ET Drag Racing

IHRA Division 4 Team Finals at San Antonio

Words and photos by J.M. Hallas

Mac Garcia

With two days of racing in the rear view mirror and the team finals championships already decided, another Gamblers Race was on the card with racers vying for extra money to cap off their Sept. 30-Oct.2 weekend. Also running were the track operators from the six tracks (San Antonio, Pine Valley, Edinburg, Little River, Wichita Falls and Amarillo) shooting for bragging rights until next year.

The weather conditions once again changed from the previous day, more like Friday. Sunny skies replaced Saturday’s cloudy conditions making for much hotter track temperatures. Instead of a tail wind, this day it was a head wind, gusty at times.

Drivers also had a chance to pick up some extra coin with a "Run for the Money" time trial session. Similar to "Dialing for Dollars", but each class is run individually instead of as one group. The object is to run closest to your dial in than anyone else in the class.

Aaron Cole in his Mission Auto Parts, TnT Dragster scored the Electronics win out of 50 entries coming within .0004 of his index. In the Foot Brake class it was Sambo Tyra in his G&S Race Car, 70 Yenko SC Nova besting the 67 cars with a .0012. The Jr Dragsters class had Caden Meuth in his Quality Care Automotive, PRC Chassis take the extra money of the 16 cars entered with a .003.

The track operators race came down to the two tracks that battled for the overall Team Finals championship. Billy Bailey Jr. from Pine Valley Raceway was paired with Iain Grae from San Antonio Raceway. Bailey, in a Chevy Silverado and Grae in his BMW M4 had fairly similar reaction times. At the finish line it was Bailey, completing the Pine Valley weekend sweep, getting the win.