Live from Indy
 

Good Morning Class Racer .90 people,

Well, on the road to the BIG GO. Left NJ around 6am this morning. Going to stop In Ohio and visit a good friend Gary Brenner from Jegs tomorrow. I figured I’d do a live feed to drum some interest. I’m sure Johnny D will send pics and I will try to send stuff to Ken as I can’t post pics from my phone on here. A fun fact, the last time my dad went to Indy was 1981 and they did a qualified field in Super Gas. They had 252 cars for 32 spots and the bump was a 9.935. Needless to say my dad was first alternate.

Safe travels to all going, looks like about 130+ in each class.

Rob Keister
1198 Super Gas
Mid Atlantic .90 President

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Thanks Rob keep us posted should be interesting

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Rob good luck and safe travels. Man I'm jealous. It's on the list maybe next year I'll knock out Bowling Green and Indy

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Thanks for the Live .90 Indy thread !

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Well we finally got to the track around 4:30pm. To say the roads in Indiana could use a pave job is an understatement. It did rain on and off throughout the afternoon and tonight was a steady mist. We are stacked on the sportsman staging lanes and they were still rolling in around 10:30 tonight. Looks like parking was pushed back to 10am due to prediction of rain in the AM and wet grounds. The rest of the week looks good! I’ll update tomorrow once the detail run order comes out!

Rob K

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Well parking is still going on and I can see this is going to the late hours. I believe they are into the 240’s and have about 400 more cars to go.

The run schedule is also out and all racers will get 2 qualifiers tomorrow and 1 on Thursday with SC & SG having 1st round Thursday Night

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This is redculus biggest race of the year and can't even start on time !

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Parking stopped for the night at dark at #350...we got lucky and were #349 and parked. They are supposed to park the rest at 7am the the morning and the start time will be adjusted...so we will see. I could complain but, it’s INDY and I’m just enjoying the time here!

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Welcome to Day #1 of actual racing at the US nationals. Racing was kicked back to a 11am start time due to about 200+ rigs still needing to be parked. Looks like the stockers will lose a shot today. A lot of unhappy people about the parking situation and how it was organized, hard to park 700 rigs in one day after a 2 hour delay. My thoughts are that a small 4-9pm window should have been done Monday Night to get some people parked, even if it was about 150-200 would have eased some of the parking yesterday. The morning was delayed a lot due to the first field and lots of stuck racers. I think it took like 4 hours for 60 cars.

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Any updates from the .90 gang ?

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To say the least parking was a disaster this year. I spoke with a few people who’ve been coming for many years and said this is the worst they’ve seen. I would say the last trailer got parked around 2pm and some did a lap around the track and ended up going back to the original stacking spot. With the long time to park everyone got a time run cut from the schedule. What normally was 4 TT for the sportsman is now down to 2 this weekend as SC & SG get a shot in the morning and 1st round later in the afternoon in between stock class and TD & TS.

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How did the time run go? Anything else go on yesterday besides parking? Come on man report! lol Inquiring minds want to know what its like to be there....

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Besides parking and 1 time run, it’s been pretty mute. Just a lot of sitting around, seeing people from other divisions that you may talk to on Facebook or on here, eating, eating and eating and a few adult beverages at nights end. Kinda like a longer D1 event. The place is Huge and cars parked all over. It definitely has “magic” when you pull under the arch for the first time and I’d say if you have a car that can run any of the classes then enter but, bring patience, expect schedule changes and have fun.

My first run was a 9.84 with a .026 light. I was told to set up fast here because it’s hard to recover if you go slow. A big shout out to D1 Champ Tom Stalba before the first run he leaned in and said “live for the moment and have fun”...meant a lot coming from him.

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Yeah i have a lot of respect for Stalba, a great racer and great attitude.
Really should have went myself but i am enjoying the 2 weeks off, i do get burned out sometimes. This one has to be from your viewpoint. Thanks for the reports.
How about a video or two, i liked the one ken put up in the lanes, that would be cool for us .90 guys...

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I’ve been sending pics to Ken but, it’s been kinda tough posting it through my phone.

