LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Heads up in E-Town! Much of Friday at Pittsburgh Raceway Park in New Alexandria, PA was full of drizzle, with one line of strong storms coming through about 6pm, which reportedly contained a couple of funnel clouds forming within a few miles of the track, although it never got bad at the track itself. Hopefully it will weaken and pass youse guys in the overnight hours. Pittsburgh's main pits are elevated, cut out of a hillside, so it tends to drain well. We had a few showers last year and the crew stayed on top of things, and we raced with no problem.

Tomorrow has the IHRA Nitro Jam show on tap, which counts as a Pro-Am points claim, and a Tournament of Champions Qualifier race with national event contingency. There's a Pro nitro show running tomorrow night, on a shortened 1000' course (for TD and TS as well, everything else is 1/4 mile). Not sure what all they have lined up for the show, but with a $40 Sat crew ticket, it's sure to be a barn burner! (please keep all barns at a minimum safe distance to avoid burning, or additional New Jersey burning license fee) ;-)

Lots of hitters at ETown, but I believe there will be a mass of talent at PRP as well, including SS Champs Cantusci, and the Volkmans, plus Philbilly the Stock World Champ, and Box World Champ JP Schuster I hear will be wheeling a Stocker.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Late start today due to weepers after last nights rain. Starting Q2 now. Decent field, 45 Stock, 32 SS. Racing two Ducks, gonna be a busy day!

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Big crowd. They have a new set of larger grandstands, and they're filled to capacity. Gotten in two rounds of sportsman eliminations, into the Pro show currently. Gave it up .004 first round of Super Stock, but hanging in Stock, with a tough match with Philbilly coming up next.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congrats Michael on winning the TOC race in stock eliminator, and to Aaron Allison on your runner-up. Great driving by both drivers.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Nice job Michael congrats on your win.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Winning and reporting, thats gitting it done!

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Great job Mike

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congrats on your Sat. Win! See ya in Memphis!

Div. 3 - just wait till he moves to Ohio and is in closer proximity to Terry Knott's car.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congrats on your win...which car were you in.


.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

It was really busy for some since they changed the run order and ran super stock last. There weren't as many Hot Rods as usual, so Super Stock was still running eliminations and they were calling the next round of Hot Rod, and Stock for pairings. I know they did it because of the scales, but some folks were still making their elimination run in SS and the announcer was yelling for them for the next round of stock saying they were missing from the pairings.
Pittsburgh has spent alot of money on renovations, but I sure hope they put in a regular set of scales soon.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Mike was running Terry Knott's Red H/CM Dart Sport. He has a history of doing well in that car, including many national event wins and a World Championship. Whenever he "borrows" it, odds are that he'll do well.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congrats on the win, Mike. I didn't see Terry around, I heard he just dropped the car off and went home. I hope all is OK.

Either way, it was a great event. Absolutely packed. I mean, it wasn't for the claustrophobic. Pittsburgh isn't a super track, but it isn't small, either. It's a major metropolitan area, and the track is easy to get to. It's a four lane drive from about anywhere right to the gate. It is my home track....it was great for me, I can be home 25 minutes after leaving, 35 if I'm pulling the trailer. I don't know the attendance numbers, but it was a lot.

Much like the National events of the old days, no roped off pits, no "hospitality" areas where you spend some extra money to get within shouting distance of the cars. Not as many drunken twenty somethings as one sees at an NHRA event. A lot of kids...the Nitro Jams are really kid & family friendly, it seems, and much more affordable. Seeing kids with moms and dads touring the pits, talking to folks, I think that's really neat.

Now, if we could only get them to include Nostalgia Super Stock as an eliminator.....

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congrats on your stock win Michael....I guess we can go to Mooresville now!

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Same car or not, has two different numbers...

http://www.dragracecentral.com/stori...09/pitts13.jpg

http://www.dragracecentral.com/stori...08/quaker2.jpg

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congrats Mike. I want to know how the spectator crowd was. My wife and I were watching both qualifying and the eliminations from Englishtown and the stands were empty. Now this was the "Pro" NHRA and they could not hide all of the empy seats from the camera angle they had set up. Now before anyone from NHRA wants to get on my case I still have the last three races on the recorder and there are a lot of seats empty.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Sorry for the lack of updates. As Bowman said, things got very busy, particularly with the run order. I talked to Terry on the phone once on Friday on the way up, once early Saturday, and then saw him Sunday afternoon when he came to pick up the car and trailer. LOL He dropped everything off before I had gotten there on Friday, and when I talked to him on Saturday, he muttered something about yard work and pomegranate margheritas. I sent him text updates periodically on Saturday, and when we got into the late rounds (literally, as it was almost 11pm), I tried to call him to figure out where the switch was for the electric fan. He didn't pick up, but eventually I recalled that it was in the ash tray (because where else would you put a random switch?!) It was a great evening to have my wife Jill there, along with my mom and dad, and Terry (if only in spirits... er, spirit) :cool: After winner's circle photos, a (very) late meal (of sorts) at Sheetz (which was remarkably busy at 1am, primarily with drunk people), and then the jaunt back to the hotel, it was almost 2am before we got to sleep. I was worthless on Sunday, and it was so roundy-round fast that not even one timeslip made it into the logbook.

