By Ed Evans
It was a tough weekend for race organizers, as the 2011 Hot August Nites race was run this weekend. First off, there was the torrential rains that fell Friday and Saturday. Sunday morning opened to a cool overcast day, with rain threatening to come down at any time. It didn’t at first, look as if we would be able to race, as the track was wet. As race organizers struggled to see what could be salvaged, the skies cleared and a full schedule of class racing was run after the cars made some runs down the track to dry it up.
The two Jet cars from Prairieland Motorsport made their first appearance about 1pm and the Jet Corvette ran a 4.448 second run. The Jet Mustang’s run was a whole lot of smoke and no speed. The next time they came out the Corvette would not start and the Mustang put down so much smoke, you couldn’t even see the car. It was another slow run too. The crews worked the rest of the day and early the next morning to fix the problems. Sunday’s first run determined that the Corvette would not start, as the new starting motors they just bought were wound backwards. The mustang made a run that was again slow and covered the whole track with smoke.
The Jet Mustang, who’s Fibreglass body was from the former Prince Rupert Funny Car “The Greek Torch”, tried to get a good run for the crowd, but blew a fuel line and put down a thick layer of super slippery Bio-Diesel the full 1/8 mile track. This spill took a hour out of the day to clean up and it canceled the “Quick 8” race, as the fast cars had no traction in the right lane.
It was a tough time for the hard working race organizers and volunteers, but all in all it was a great weekend of racing.