Bristol Tennessee never seizes to amaze. With the gear and bikes packed up, we made our way south into the beautiful state of Tennessee. As you know from the previous post this race was scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday. Well lets just say things didn't go as planned.
Friday afternoon, the bike was ready to come off the lift and make it's first pass of qualifying. Just a few minutes before the first round of qualifying started, the clouds turned an evil grey and rain began to pour down everywhere. The storm was so severe it put a total halt to everything.Saturday morning rolls around and now it's time to really focus. Not only will we be qualifying but we will also be racing, the same day. The bike receives a thorough look over before the first round of qualifying and we're ready to go. After two rounds of qualifying our best ET was 8.857s at 152mph. Though we were towards the top of the list for speed we qualified 7th just behind Bruce Chandler. Teammate Frank Capone however had a stunning 2nd place qualifying ET of 8.643s at 154mph. With the bikes running great, we were sure to send the other racers packing.
Eliminations finally rolled around later on in the day. First round we were paired up with Henry Stanton, winner of the Pro Modified Race May 6th 2012 in Rockingham. The bike cut a .054s RT and ran a 8.724s ET at 152mph, beating Stanton who ran a 8.882s ET. With the first round behind us, it was back to the pits to prepare for round two.Round two of the Pro Modified division was called to the staging lanes. This time we were lined up next to Joey Thompson, who went on to win this event by beating Frank Capone in the final elimination. The bike was running great and this pass was sure to be a fast one. We left the line with a .080s RT and chased down Thompson. The bike was screaming down the track, but unfortunately we ran out of track. We both posted the same ET, a blistering 8.650. Unfortunately for us Thompson had the better reaction time, a .024s RT.
Though our compressed Saturday of racing was over we were there to support teammate Frank Capone. Frank went on to race in the finals against Joey Thompson, but was eliminated by Thompson's ET of 8.666s at 150mph.Congratulations to all the racers and fans who made it to Bristol and stuck out the poor weather. Be on the lookout for the HeadBlade Capone Racing Team in a town near you!
The next AHDRA event will be held in Woodburn Oregon this weekend! Gates open Friday August 24th. Qualifying will be held on the 25th and racing starts the 26th! Come out and support your favorite race team!
