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

Saturday June 25th. 2011:  With the “Western Swing” behind us our happy little band of Compers headed east for our first excursion to Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis with twenty series regulars including Mike & Tammy Eggleston and four local racers for a total of twenty four cars in attendance. With perfect weather on Saturday after Qualifying was over it was Braidwood’s second best looking Super Comp racer Jeff Torbeck who grabbed the number one qualifying spot at 8.905 un fortunately for Jeff with 24 cars there was no first round bye to be had.

Saturday’s opening round’s first pairsaw Cheryl Kolinek post a solid .015 light and a 8.910 to advance over a slightly tardy Richie Kwas (.044/8.917)After nearly dead even lights Lovely Lacy Rosenberry survived the math quiz on a double breakout over the Professor 8.894 vs. 8.884 ( To Quote the Professor who had scrubbed 14 MPH “ I can’t tighten it up much more than that!” ) Local racer Amber Agan opened a .003 8.924 can of whoop ass on the number one qualifier Jeff Torbeck to send him to the wrong side of the index at 8.866 and back to the trailer. Gentleman Jim Gerakaris  demonstrated the value of not giving up, when after a  sub par light he kept his throttle floored and  ultimately got the stripe when  a quicker leaving Lil’ Mikey Kuhn  misjudged and lifted too soon  (8.915 vs. 9.105). The Bomber Advanced when Chris Gerakaris (uncharacteristically for him) missed the tree completely and ran under the index (.024/8.991 vs. .161/8.877) Connie Williams’ guy Dave demonstrated  that he knows “what time it is “ as his .006 light combined with a 8.974 was more than enough to cover a troubled and slowing Mike Eggleston.  Wally Pote did his best Gary Jenkins impersonation when he whipped up on Chad “like a red headed step child” leaving on him by 14 thou and breaking him out by 11 thou. Steve Fox utilized a solid .021/8.917 to stop a decent .042/8.915 effort posted by Chad’s aforementioned nemesis: Gary “ Bad Beaver” Jenkins. Kentucky gal Stephanie Shelton posted a nice .018/8.919 to send a too fast Custer Park Comet a packing. The Screwdriver utilized a better light .016 vs. .047 and backed into Spiderman Reimer 8.986 vs. 8.978 for the round win Mike Shelton advanced when Capt’n Pat went red by -.001 (Ah Shit! :L) Mr. Shelton did post a nice .012/8.909 package as well. And finally local yokel (well at least he’s a Hoosier anyway) Jordan Eaker won a double breakout over Poppa Lar Reimer 8.897vs.8.893 to finish out the round Uhm? Only one red light? That’s different!

The second round  Hey guess what that pesky red light bulb wasn’t burnt out after all as Cheryl went red(-.002)  to advance Wally, Dave McWilliams  went way red to advance Gentleman Jim, Lacy went red by -.004 to advance  Amber Agan (Amber had a .007 light of her own!)  and Jordan Eaker also lit the crimson mood killer by-.004 to advance Da bomber to the next round.
The Shelton’s Mike & Stephanie  were the only ones to advance  with out red lighting opponents Mike took down “The Screwdriver” .022/8.921 vs. .057/8.894 and Stephanie cut a excellent .008 to send Steve Fox “back to the lake  in the hills 8.889 vs. 8.859

Down to six!  Saturday’s third round opened with The Blue Dragster Mafia meeting to see who was the big cheese, The Man , The Boss of Bosses, the Capo, The H.R.I.C. (at least of their trailer) and it was a good one with nearly identical lights it was Da Bomber’s 8.946 which rubbed out his buddy Wally’s 8.962. Jim Gerakaris caught a break as Stephanie with a decisive starting line advantage (.005 vs.020) went just three thou under at 8.897 to hand the win back to Jim at 8.922. Then after nearly identical lights Ms. Agan squeaked out w .002 win over Mr. Shelton as she was .001 quicker in reaction time and .001 closer to the index 8.891 vs. 8.890.

The Semi final: Time to see who will race Miss. Agan in the final.
This clash of titans featured Family Patriarch Gentleman Jim Gerakaris vs. the blue dragster mafia’s own pyrotechnical specialist Chris “Da Bomber” Lancaster.
Jim Cut a good .022 light however he was .007 behind Chris’ .015 which the Da bomber parlayed into an 8.93 vs. 8.87 double breakout win. Miss Agan posted an 8.93 on her bye run.

Saturday’s Final!: As the professor and I sat down with our  Deep fried turkey dinners in the stands and watch the final we were obviously pulling for Chris , nothing against  Amber but frankly we had yet to meet her let alone know who she was and  we weren’t to keen on leaving the lion share of our monies “back home in Indiana”  But as I observed the Bomber doing his burn out and backing up and staging it became obvious (at least to me) that he was “Keyed up!”and I don’t know if that was the actual case or not  however he did red light by -070 giving the win to Amber Agan who had a very nice .015 light and an 8.91 of her own which would have been pretty tough to beat!

