"Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Hello everyone, its Wednesday and we are in the stacking area. Parking starts around 7am tomorrow. The weather looks good for most of the race, with Sunday getting the best chance of late day thunderstorms.

The last time there was a national event here was 2009. The track has had major updates since then and now has an all concrete track. I was here at the division race in April and it was very smooth with no traction issues.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Today's parking went very smooth, with plenty of good spots left. Anyone coming in will have no wait as there is no line. Weather still looks pretty good, with a chance of rain late Sunday. Credential line is a none issue, all you have to do is drop your tech card off at the tech trailer.

Cars are starting to come out of the trailer, so I grab a few shots.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

A few more...

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Hello everyone, I really hadn't planned to run this race because this is such a busy time of year for me but when the opportunity arose last week to get in I just couldn't pass. After all this is as close to home as it gets for me. True to form I'm not there yet but my rig is with Uncle Si at the helm, if he's not there he should be very close anyway.
I will be up later tonight with the family so I'm not sure how much reporting I will get done but I will jump in and help when I can. After qualifying tomorrow is done we plan on taking the kids to King's Dominion for the rest of the day so I should sleep good tomorrow night! Hey maybe I will through in a few pictures of that as well.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Best of luck to you James. You have ben racing well lately.

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Looking forward to this event, see y'all tomorrow, RP

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Mike thanks alot, we've been having alot of fun this year. Well I made it here and we are parked pretty far down and there was probably 15-20 rigs stacked outside. I'll have some updates in the morning but for now its time to get these girls to bed.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Good morning all, the sun is out and temps will be in the mid 80's today. The DA is 1200 ft now. Are schedule start time is 8:30 with Stock, then Super Comp followed by Super Stock and then Super Gas. Will do that three times today, all before 2pm. I will be back this afternoon with more photos.

Glad to see you made it James.

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Good morning Ken and everyone, this morning is absolutely beautiful even a little chill in the air but that won't last for long. As Ken said 3 runs today and it should go quickly with only 4 classes here. I'm excited to check out the new surface.

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We're all done for qualifying and other than a couple oil downs it has gone very smooth. I have some pictures I will share later but for now we are heading for the amusement park.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Super Stock is almost done with their last qualifier. We had two oil downs in Stock, but we are still on schedule. Super Gas will follow Super Stock for their last time shot and the sportsman will be done for the day.

Its in the upper 80's now and cars slowed as mush as a 10th from the early shot to the last shot today. As you can see from the photos, Gary Richard's crew is busy changing engines after he broke on his 2nd qualifier. The engine let go in the light's putting a little oil on the track. Chester Houghtaling also put some oil on the track, but I don't know if it was catastrophic.

I will be back later with lost's of photos after I get done editing.

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So if you're here and riding around the pits you may have noticed that my trailer looks like its been mud bogging. My crew man followed Richie Decola and Greg Rowe here to the track on the way here. Somewhere along the way someone decided there was a short cut to get here which turned out to be a very narrow secondary road with lots of traffic and deep ditches really close to the road. The rest is history......
http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8rjo6x5t.jpg

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My very cool car of the weekend award goes to Chester Houghtaling and his O/SA '65 Chevelle wagon. This car is way up on the cool meter, he did have some problems today and there was lots of smoke and oil on the track, hopefully it wasn't catastrophic and he is able to continue this weekend.

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...psfnizbkev.jpg

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...pselyqxb07.jpg

Anthony Fetch AA/SA

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...psooyxjsnk.jpg

Kenny Williams F/SA

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...pspklyj5jb.jpg

Eddie Brooks FS/F

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...psuj7fek0m.jpg

Gene Jordan AA/SA

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1encseqc.jpg

Karl Martel A/SA

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...psnv640bs1.jpg

Eugene Monahan K/SA

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Actions shots from Stock qualifying.

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Actions shots from Super Stock qualifying.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Good morning all, the sun is out and it looks like we may gets some rain late this afternoon. Right now its already 76 and humid out. Start time is 8:30 for round one of Stock. It will be 4 rounds for all sportsman classes that are schedule all before noon.

Here are some more photos from yesterdays action.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Shots under the tower waiting for the cleanup along with some random shots.

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Super Stock action....

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Well as most of you know by now I had a short lived race going out 1st round to Chris Stephenson. Nice pass by him and not so great a light by me. We stuck around and watched the rest of the sportsman rounds and there was some very good racing. We are out and about taking in some sights and shopping around Richmond. We will head home in the morning and I don't plan to do any more racing for a while so I can spend some time with the kids around home at the beach. I may go to Atco for the points race later this summer but we will have to see how things shake out.

