The Baer Facts :
(Well not really the facts but my perspective)

The Baer Facts :
(Well not really the facts but my perspective)

 Return to Cordova Drag way park Once again Greg Kolinek, Dr. Evil and I decided to travel there together and it was an uneventful trip. We got there Friday night paid our monies, hugged Martie DeVore and broke out the blender for some margaritas and mudslides. Cheryl Kola-nut however would have none of them “I’ll stick to my beer thank you, that sh#%*@t will rot your brain and hurt your reaction times” and considering that she had not one, but two perfect lights the next day maybe she’s on to something? (Nah….. just lucky I’m thinking!)

Saturday: Started out hot and then warmed up to about the temperature of hell itself! (I’m sweating just thinking about it) I, as always, was looking for an easy “shiny dime” to add to my collection so I followed, my favorite pigeon, Lil’ Richie Kwas to the staging lanes for a time trial and the crusty old no good fer nothing S.O.B uncorked a .005 light on me and egregiously wrenched from my grasp a small shiny sliver of my modest cache of gambling money. (Shit!)
With 33 Lil’ compers in attendance including the Eggelstens and the Lobner Clan from Kansas City, there was exactly one bye up for grabs and that of course that and  “the hat from Pat” went to none other than Gentleman Jim Gerakaris who carded a perfect 8.900 nicely done Jim!
In what looked waaaaay to much like a scam, I won the 50/50 drawing after I had my good buddy Lexy draw the ticket from the bag that I myself was holding!
(Boo! Hiss! Boo!) (Bite me!! I won it fair and square!!! ;) )

The first wound opened with Lacy Rosenberry advancing when Da Bomber went red, Delvin Shepard drove around a quicker leaving Scotty Phillips when Scott misjudged the stripe (.015/8.924 vs. .001/8.938), Wally Pote advanced when Ryan Koener likewise went red (-.010) The Custer Park Comet stopped Dr. Evil (8.91vs,8.92) Alan Bush had a .009 quicker light that Cheryl Kolinek, the only problem was Cheryl’s light was a perfect .000, Kansan Poppa John Lobner also had a perfect light of his own .000 and he needed it as Jeremy Demers had a .005 light on his side but went further under the index 8.88 vs. 8.89, Brian Reimer didn’t have a perfect light but he did have the next best thing to as he utilized a .001 initiated hole shot advantage to send a tardy (for him) Chad LaMont a packing (.001/8.926 vs. .049/8.940), Poppa Larry Reimer survived the math quiz with Da Kwas Brothers (8.859 vs. 8.853), Justin Reeves Slipped past a quicker leaving but trouble plagued  Jeryka Lobner .051/8.92 vs. .008/8.99, “Captain America” (Gary Jenkins) cut a solid .010 light to stop John Goetsch in his Lil’ blown Dart 8.92 vs. 8.94, J.R. Lobner  had a excellent .009 light to stop  Chris Gerakaris  (who had a solid .015 light of his own) with both carding 8.937 Larry Wasilewski left -.002 before the green fortunately for him Braidwood’s Jeff Torbeck did likewise -.030 before Da Waz (-.002 vs. -.032).

 Mike and Tammy Eggleston had a solid .011 light and an 8.92 to defeat Capt’n Pat LaMont’s .028/8.927, Lil’ Mikey Nolan had an excellent .002/8.927 to trailer young Mr. Saxton’s 8.95 Mike Lund advanced when Peewee (Chuck) Graves and the wonder bird fouled out by -.004 L and of course Jim Gerakaris had his well deserved bye
I, incredibly had to once again face Lexy’s Poppa my good friend Mike Kuhn.
As I’m getting ready in the staging lanes Mike’s wife Laurie wished me well as did Mike’s Daughter T.J., Mike’s Sister and even Mike’s Mother! I was nearly overwhelmed with empathy, hell, I, wanted Poppa to win as well…… but wait that means that, I would have to lose?..... Whoa…..wait a dog gone minute that ain’t happening! Sorry Lexy, but I gotta try to beat Poppa again, if I can!
Now if you’ve been paying attention you might have noticed that so far this year Mike has been completely luckless he can’t catch a break to “Save his Ass”. If a safe fell out of a ten story bank building and hit Mike, I would be surprised if they arrested him for attempted robbery! So anyway, we stage up and I had a decent.019 light but Mike, Mike had crimson pall cast upon the side of his Lil’ Daytona as unbelievably he had a-.006 red light.
Now usually when I see the win light on my guard rail I’m tickled pink, but not this time, this time what I felt was simply compassion for my friend.

