O’Reilly Bracket Series Results April 2-3 2011

Below are the results from the April 2nd and April 3rd bracket races at Royal Purple Raceway. I totally dropped the ball this time and forgot to ask for the round sheets, so I have very little to go on. If there’s someone at the track who can email the results to racerntx@aol.com, I will be glad to rewrite this. I guess I was distracted by my two favorite people showing up on Sunday afternoon. Congrats to all the winners!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Super Pro -- Stephen Hughes, Pasadena, TX, '03 Miller, 7.512, 169.83 def. Donny Burleson, Houston, TX, '01 Worthy, 7.274, 183.79

Footbrake -- Jamie Haines, Deer Park, TX, '99 Camaro SS, 12.005, 108.76 def. Joey Cram, Texas City, TX, '72 Chevy Nova, 9.285, 143.19

Advanced Jr. Dragster -- Boyd Hightower, Crosby, TX, '05 Hardens, 7.932, 83.85 def. Brooke Heckel, Baytown, TX, '06 Half Scale, 7.892, 82.59

Sportsman Jr. Dragster -- Austin Thorton, LaPorte, TX, '01 Half Scale, 9.013, 71.33 def. Kedick Redd, Jr., League City, TX, '95 Spitzer

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Super Pro -- Tommy Costales, Manvel, TX, '01 Worthy, 5.336, 128.90 def. John Winn, Deer Park, TX, 77 Nova, 7.076, 99.22

Footbrake -- Rickey Nelson of Houston outlasts the weather and a track timing malfunction to take home the gold in Footbrake over Drew Porcher of Conroe.  The two finalists had to rerun the final round due to an error in the timing system.  Congratulations to both drivers on their final round appearance and for showing great sportsmanship. 

Advanced Jr. Dragster -- Jason Richards, Lake Charles, LA, Dragster, 7.887, 82.95 def. Taylor Richards, Lake Charles, LA, '06 Half Scale, 7.863, 67.20

Sportsman Jr. Dragster -- Blaine Hightower, Crosby, TX, '06 Hardens, 9.016, 7038 def. Austin Watson, Deer Park, TX, '00 So Cal, 9.208, 70.48

A Good Start

Wow!  Time flies.  Here it is time to get ready for the next month’s race at RPR and I haven’t even finished writing all of last month’s blogs.  My lawn business is growing at an extremely fast rate, so that has taken up much of my time this month.  I guess it’s a good problem to have, but answering 50+ phone calls a day takes it’s toll on your desire to do anything but scream.  Now, let’s see if I can remember anything from last month…

The giant trophy still sits on the living room floor as a reminder.  There’s just something different about this one.  Why can’t I just put it in the office with all the other ones and let it be?  This isn’t the first time I’ve won an event, nor is it even the first time I’ve won a Super Pro event.  It’s just another trophy.  But there it sits.  Maybe it’s telling me: “write your stupid blog already, Bill.”  Or maybe I can’t put it with the others because it doesn’t belong there.  It doesn’t belong with the others because it’s different.  Different in that many people came together to win this one, not just one. 

Richard Cook and I were sitting at the banquet last year admiring the lustrous gold trophy cups that were given to Jay Robinson and Donny Burleson for winning their respective classes when I turned to Richard and said: “Next year, those will be ours.”  I’m sure the bottom of the Sam Adams bottle was saying part of that, but it sparked a discussion on what we would need to do to get the car to be competitive in an electronics class.  Within a week, Richard had lined up everything we needed to be able to run the car in both classes.  Gary Riccolo loaned us the powerglide transmission out of his Camaro, along with transbrake, delay box and three step.  This is some really nice stuff, delay boxes have come a long way since the Dedenbear RTD6.  And that Powerglide transmission and transbrake are just unbelievable.  For the first time since driving Kenny Teer’s ’69 Camaro in the mid-90’s, I am able to concentrate on my job of letting go of the button, and not worry about the occasional “creep” I used to get with my shadetree-custom-deluxe 4 wheel line lock system on my Camaros. 

Then there’s the always timely advice we get from other racers at the track.  Joey Cram has explained how Powerglides should work in a way that even I can almost understand, and his patience with someone as mechanically challenged as myself is quite virtuous.  Wayne Morgan, Daryl Patton, Bart Nelson, Jack & Jay Robinson, Jason & Donna Lummus, the list goes on forever, these people are always willing to assist.

So I’ve decided to take the trophy to the track today to let Richard keep it for a while.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll get another one today.  Maybe I’ll get two.

Thanks guys!!