Re: "Live From" Virginia NHRA Nationals
 

Sportsman are done for the day. The internet connection is horrible today, loading photos is not an option. I have photos from 4th round and will post tomorrow when I get home. My next live from will be at the D1 race in Numidia next week end.

The track prep was outstanding, the groove was wide and the surface was like glass, so smooth. My hats off to Virginia Motorsport Park, this is a top notch National event track for sure. It was standing room only 3 deep at the fence when the pros were running.

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Thanks Ken & James for All that you do for us.
Much Appreciated.....

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X2 Thank You

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No problem at all Pete and Shaun, we really enjoy doing it. The last photos I have are from some pit racing that took place after most of the crowd left tonight. My oldest Bentley up against Bob Bender. I think Bentley got the jump on him!

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...psthfkrsn4.jpg

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...psb5omm9ce.jpg

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/...pshge6pihx.jpg

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Thanks for the updates! Love seeing the kids having fun at the track.

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Random photos from Saturday's eliminations.

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I had fun !!!!!!

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Wow, were Sportsman racers making some kind of statement with sub-quota entries across the board? Or are they really... slowly but surely... going away from NHRA? It looks like things are a little better in Bristol. Before quotas we had over a hundred in all the sportsman classes it seemed like. It doesn't look very good to a person thinking of jumping in (the waters fine). I still try to follow Stock and Super/Stock even though I competed in Super/Gas. And I'm halfway there with a Super/Stock 58-60 Corvette package. But I gotta admit, have been a bit on the fence about cutting out all of the 4130 roll cage, and just putting it on the street. The resale would be easier as a street rod as well. I could use a little push in the form of a positive outlook, with regard to the health of Super/Stock Racing as we know it. I do realize that Super/Stock folks have enough on their plate already. But I've always said, It's important to promote the things you love! Kinda like campaigning for office, position, or promotion. You know, to keep the interest fresh, and keep the following strong! I understand the issues with the internet from Richmond, but sure wish I could have seen more posts here on CR. It seams that most of the Sportsman stuff was over by lunch time on Friday and Saturday. That should have allowed plenty of time for some Stock, Super/Stock promotion on the Web, even if you had to put it up once you got a good connection like Ken did. I would think that those that love this stuff would try to hang on to any like minded folks, and throw them a bone when ever possible. Like they always say "leave it better than you found it" and at least don't let it die! Talk about it, Share it, Promote it!

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Hey Wade, I don't know if you noticed but this race filled up at 5 grade points in Stock and SS filled at 5 or possibly very early 4 and stayed that way until Sunday before the deadline. I'm not real sure why so many dropped but it seems to becoming a trend, people enter early taking up alot of the spots and possibly don't like the weather forecast and drop last minute which makes it difficult for other racers to make plans last minute to attend that otherwise might have entered given more time. I myself along with Greg Rowe entered last Friday when another racer called and folded me him and his dad were dropping, at the time we felt fortunate to get in. Unfortunately this is the system we have to work with as far as National events go but I think if you look at the division race numbers I think our classes are quite healthy and improving all the time.
As far as promoting the sport that a whole different ballgame, I myself as well as Ken and Ms Patsy and others do the best we can with keeping the "Live" reports interesting and informative but as far as myself is concerned I don't let this get in the way of my family having a good time when they come to the races with me. It takes up alot of time to take pictures and post them and so on but when my kids are with me this kind of takes a back seat.

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Wade, NHRA has the all access you can buy for 100 or so. seems like you already rely on the internet for info. This gives it all.

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I saw the posts from the Jegs Sportsnationals, that looked pretty good with more than twice the posts and close to twice the cars. I guess that's the future, and I'm certainly
OK with that! As far as the "All Access" ... I really like that, but was waiting for them to get all the bugs out. I kept seeing folks saying, Its on, or it's not on, picture but no sound etc, etc. And my understanding is nothing on Thursday ... that's OK for a 3-day race, but I miss all the good stuff when it's a 4-day. I like the D3TV and the D1TV ... but it sure would be nice with a finishline camera. I'M JUST GONNA HAVE TO GET MY STUFF DONE ... AND COME AND WATCH IT LIVE WHEN I'M NOT IN THE SEAT !!! LOL I just love the stuff and would like to see it THRIVE !

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Wade
I think in Virginia's Race (and any sportsman racer that was there can say i'm wrong)
but if you have 5 Pro Classes with all of their extra vehicles that they bring in to the pits, their probably wasn't enough room to have more Sportsman Cars to be entered cause their's only race cars parked on 1 side of the track.

Some tracks have higher quota's because they have the room to park more.
Let's face it, in today's race world I'd say 80% of Sportsman racers have Motorhomes.
And I'm not in any way saying that as a bad thing.
So you only have so much room to work with and each track is different on what they can hold.
Just my .02 cents.