On behalf of my Loose Rocker partner Anthony Walton, our families, our staff, and the track staff, I would like to express a hearty thank you to all of the racers, sponsors, and fans who supported this event so passionately! It's been 13 years since the original US Class Nationals, championed by our Grand Marshal Alex Denysenko (who did indeed receive a hat, a badge, and a gun, as requested. And you're darn right it was a useless toy gun, because I knew that if I even got him a squirtgun, he would USE it!)
We were honored to have you and your family join us. I admit to getting a little emotional when presenting him with his plaque of recognition, and I am again just while typing this. You can file event promotion under "You think you know, but you have no idea." -- It puts an exclamation point on just how extraordinary Alex's accomplishments are.
Mike Carr just covered the car counts. Thanks again to the one and only Buff Daddy for his extra helping hand at fuel check on Friday. Keeping the scales and fuel check running quickly and efficiently with over 200 cars without any "filler" classes inbetween Stock and Super Stock is an amazing feat! GREAT job by Jim & Connie Woods, Don Braun, and Mike Carr!
Redman and Bradley on the starting line... need anyone say more? Redman was definitely in the house -- and in his wheelhouse. While it takes time (and enough drums of VHT to surprise the track management!)
to maintain the best possible conditions, particularly with the impressive number of Stick cars we had competing, it was well worth the time, effort, and expense.
Nitro Joe Jackson went above and beyond all week long, handling early parking from early morning to late at night. If you don't already subscribe to Nitro Joe's Drag Racing Stats, it'd be a nice way to thank him -- plus you would get hoards of invaluable information about the classes and runs made by virtually every Stock and Super Stock car! Check it out at
http://www.nitrojoes.com/
Joe worked closely with NTR's Chris Stilwell in the tower all weekend. This dynamic duo crunched out complete ladders for EVERY class in Lucas Oil Class Eliminations on Friday -- just like it should be!
Thanks also to Robert Kinton, Donnie Crowder, Gary Murph, and Stan Carpenter in Tech and Staging, as well as Mike Bassin for lending his knowledgeable voice to the Auto Meter Northern Class Nationals. Bryan Epps and the BME Photography crew did a great job as always, and pitched in to organize the Best Appearing/Engineered award presentations and more to free us up to handle other areas of the event. Everyone knew their jobs, and just DID it. Their passion for what we do shines through. Thanks to all of our contributing photographers, videographers, and "LIVE from" reporters, and special thanks also to the NHRA Div. 3 management for their support of the event.
Thanks to Larry Hill for organizing cake & ice cream for Saturday night's Racer Appreciation Party that doubled as a surprise birthday party for Patsy!
Thanks to Dave Turner and Briane Philbrick for bringing me hard-to-find cookies from Canada. I paid Dave in giant Snyder's pretzels. Briane surprised me with his contribution, so I still owe him some unidentified slice of Americana!
There's plenty more thanks to go around... if I missed you and you're reading this: THANK YOU!
Complete results are available on MotorManiaTV's sister site, DragStory, at
http://dragstory.com/forum/index.php/board,129.0.html Don't forget that the entire event is archived on
www.motormaniatv.com, so if you missed the LIVE broadcast, you can still watch it online any time! The coverage includes round-by-round of Class Eliminations. I'll go back through and consolidate the list of Class winners to post here.
Don't forget to check out highlight videos of massive wheelstands, the SS/K Shootout, and more over at Rob Jackson's RobzNeed4Speed Videos on YouTube and at
https://www.facebook.com/robzneed4speed and LIKE his page!