Kick Off Classic at San Antonio Raceway, 2/18

[rebelracewriter]

Kick Off Classic at San Antonio Raceway, 2/18-20, 2011

By J M Hallas

 

Marion, Texas(Feb 18th, 2011) San Antonio Raceway officially kicked off its 2011 season with the Kick Off Classic, run on the 1/8th mile for Electronics, Footbrake and Jr. Dragster classes. New track manager, Freddy Cruz has done a lot to turn the track around after taking the reins in summer 2010. Cruz, the promoter for the Clash of the Titans Outlaw Street Car Series, already has made great headway with the re-signing of the International Hot Rod Association(IHRA) and getting the series to bring back the Nitro Jam National Tour to the track. San Antonio Raceway last hosted the major event in 2008.

 

The Kick Off Classic is three separate day shows with a good chunk of change on the line for each of the three divisions. The Electronics and Footbrake classes include a variety of race cars from dragsters, to door slammers to motorcycles, while Jr. Dragsters feature our next crop of up-and-coming racers for the future. Saturday night's event also includes a special "Gunslingers Race" for the first 16 cars that enter and the winner taking home the big check for $4,000.

 

 

In Friday night racing action, the weather and track conditions were near perfect with several drivers cutting .000 lights in time trials. Round one of eliminations was unkind to both of last years track champions as Scott Ball(electronics) and Ryan McDonnell(footbrake) were bounced.(McDonnell bought back in) The night ran with relatively few glitches as only one motor and a couple times blocks were damaged.

 

Electronics

The final round in Electronics pitted young Dylan Lee against Terry Sawyer. The duo both left clean and ran within .01 of their dial in. The difference came on the line where Sawyer tripped a .009 light to Lee's .041 to take the holeshot win.

 

Round 4

Michael Pennington 4.61 @ 148.08 defeats Chris Talley 6.80 @ 101.76(break out)

Dylan Lee 5.01 @ 134.93 defeats Gary Faulkner 6.26 @ 103.78

Terry Sawyer 5.11 @ 131.54 defeats David Bills 5.17 @ 133.65(break out)

 

 

Round 5

Dylan Lee 4.99 @ 136.32 defeats Michael Pennington 4.61 @ 144.74

Terry Sawyer 5.08 @ 139.02---Bye

 

 

Finals

Terry Sawyer 5.10 @ 134.07 defeats Dylan Lee 5.00 @ 136.16

 

 

Footbrake

After being taken out in round 1, Ryan McDonnell made his buy back pay off in the finals. Using consistent 5.80's McDonnell made way back through the field to go up against Brian Day. Both left clean, but Day slowed on the top end to avoid breaking out, while McDonnell ran his dial in.

 

Round 4

Ryan McDonnell 5.84 @ 111.14 defeats Cole Herbold 6.47 @107.78

Mark Edwards 6.55 @ 10526 defeats J. Inman 7.49 @ 89.39(red light)

Brian Day 7.30 @ 93.71 defeats L. Troupe 6.01 @ 123.73(red light)

 

 

Round 5

Ryan McDonnell 5.80 @ 112.44 defeats Mark Edwards 6.59 @ 104.70

Brain Day 7.28 @ 93.97---Bye

 

 

Finals

Ryan McDonnell 5.80 @ 107.27 defeats Brain Day 7.36 @ 89.25

 

 

Jr. Dragster

Round 1

C.Pearson 8.02 @ 78.96 defeats Z. Rosenburg 9.10 @ 72.76

D.Aydelotte 7.89 @ 82.66 defeats J. Valadez 7.87 @ 82.19(double break out)

 

Round 2

D.Aydelotte 7.90 @ 80.63 defeats J. Valadez 7.95 2 81.76

C. Pearson 7.93 @ 82.57---Bye

 

 

Finals

Daniel Aydelotte 7.82 @ 82.57 defeats Chris Pearson 80.81 @ 82.01(red light)

 

 

The Kick Off Classic continues Saturday and Sunday with gates opening at 9:00am Saturday and 8:00am Sunday, time trials start an hour afterwards, and eliminations begin following that.

 

 

April 1st -2nd the big boys with their big toys return to the track with the IHRA Nitro Jam, Friday and Saturday nights featuring their new race format, and new line of classes. Along with the top dogs in Top Fuel Dragsters, Pro Fuel, Prostalgia Funny Cars and Nitro Harleys are also scheduled, plus a full contingent of sportsman racers for the two-day event..

 

This summer(June 11/12th) San Antonio Raceway will host its own version of the popular Pinks All Out race with a $20,000 purse up for grabs. The San Antonio Raceway "All Out Big Money Bash" will feature not just a select 16, but the tightest 16 car group for each of four index classes(9.00, 10.00, 11.00 and 12.00) plus a separate shootout for the fastest 16 cars on the property.

Edited February 20, 2011 by rebelracewriter

[rebelracewriter]

Ran across a couple former SAS drivers while I was out here, one Greg Meuth who ran SAS for a while in the Street(type) class was no surprise since he's been running both drag and circle tracks for some time......

 

The other was somewhat of a surprise, Joe Aramendia took some test-n-tune runs in an old truck they look to be restoring....I didn't realize it was him, even after he honked at me as walked across in front of him, but one of his crew guys came up let me know....