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| GSRMC Fall Drags @ E-town 13th Annual Drag Day Becomes an Inter-Club Event |
| GSRMC Fall Drags @ E-town 13th Annual Drag Day Becomes an Inter-Club Event By Geoff Post It’s been about a year-and-a-half since the Garden State Region Mustangs have been to the track at Englishtown’s Old Bridge Twp. Raceway Park. Due to a combination of bad luck and bad weather, we haven’t been able to hold our drag race event since May of 2008. That’s just too long for drag racers to be away from the track. Even our rain-dates were getting rained out. A couple of months ago John said rightly that the drag racers of the club would have no luck at all if it weren’t for bad luck! GSRM Club drag racing events seemed to be literally washed off of our yearly event calendar, and early on Saturday, October 10th it looked as though the most that event was to be flushed from history also. However, this time the GSRMC were not to be denied again, and our persistence finally paid off as we managed, just barely, to log our 13th Annual Fall Drag event. Considering the recent weather record on our race event days, it was no surprise that rain was again predicted for our 13th annual club drag race. Even though the weather forecast said only a few morning showers were predicted, the chilly rain, drizzle and mist came down steadily that Saturday morning and never completely stopped until well after noon. On many days that much rain would have been enough for the event to be scrubbed, so we doubted if the racing would actually begin at all. The Raceway Park management; however, remained confident that the sky would clear and drag racing would still be run, so we huddled under the bleachers and waited it out. While waiting, our group of race participants gathered in the pits. It was an unexpectedly good turnout considering the weather, with ten racers bringing an interesting and eclectic mix of Mustangs, other Fords, and even Lincolns to Raceway Park. It appeared that the weather scared away most of the GSRMC members, but thanks to other area clubs, enough drivers showed up to make the event a success. Members of four different Mustang clubs showed up, the most of any of our drag events, and made this one a true inter-club event. The South Jersey Mustang Club was strongly represented by three of the ten participants. Marvin Askins brought his beautiful, red 1967 Shelby GT350, powered by the original 289 V-8 and four-on-the-floor manual tranny; Stephen Hawn rolled in with a brand-new 2009 Shelby GT500 with a blown 5.4L V-8; and finally Mike Panichelli came in a stunning 1978 Mustang II Cobra powered by a rockin’ 347 SBF stroker V-8. Later, Mike would be turning quarter-mile E.T.s in the high 12-second range, making this the first Mustang II to ever race with our group and the fastest one this author has ever seen. Other “firsts” included the Allen father/son team representing a new club in the area, the Horse Gang, with two members. Father Russ Allen Jr. brought a clean and quick 1964 Fairlane 500 to the meet, looking and performing like a classic Thunderbolt drag car, hood-scoop and all, but sporting 351 Windsor power. Son Russ the Third drove a 1991 5.0L Mustang LX, and both were running in the high 12s also. A pat on the back goes to Vinny Taormina for representing the Garden State Mustangs with his all-stock 1990 GT. Rounding out the club participation list was Chuck Klim of the Orange County Mustangs in another 12-second car, a 2003 Mustang Cobra with blown 4.6L motivation. Mike Spina returned to GSRMC staging lane without his usual Mustang GT convertible, but instead with a 5.0L-powered Lincoln LSC, the first Lincoln we’ve ever had to our races. The other two drivers with us that day were Carlos Sobrino, running a NMRA-spec 1991 Mustang LX 5.0 and Tom Dalessio in a highly-tuned 1993 Mustang GT 5.0. Carlos and Tom found out about our drag race event through the Raceway Park schedule, and dropped by to run with us. Eventually in the afternoon, a dry, cold wind blew the sky clear and the track-drying equipment went to work. They were able to dry the track in time to run an abbreviated racing session. We began our time shots at last around two p.m. Due to the weather delay, our racers could only get two time- shots before eliminations could begin. After a couple of broken-Chevy delays, time trials were completed uneventfully. Due to the late start, the South Jersey guys had to leave at that point, having a long drive home ahead of them. We really appreciated their efforts to come so far for our event. The remaining seven drivers staged up for the Eliminator races. Tom Dalessio fouled out with a red light, but managed to rip off a 9.976-second E.T., making his the fastest pass by any car during a GSRMC event and the first to break into the sub-10-second range. The Russ Allens both advanced in the first round, as did Carlos Sobrino and Chuck Klim got the bye run on an 11-second pass. The Allens then also had to leave before completing the eliminations, so the field was quickly whittled down to a final round between Carlos and Chuck. Both got good green light starts, but Chuck’s excellent 0.135-second reaction time just edged out Carlos’ 0.169, sending Chuck to victory lane with a holeshot win on a clean 12.2-second run. It was an interesting day at the track for the GSRMC and friends, with a lot of firsts, although it wasn’t easy to be there that cold and windy day. On the plus side, ten cars was a good turnout for such weather, and the field of cars was certainly the fastest we’ve ever had, with 5 cars running in the 12s, and one each running 11s and 10s, the latter cracking into the nines. We extend our thanks to all who braved the elements to participate as well as the various Mustang clubs they represented, and especially those who made a long trip to race with us. We hope you all will come back and do it again. Our thanks also go to the personnel at Raceway Park for once again accommodating our biannual race event and treating us like we were special. Hopefully we’ll have better luck next year. Actually, it can only get better! |