Daytona wins the Summer Sport Compact Slam

[Daytona]

Sunday, July 6 - I won the B1 bracket class at the "23th Annual www.RIXMAG.com Summer Sport Compact Slam presented by Strauss Auto" at Raceway Park.

As usual, a bunch of regular Points racers joined the event in hopes of picking up some easy money. And, of course, we all ended up in the same bracket class again making it not-so-easy money.

The weather was crappy - mid-70's and rainy - all day which played havoc again with our cars. The previous day was completely rained out and Sunday's racing looked to possibly be the same story, though it only drizzled a few times and never really downpoured.

1st round I got a duck and easily beat him. I was ahead by so much that I slammed on the brakes just after the 1000' clock and almost came to a complete stop before hitting the gas again to regain momentum to cross the finish line before him.

All of us Points guys knew to take it easy on the tree since most of the rest of the competition wasn't good enough to chance any of us going red. I thought I was going easy on the tree, too, in 1st round but ended up with a 0.029 light (which I guess for me IS letting up). I was awarded the bye run next round.

3rd round I switched from right to left lane for the pairing. I purposefully cut a soft light, knowing my ET's were consistent enough and I was holding a little (just in case). He went red. My light? 0.157 - by FAR my worst winning green in well over a year. I always have a little trouble adjusting to a "new" lane so my first light is usually a little softer than I'm trying for (hence the .1+ light), but in this case I still came out alright.

4th round (Semi-Finals) I get paired on the ladder with 3-time Street ET Points Champion (twice at RP and once at Atco) and all-around awesomely talented racer Brian Mullaney. He won the coin flip and I ended up back in left lane again. But this time I had had my 1 run already in the lane and was able to readjust to the lights. I knew I had to cut a great light to stand a chance against him. My light? 0.003 green to his uncharacteristically slow 0.023 green. He started to pass me top-end and I saw him dump it (hit the brakes) so I followed suit. I was then like "What am I thinking?" and I got back on the gas again and passed him at the stripe for a 0.0218-second margin of vistory. I ended up 0.036 over my dial to his 0.037 over.

5th round (Finals) I have Jack Cogliano, multi-time 1/8th-mile Trophy Stock Points Champion. He just came off back-to-back 0.00x lights (1 was in his 3rd round bye run). He'd been running right lane all day so I asked for a coin flip, won it, and put him in the left lane and me back in right. I knew that would throw him off his rythm. My rythm would also be off a little switching lanes again but the problem with that would be worth it if I could get him off his game enough.

Turns out I was right. Jack went 0.080 to my 0.035 light. I tried to hit the tree harder than that but again it was my first pass back in that lane so my rythm was off, too. Jack had the slower car so I was giving chase for the first time in months. He was still edging me by a tire at the finish line so I dumped it at the last possible moment. Any sooner and he would have seen me do it and dumped, too, and possibly stayed above his dial. But he didn't see me dump and he took the stripe 0.021 under his dial (he broke out). I won going .06 over on the brakes.

I won a nearly 3' high trophy and $500 ($450 really after I kicked back $50 to Brian. We made a deal before our run that the winner of our pair would kick back $50 to the loser since the actual payout for Semi's was only $50 to begin with. It's pretty common for Points guys to do that for each other at non-Point events.). And my name was entered into NHRA's "Be a Winner" program, open only to NHRA members who win an event at an NHRA-sanctioned track. Besides getting my name in National Dragster magazine I'll be entered to win other prizes. Not sure what prizes, but anything would be cool. And now the rest of my season is paid for with the prize money.