ERP TEAM REPORT FROM NHRA BRACKET FINALS

Team ERP arrived at Topeka, KS for the NHRA Division 5 Bracket Finals this past weekend with 37 team members ready to do battle against more than 600 other racers. Friday saw great weather conditions with time runs and gamblers races on tap. The no-box gamblers race had 280+ entries alone, but the NHRA did an excellent job and all the time runs and racing were completed before 11 PM.

Saturday the weather was a challenge as strong storms developed and moved over the race track several times in the afternoon. The "Race of Champions" was conducted on Saturday afternoon/evening and Team Eddyville had a great showing. Artie Craver made the semi-finals in Super Pro, Bob Bash went to round #3 before breaking his rear-end (thanks to help of several other racers, he was back into competition for Sunday). Jason Clampitt our Motorcycle representative did excellent job and lost a close race in the final, and Mike Wymore took the Championship in the Sportsman Class! Congratulations goes to all of our representatives. Thanks goes out to the NHRA for making the best possible decisions after oil-downs and rain forced schedule changes.

Sunday started off cool, cloudy and with fog. First round of Sportsman started at about 8:15 AM with foggy conditions that even made the scoreboards hard to see. The race conditions continued to vary and made predicting a dial-in very difficult as it appeared more than 75% of all racers were making breakout passes. By 9:30 AM the fog lifted and the sun appeared and again changed the race conditions. Our team did not fare as well as in the past two years, but we did have some very good performances. Randy Melcher made it down to three cars in Super Pro from a huge field of over 200 entries. Our Motorcycle guys almost made it an all ERP final as Dave De Moss lost a close battle in the semi-finals. Defending Motorcycle Champion Michael Nichols made it back to the finals, but came up on the short end this year and took a Runner-Up.

Congratulations to all the ERP racers and thanks goes to the Cordova Dragway Park staff and Dumpster Dan for putting on a big feed and party on Friday Night. We look forward to attending the 2011 Bracket Finals in Brainerd, MN.