A great hot summer day of Open Comp racing at Cedar Falls Raceway:
Qualifying:
1. Gene Hinders*****79 Fairmont******.016
2. Mike Allen*********71 Vega**********.033
3. Alex Harken******82 Camaro********.045
4. Mark Weerheim****87 Mustang*****.057
5. Corey Herman*****79 El Camino*****.064
6. Ryan Ladeberg*****79 Capri*********.116
7. Bill Lehman*********62 Falcon********.294
It was good to see a few new faces show up as some of the regulars had prior commitments, hopefully the newcomers will be back and the final two races will have more competitors as we've been trying to build the class back up to prior years numbers.
Ryan Ladeberg, Alex Harken, and Mike Allen were the new faces that joined in with regulars Bill Lehman (who was in attendance but with a new car as his regular '68 Mustang was having some head-gasket issues but he rolled in with a sweet little Falcon "Ranchero" to compete with) Mark Weerheim, Corey Herman, and Gene Hinders.
With an odd number of cars the #1 qualifyer (Gene Hinders) would recieve the bye-run for the first round.
ROUND ONE
Name--------------Car----------Index--------RT-------ET------MPH--W/L
Alex Harken***82 Camaro*******10.01*****.082*****10.066**134.85--W
Ryan Ladeberg*79 Capri*********12.45*****.131*****12.533**109.46--L
A slight advantage at the start allowed Alex to take the win by a .07 margin at the stripe.
Mark Weerheim*87 Mustang***11.58*****.063*****11.572**114.85--W
Bill Lehman***62 Falcon*********17.00*****.108*****16.462***79.38--L
Mark's holeshot and Bill's larger breakout pass (he finally got the Falcon to hook pretty good) were both factors in this race.
Mike Allen****71 Vega***********10.73*****.003*****10.786**123.71--W
Corey Herman**79 El Camino****10.29*****.065*****10.255**125.38--L
First time O/C racer Mike Allen put down a near perfect light and held on for the win as that forced Corey to break out.
Gene Hinders**79 Fairmont*****10.42*****.012*****10.454**128.20--W
On the bye-run Gene cruised down the track with what amounted to another test-pass.
Semi-Finals
Name--------------Car------------Index----RT-------ET------MPH--W/L
Gene Hinders****79 Fairmont****10.42***.038*****10.433**127.38--W
Mark Weerheim*87 Mustang****11.58*****.051*****11.557**114.83--L
Always a good match up between these two former O/C Champs...this one was close as well...the margin was .03 with Mark breaking out by .02 of a second.
Mike Allen*****71 Vega**********10.73*****.003*****10.870**114.66--W
Alex Harken***82 Camaro*******10.01*****.223*****10.147**134.74--L
Two first time O/C racers in this match up and Mike's reaction was once again near perfect and Alex just couldn't make up the difference.
FINALS
Name------------Car-------------Index--------RT-------ET----MPH--W/L
Gene Hinders***79 Fairmont****10.42*****.117*****10.437**121.42--W
Mike Allen******71 Vega**********10.73*****.091*****10.826**123.66--L
After good reaction times from both racers in previous rounds it seemed that neither one was pushing the tree in the finals. By being just that much closer to the index was the key in Gene's win as it was a mere .05 margin at the stripe.
POINTS STANDINGS (Aug 8th)
1. Gene Hinders.......119
2. Bill Lehman...........83
3. Jim McConeghey.....74
4. John Miller............72
5. Corey Herman........57
6. Mark Weerheim......42
7. Jason Neshiem.......42
8. Mark Allen............39
9. Alex Harken..........27
10. Eric Sloan............25
11. Tyler Gardner.......15
12. Ryan Ladeberg......14
13. Eric Youngblood.....14
14. Bill Davis.............13
