LIVE from Pittsburgh, IHRA Nitro Jam and Pro-Am

[Myron Piatek]

Originally Posted by Hemi Moose

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


.

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.

[Steve1118]

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.....

[Emily Stott]

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

[Hemi Moose]

Originally Posted by Myron Piatek

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.

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

[chris3racing]

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.

[Steve1118]

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.

[J.R. Schodde 1225]

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.

[Michael Beard]

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) 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. 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...

[Michael Beard]

pics...

[philbilly]

Congrats Micheal. Well deserved Buddy!!