Live from San Antonio IHRA

[Robbie Welch]

Thanks for the photos, who's fairlanes are they? Is one of them RJs What engines are they running. Thanks Robbie

[Gary Smith]

Originally Posted by Greg Hill

For the life of me I can't understand why there are not more cars in San Antonio. What is IHRA doing to make people not want to come to their races? When i lived in Texas I raced quite a few IHRA races and it always seemed there was fairly good turnout. San Antonio is a nice race track, the money is decent, not great and it's a two day race. The IHRA folks always are very hospitable and treat racers really well. Why aren't you Texas racers supporting this? I'm only asking because I guess I don't understand.

Yeah likewise. I never have and never will understand why local racers refuse to support a local IHRA race. I've heard so much bitching about NHRA over the years (myself included) where IHRA has taken notice and provides solutions to the gripes everyone makes. Granted, there's no comparison to the commercialism of NHRA. But what are you there for...racing, or a chance to get your "Hollywood walk of fame" trophy? If more racers would support the IHRA, it would only improve the organization "glamor factor". You can also bet we wouldn't be thrown under the bus as progress improves....the IHRA knows who we are, and who built them....unlike "the other guys". If nothing else, you guys are missing out on a really good time, good racing. and what it's like to be treated with the respect we all deserve.

Oh, and for the question "okay, so where was your name on the ladder from last year" my junk was apart but I still went to the race to support it. The only griping I did: "Damn, I wished my car was together so I can be out here having as much fun as everyone else". Ask the IHRA crew if you don't believe me.

[Ed Carpenter]

Well well we had an interesting weekend. Yes the turnout was poor. David Latino and I had a discussion about it before our first rd race. I can't explain why no one shows up. The race was run well. Nice track. I've never seen that many people show up for an IHRA race. It was packed. Hell when I left there was still a huge line trying to get in the place. We had just put a new clutch in the car the night before at 1 in the morning. Our first pass it tried to turn over backwards on me. We took some clutch out and on the second run it was even more aggressive and pulled the wheels as high in second gear as it did on the starting line. We took a little more out. It responded by doing the same thing as the second run only now it pulled the wheels in 3rd gear. Well after the run I had no clutch at all after I crossed the scales. Rob uses a bigger throwout bearing for his clutch. The t/o bearing had pushed threw the fingers on the clutch. My daughter had a playoff soccer game that night. I had to leave. So my son stayed back and took it apart by himself and got it all back together with some help from Shawn Allsup who was just there spectating. Thanks Shawn. My son Brent is the man. He loves to work on that car. Without him I wouldn't be racing. Against David Latino I cut a good light .018 but I used up the entire track on the pass and couldn't run the number. We had fun and met alot of new people. Ed

[THE LEGEND]

The sad thing is with the car counts IHRA is having at NitroJam races the handwriting is on the wall.
Nitro Jam will turn into a Fuel show with a bracket race. Stock up on you shoepolish it's coming.
Chip

[Ed Carpenter]

Originally Posted by Robbie Welch

Thanks for the photos, who's fairlanes are they? Is one of them RJs What engines are they running. Thanks Robbie

Red one is RJ's they had it in D/SA this weekend. The green one is Kirk Morgan's car. If I'm wrong ill hear it from RJ, but I think it's a 390. Ed

[smracer2002]

They are both 390 cars.
The green one has more weight
and ran F and RJ took weight out
and ran D.

I had something come up Friday pm and
couldnt make it back on Sat to finish up
the thread.I apologize for that but some things
cant be helped.

[RJ Sledge]

Ed is correct both cars are 390 powered, good to see Kirk go the final, there is not a finer person in the pits as far as I am concerned, he helps me out alot. Brent Carpenter is in the same catergory, and its good to see some young people involved. Ed you are indeed a lucky man. Congrats to David Latino, on his Stock win and his Runner up in SS. It was a trying type of day with the 95 degree weather and changing track conditions. Thought that IHRA did a pretty good job on the starting line considering the heat. I believe that most of the Stockers had to dial it for spin during the day and then take there best guess when the sun went down. Overall we had a good time, it was close to home and Kirk was in the final.

