It was a rather steamy late September day for the 4th Day at the drags event at Pittsburgh Raceway Park which was held on Friday
Sept 21st. The Temperature was hot and so was the action on the track. We held our drivers meeting at around 4:30 with open test &
tune starting at 5:00. We had 55 cars registered and around 250 people in attendance. The heat had everyone off a bit from our Spring
event but the track improved and so did the e.t.s as the Sun went down. New for the fall event was 50/50 ticket sales which was won by
Bob Lewis cashing in on the $ 76.00 purse and professional photography provided by Carla Rice of Guided by Grace Images. Carla was
snapping shots all evening and really has some great shots of the entire event. A 4 cd picture set is available for $ 25.00 -visit www.
gbgimages.com for more information. Food and refreshments were on hand for all that attended all evening. Open test & tune finished up
at 8:30 pm at which time we called the racers to line up for the Custom Concepts Shootout. This is heads-up racing in classes set by the
second range in which you were running. The racing was very close in all classes and most were won or lost at the tree. The finals in the
15 second bracket were Miranda Peer in the “loaner”Cadillac vs out of retirement Fred Albright in the Grand Prix. Fred Albright had the
holeshot but couldn’t hold off the top end charge of Miranda with the Northstar power. Miranda was the 15 second class winner. In the 14
second finals it was Scott Dickerhoof in the Nova vs Scott Upole in the Duramax Chevy 3500. The race was close with Upole leading at the
1/8th mile but the hard charging Nova came around on the big end with Dickerhoof taking the win. In the 13 second final it was Kenny
Morlen in the Vega vs the Spring event winner Randy Peer in the 64 Catalina. Kenny Morlen was deadly on the tree all night and got the
holeshot and the win over Peer. In the 12 second class final it came down to the spring class winner Dave Steele in the 69 Camaro vs
Andy Watkins in the Dart. This race turned out to be a “pedal fest” as both broke out and ran 11.90s which meant a re-run in the second
race Watkins edged out Steele in a close one with both running low 12.0s with Watkins taking the win. The 11 second final came down to
Outlaw Pontiac racer “Bad” Duke Jefferson in the 69 Bird vs NHRA Stocker Al Miller in the late model Camaro. This race was won with a
holeshot win on the tree by Jefferson who was on the tree all eve in the shootout. The 10 second class came down to Chad Baker in the
Pro-Stick Camaro and Jeff Twigg on the 2 wheeler GSXR 1000.Chad Baker was blistering the tree all evening and took the win over Twigg
with a holeshot and running the number with a low 10. pass. In the 9 second class Travis Rice had mechanical issues with the Galaxy
setting up the final of Dave Bennetts Vega with Jason behind the wheel vs Steve Hardman in the silver Duster. It was decided between the
racers that the winner would take on Travis in the Galaxy in a fun run that all wanted to see.It was Bennett with a holeshot win over
Hardman as Jason was also deadly on the tree all evening. This set -up the fun run between Bennetts Vega and Rices Galaxy both of
which run low 9s. This much anticipated race was won by Bennett with another holeshot and a 9.0 over Rices all time best 9.20.In the 8
second class it was the spring event 9 second winner and “King Of The Hill” Larry Judd in the Chevy II vs newcomer to the event Greg
Shaffer in the fox bodied Mustang. This was another much anticipated showdown as both cars were running high 8s in testing. The race
was won by Greg Shaffer by way of the Red light of Larry on the tree. Shaffer took the 8second class win and also the Custom Concepts
“King of the Hill”award for being the fastest winner as well. All class winners received trophies and a special award was presented to Greg
Shaffer for winning “King of the Hill”.The last 2 races of the evening were the “Beat the Owners”races with Tom Evans in the Formula
Firebird vs the 12 second winner Andy Watkins in the Dart and Shawn Miller in the 79 Trans Am vs 11 second winner “Bad”Duke Jefferson
in the 69 Bird.In the 1st race it was Evans taking a shot at the tree and handing the win to Watkins with a Red-light start. Watkins will
receive a free pass of $ 75.00 value to a 2008 Custom Concepts event.In the second and last race of the evening it was Miller taking the
win with the Red light start of Jefferson. This would have been a real nailbiter with both cars running 11.0s all evening.We would like to
thank all that helped us put on our 2007 events as well as all of our sponsors. We are currently planning 3 events for 2008-Spring dust-off,
A Summer Sizzler and a Fall finally. Anyone interested in participating or becoming a sponsor please contact us for full details.