Down to 17!  The second round , Angie Reeves’ guy (Justin) advanced when Larry Reimer went red by the slimmest of margins (-.007) Jim Gerakaris  also went red by -.002 fortunately for him the “MudSlideless” Miss Kolinek was .005 quicker with a -.007 red light of her own, Mike Nolan survived a poor reaction time (.054) when the Custer Park Comet’s throttle momentarily stuck and he took the stripe by about the length of a small corn field and promptly broke out by four thousands of a second (8.896 vs. 8.998). Lacy Rosenberry had a great .002 light an Poppa Don had her dialed to an 8.907 which was just enough to beat what would have normally been a winning effort by Larry Wasilewski who had a very good .017 / 8.903 of his own. “Captain America” Gary Jenkins advanced when Brian Reimer had a “Rip Van Winkle moment” and woke up to see this strange green light a glowing? (.050 / 8.971 vs. .156! / 8.959) Wally Pote utilized a .007 starting line advantage to beat Del by .001! (.017 / 8.925 vs. .024 / 8.919), Poppa John Lobner had a respectable .013/8.92 package to stop Mike Lund’s 8.95, Tammy’s guy Mike posted an 8.91 on his bye.
I……uhm……….well, when I was backing up from the burn out , I couldn’t see the staging lights flicker ( so I thought “what the F#$k??!!!”) the sun was at a near perfect angle and bright enough that I simply couldn’t see them! So I made sure I was behind the starting line and ever so slowly creeped forward until it appeared to me that I had pre-stage bulb lit and as I bumped in, it went out? Shit!! I’ m deep! so I pulled forward out of the beams praying they would let me re-stage, unfortunately the guard beam was on an I got an immediate red light, and J.R. Lobner got a free pass into the next round. So knowing I wouldn’t get any useful data out of it, and not wanting to abuse my bucket of bolts any more than necessary I proceeded to cruise thru at a reasonably slow pace and just when I started to accelerate a bit (to get my losing ass out of the way) I noticed a safety worker running along the guard rail and I finally figured out that she was running to open the short turn out for me. So I stopped for a moment and took the short turn off. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)

Round three: Had more Oh’s than a box of cheerios, in round three, three of the four winners had .00 lights.  Justin Reeves had a .006 to end Wally’s day (8.942 vs.8.945), Mike Eggelston had a .007 light to stop Cathy’s guy Mike Nolan, Gentleman Jim Gerakaris had a .004 and an 8.907 to end J.R.’s day, Poppa John Lobner had a solid .016 light and an 8.920 to best Mr. Jenkins’.026 / 8.936 effort and lastly lovely Lacy posted an 8.894 on her bye run.

Round four: The fourth round opened with a pair of red lights with Miss Rosenberry’s        -004 being a lesser offender than Mr. Gerakaris’ -.019, Poppa John Lobner also red lighted against Michael Eggelston (-.023) vs. Mike’s .025 / /8.892 and Justin Reeves closed the round posting an 8.918 on his bye run.

The Semis: featured the youthful Mr. and captivating Mrs. Reeves versus Mike & Tammy Eggelston with Mike uncorking a 007 light combined with an 8.925 to just force Justin to the dark side of the index at 8.881 for the win. Miss Rosenberry posted an 8.86 on the bye run

The Final:  Pitted the Dad and Daughter duo of the Rosenberrys against tuff paw aluminum fabricating owner Mike and his better half, the mysterious, Dr. Tammy Eggelston . Lacy was ready as she cut a solid .013 light but fortunately for Tammy, Mike was 13 thousands of a second quicker yet as he had a perfect 000 light!
Lacy took the stripe by .001 but both racers dipping below the index it was Mike’s 8.892 was closer than Lacy’s 8.878.

So I would like to wish our friends and long time sponsors a hearty:……..

CONGRATULATIONS to Mike & Tammy Eggelston! Well done Way to go!!!!!!!

