O’Reilly Bracket Series Results Sunday 3/13/2011 Footbrake

Footbrake

Winner – Bryan Day

R/U – Daniel Burks

Semis – Bobby Iven, Donna Lummus

In Sunday’s Footbrake contest, Bryan Day was able to hang on to best the 64 car field, taking home the $800 cash prize and massive Royal Purple Raceway trophy in his ’01 Camaro SS.  Daniel Burks of Santa Fe put his ’88 Chevy Blazer in the finals to face Day, but was uncharacteristically late at the tree, so Bryan was able to push Daniel further under his 6.15 dial in a double breakout.  Both finalists were beneficiaries of the Royal Purple Raceway buy back program, which gives racers a second chance if they were unfortunate enough to lose first round.  After turning on the red light against Billy Talbot in round one, Day was able to come back strong with a .007 green one to eliminate the previous day’s semifinalist Joey Cram.  That earned Bryan the bye run in round three, and possibly intimidated “Blazer Kid” Nathan Gallagher into leaving early in round 4.  Keeping the theme alive, Bryan rattled off a .016 and a .003 in rounds 5 and 6 to send home “Coach” Tim Ray and semifinalist Donna Lummus.  Despite recording a .062 after seeing Gallagher go red in round 4, Bryan Day was able to average .021 at the tree on his 6 rounds after buying back.  Daniel Burks is also known for his “tree” and used his timing skills to take out Chris Talbot, Lloyd Mikeska, 5 time Footbrake champ Jason Patterson and Rickey Nelson.  Katy’s Bobby Iven took a slight reaction time advantage over Burks in the semis, but couldn’t find the brake pedal fast enough in his ’68 Firebird, setting up the final between Burks and Day. 

The “missed it by that much” moment goes to Brian Nelson in round 3, where he goes .004 and 8.989 on a 8.99 dial. 

O’Reilly Bracket Series Results Sunday 3/13/2011 Super Pro

O’Reilly Bracket Series Results Sunday 3/13/2011

Super Pro

Winner – Bill Arning

R/U – Eddie League, Jr.

Semis – Glen Stepan

Well, I didn’t think I’d have to cross this bridge this early in the season, but here I am.  This past Sunday’s Super Pro Winner was me, Bill Arning.  When I started the Bracket Racing Houston blog, my intention was to write unbiased results for each race and then a personal story about my experiences.  So, after much thought, I decided to write the results in the third person, just as I would write about anyone else, keeping with my original intention.   My personal thoughts will be in a separate article.

In Sunday’s 1/8^th mile contest at Royal Purple Raceway, Friendswood’s Bill Arning took home the winner’s trophy in Super Pro over Runner-up Eddie League, Jr., from Deer Park.  Arning, driving Richard Cook’s ’79 Firebird, used a .010 reaction time average throughout 7 rounds of eliminations to top the 52 car field.  Eddie League was able to buy back in after a first round loss to multi-year Super Pro champion Bart Nelson, who sustained a stellar .006 reaction time average through his 4 rounds on Sunday.  League was then able to incite red lights from Mike Dollins and Terrance Harrison and weather a .003 light from John Patterson on a double breakout.  Eddie went .010 and dead on against South Houston’s Daniel Martinez, earning him the bye into the finals to face Bill Arning.  Fresh off of round wins over a dead on Glen Stepan, Chuck Talley’s untimely equipment failures and an ever-so-slighly breaking out Bart Nelson, Bill took a .016 reaction time advantage all the way to the stripe in the final. 

The race of the weekend award goes to Sunday’s round 4 of Super Pro, where Jonathan Johnson and Friendswood’s Kenny White ended in a dead heat at the finish line, both having .008 packages for a .000x margin of victory for Johnson.

