"Live" from Belle Rose
 

Well, it is a little after 7 am and we are back on the road headed to Louisiana. We left yesterday around 5 and drove to a nice Walmart in Batesville, MS (where they make caskets). Got parked in time to see Kentucky Wildcats beat UNLV in the opening round of the NIT. But I won't go on any more about KY basketball. First time we have not been in the NCAA in 18 years. Now we will also be pulling for our other KY teams: #1 Louisville, Morehead State, and Western KY.

Anyway, it is a beautiful day, but a little foggy right now. Should be gone before long. Jerry Newsome is a little behind us this morning. It is really good to see him back out and running. Jerry Bennett and George Widuch were leaving a little later today, too.

I will give you another report after we get there. It is about 600 miles total for us, so we should be there by mid afternoon.

More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Good to have you back on the reporting trail!! I have missed you guys! I will be in Vegas for the Mopar deal this weekend with my old friend Rudy Schings, but will have my laptop on following the action!
thanks in advance!

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

For those of us who aren't there or going it's great to see you guys out and Patty keep the updates and pictures coming if & when you can.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Well we are here and parked in the little area behind the scales where Stock usuallly parks. Best spot we have ever had here. So far have seen Painter Stevenson, Hugh Meeks, Jimmy Parker & Sandra, Craig Couris, Jerry Newsome.

Talked to Pat Joffrion. We are going to have a contest to see how many miles he has put on his scooter from Monday thru Sunday. Ya'll guess and I will let you know Sunday night.

Well we are going out and cool off.

If you are here, come by. If not, I will try to keep you up on what is going on!

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

My guess is 64.6 miles ! He's a BUSY MAN !!!

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Mrs. Patsy,
I would have to agree that Mr. Pat's motorcycle will have quite a few miles on it by the end of the week. I have an exam tomorrow, but I should be at the track around 1:30. See you guys tomorrow!

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Track must be empty only about 140 some cars on entry list. The country is in sad shape.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Patsy ~ I always enjoy your "live" posts but especially from this race. It's such a fun race and track. Best wishes this weekend.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Good luck this weekend! I'm loaded-up & ready to go to Farmington,NC for the IHRA race. C-ya @ INDY. ;)

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Hey Bob,
Only 140 cars are pre-registered. The SPORTSnationals is the only race I know of that you don't have to pre-register for nationally. You can just drive on through and pay for your tech card at the gate.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Hey John, I will give you a little clue--Pat already has more miles on his scooter than that and it is only Wed.

More racers spotted today: Greg Hill, the County Dog, Jerry & Mike Bennett, George Widuch, Billy & Paula Lynn, Bobby & Brittney Brannon.

For Top Stock tomorrow: It costs $75 to run test n tune, then for an extra $25 you can run top stock. Testing starts at 1, We will get 1 top stock time trial at 3, then run 1st round at 3;30. Payout will be 50% to winner, 30% to runner-up, 10% each to the semifinalists.

The weather is supposed to be wonderful all week. It sure was today. Someone said the air this morning was minus 150'.

There doesn't seem to be nearly as many people here today--but it is only Wed. We will see how things fill up tomorrow.

Well we got up early this morning so it is about bedtime for us. Just watching a little basketball and off to never-never land.

More tomorrow.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Well, we are finally up and at em. Nothing starts happening til noon, so there wasn't a big rush. Maybe Larry will get caught up on his sleep while we are here.

It is another beautiful day here in southern LA. I will get all the air results and post them in a while. There have been trailers rolling in all morning. I will go out and see who else is here and see what is going on and report back in a while.

Ya'll come on down!

