing out
opponents out both times. By the time third round came up it was almost 11 PM
and was plenty dark and cool and we missed the dial by a touch and ended our
long day. I stayed up after dinner and a shower long enough to see our buddy
Jeff Green (from US131 Dragway) make it through round 3 and lying in bed I heard
him make it past round 5. Turns out he made it 9 rounds and took home the money.
He ran with more than 200 Pro cars and came out on top. Not bad for having
half the wheels.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
T Sundays are always early starts and today was nice because there was no hour drive to the track. Everything started out nice with a 6.09 and an 6.11 but when Bob got back from the second time trial, he was missing wheelie bar parts. So we had to make a mad dash back to Bob's house to get the old bars and salvage parts off of those. Bob took the 'Busa back because I know have absolute confirmation from a third party source; my truck is a toad!
After all that running around, first round came up quick. We dialed a 6.13 and ran quite close, but Got one of those US131 cars in the other lane that just had to much for us. Going into second round after buying back in, Bob put together one of the best runs of the weekend, and even that wasn't enough to take a win today. Not very often an 0.05 package won't get you a win, but today was one of those days.
As usual, we found lots of things we could try going into Indy. Its funny that after all these years running this same chassis, you would think we would know everything there is to know. But obviously there is more to it than just tubing and and engine... I understand why everyone is grey out here know!
_______________________________________
Mid Michigan Motorplex, Stanton MI (August 26, 2007)
Indy test session 1
Sunday, August 26, 2007 - by Stephanie Maciejewski (guest)
T Today
was a great day for racing. All the rain from the rest of the week was gone,
leaving the temperature at 78 degrees. We made good time
getting to the track, and had a good parking space. Test trials were started on
time, and everyone got the allotted three tries. However, there were not any run
for the money trials except for
juniors. And of course there were plenty of them there as usual.
The bike timed at 6.11 for the first trial, 6.11 for the second, and 6.16 for the third. A bit unusual, since the bike normally follows a pattern prior to actual races. This time, events flowed a lot more smoothly than when I last went to the races (back in June), where rain from the night before and that morning delayed things to the point where everyone was allowed only one test run. During the last time trial, the last pro car to run unexpectedly caught fire halfway down the track. It was quickly put out, no one was hurt, and events continued as usual with US in the next round (YAY!).
Another added bonus to this trip, at least for me, was that I was given an actual job. I was the official starter for the team, which enabled Shelly to videotape things more effectively. Because who doesn't want to be leeching off the team feeling and group togetherness of others, right? Right?? Unfortunately, the bike was having some engine problems and we had to go home early. The guys were working on it right up until the point they packed it all up. The big Labor Day trip coming up next weekend here at Mid Michigan, we'll let you know how things go!
_______________________________________
Route 66 Raceway, Joliet IL (August 5, 2007)
Highs & Lows
Sunday, August 5, 2007 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew/rider #2)
T All
night it was fairly dry, kinda humid but dry. Then less than an hour before we
are to enter the gates, it starts to rain. This wouldn't be all bad except two
things: 1. It can rain as long as it is raining at home because we haven't
had 
any rain in what seems
months 2. It is the last race and no matter how long it takes, they will
wait it out. So as we all stand, sit or sleep our way through the delay,
everyone is hoping it will stop and we can get on with things. Also at the same
time, I am still trying to decide weather I wanted to throw away my entry fee to
get into the bike class. When it came down to it, I figured I brought it all the
way here, I might as well. That and Bob told me I should (and forked over the
money temporarily) But what ended up happening was while talking to Dawn Florey,
she said I could borrow her bike that was trailered because of her surgery.
After somewhat of jumping at the chance I was extremely nervous. But first off,
I have to thank Tom, Dawn and the whole family and crew for the
opportunity and all their kind words.
Because of the
rain, everyone got one chance down the track to speed things up. Bob ran quicker
than I though being that the air was more water than oxygen. My first time down
the track on a dragbike was a disappointing 11.0. Going into
first round, the was even more heat and (if you can believe it) more humidity.
So Shelly dialed Bob as best she could but the bike just didn't want to leave
the trailer. Limping off the starting line, there was nothing Bob could do and
Greg took him out in the first round to end the season. As for me, I got a gift
when Bob Theida broke in the water box. I took it as a second time trial and
said thanks. Good thing to because I dialed a conservative 10.65 and wound up
with a non-conservative 10.49. But I too was beaten back when Bill Homuth
slapped a .007 reaction on me and still got around me on the top end when I
broke out. This time by mere thousands, compared to the hundredth of 1st round.
That concludes our Route 66 season. To say the least it was disappointing on the racing side. We had our highs and our lows but as it is with any sport you do/play without being a professional, It was great fun. As I tell Bob at the end of every season, there is no where else I would rather be than at a race track. It doesn't matter if we are winning or losing, watching or playing. Drag racing is my love and my passion. One of these days I will get to actually compete at a high level, and after this weekend, I'm thinking that may be sooner rather than later. But our season does not stop here. there are plenty of racing left including Mid Mich dates and the bracket finals in September. Plus the Drag News race in Indianapolis the week after the bracket finals where some of the UMDRA.com guys will gather and have some extra fun.
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