Sunday ! Sunday ! Sunday

After consuming enough mudslides Saturday night to significantly alter the directional force of gravity, I awoke at about 7:00 to the sound of strong gusts of wind and my first thought was of the E-Z up that I had borrowed from Greg as I opened the motor home door one of my lawn chairs blew by and when I looked to where the E-Z up was,………… it was…. gone! Holy Shit! But wait a minute the stakes are gone as well. Fortunately this wasn’t Mr. Kolinek’s first rodeo boys and girls and he had wisely already taken down his EZ up before hand. (Thanks twice Greg)
Kwas stopped by and informed us that we would get exactly one qualifier or essentially no time trials. This was both bad and good news to me, on one hand, Ken and I wanted to make a significant change in out throttle stop / car set up strategy and one pass wasn’t enough data to do so and we were stuck with our existing less than ideal  methodology.
But it was good news as it meant we could out of there sooner which after dealing with the heat the day before it was kind of welcome news.
For the qualifier I went looking for the villain Richie Kwas who was in possession of one of my hard earned “shiny dimes”! I shouldn’t have been so eager; as we left the starting line I noted that I had a low teen (.013) but when I looked at his score board, at first I thought that they hadn’t given him a reaction time, it read all zeros but then the reality of it set in, that no good for nothing sun of a biscuit had a perfect light! AHHHHH! Shit!!!!!$%#@**#! I gotta give him another of my precious coins! Ahhh!

31 cars made the call for Sunday’s first round including Tony Quinn who was driving for team Rosenberry and Tri-State Drag way’s Sunday winner Bad man (Jarod) Bowman. After the dust had cleared from our qualifying round it was none other than the Blue Dragster Mafia’s enforcer Wally Pote who posted and 8.909, to qualify “numero uno”, of note, was that Justin Reeves also posted an 8.909 but Wally got her done first!
Nicely done Wall

Sunday’s first round: Opened with Warren Goetsch using a .011 initiated 8.912 to defeat Ryan Koener’ cool little 63 vette (.019/8.948) Andrew Saxton advanced when Hottie Cheryl Kolinek when red, Jim Gerakaris utilized an excellent .007 / 8.908 package to send “Captain America” (Gary Jenkins) back to the trailer with bad news for crew chief and side kick Andy, Da Bomber won a double breakout over a quicker leaving Del Shepard (8.88 vs. 8.87), Lil Richie Kwasiborski made sure that the previous day’s winner Mike Eggelston didn’t “double up”  slapping a hole shot on him with a .001 light and posting an 8.91 the combination of which covered Mike’s near perfect 8.905. Angie’s guy Justin left on and backed into Mike Nolan (8.94 vs. 8.92) Larry Wasilewski advanced to the third round with an 8.91 when a quicker leaving Bad Boy Brian Reimer went .002 too fast at 8.898 ( L Shit!) His Dad Larry however did win the round when Alan Bush went red by the slimiest of margins (-.002) Peewee Graves likewise advanced when Capt’n Pat also fouled (Note, Peewee has a .004 light of his own) Bad man Bowman also advanced as J.R. Lobner went red by -.004 (Jarod had a .008), Hired gun Tony Quinn demonstrated his worth as his .001 light that when combined with Don’s dialed 8.903 proved to be too much for the charming Miss Lobner’s excellent .012/8.905, K.J. Mulligan bulbed it to the tune of -.006 to advance Wally Pote, Poppa John Lobner put together an outstanding .005 / 8.908 package to stop a red lighting Chris Gerakaris, Scotty Phillips came through with and awesome package with a .007 initiated perfect 8.900 to end Mike Lund’s day.
 I had to face none other than the insidious Dr. Evil and with nearly even lights (.013 vs.014) it was a good race, problem was I never caught him. Fortunately for me Jungle Paula had her man dialed just a whisker too fast at 8.882 allowing me to advance with an off pace 8.95. Poppa Kuhn’s unbelievable run of bad luck continued, after leaving on “The Chad” by .032 he was inexplicably too fast at an aggravating 8.850 Chad’s ET was 8.904. 