Thankfully I was able to accomplish my hope of getting into the Tournament of Champions in Stock in one clean shot. It was a tough lineup to beat, which made it all the more gratifying. Philbilly, the reigning World Champ, let me know on Sunday that his bad run against me on Saturday was a fluke, as he giggled at my .029-take-.009 effort, while he was .003 and heading close to dead-on. Super Stock wasn't my weekend, as I dropped a close one first round on Saturday to Charlie Walc. Tried to take nuthin' and gave it back by .004 instead, which Jeff Serra got a great finish line photo of, so I can cherish that memory forever. :p On Sunday, after struggling to get my foot off the brake on the first three hits of the day, I finally caught it perfect in round two of Super Stock... er, well, almost! It was -.002 red against Donn Rhode. All in all, a great weekend. The ride home was a little longer and eventful, however. I stopped in Wytheville, VA onthe way home, as a bad O2 sensor on the truck started acting up. I was already beat, and didn't want to risk getting stranded as night, so I finished the journey today. As it happens, they (like most things these days) don't keep them in stock, so I hobbled home, and will get 'er fixed up this week.

Congrats to Pete D'Agnolo for getting it done at the 'burgh again, and qualifying for the TOC in Super Stock, and also to Sunday's Summit Pro-Am winners, Emily Volkman in Super Stock, and Rob "Dollar" Bihl, getting it done in the slo-ride, Q/SA!

Pics...

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

pics...

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congrats Micheal. Well deserved Buddy!!

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

I'd like to know more about the HF/SA Omni. I watched it make a run on Live Timing and some of the incremental numbers didn't add up. Is it a turbo car or ??

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Michael Beard back home in Pa and winning events!!!! Welcome home Michael?Great job on Saturday night!!!!!! Britt Mizia

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Packed for the show Saturday night. Spectator cars as far as the eye could see on the motocross side of the track and several rows behind us up on the hill on the pit side as well.

That's Allen Lambert's old car. He could tell you more. It's the little VW style motor. New owner seemed to really be enjoying himself.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Great job, Micheal!

Jeff Day

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Congratulations Michael on your win in Pittsburgh. I just wanted to say thank you for coming over and talking to me as this was my first IHRA race. It was really exciting for me to see the picture you posted of my car. You were right with your comment about me having fun with this car. It has been really exciting for me to be able to race again.

Barry Werner

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Thanks, and sorry I didn't get a chance to talk more with you! The weekend flew by, between running two cars and having all my family there. While I'm not familiar with that car's particular combination, I've been fortunate to have some success with my 2.2L Turismo. Feel free to holler anytime if there's something I can help you with on the slow-car driving side of things. :cool: Welcome aboard!


Local racer Chuck Talley took a bunch of photos at the event, too.
http://s713.photobucket.com/albums/w...am%20at%20PRP/

http://i713.photobucket.com/albums/w...P/June2037.jpg

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

As Michael says, the spectator end of it was absolutely packed. Pittsburgh isn't a "supertrack", but, it's certainly not small, either.

What I really liked was seeing all the families.....moms, dads, & kids walking around and taking it all in. It is really affordable and family freindly....not nearly as many drunken twenty somethings. I really like that. Maybe I'm getting to be an old geezer, but, I find it incredibly refreshing.

Also, it's a lot like the old days....the families can walk right up to the nitro cars, or anyone, no "roped off" pit areas with "hospitality" areas where, for an additional nominal fee, you can get within shouting distance of the cars/crews.

It's much like the national events of the sixties and seventies which caused me to fall in love with this sport. Nitro, good sportsman racing, all packed into a package where a family doesn't have to skip this month's mortgage to attend.

I think IHRA has really found something with these things.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

I feel fortunate to have Pittsburgh Raceway Park as my home track. I was pitted right where the spectators were entering the track. I fielded lots of questions from motor heads and their children, but mostly the question was where is Grave Digger? I have been going to PRP (old Keystone) with my father since I can remember, and I have never seen that spectator count there. I am glad they were there because it made my 2nd -.00_ loss in a week a lot easier to swallow. As soon as I pulled in after the loss, 2 kids about 8 years old came running over asking for a photo handout. I told them sorry, I do not have photos but I will use their digital camera to get a photo of them behind the wheel. They each got a photo, hopefully a memory, and I had a flooded engine;) Note to all, disconnect throttle linkage before letting kids in the driver seat.

Congrats to all the winners and runners up! and to Denny Finan and Hot Dog Traupman for holding down Fort Pitt.

J.R.

Re: LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am
 

Great job Michael....you Northern "carpetbaggers" come up from the South and clean-up on us "homers" in fine fashion.

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This made me laugh out loud. Very funny.

JR, I can see you have grown up to be the fine young man I knew you would. (last time I saw you was about 10 years ago, back then you were a fine lad). I can tell you have stayed the same, just grown up now.

And yes, the new owners of Keystone (it will always be Keystone to me I suppose, but I do like PRP as a name....) have done wonders with that place.

I look forward to seeing you again at the races and catching up, as I get back into this sick and borderline demented addiction of ours.


Kevin