Live from the Division 4 National Open at Belle Rose

[Doug Walker]

The schedule originally called for Test-N-Tune on Thursday, Qualifying on Friday, Eliminations on Saturday and Sunday.

The week prior had about four days of heavy rains which is the source of the problems for this event. The Test-N-Tune on Thursday was pretty much a bust. The track crew spent the day scraping and spraying to get the track in acceptable condition.

Friday the revised plan was to Test-N-Tune, then qualifying. They would send a dozen cars of different classes downtrack and watch more than half spin and skate around, then go back to scraping and spraying, and then trying another dozen cars.

Finally about 3:30 pm they allowed any cars parked in the staging lanes to give it a try. Some succeeded. The only classes vehicles that were "a sure thing" to find traction were the junior dragsters and most of the motorcycles.

I was very impressed with the track officials and crew. They were handed a horrible situation by Mother Nature and never quit trying to bring the track around.

Here is my first batch or photos of the stockers and super stockers. Some of these photos are a bit misleading, as the car might leave the line with the front tires in the air, then spin before the car reached the sixty foot timers.