A Trip to the Division 1 Bracket Finals
By Ralph Savarese
If you're into bracket racing, I strongly suggest a trip to the bracket finals, either as a racer or a spectator. I've done both in the last two years and enjoyed both trips. Last year, I crewed for John Panuzzo (JP) and this year I competed. In both cases, I was treated to some of the best bracket racing I've ever seen. How many perfect packages have you ever seen (.000 on the tree and dead on the dial-in)? This year there were at least two that I saw at this event. Most races are very very close with good lights and very tight margins at the top end. There are lots of beautiful fast cars to see & watch perform, not to mention all the huge mobile homes/trailers/etc.
The bracket finals, for those that may not know, are a competition between all the NHRA tracks. Englishtown Raceway Park is in Division 1 which is comprised of 14 NHRA tracks in the Northeast. Four classes are contested: Super pro, Heavy, Street and Motorcycle/Sled. Super pro is the electronics class and is generally the fastest class with many cars & dragsters that run well into the 7s. Heavy is a foot brake class (non-electronics) with a limit of 9.00 and Street is a street car class with a limit of 12.00. Motorcycle/Sled is self explanatory. The points leader from the East Coast Supercharging Corvette Challenge competes in the street class. Each track sends between 38 and 50 competitors, meaning there are about 600-700 cars/bikes at the event. The participants start to arrive on Wednesday and setup their pit areas, have welcome parties, whatever. Thursday and Friday are for time trials (two per class) and the second trial is also a bogie race for those who enter. A bogie race is a competition for the best package (variances in combined light and dial-in), with winner take all in each class ( BTW, you needed to be perfect to win in Super pro this year).
Saturday is for eliminations and they run the event very efficiently to finish within one day. The event was held at US 13 Dragway in Delaware this year and I beleive it will be held in Maple Grove next year. Since this event hosts the best racers from each track, everyone tends to know what they are doing and their cars generally do not breakdown, so things usually run pretty smoothly. In addition to the 4 classes, the teams from each track also compete for points which determine the team championship. In 2004, Team Englishtown Raceway Park won the championship and in 2005, Atco won by a wide margin. There is also a track operators race as well as a race of champions from each track in each class on Friday night. Our Street champ, Bill Mattsson, won the race of champions this year. There are also awards for best team spirit and there are sections setup in the stands for the spectators from each track to cheer on their racers during the race of champions, the track operators race and the eliminations. There's generally a sense of camaraderie among the teams which help each other with dialing or information on opponents, etc. Each racer is seeded within their class and that determines the pairings during eliminations. To give you some idea of the level of competition, the lights of my opponents during trials were .045, .021, .012, .017, so you better bring your "A" game if you're going to compete.
As for me, my car was too fast for the 12.00 limit in street, and my first attempt at slowing it down didn't get it within the limit. JP kindly offered to loan me his car for the finals, but I really wanted to use my own. After agonizing over the decision, I finally decided to use JP's car. I was fairly confident that I could slow my car enough, but I had no idea how predicable it would be, choked and weighted down to stay within the 12.00 limit. I thought JP's car would be much more predictable and I'd have a better chance of winning if I used his car...so John and I put his car on the trailer and hit the road. I was worried that I might not be able to hit the tree with John's car, but that really wasn't a problem. However dialing the car was a disaster. Thursday AM: first run, I stage and bump it in once and hit a nice .026 light and the car goes a 12.886. The TAG weather station was showing a 12.85, so we were 3-4 slower than predicted. Thursday PM: next round is a bogie race and we dial a 12.89 since the weather was about the same. I hit the tree again with a .016, but unfortunately we run .02 under the dial. Friday morning rolls around and we have an entirely new air mass. It's now cold and dry vs. hot and humid. The DA changed almost 2000 feet and by the time we ran, the TAG was showing a 12.62. We got another shot at the bogie since it got canceled mid way the day before due to rain. We dial a 12.63, knowing we were 3 slower than the TAG predicted on Thurs. We figured that was a pretty hard dial, but it wasn't.......I hit a .033 on the tree and the car goes 12.591. Now we're running 3 UNDER the TAG and almost 3 full tenths quicker than the previous day. Hmmm.....interesting.
Friday PM: we enter the afternoon bogie race and by the time we race the DA is around 850 feet and the TAG is showing a 12.74. We dial a 72 and have at it. I'm a little late with a .046 on the tree, but the damn car goes a 69....now we're friggn 5 under the TAG. At this point, I'm starting to get a little nervous cause the TAG isn't telling us anything useful and eliminations start in the morning between 8-9 while the DA is on the move. Saturday AM: we start at minus 350 feet DA at around 8:00am. We warm the car and get in the lanes at about 8:50 and the DA is now positive 350 ft. The TAG is showing us a 12.63. Round one I get paired up with an Impala dialed at 15 something. We dial a 58 based on the 5 under from Friday and have at it. I must have told myself not to go red too many times because I missed the tree with a .052 and I thought it was worse than that when I left. Uh oh....at about 1/2 track, it looks like I'm not going to catch the guy, but John's car comes on strong in the second half and I see I'm going to get around him. I jam on brakes just as I pass him at the first mph cone and slide through the stripe for the win. The car goes a 12.631 which we corrected to a 61-62 based on the 1000 ft time. Now we're only .01 under the TAG, but I figured it might have gotten a little hotter by the time we ran the round, so .03-04 under the TAG was probably still a good dial. I downed a couple of bottles of Mountain Dew and hit the practice tree cause I know .050 lights aren't gonna cut it at this event. The next round is 5 hours later and the TAG is showing us a 12.77-12.78, however the DA is only up about 700-800 ft from the morning. Something aint add'n up......and after some discussion, we figure the car for a 12.71, but we dial a 70 to be safe since the top end is not my strong point and I didn't want to breakout. I get paired with a 14 second Granada. I hit the tree good with an .019 and again, it took John's car a while to get going, but I got around him and hit the brakes again taking the stripe by .03. We ran a 12.74, which we correct to a 12.71....Bingo, we finally hit one!!!!
And now I start to feel confident that we can dial this baby and I'm seeing the tree. I start to believe we could actually win this thing. The next round is 2 1/2 hours later (4:30 pm), the DA is almost exactly the same, so we go with the 12.71 figuring that is what the car woulda run in round 2. I get paired with a hot looking 69 Camaro with a roll bar driven by a young lady from Atco. We don't have the dial on the window yet, but I tell John to add 2 to the 12.71 if they dial a 12.00. At the last min her father comes over and puts a 12.13 on the window, so I think they might be legit and we stay with the 12.71. I hit the tree good again with an .016 and start looking over my shoulder. I see her closing quickly and by the 1000 ft she puts a tire on me and just locks it there. At that moment I get a sick feeling when I realize that they were holding a bunch and I was dead meat unless I push her out (breakout). No such luck. The car fell on it's face and only ran a 12.74 flat out. She went .023 on the tree and took the stripe by only .015, going .01 over her dial...nice driving job, but my hopes of winning are quickly dashed and we sadly load the car on the trailer. On a positive note, the winner in Heavy was Andrew Bracato from Raceway Park. He'll now go to Pomona in November for the NHRA National finals. He'll be paired against the Heavy champs from the other 6 NHRA Divisions competing for the National Championship. Good luck Andrew.
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