Round Two: Da Bomber cut an excellent .009 light to end a “missed the tree” Rich Kwas’ day  both racers with 8.91’s, Wally Pote posted an excellent 8.908 to force a quicker leaving Scotty Phillips to an 8.88 breakout loss, Justin Reeves caught a break when a quicker leaving Andy Saxton ran a 8.899! (Ah Shit L ).
 In a repeat of Tri-state‘s Sunday final Chad LaMont took on Jarod Bowman and curiously with the same result. With both racers going red with Chad the worse of the two!
The Custer Park Comet put an end to Tony Quinn’s fun as he won on a double break out 8.87 vs.8.86, Larry Wasilewski put in a solid effort .013/8.91 to defeat Larry Reimer, John kept the Lobner family’s hopes alive when he won over Jim Gerakaris (8.87 vs. 8.85). I had to race Peewee (Chuck) Graves and the “fabulous Wonder Bird” and Peewee again had an excellent .007 light (I had a .013) and I caught him, but I’d felt the car hook up and I knew I had caught him way too soon and despite my efforts to back in to him and tighten things up I was way too fast at 8.83 with Peewee posting a safe 8.91 which of course sent Ken and I packing for home.

Round Three:  Chris Lancaster (Da Bomber) had a fantastic .001 light and he needed it too because “Da Waz” (Larry Wasilewski) was right there with an absolutely excellent .008 of his own Waz took the stripe but Chris had wisely let him do so as his 8.88 prevailed over Larry’s 8.85. Wally “bag of walnuts” Pote help continue what was looking to be a blue dragster mafia rout as his 8.88 beat Warren Goetsch’s 8.87. Peewee Graves and “the wonder bird” started the Lobner clan’s long ride back to Kansas as his 8.93 covered Poppa John’s 8.96.

The semi’s:  With both of the blue dragster mafia’s cars in the semi’s Officer Phillips was at high alert for any funny stuff that “Da Boys” might “allegedly perpetrate” but as expected it was “on the up and up”. Wally took on Peewee with both them going red with Peewee’s being the lesser offense which sent him to the final. Jarod proved his moniker of Bad man Bowman to be accurate as he uncorked a .002 light and matched the Bomber’s 8.91 to send him to the second final in the three MWSCS races he’s entered.

The Final: This one too looked to be a good one as both racers had been posting double oh lights all day long but fate intervened as Jarod was backing up from his burn out his transmission started to leak, the starter shut him off and Peewee was given a single for his first ever Midwest Super Comp Series win!

So it‘s my privilege to say………………………………..

CONGRATULATIONS to Charles Graves Jr. AWESOME dude! Well done, Way to “get her done”!!!!!!

Other Stuff:

I regret this weekend it that I didn’t stick around to see Peewee’s win and celebrate with him. By the time that happened I was on my way to a Chinese restaurant on I 80 (Hey I was HUNGRY Ok) but I’m truly sorry I missed it Chuck.
Saturday night I was “pickled tink” to see Mark and Donna Meier at the race track “having a cocktail or two” it was very good to see them indeed.

I also need give a shout out to Mike and Lynn of Magic Photos and thank them for the photo they gave me of my car with the caption of “Please don’t feed the angry BEAVER” funny Mike, real funny. I’m  gonna have to flick a booger at him the next time I see him at the guard rail. (I was wondering though, were they got the photo from? It’s in focus, the car is centered and it didn’t have Mike’s thumb on the lens? Curious? Ah…maybe Lynn took it? (LOL) )

Conspicuous by their absence were, the captivating “Donut Girl” Lisa, Tony Pontillo (and his insane cheese head posse), Don Higgins, Vince & Joann DaNanni, The Seiglers  (Boo Boo where were you?),  the Wolves, Shannon Mingee, Pat Fitzpatrick,Jeff Oleshefsky, , Chris Tenuta, Pat Mulligan and Hank  Mulligan, Billy Murphy,  Ed Bousman, Tom Harter, Ben Pollich, , Dave Jamison , Dave and Connie (D/T) McWilliams, The Spierlings, Team Cheddar Star,  Richard Kurth, Floyd Lippencot Jr.,  The Tampico Terror and sweetheart ,Ann Margaret (a.k.a. Beth Etheridge)
And regrettably, last, but again, not least, of course was that damn yellow car of the Fuesting Kids! (Although Joe did show up and help us keep things organized, Thanks Joey!)

Another Hot Racetrack (142`F)…………………… ………. Going a couple rounds…………Once again consuming a substantial amount of “Mud Slides” and “Margaritas” (with Poppa Kuhn no less!)……… … Seeing our old friends the Meiers…..….Partying with Andy and Gary and going out for Chinese with Greg, Cheryl and the Evils ………  Yea, I’ll take just a little more of that!  

See Ya at Joliet Lil’ Compers!!!!