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

My son Drew Whalen is on his way down. He and three of his friends left right after classes at the University of Illinois. This is his 2nd event, we went to the open race at Indy last fall. We did some work on the car this winter and had the motor freshened up. He will be running I/SA with white 85 Camaro. They are also going on to Houston next week, spring break. As they are all in the AGR Fraternity, they are looking forward to the crawfish boil.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Sorry I haven't reported today, but I have been dealing with Top Stock. We ended up with 10 cars.
1.Craig Couris, 10.202
2. Floyd Russo, 10.301
3. David Latino, 10.302
4. Larry Hill, 10.357
5. Jimmy Hidalgo, Jr., 10.37
6. Sammy Pizzalato, 10.41
7. Bobby Brannon, 10.455
8. John Duzac, 10.828
9. Jerry Newsome, 10.84
10. Frank Teuton, 11.11

1st round:
Couris beat Teuton
Russo beat Newsome on a broke bye (Newsome broke a transmission)
Latino beat Duzac
Brannon beat Larry
Pizzalato beat Hidalgo

2nd round:
Couris had the bye
Pizzalato beat Latino
Russo beat Brannon

So there were 3 left. We ran out of time and were going have to finish up tomorrow after class. They decided to split the money, since everyone had to mess with weight in and out. So we had 3 winners.

And I didn't get to have my 1st glass of wine til 8:00 tonight.

Other news, there have been lots of people pulling in all day. Mr. Ortiz is here having a good time. They are just a few trailers down, so I will get a better update from them later.

They were showing around 80 cars in stock. We start out with a time trial at 9:00 in the morning. Then on to class.

After we eat a little supper I will try to get more news. The weather was just wonderful today. Still suppose to be good all week.

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Patsy

What did the gauges check weather?????????

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Why the PRO ladder?

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Daryl, we have always used a pro ladder for Top Stock.

Junior, our guages read Dry-80, wet-65, altimeter -150 feet for a DA of around 1300'.

Larry just cooked some great steaks, so I feel better now. Also went down to Dr. Tommy Fudge's for some chicken with pineapple, and jalepeno sausage somethings. I'm going back tomorrow to get his recipe.

Much thanks to Jeff Teuton for letting Jerry Newsome use his lift in his trailer to change out his transmission. We had a spare that he put in so now he will be ready to run class tomorrow. The original schedule I saw had us getting 2 runs tomorrow, then class. But if I heard correctly, they had changed that to 1 run, then class. I know they did announce that stock runs at 9:00, followed by super stock.

More seen today: Jack McCarthy, Ray and David Buckner, Verne Buchanan, Charlie Downing, Austin and Charlie Ford, Allen Hollingsworth, Paul Hollingsworth (who owns David Latino's car--Al Corda's old Pontiac).

Well, we're pretty pooped out today, so a little basketball on the telly and on to bed.

DRC should be posting times tomorrow, but I will try to keep you up on the gossip.

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

well mr larry it would have been nice to finish our race ... still in all the old man doin (dad) was doin some good driven.. i will get with in da mornin so u can PAY DA MAN ....HAHAHAHEHEH!!! ALL IN GOOD FUN .. C- YA MR.BOO-BOO...

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Pre-registered low... but good weather (75/55) equals high gate entries ... car count 520+ Thursday night...still coming in. Parking a problem with 6" of rain last Friday-Monday. 100+ miles on the pit bike and have not left the track. Should be able to fill in the openings with dry weather throughTuesday.

Looks like our best SporsNationals ever!!! Class tomorrow, CIC race on Saturday in front of 5,000+ spectators.

Thanks for the support.

Pat

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Mr. BooBoo, we came down to pay ya'll last night, but you had already left. Come on by today. We are behind the scales.

They just announced the schedule. Starts with stock at 9, then ss, then stock again. Then class probably 1 or so.

Check with Drag Race Central for qualifying times. I should be able to post more today.

Later.

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

They've run first qualifying in stock.

Around 10 to 12 A/SA cars, same with C/SA. Mom will post more when she gets a chance, but that may not be untill after they are done running today.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Stock has had 2 runs and superstock is running now. Super Gas runs, then stock class. Don't believe any of the numbers on the runs this morning. You would not believe the sandbagging that is being done. Air was 300' on the first run and 600' on the second. We have 13 A/SA cars if they had all the indexes correct. It is really fast. The wind was blowing a cross wind and cool.

More later after class.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

That was a great run!!! Nice Light!!

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Excellent first round light and great run Larry .... good luck the rest of the day and weekend ...

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Thanks Bill and Chuck. The old pink AARP Cuda and its driver are doing ok today!

Pat came by a little while ago and said that this is the best turn-out for the Sportsnationals yet. 561 entries and still coming in. He said he had put 143 miles on his scooter so far. With the economy and all he said they figured on maybe 400 racers, so he is very pleased. He is expecting 5000 spectators out here tomorrow.

