Home Again, Home Again

I've always wanted to attend the York Nostalgia Nationals, but until this year, there had always been something more pressing on the schedule. With the addition of a Stock/Super Stock Combo to this year's festivities, it made a great excuse to go home and visit the folks and my old stomping grounds at Beaver Springs Dragway, in Beaver Springs, PA -- a track that will always be "home". Racing was lackluster for the Volare, as the rear float went bad in the carburetor on the second time trial (thanks to Billy Nees for the quick fix inbetween rounds), and I discovered that the tires were worn out first round when it spun. Luckily, my opponent broke out, so I got a free pass into second round. Not knowing if I was going to be able to get ahold of the track for the next round, I decided to go for the entertaining route, and dialed up three tenths of a second to an 11.52, to my opponent's 11.07. I moved over almost a foot out of the groove, and it not only hooked, but had my best 60' of the weekend. I ran it to the 1/8th mile to get some incrementals, looked in the mirror and thought morbidly, "I think I'm pulling away from him!" I pedaled the whole back half of the track, and ended up on the losing side of a double-breakout by just .004. He ran out by .001, and I got rid of .295 of the .300 I was holding. I couldn't even be mad at that! I hate holding, but it's nice to know that I could do a decent job of it if I needed to.

The event itself was the Beaver's largest ever, with a standing-room only crowd, and a huge crowd of Nostalgia Super Stockers, Junior Stockers, East Coast Gassers, N.E.T.O. nostalgia cars, a car show, and much, much more. The event is chronicled with results and tons of photos, here: http://www.beaversprings.com/results/2009/2009%20Nostalgia%20Nationals.htm