Live from St. Louis open!!

[Larry Hill]

We aren't quite there yet. Should get there in another hour or so. Of course we didn't get away as soon as we meant to. Supposed to have Test n tune tonight and since we haven't been down the track since last fall, we definately need it. It is about 45 now and sunny, but supposed to be in the 30s tonight, so we will just have to see if they are going to run. We plan on running Top Stock on Saturday. It is supposed to be 50's tomorrow, then 60's on Sunday but raining. I'll write more later after we get there.
Patsy

[Jim Blankenship]

patsy , is the PINK panther done ??? saw part of it (hull) at a un named chassie shop (0pps) lmao jim

[Larry Hill]

No Jim, the pink panther is still at home unfinished. Larry has been out of town more than he has been at home lately, so has not had time to work on it. So we are here with the " Private Lee" ( not quite the General Lee!).

The weather is sunny and nice, but cold. They have cancelled the test n tune for tonight. We are supposed to begin at 10:30 in the morning. So far we have seen Danny Bird and Brad Van Lant and his son. Jerry Newsome is here also.

Well, we have the satellite going so we can watch the NCAA Sweet 16 tonight. Louisville won last night. Guess we will cheer for Memphis tonight.

More later.

Patsy

[Sean Ward]

Thanks keep us updated sounds like record air

[Larry Hill]

We got teched. Fred and Kevin Suiter are here. Also saw David Morgan. We are running Stock/superstock combo here. I don't know a lot of superstockers, but I will try to keep up on them also.

Does anybody know why they DQ'd Jerry Davis at Houston?

More later.

[Frank Castros]

Larry & Patsy,

Good luck at Gateway. Please say hey to Jim Lovallo for me (he'll be there helping Hanlon) and convince him to take his wedge car out of the garage and go racing. It's a race car, not a show car!
Thanks as always for the updates. You two are way cool!

Frank

[Larry Hill]

Beautiful day in St. Louis, but boy is it cold. When I ran the air about 11:00 it was 48, with an adjusted altitude of -399'. There were 32 stock/superstock combo cars that went down and only 5 Top Stock cars. Jeremy Duncan was the quickest Top Stock car at 10.43, but Danny Bird went a 10.71 at 103 mph. We were out of gas and had to buy Sunoco here, and went didn't go too well--10.70 at 120. Jerry Newsome had something go wrong off the line, so he didn't get a good run. Fred Suiter went 10.46 at 123.

In Combo, Brad Van Lant about crashed on the starting line as did GTA I think they said Stealy was the name. Stealy crossed the center line. It looked like they were leaving and then got into something. All this was in the right lane as was Newsome.

This is who is here in the order they went down the track as I understood the names. BTW, I don't hear real well. Been around these race cars too long!
Dyer, Summers, Pricen, Stealy, Schaeter, Fred Suiter, Buth, Duckett, Randall, Wizenfel, Greening, Wimmer, Rowe, Morgan, Jamie Greening, Shaw, Kevin Suiter, Hodge, Hanlon, Omalley, Beeler, Sturgell, Schaeter, Harrision, Hollingsfield, Brown, Murphy, Simpson, VanLant, Harrison, Owens, Buth.

Frank, I talked with Lavollo this morning and he said he has his car up for sale and is not going to race it. He said it is listed with Gateway something or other and he has just lowered the price. I will tell him you said hello when I see him again. I've been sitting inside since it is pretty cold and windy outside.

If you are here in St. Louis come by and see us. We are at the end of the row across from the Top Fuel concession stand.

I will see if they have posted a qualifying sheet and let you know how everyone is going.

More later.
Patsy

[greg johnson]

Hiya Patsy..........

Glad ta see yu & the big guy made it thru another "grueling" Ky winter.....lol
Sorry to say nobody from Pontiac is gonna be there...........MY story is either too busy, or too lazy to get stuff put together to go................ the forecast kinda skeered me off too...........