You could not ask for better weather. A little breeze and 70's and sunny!

We probably won't run Round 2 until at least 4-4:30.

Just sitting around resting after the marathon yesterday.

Can't wait for the crawfish boil tonight.

More later.

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Well our 3 west KY boys did pretty well qualifying, but then they all red-lighted in class. Anyway it was a great day racing. I'm ready for wine and crawfish now. Looks like still another 1-2 hours of racing before the feast.

Maybe I will hear some stories tonight.

More later.
Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Was Jerry Bennett's D/SA 62 Plymouth a 383/343, Paul.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Stock looked like nitro cars, running to a 1000 ft. I don't think all the fastest cars won class since they were trying not to get hp on Monday. Smart moves.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Yes, Paul it is.

Just got back from the crawfish boil, so now all the keys on my computer are sticky!

First of all, for the finals in class==We were sitting in the bar watching the cars go straight down the track. Every run today, they sprayed the track right before we ran. Well tonight, they ran those last 3 finals without doing anything to the track. Ronnie West was in the left lane and headed for the center and had to lift. So we still don't know if he was the fastest car (but he probably was). Congratulations to all the winners in class in stock and superstock. I did not see them tear anybody down. Tomorrow is the cic race and the others that are not running it get 1 time trial that is not a qualifying run.

Funny story: Ron Ortiz has lost his voice! It is really hilarious to hear him try to talk! He did tell me some stories about U/SA today. After such a bad light against Cap't Jack, Bob Shaw passed him, then let out, Jack passed him back, then Shaw beat him again! Then Ron got to run Bob for the trophy. After Bob passed him, Ron just waved bye- bye to him going down the track!

The best margaritas tonight were at the Buckners as usual. Really, really good , made with a twin screw margarita machine! Sorry Ray that you broke your engine today.

The crawfish were great as usual (and my dip was better than Jeff Teuton's).

Jimmy and Sandra Parkers golf cart quit on them, so they are waiting for Painter Stevenson to tow them home. I hear Painter has been known to close down the bar. Good luck. You may want to just walk back!

Well it is way past my bedtime, but I still have to see who won the basketball games tonight.

More tomorrow!

Patsy

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Great reports! Does anyone have the ladder for the CIC race today? Of Course Bob Shaw looks good, but there could be some surprises in there for the late rounds if he let's it out early. Dean Oliver looked strong in class. My sentimental favorite is Bill Dyer in N Stick. He may not go 1.48 under, but he will definately hurt you on the tree. Hopefully, DRC posts it.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

In the past the CIC race has been random draw. They'll run stockers together until they get to 4 cars and do the same for SS. Then they will combine the two classes to get the champ. Shaw will be tough, but he will get used up on the CIC by faster et wise cars. By the time they combine the classes, he will be in trouble. Don't sleep on Mike Mans ss/cs. That thing is bad fast!!!

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Does anybody know what happened in SSGT/KA? Dragrace Central shows singlesfor class by both Nick Morris and TIm Worner - both in GT/KA

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Jim: CIC race if DRC does not post we will do our best.

DRAW had avery good sheet for sale, incremental times for everyone for the first round of class. It made it easy to see who was the biggest "Sandbagger".

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

There was a mixup in KA - one car was actually JA - I still don't have the correct info for the SS/KA car and they have run one round of the CIC race.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

So much for saving your index in the CIC race. Taking two tenths off the index when winning on a red light or broke run is dumb.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

WOW! Bob Shaw 13.036 in U/SA! That's pretty impressive. I doubt he will win though, that makes it 2.11 off his index, lol.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Thats alot under the index!

I don't see how that little Cadillac Deville (I know I didn't spell that right) went that fast.

:p
Jacob

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

He has been driving that thing like it could go 12.50's. With Bob, anything is possible.

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

LOL.

He would need to put a bigger shot of NOS!!

HAHA

That thing would do a huge wheille(WOW I can't spell)

:p
Jacob

Re: "Live" from Belle Rose
 

Jacob;
Bob's car is a Seville.Think tech might just be looking at it?

Ed F.