Salt Lake City, Nitro-Jam - Way Cool Event!!

[Paul Plummer]

I am sitting in a hotel room in Pocatello, ID this evening enroute back to my home in Coeur D Alene, ID reflecting on the events of the past two days at the Nitro-Jam event in Salt Lake City, UT.

My hat is off to Rocky Mountain Raceways track management for coming up with a killer stock/ss program and fronting an extremely generous purse despite the fact that the Stock/SS event was not a money making venture this year. In the track management's words the event went from 5 competitors last year to 17 this year and it is going to take some investment to build the program in the future. Ron Craft stated that based on the interest level this year, they will have the separate stock and superstock classes back next year - mission accomplished racers!!!

Brian Sanderson, one of Salt Lake's local (killer) stock eliminator racers solicited some additional sponsorship and placed $200 and a beautiful plaque in the hands of the #1 qualifier, $200 to the racer with the best first round package & $75 in the hands of the slowest qualifier. Brian spent the entire week-end helping the RMR staff keep the run sheets, ladder etc. in order since this all had to be done manually. He did this with his arm in a huge bandage affair as a few days before the Nitro-Jam, he tried to cut three of his fingers off in an electric fan while working on a friends race car. His son Jesse took over the driving duties in Brian's A/SA Mopar and made it to the final.

Everyone made a good friend in Gary Hampton. Gary would best be described as IHRA's biggest advocate for building the programs out west. If you ever meet Gary in person you will find a salt of the earth character that loves the sport of drag racing. What I found most interesting about Gary is that he us a mountain of man and I am not sure how the heck he fits into that little front wheel drive stocker?? I am thinking someone has to grease him up and throw a twinkie in the driver's seat!!

Personally, I would like to thank Rich Scrivner, his great family and also Jim Hughes. If it were not for this group of people, there is no way I would have even had a chance to run my car past 2nd round let alone have a shot at #1 qualifier.

Rich helped to get me that shot by helping salvage a rocker arm that had been damaged during the first two qualifying runs ( I did not have a spare) . He also may have saved my life as I had one rear coil spring collapse during the 12 hour tow down to Salt Lake. After running the car on Friday I decided to swap the rear coil driver to passenger side. My car slid off of a dual set of jack stands - fortunately I saw what was about to happen and was well clear when the car came down. Rich got me a third set of jack stands and an extra floor jack to make everything much safer. My son Jace thanks you!

Jim Hughes has been a legend of mine since I was a pup living in Denver in the early 90's. I used to watch Jim run his stocker at Bandimere speedway. Being just out of college & poor I could not afford a car so would go to the division races and national events to watch two classes - stock and superstock period!

Jim was one of three characters that left an impression on me and made me want to run a stocker one day. The other two were Ron Gary and a very young man named Jason Line circa 1992 in his bid to win the stock championship. Now Ron and Jason were no brainer's for me as I am Buick to the bone!! Jim and his stick car - just plain awesome! It was great to meet and race with one of my personal heroes!!!

Lastly, thanks to all of the participants who showed-up to the event and who despite some challenges throughout the week-end avoided dialing 911 and calling for the "waa...mbulance". As racers we all seem to piss and moan about something or other. At this event it was non-existent...........As far as I am concerned, this is a group of racers working hard to give themselves a choice out west regardless of the sanctioning body and I am glad to see IHRA supporting us!!!

Thanks again and I look forward to racing with each and everyone of you in the future!

Paul "Jody" Plummer

[Chris1529]

Glad to hear the event went well out there.

[danny waters sr]

Glad to see that event shaping up for the sportsman classes

[Wes King]

Jody, It was great meeting you and all of the other Stock/ Superstock racers that attended this killer event. I have never had so much fun racing in my many years as a sportsman racer. Everyone from the track management to the garbage pickup treated us as royalty. For those of you that chose not to attend, you missed out on a chance to strutt yourself like never before. We were actually part of the program for a change. Several times when we went up to make our runs , we were greeted by track management thanking us for coming. All of are passes were made in front of a packed house full of cheering fans. Man Im telling you this was blast. A giant thanks goes out to Brian and Jesse Sanderson, and Jody Plummer and of course Rocky Mountain Raceway. These guys worked together with the I.H.R.A . to make this race happen. I cant wait until next time !!!!
Larry Rush it was great to see you again ole friend.

Wes King, SS/CS 799

[speedfreak2]

Wow that was an Awesome event! I got my Camaro parked and teched in Thursday afternoon and then made my way over to where all you guys were pitted and the first guy I ran into was Gary Hampton. My friend (Rich) and I chatted with Gary for a while...what a super nice guy. Hell, he had a grin on his face all weekend long. On Friday, between time runs Rich and I spent as much time as possible over there talking with almost everyone. I'll tell you what, you mix Wes King, Glenn Snow, Real? Snow and couple other guys together and what you'll get is a Great time! Loads of fun hanging out with those guys. We really enjoyed having y'all there and can't wait until next year. Hopefully we'll be able to see some of you sooner at another event that's close. I'm even more excited than ever to get one of my cars ready so I can be included in the mix.
Jody, I really appreciate all the help you have given me so far and look forward to meeting up with you again...hopefully side by side at the starting line. I'll go easy on you...J/K.
I can't remember everyones name that was there but I did get a picture of a lot of the cars. Again, that was an Awesome event!

[Sanderson7063]

I just want to give a big thanks to all the racers who showed up to make this race a big success. I thought it was a great group effort! It was such an awesome sight to see all those cool class cars in the staging lanes at my home track. I haven't seen that for a while! I thought all the cars were a nice representation to their respective classes. I think most everyone had a great time, even though some experienced some traction issues. I also want to thank Cal and Jon Percy for bringing that beautiful SS/AH Hemi car from Blackfoot, Idaho. It was well deserving of the Best Appearing Award that they took home. It was a pleasure to get to know you guys. Maybe we can get a combo race together again this Fall.

[L Rush]

I haven't had so much fun since the hogs ate my little brother. It was great to meet Gary, and Jody. We even had "Real" Snow at the track. To see class cars in the staging lanes was awsome. I remember back in the 70's was the last time with the chevyII. Wes, I hope to see you at your home track. Thanks to all that traveled to this event. I hope we can keep it going at RMR. Brian, you did a super job, thanks again.

[E Snow]

It would be a big mistake if I didn't comment on the race in Salt Lake City. I can't remember the last time that we had such a great time. All the track people, the IHRA Folks and the racers treated Glenn and I like we were part of the family. Needless to say we haven't been treated that way in a long time. Again thanks to all involved!! Looking forward to doing it again soon.

E Snow

[Dave Ribeiro]

Glad you guys all had a good time, I keep telling people to give them a try you will be Surprised ... It's all about having choices
where to race, so you don't have to travel 10-12 hours every-weekend..
It's nice to be treated as part of the big show & not the dryer ..