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Good to hear you had fun Rob, keep the updates coming.

I've gotten to know Stalba pretty well pitting next to him at the D1 events this year. He is one intense dude, but also very personable and willing to help.

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Well, tonight was R1 for the .90 classes after 1 time run this morning. A lot of upsets and a lot of red lights. I unfortunately fell victim to my 60 foot picking up almost 3 and lost a close 9.87 to 9.88 race. I did get some video of SC round 1 so I will pass it along when I get the chance

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I don't want to derail the conversation here, but, what is this supposed to mean?

I've been around a while and understand the benefits of being fast rather than slow, but it seems like an oddly specific comment.

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A few people said that have been coming here for years that if your first time run is a 9.99 because of the barometer not being there (based on the East Coast numbers) that you can throw lots of numbers at it and it won’t make a difference and you’ll struggle the whole weekend. The weather was a lot cooler from what I was told and didn’t really struggle.

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Thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure I follow the part about timer adjustments not responding as usual, but I don't claim to know everything and any barometer reading over 29 is great where I'm usually racing.

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From the looks at Rd 2 the D/A and the Barometer were figured out. 2 TT's is really all you need to figure out where your Car is.

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Photos from John DiBartolomeo Drag Racing Edge Magazine. I have photos also, but I have not had time to edit them, check back tomorrow sometime and I should have them done.

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Morning and welcome to a wet Day #4. A good sized thunderstorm popped up and has now drenched the place so there will be a delay once everything gets dry. I must say it was cool to see Nitro at night time. It’s been some time since that has happened because Etown was the last place for me to see it.

I know R3 of SG is not posted on DRC due to them having to re-run 1 pair that I know of. Laboose & Napier will have to be re-run due to a lazy photo cell or hanging cell at the 60 foot cone, they disallowed Al Kenny’s 6.10 qualifying pass in TD due to the same thing and his 60 foot being an .8– something. So with the rain I’m not sure when that will happen as they were supposed to do it last night but had a good oildown in Alky & WJ hitting the wall with the match race car, which pushed them backed to the trailer for the night.

Chuck, I do think two time runs should be ok, just a lot of people were upset due to always getting 4 at Indy (the word on the street), 1st round Friday but, one got cut to the parking craziness (not the racers fault) and the added classes cut another one. For all the other classes they got 3 (TD & TS) and you have class with Stock & SS and 2 TT. It is what it is, I had a good time and would do Indy again if the stars aligned correctly.

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More action from yesterday. In the next batch I have some random shots from Rob Keister.

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Rob's photos...

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Photos from yesterdays action...

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Next batch...

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Hope you guys and gals all enjoyed the live from, we pulled out about 9am this morning and are calling it a night a little south of Pittsburgh. I know only Stock & SS saw the track today as they had rain, Oil Downs and a Pro Mod Crash that sent some classes back to the trailer. So tomorrow will be slammed as they have 7 rounds of Stock & SS, 6 Rounds of Comp, 4 Rounds of Alky, 5 Rounds of TS & TD and 5 Rounds of SG & 4 of SC along with the Pros. So I think it will be another late day / night at Indy!

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So glad that you, and Dad, made it to Indy, Rob.. it is a great experience.. great to see you guys there.. and Stalba's quote is spot on.. IMAGINE THAT!!

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Lenny, Rob throttle stops at the top end, lots of variables, wind, track prep down there etc....

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And there was a good crosswind on both Wed & Thursday. It was a tough place to dial with the way the stands are setup and the oval track stands right next to it. We were on the stop about the time we would pass the bleachers, so the giant brick I have it was tough.

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Had a good time at indy. Parking did suck. Went a 91 on Thursday night. Didnt change a thing went a 96 friday morning. Lost 4mph. Maybe the wind got me. Sped the car up and went a 95 to lose 3rd round. Think I'm gonna sit next year out. Hard to take so much time off work.

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Hey guys, I haven't forgot you. I wish I had more time to get more photos of you all in the pits and the lanes. There is just not enough time to get it all done. Anyway, here are 3 batches of photos from Monday.

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