Sunday!..... Sunday…….June 26th.2011…@ IRP

After raining earlier in the morning Sunday we finally were rewarded with clear skies and comfortable temperatures however once again there was a very ominous forecast from the weatherman as they were calling for sever thunderstorms later that afternoon.

As the first qualifier got underway  The Professor lined up once again with Lil’ Richie Kwas ( in pursuit of yet another shiny dime from my favorite pigeon)and as they left the starting line I was, as is normal for me, focused on my son’s and my car’s performance and he posted  an 8.898 which I was satisfied with. But when I got a look a the car there was obviously and oil leak of some kind so we hustled back to the trailer to look for the leak (which turned out to be a intake manifold bolt that had loosened and fell completely out ? Weird right?) So as I’m trashing on the hot oily mess The Professor informs me that “They’re going to re-run that first qualifier Kwas and several cars after him got dangerously loose in the right lane”. Huh? Uh Ok.  We don’t need one nor or we ready to re-run, so Ok let them try again. The problem was that the results were the same with several cars getting very loose Which resulted in Kwas taking to and working with the track personnel to try to find a solution to the problem. The track’s personnel were puzzled as to what was wrong and finally concluded that it probably was a bad barrel of traction compound.

Several Lil’ Compers understandably expressed safety concerns with the race track and almost all of us were a little uncomfortable with the situation. The Board of directors discussed the situation and came to the conclusion that we had two options, one was to call it a day give everyone their money back and leave. A second option would be to attempt an 1/8 mile race but obviously since this was advertised as a ¼ mile race and not everyone was prepared to race an 1/8 mile race so this should not and would not be a points race except that everyone got their show up points for the day and if they wished, their money back. We voted on this and several teams and several teams chose to pack it in and left. Some of us stayed on in hope of perhaps racing a 1/8 mi (non-points gamblers?) race.

Now while all of this discussion and voting was going on at Kwas’ trailer, the Track Personnel were re-spraying the entire track and they offered us one more 1/8 mi. time trial / qualifier, which we took advantage of.

The Professor did something at this point that surprised and somewhat concerned me when he said “Lets take the right lane and find out what were up against right away!” As the first pair, Kwas and the Professor, staged, I stood nervously on the starting line with the track Manager Kurt Johnson we watched intensely as both cars went “straight as a string” with both posting numbers close to the 5.70 index with the next couple of pairs doing likewise, confirming that “The track was back!”

After all eleven of us got down the track without any further problems with  Dave McWilliams posting an 5.70 for the first round bye it time to get down to business.

 Sunday’s “Gambler Race”: The first pair saw Da Chad red light away (by -.004) an near perfect 5.709 to advance “The Hero of Delphi Indiana “Lil’ Mikey Kuhn.
Da Kwas Brothers advanced when Capt’n Pat’s chute fell out on the burnout!, (Ah SHIT!!) Wally Pote advanced when Tammy Egglesten’s guy (Mike) went red by -.006, Camby Indiana’s “Jammin” Jordan Eaker uses an excellent .011 light 5.729 to give a tough loss to the Professor who posted a solid .022 initiated 5.721 in a losing effort. Warren Goetsch won what may have been the toughest round of the day as his .045/5.712 defeated Troy Galbralth’s .039/5.722 by .004 seconds! And of course Connie’s Guy Dave had the bye (5.728)

Round two: Saw a quicker leaving but too fast Poppa Kuhn once again take too much stripe and hand the win back Da Wall .018/5.69 vs. .031/5.710, The second round paired the two guys with the “Stock Car Motors” with Warren winning a double breakout over Rich Kwas 5.685 vs. 5.672. Dave McWilliams likewise won a double break out over Jammin Jordan 5.68 vs. 5.65 to close the round.

Da Semi’s: Saw Dave McWilliams utilize an amazing .009 light and a near perfect 5.699 to prevail over an also too quick Custer park Comet’s 5.684.
Ole’ Wall had the bye but, he did use it to send a message to Dave, as he posted a .011 initiated 5.705 guess what, Mr. Pote is ready for this final!

Indy’s Sunday Gambler’s race final: Now I didn’t have a favorite in this race they are both a couple of great guys and good racers and we knew it was going to be a good one and it was. With Wally incredibly tightening up his package even more resultantly there was “no joy in Platteville” as Wally’s .007 initiated 5.717 proved too much for Dave’s .023/5.715!

So ends our first excursion to Indianapolis  we had some great racing (on both days) We and the Race Track Personnel had some challenges with a bad barrel of traction compound on Sunday but in defense of the IRP Management  they did identify and fix the problem succinctly. We hopefully made a couple of new friends and introduced some more Hoosiers to our style of racing   and I for one hope we go back next year!

Next up Great Lakes Dragway: And “the return to form of a former Champion?” Maybe!

Stay tuned!