It really is a mystery as to why more S/SS racers won't come from the Houston (157 miles away) and Dallas (225 miles away) areas. It cost us $80.00 for the Membership and car number and $200 to race. Kirt will hopefully collect around $2000.00 for his Runner up in Stock and David Latino will collect at least 4 or 5 times or more than that for his S/SS showings. Not a bad two day pay check

They must have had 30,000 specators for the race and that should make IHRA happy. I have never seen a bigger crowd at SAR and that includes Pinks.

Later RJ

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by smracer2002

Sparse turnout for Stk/S/Stk,about 12 to 14 cars combined
Temp is low 80s,baro is 29.76,44% humidity and winds from
the SSE@ 13.

Due to IHRAs contractual obligations I cant go trackside until
the Pros run so i will do the pit shots and shoot from the stands
until 5.30(first round of Pro).

These are some random pit shots and the 2nd round of Stk qualifying.
These are low res jpegs as I am shooting RAW along with jpeg.
Hope you like them.

Yes that fwd stocker did make it from Tempe,the only thing is he
left Tempe,went to Wyoming and then Colorado to get the car and then came to
San Antonio.

Yes that was some haul, but this experience was more than worth it! I thank GOD I had the opportunity to do this, and the nearly 1200 miles I traveled to Wheatland, Wy., plus the over 1100 miles from there to San Antonio? Wow, that was a lot of fuel stops, but since my Colorado was getting nearly 14 mpg. (with 4300lbs of trailer/car behind it, as opposed to bigger trucks, and 23mpg w/o the trailer behind it), I wasn't feeling too bad.

The people here were great, it was nice to meet you smracer, and I was also glad to meet Dave Carpenter, and meet and hang out with David Latino...I however was hoping that the photo you showed of Dave and I in qualifying, would've been the final (since we were on opposite sides of the ladder, and would've only met in the final)?

I'm bummed that I lost that 1/4 final (1st rnd) race by .0029, but he was a good guy to meet and chat with, and maybe next year we'll get a rematch? Moreover, I had a chance to see just how close that race must've been since I just saw a race involving Larry Morgan, in which the margin was .0026...that was a close one...I wish I didn't have such a soft spot in my heart for Pearl Harbor, because I chose the 15.41 because that tragedy happened in '41. I spoke with my bud Craig about the .42. If I would've gone with that instead, that outcome would've been different (and the picture could've become the final, at the finish line)? As they say, that's racin', and it was the closest stock race of the meet....

How can you beat talking with the VP of racing operations (in the tower no less), and although I didn't win the race, I had a great time, met some old friends of mine from Pueblo Motor Sports Park, in Colorado (Terry, Larry Meyer, & Jeff, from the WWS Team..."We Want Steak")!

If I could, I'd transfer my work out here in San Antonio (I'll be talking with my BIG boss about this when I get back to Az.) I'm already looking forward to coming back here next year, and also Salt Lake Cities "Nitro Jam" race (2mths from now)!

Thanks Hawk, and Michael for wishing me well, I had fun, and will be looking forward to my next IHRA race, but now I'm visiting with friends, so I'll be back here in 3days....

[Notch1320]

I had a great time at this event, even though I was just spectating. The car count was extremely low, but filled with some seriously good people!

I spent most of the weekend talking with the S/SS guys in the pit area. Ed & Brent Carpenter, Gary, Kirk, Latino/Hollingsworth crew and even the "WWS" crew of Larry, Terry & Jeff...all Top Notch guys! Hell, Mr. Hollingsworth even pulled me into the winners circle photo with their Stock & Super Stock cars.

This event has opened my eyes to the IHRA side of things purely based on the caliber of people I met at this race.

On another note, the place was crawling with people. WOW!!!

One thing I did learn was that I will be adding a small lanyard to the trunk key in my car. While David Latino was up running the Stock final, their SS car was sitting in the lanes. Myself and Phill Hollingsworth came back to the car after Stock ran and there were several little kids and one drunken spectator hanging around the car. Phill was watching them closely and had a weird feeling so he did a quick walk around of the car. Good thing he did because the drunken guy had walked off with the trunk key out of their SS Cobalt. Phil confronted him, and all the theif said was... "You caught me".They are probably laughing about it now, but it could have been a bad deal if they needed in there for something.

Take care guys!!!

[Robbie Welch]

Thanks for the responds (Ed, RJ & SMRACER2002). Looking for a 66 2 door sedan street car project now. Are there any in your area? Here's a photo of our ride, we've had it 25 years