Here's a quick recap of the event:
Saturday morning... It was already getting hot out and it had all the indications of a real scorcher! Bill Laird showed up early and set up his PA system so I'd have a way to announce the racers and such. We also had music piped through the concert sized speakers in order to either incite or sooth the attendees, depending on the song selected. Actually, it was a fairly random selection of music and I'd like to thank Connie Kinyon for providing a few playlists for us to use as well. I know my Mom enjoyed the music that Connie had chosen. Neighbor Janet then shows up with an inflatable water slide and says, "Hey, do you want to use this?". As busy as I was, I thought that would be a great thing for the kids to do in the heat of the day so I said "sure". Bill and Janet got the slide all up and running and from what I saw, it was a big hit with the kids! Thank you Janet... you saved my bacon on that one. Until the slide showed up, my plan for all the kids was to have them all removing the blackberry bushes and load them in the trailer so I could haul it away this week. I suppose the slide was a better idea in the long run. My parents arrived and Dad immediately got to erecting a "misting" device on one of the pop-up shade tents. It didn't take long and before you knew it, we had a place to cool off as the sun was baking down. Dad thought that the mist wasn't "misty" enough but I think it worked well. I know I stood under the mist quite a few times.
Before long there was a steady stream of party goers arriving at the house and I have to thank neighbors Joe & Lynne for allowing everyone to park on their property! With as many people that showed up there would've been almost no way to accomodate all the cars at my place. So Thanks again Joe & Lynne! (Side note: Lynne is the creator of the amazing pork and chicken dishes. Thank you Lynne!)
As everyone arrived, they were instructed to take their race car into the garage and have Mike Brown collect technical info on each car. Thanks Mike for doing all that work!
I had scheduled a 2 hour block of time for people to test their cars on the track and I have to say I was surprised that hardly anyone took advantage of that. A few people did but mostly everyone just hung out, ate a hot dog or whatever. Fine by me... that just meant that all my testing was going to pay off come race time!
3pm: As the sun was throwing UV daggers at us, we finally got the ball rolling with the "Junior class" of racers. We had 8 kids with race cars and so in order to ensure each kid got a chance to race as much as possible in a (relatively) short amount of time, I had decided earlier that I was going to have a double elimination bracket system. With only 8 cars, how long could it possibly take? An ETERNITY, it turns out. Either it was the sun cooking my brains or I hadn't had enough beer but I felt like the kid races would never end. I actually think it went ok with the kids race but since it took nearly 1.5 hours to get through 8 cars, I learned NOT to have a double elimination bracket system for the adults since there were 26 cars. We'd still be racing.
The kids all did well with their cars and ultimately it was Jeremy Gilderoy who took home the 1st place trophy. My neighbor Rex came in second and the rest of the kids did really well! Congratulations to all the kids! Each one of them took home a prize of some kind.
At this point I was thinking that for the adult races, I needed to modify the race format in order to speed up the process. Instead of averaging the times of 4 passes down the track, I shortened it to the average of 2 passes, one in each lane. This not only sped things up but made it that much more important to make good, clean runs down the track.
Once we got going, and with my brother Dale helping out with the bracket board, things actually went very smoothly! Thanks Dale!
The races were usually very close. There were some fast cars, some not-so-fast cars and many in-between cars. In my opinion, the races were much closer than last year's event which made it more interesting as each outcome was usually in question until the averages were calculated.
Since Jim and Denise weren't able to make it this year, (I hope you're feeling better soon Jim), someone NOT named Taylor was going to take home the coveted Burris Drags Champion trophy in 2008. For those of you who weren't here the last 2 events, the Taylor's have been nearly unbeatable to this point. The only past BDR Champion that had a chance to repeat was Jason Ainardi and in my mind he was the favorite coming in to the event. Every year his cars are very fast and I expected a total domination by Ainardi. But a funny thing happened on the way to the winner's circle for Jason, and her name was Nan. My Mom dispatched Jason quickly and almost as soon as we got the races started, there were no prior BDR winners left in the field. Stine Nelson showed up this year with a great car and after his 2nd place performance in 2001, I expected him to do well also. He made it out of the first round but surprisingly was eliminated in the 2nd round by my aunt Donna, (more about her later). Jason's wife, Sue did well with an overall 3rd place finish taking out first time BDR racer Aaron Starr (my cousin, Jana's husband), my wife, Kim and my uncle Lloyd in the process. My cousin, (actually 2nd cousin I think but who's counting?), Tosha did really well also making all the way to the semi-final round. She took out my sister-in-law Beth and my aunt Penny before getting knocked out. The "Runner-up" of the event was none other than Bill Laird, (Jason's arch-enemy), with his last-minute effort car "Voodoo Child". It went straight and fast and he eliminated my uncle Ed Lewis, Julie Gilderoy and my Mom on his way to 2nd place.
One of the coolest things, for me, that can happen at an event like this is that someone who maybe isn't really expecting to do that well, does. My aunt Donna showed up with a cool car and completely dominated the race! She consistently went down the track straight and true and knocked-out my Dad, Stine, Tosha, Bill and Sue on her way to victory lane.
This year's Burris Drags Champion is Donna Werner! Congratulations to my aunt for doing so well!
After the main races were over we had a new class of competition called the "Unlimited" class. This was to be for the more serious racers to compete. We ended up with 6 cars competing for the award and after each car had 4 passes down the track, my Dad came away with the prize. His car made it down the track in just over 4.6 seconds! The fastest car of the day.
At this point in the evening it was time to eat and just talk with family and friends. Before it got too late though I needed to present the awards. Instead of listing them all on this posting, just click HERE to see them.
We had the largest Burris Drags turn-out ever with 37 race cars and 60 people attending!
It was terrific to see all my friends and relatives! Many of the attendees were people I hadn't seen in years so I want to thank everyone again for coming, it really made it worth the effort!
I had many people provide assistance and I've tried to thank them as much as possible but if I've somehow overlooked someone, please know that I am very grateful for all the help! I seriously couldn't have done this without your help.
If you have pictures from the event please email them to me if you can. I'm trying to compile all of the photos in one location. Thanks! Photos are currently being hosted HERE.
Thanks again and maybe we'll see you in '09!
Scott
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