Saturday 03-12-2011 O'Reilly Bracket Racing Series Results

SUPER PRO 



Winner - Chanse Bullock

R/U - Matt Exner

Semis - Clark Barker

This past Saturday was the opening race of the 2011 O’Reilly Bracket Racing Series at Royal Purple Raceway.  Baytown’s Chanse Bullock survived the 56 car Super Pro field to take home the giant new Royal Purple Raceway winner’s trophy and the $1200 cash prize.  Driving his 468 Big Block powered ’67 Camaro, he started off eliminations with a .000 reaction time and dead on his 10.23 dial with a 1.  Without much room for improvement, he relied on his driving skills to get around the likes of Deer Park’s Eddie League, Jr. and Arthur Edison out of Houston.  Clark Barker turned on the red eye in the semis by .001 to set up the final between Chanse and Matt Exner.  Matt had lady luck on his side all night, receiving red light gifts from Ricky Kay, Jay Costales, Tommy Costales, and yours truly.  To his defense, Matt did have quite a few .00x lights of his own, so we’ll cut him some slack.  In the final, Matt had the slight advantage at the tree, but pushed his ’01 Don Davis dragster .04 under his dial, giving Chanse Bullock the honor of being named the “First Ever Super Pro Winner at Royal Purple Raceway.” 





FOOTBRAKE

Winner – Jay Robinson

R/U – Jack Robinson

Semis – Joey Cram,

Ronny Speer

In footbrake, Jay Robinson outlasted the 68 car field, only to find a very familiar face in the final, his dad.  Yes, Jack’s back!  After turning over the keys to Matt Exner for a little while, Jack Robinson was back behind the wheel of his familiar ’68 Cuda.  And he picked up right where he left off, taking out an unusually tardy Ronnie Speer in the semis, along with David Abernathy and David Lissman in the late rounds.  Jack and Jay Robinson are no strangers to final round appearances.  “I’ve been fortunate enough to end up in the finals with my son before,” Jack said, “several times at Angleton, Sealy and even at the Super Tens here one year.”  Being the competitors that they are, they didn’t cut each other any slack, with Jay going .009 on the tree to Jack’s -.011.  Jay always seems to be on his game, and Saturday was no exception.  With a .028 reaction time average throughout 7 rounds of eliminations, Jay was able to take out Texas City’s Joey Cram, Joseph Cram from Houston, rising star Jamie Haines out of Deer Park, Steve Exner and yours truly.  Known nationwide as the “Footbraking Fool,” Jay was also driving the same ’73 Nova deep into the rounds of Super Pro all the while.  Both Jack and Jay Robinson operate moving companies out of the Galveston County area, and Jack also owns the popular website and message board at http://www.bracketrash.net/. 

Racing Days Are Here

Is it already that time again? Yep. Time to get the family car ready for the races. What? Family car? Races? You heard me. The 2011 bracket racing season is right around the corner at the newly renamed Royal Purple Raceway (formerly Houston Raceway Park). But you said “family car,” there’s no way our family car can compete with real drag racing cars. Tell that to the Day family from Pasadena.  

OK, so a 2001 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 with an HKE 408 cubic inch fuel injected small block that stops the quarter-mile clocks at just under 10 seconds isn’t exactly what you’d call a family car, but it is to the Day family. Well, that’s the mom’s car anyway. James, Sheila and their two children, Brian and Kayla are well known in the local bracket racing scene for their caravan of fourth generation Camaros that are daily drivers, or at least 3 out of 4 are (I think you can guess which one isn’t). Sheila really took on the perennial powers like Jay Robinson and Jason Patterson last year, finishing 2nd in points and both she and her son Brian took home the crown jewel of the sport, The Wally.

James Day insists that a large part of their success can be attributed to Circle D stall converters in Houston. “They play a big role in how consistent our cars are,” James says. And consistency is the name of the game when it comes to bracket racing.

So, how does this work, this bracket racing thing? There are countless explanations on the web, from the very simple to the very detailed. There are even schools that are taught by people who have turned this hobby into a lucrative profession. Simply put, you don’t need a fast car or a ton of money to be competitive. Bracket racing is a driver’s game, where reaction time and consistency are king. For example, if you show up in your 2010 Ford Pickup and based on your two allotted time-trials, you predict you can run 17.00 seconds, and the guy driving a '65 Chevelle in the other lane is dialed in at 12.50, you will get a 4.5 second head start. Easy enough? Come give it a try! The season kicks off Saturday, March 11th.

Please visit http://royalpurpleraceway.com/ for more details. Also, check out http://www.ssracingphotos.com for some pictures of what you’ll be up against.