3 month warning

If you gaze to the upper right hand side of your computer screen you might notice a timer that is counting down the time. If so, you also might notice that it says that the races are just around the corner! We're sitting at just over 3 months to go and it really is time to start heading out to the hobby store and picking up a kit to put together for this year's event. It's not hard to do, just do it! Please email me if you have any questions!

Put a big circle around August 16th, 2008!

After the "thousands of votes" have been tallied, we have a winner in the preferred date election! August 16th will be the date of this year's Burris Drags! Please mark your calendar and start thinking about your car's design. There are a few changes this year so be sure to check out www.burrisdrags.com to see all the new stuff.

Please email or call if you have any questions.

The "Unlimited" Class gets a little less limited.

A couple evenings ago I sat down on a cold bench near the door at McMenamin's brew pub in Mill Creek with my brother and Mike Brown. It was at the last Burris Drags in August where I had seen Mike last so it was nice to be able to talk to him again. While we were eating our dinners and I was enjoying my "Rubinator" we eventually started talking about the new unlimited class for the Burris Drags.





One of the ideas that was tossed around was to actually make the unlimited class more unlimited, (or less limited if you prefer). My initial thought was to keep it as I had it but as the conversation continued and I thought more about it, I had decided internally that it needed to be done. The reason I didn't want to change it at first was that I was interested in keeping the rules as they were from last year to allow some of us to directly compete against the Taylor's super fast cars from the last 2 years. But then I came to the conclusion that in order to really see some great ideas and creativity, the unlimited class needs to be more wide open and less restricted.





So I have made an executive decision and have modified the rules of the unimited class. You now have up to 16oz (1lb) of weight to work with! This should allow for all sorts of ideas to crop up. You don't have to use 4 wheels (or any wheels for that matter) but remember that there is a "straddle strip" down the length of each lane and the timing sensors are located in that strip so if your car doesn't go down the middle it might not register a time. The wheel diameter limit has been increased to 2.5".





I hope that this might generate more ideas and get more people to participate in the unlimited class.





If anyone has any comments or ideas they want to share, please do.

5 Months to go... or so...

Last night I received an email from Jim & Denise Taylor, our defending champions from the last two years. Jim & Denise are two of the handful of people, including my brother's family, my Uncle, and my dad, who have other things scheduled during the weekend of July 19th. As the last post on the blog addresses, I am willing to change the date to fit the needs of the majority of the potential attendees, but I am needing everyone to vote as soon as they know what date works best for you.

Also in their email were a few "jabs" at me for changing the rules about the wheels. Anyone who has met the Taylors knows, they're a very competitive couple and can be pretty intense. They have been very successful the last two years and have basically destroyed the competition.

In order to "level the playing field" a little, I needed to restrict the "big budget teams" with a few rule changes. This will give even the "average Joe" a better shot at winning a few rounds of racing and hopefully make it more fun for everyone. Some people don't like restrictions and I understand that but my intent is for this to be fun as well as competitive.

Years ago when my Uncle EZ had the "Burris Lake Regatta & Pig Cook" where we raced handmade boats across his pond, Tony Marrapodi & I always tried to stretch the limits of the rules in order to win (which we never did by the way). Each year my Uncle would modify the rules in order to "reel us in" a bit and honestly, I felt that it was more fun when the competitors were more closely matched. It was more fun to see a close race than someone just run away with the trophy.

I really think that this year's Burris Drags will be much closer in competition and more fun for everyone. We'll have a seperate "kid's class" where the kids can have a fun race, the Unlimited Class for the serious competitors and the regular ol' Burris Drags Champion Class where the winner takes home the traveling trophy. As always there's plenty of food and drinks and people to talk to.

The summer is just around the corner so start thinking about your fastest car designs. I'm excited about the new Unlimited Class and I think this year will be the best yet.

Email me or post a comment here on the blog if you have questions.


Scott

Race Day... when will it be?

I have lately become aware of a few scheduling conflicts with a few people and I have decided to let you be a part in the decision making process in determining the actual event date. I have included a poll on the right sidebar of this blog that lists 3 dates. (NOTE: You can vote for more than one date... For example; if only one date is a problem but the other two are fine, you can vote for BOTH of the acceptable dates.)

PLEASE select a date as soon as you can in order to help determine when the party will be.

I hate to be "wishy washy" about the date but the current scheduled date is not going to work for quite a few people who generally attend the party every year and I'd like to be flexible enough to allow for as many people to come as possible. Therefore I really need you to choose a date that works best for you. I will make a final decision by May 1st and that should give all the airline folks enough time to bid for the time off, etc...

If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to email me or just call.

EVITE invitations

Well, since today is exactly 6 months from this year's Burris Drags, (and I'm sitting on short-call reserve in Denver today), I decided to send out the invitations from evite.com. If you are reading this and didn't receive an "evite" from me and would like one, then please email me and I'll add your name to the list. If you would like your name removed from the guest list, just let me know and you will be removed. It's just that easy.

I am pretty sure this year will see a lot closer racing and less predictable outcomes. If you're one of those people who think it's too hard to make a car or maybe you think you don't have a chance to win... I am here to tell you that anyone can put together a pinewood derby kit. They're cheap and easy (no comments directed toward me please :) ) Side note: check out a few of the links over on the right of the page. I've included a few that have information about building pinewood derby cars. In addition to the simple kit construction, this year's racing format will have much less predictable outcomes since EVERY car will be placed into the elimination brackets at random. The eliminations will also be slightly different in that to advance to the next round, you must have a quicker average over the course of three runs, instead of just winning 2 out of 3 head to head races.

For those of you who actually want to get serious, the Unlimited Class is for you. Wouldn't you like to see if you can beat the Taylors? I know I'm planning on it.

Tony Marrapodi & Bill Laird have both brought up the idea of racing powered cars of some sort. I'm thinking this might have some potential. We can have a powered car class where maybe we race UP the track??? Post or email your thoughts. Also... try to participate in the polls on this blog page if you can. I'd appreciate it.

So... I know it's too early for some of you to even start thinking about his yet but every year the event sneaks up on us before we know it. Kids are welcome and if you need a place to stay send me a message and we can probably set something up.

It's go time!

Welcome to 2008!

Well, the new year is here and believe it or not summer is just around the corner... and we all know what that means! Yes, the 2008 Burris Drags. This quick post is to serve as your 6 month warning.

For those of you interested in competing in the Unlimited Class you may want to think about getting started on your design because before you know it July will be here and you'll just have to slap something together at the last minute and you'll be embarrassed by the likes of ME!

I hope to see you all there on July 19th!!!