From Amy Culver:
The season opener at Skyview Drags brought sunny skies, cool temperatures, and very loud drag cars to Rumble Ridge after a long and snowy off-season and a horribly raining start to our spring.
Skyview’s racing program began promptly at 10 a.m. with the Junior Dragster class time trials. Sponsored by Precision Crankworks in Kirkwood, N.Y., this class is for our 8-18 year old racers who run scale versions of dragsters down the 1/8-mile track at speeds of up to 85 mph. Thirteen racers began the competition and for having such a great turnout, program sponsors Don and Kathy Kiekel awarded $50 Wall-Mart gift cards to two randomly chosen racers. Congratulations to MacKenzie Cayea and Faith Peckham for being the lucky opening day prize winners.
After the completion of two time trials, they immediately went into JD eliminations. For Round 1, eliminations are divided between Junior B, which is for 8-12 year olds and our rookies, and Junior A, which is for 13-18 year olds. There were seven racers in the Junior B class and six racers in the Junior A class. The Bye Run went to Ron Klein, racing out of our Junior B class. Because there were an odd number of cars in Junior B, Ron earned a solo pass down the track and a guaranteed Round 1 win, which would signify great things to come for this young man.
Round 1 winners out of the Junior B class included rookie Angela Sims, MacKenzie Cayea, rookie Faith Peckham, and Ron Klein. Round 1 winners out of the Junior A class included Jared Baker, Cody Reome and Dylan Peckham. For Round 2, there is no class distinction and all seven Round 1 winners met in the staging lanes for pairings. Dylan Peckham earned the Bye Run and a free pass into the Semi-Finals. Quarter-Final winners included Jared, Cody, Ron and Dylan. For the elimination Semi-Finals, Jared Baker faced Dylan Peckham, with Dylan taking the win, and 2010 opening day winner Cody Reome faced Ron Klein, with Ron taking the win. The Final round pitted Dylan against Ron, with the young Klein coming out of the Junior B class, picking up his second consecutive win, as he took the win at Lebanon Valley last weekend!
In the Junior Dragster 2nd Chance Race, Round 1 non-winners get some more seat time and a chance to continue to compete. The 2nd Chance Race entrance fee was waived this week courtesy of Skyview Drags, and as a result of this, six of the racers got the opportunity to continue racing for free.
The Quarter-Finals saw rookie Shelby Kipp taking the win light against Abby Hacker, 2010 Rookie of the Year Haley Teed taking the win light against rookie Hannah Garinger, and Kimberly Klein taking the win light against Randi Teed. In the Semi-Final round, Kimberly earned the Bye Run giving her a pass directly into the Finals, and Haley took the win over Shelby. The final round had Kimberly lining up against Haley with Klein picking up her first win of the season at Skyview in the 2nd Chance Race. That gave the Klein family reason to really celebrate as it was an all Klein sweep in the Junior Dragster class.
With the Junior Dragster class finishing up promptly at 12:30 p.m., the track got ready to run the main feature with six classes still on tap.
Street Trophy, TCR and Street Money classes all got their first time trial in. But part way through the Pro class time trials, the black clouds that everyone had been watching opened up and dumped a moderate rainfall. Once the skies cleared and the rain stopped, Skyview track workers got busy drying the track and prepping it for racing to continue.
The crew worked fast and hard and the track was ready again around 4:30 p.m. Street Trophy, TCR and Street Money classes were called back to the lanes to take their second time trials. Meanwhile, racers watched the skies as another round of black clouds were bearing down on the track. The remainder of Pro class that had not completed their first time trial was called back down to the lanes. Mel Teed, who was next in line the first time that the rains came, moved her Olds Cutlass to the head of the lanes to begin her time trial. The guests were not saying that this has anything to do with Mel, but as soon as she got to the front of the line the rains came pouring down again! This time, Mother Nature would not let them off easy and the track was soaked in a major downpour that included some hail. And so, they were done for the day.
Since they did not get one complete set of elimination rounds in, this will be a lost race for the 2011 schedule. Racers who were entered into the May 7, 2011 race will be able to use their entrance fee towards a future race. The next scheduled race is Saturday, May 14.
