MANDRA RACING -- Maple Grove - JUNE 18, 2022
The RACE 4 THE HOUSE event at Maple Grove exceeded all expectations.
John Rose and Denny Parisan had the highest turn out of cars ever for this event. The weather was strange, a windy day with morning temperatures in the high 60’s shooting suddenly into the mid 80’s by late afternoon and the humidity all but disappeared. This created difficulty in determining dial-ins.
A thank you to John Rose and Iron Horse Construction for the days sponsorship.
MANDRA had some of the most unusual races with some of the best, and worst reaction times…EVER! MANDRA had 31 cars on hand although Bruce Thomas broke a transmission on a time run and Jim Shearer broke a weld on a ladder bar putting him out of competition. With 29 cars for first round Josh Nevells received the first round bye run with a .002 reaction time, Mark Santee also had a .002 reaction time but Josh was first.
Strange things started with first round with 10 red lights, the closest thing to a normal paring saw Jamie Reichert win with a .002 RT against Tim Miliron’s new AMC Spirit .037 RT, Ralph Ferraro won with a .206 RT over Jack Stump, who must have been having an off day, with a .106 RT and couldn’t run his dial-in. Charlie Innerst and Judd McKinsey, with his 82 Camaro out for the first time both had red lights, Judd got the win light. Mike Volpe and Merritt Snyder paired up with both drivers going red at the starting line and breaking out at the finish line, Merritt had the “less” infraction and got the win light. The biggest win in the first round saw Gary Scott “WHOOP” Mark Santee with a .000 perfect light and running 9.312 on his 9.31 dial-in.
Second round saw Pete Boyer win over Tim Grace, Tim had a .003 RT but ran out with an 11.49 on his 11.54 dial-in, Gary Conte , here’s that word again, “WHOOPED” Merritt Snyder in their pairing Merritt left first with a respectable .019 RT, Gary’s wheel standing 55 Chevy left with a.006 RT, shifting his 5 speed and crossing the finish line with a 8.953 on his 8.95 dial-in. That’s a WHOOPIN’, in a close race Bob Maulick sent Jamie Reichert home when Jamie ran too quick.
Third round Randy Campbell defeated Pete Boyer when Pete had a red light, the next pair was to be Brian Wallace Corvette against Judd McKinsey, Brian had a fuel leak and dispatched a crew member to get the necessary tools, meanwhile the other two remaining pair of cars ran with Bob Maulick defeating Gary Scott when Gary broke out, Gary Conte ran 8.96 on his 8.93 dial to beat Josh Nevells .02 break out. Still waiting for Brian Wallace the track and other competitors were understandably getting anxious, but Brian came through started his car ready to race but now Judds car didn’t want to start, it only took about 30 seconds but it seemed like 30 minutes Judds car started and the race was on, Brian left first with Judd close behind at the finish line Judd won with a 8.722 on a 8.70 dial-in to Brians 9.67 break out on his 9.70 dial-in. Congratulations to both drivers for handling a tough situation so professionally.
With four cars still left in the semi-finals Randy Campbell ran a 10.43 on his 10.39 dial-in to win over Gary Conte when an driver error on his burn out caused a clutch issue slowing him to a 9.10 on his 8.95 dial-in, in the other semi final race Bob Maulick won over a .006 red light by Judd Mckinsey.
This left Randy Campbell and Bob Maulick to race for the final, and one of the most unusual races…EVER, Randy left first, when Bob released his trans brake the car didn’t move, a transbrake failure, as you would expect Bob sat a few seconds pondering what went wrong and what to do next, realizing he should go down track he put the transmission in high gear, this released the transbrake, the car moved breaking the starting line light beam and Bob’s win light came on as Randy had left the line with a .020 red light. This gave Bob Maulick the win with an 8.138 REACTION TIME.
For sure this was one of the most unusual race days ever.
Thank you to , John Rose and Denny Parisan for putting on a great race, Thank you to Iron Horse Construction and John Rose for the days sponsorship, purse and trophies.
Next race , July 10, Drag Racers Reunion.
Thank you to all for being there.
Merritt
Winner - Bob Maulick
Runner-up - Randy Campbell
Semi's- Gary Conte
Semi-s- Judd Mckinsey