Hope you all have fun, & best o luck to everybody.
Please tell everyone "howdy!!"

greg

[Larry Hill]

Sorry but my internet connection has been off all afternoon. So I will give you the results of Top Stock 1st. Brad Van Lant beat Fred Suiter 10.32 to 10.34. There were 8 cars:
1-Fred Suiter 10.17
2-Jeremy Duncan 10.43
3-Brad Van Lant 10.43
4-Larry Hill 10.44
5-Jerry Newsome 10.47
6-Danny Byrd 10.50
7-Kevin Suiter 10.73
8-Jim Schaeter 10.80 in Bob Gibson' Corvette
1st round:
Schaeter broke against F. Suiter
Byrd red-lighted to Van Lant who spun
K. Suiter red-lighted to Duncan
Newsome's car died against us

2nd round:
Duncan broke a transmission against Van Lant who ran 10.35
Fred beat us like a drum 10.24, 124 to our 10.37, 126

Final:
Van Lant 10.32, 125 to Fred's 10.34, 127.

It was a great day of racing.
Still cold here. Had to hold up for a while for sprinkles. Calling for rain tomorrow.

In Combo there were around 32 cars. Roz Gresens has gone home already with the car smoking. Looked like the big R/S car of Wizenfel broke.

Hey you Pontiac, IL guys: You're missing a lot of fun. Wish you were here.

More later.
Patsy

[james schaechter]

Definatley cold stuff. Our gauge said -443 ft in the morning. The (Bob Gipson's) Corvette was on it's 396 stick debut. Left ok and went 6.58@104 in the eigth mile. It started spinning in 3rd and tried 4th to and the track was just not there and I had to clutch it. NExt run I boned up the clutch and it slipped very badly, only went 10.80@ 126 at Top Stock weight. I broke the snout off of the starter and the track wouldn't allow a push start so I missed first round. Hopefully warmer tomorrow. Maybe a full pass is in order. New car blues not withstanding.

Most impressive Top stock run was Brad Van Lant. He tookout the front seat and said the car was about 3000lbs. He ended up winning Top stock and went 10.32@125 !!! In a 340 car. Quite impressive!

4 cars were in teardown. 3 record runs Summers N stick Mustang, Marty Buth Turbo thunderbird and Joe Schaechter I stick 66 Nova. All record attempts except Murphy. They got an invite for their steller 1.447 under blast in GTMA. I think everyone made it through.

Here is qualifying so far with one to go in the morning weather permitting:

1) Kevin Murphy GTMA 10.603 -1.447
2) Marty Buth QSA 12.784 -1.316
3) Bert Morgan RSA 13.122 -1.228
4) Joe Schaechter IS 11.273 -1.227
5) Travis Sturgell JSA 11.524 -1.226
6) Larry Hodge NSA 12.109 -1.191
7) Robert Harrison SSKA 10.39 -1.153
8) Robin Brown SSJ 9.96 -1.137
9)Jim Harrison KSA 11.822 -1.128
10) Roy Whitmore GTEA 9.825 -1.125
11) Jamie Greening PSA 12.625 -1.125
12) Greg Greening OSA 12.350 -1.100
13) Fred Suiter BSA 10.469 -1.081
14) Don O Malley SSJA 10.224 -1.076
15) Donnie Beeler GS 11.13 -1.068
16) David Morgan KSA 11.905 -1.045
17) Gary Summers NS 12.222 -1.028
18) Thomas Randall GTBA 9.54 -1.009
19) Wade Owens KSA 11.952 -.998
20) Bill Dyer NS 12.272 -.978
21) Rand Simpson ESA 11.114 -.886
22) Ellis Buth WS 15.822 -.866
23) Bob Shaw USA 14.284 -.847
24) Corey Duckett DSA 11.003 -..847
25) A Hollingsworth ESA 11.268 -..732
26) Pat Forsyth BSA 10.898 -.652
27) Rosalyn Gresens OS 12.768 -.632
28) Jim Schaechter AS 10.861 -.389
29) JIm Hanlon GSA 11.978 -.322
30) Kevin Suiter BSA 11.507 -.-.043
31) Jeff Stealy GTAA 10.463 .063
32) Tim Weinzapful RS 14.56 ..313
33) Bill Rowe Jr LSA 13.335 .335
34) Jeff Bryson GTEA 11.337 .387
35) Brad VanLant DSA 18.518 6.668