Scenic City Thunder -- Race 1

         The inaugural race of the Scenic City Thunder pro-mod series is in the books,  and the winner was Alabama racer Rick Murray. His 1953 Vette was the top qualifier with a 4.23, and made the quickest pass of the day, a 4.19, to beat Keith Baker in a blower v. nitrous final.
       Paul, who is continuing to make good progress recovering from a compression fracture in his back, said he was pleased with the race -- fans turned out, things went smoothly after a slow start, and they got done before the curfew.
       Every new undertaking comes with a learning curve, and the SCT is on one for the next race, on May 24. The next event will go with just two rounds of qualifying, eliminating the morning round and starting the first round at 3 p.m., second at 5 p.m., and racing at 7. Track prep will get attention, too, particularly in seeing that the starting line area is scraped of old rubber a couple of weeks before the race, allowing a couple of meets to put down new rubber on the track.
      Car count was down from expectations. Paul said at least four racers didn't get their cars finished in time to make it. The Dixie Nitrous gang had a good contingent. If his recuperation continues well, Paul expects to have the Cuda Beast on the starting line next month.
     So, a lot was learned on Saturday to make the next race better, and that's everyone's focus. Here's one more shot of Murray's team (sorry, I don't know who took it). Rick Murray is second from right.

Let's get it going

      Saturday, this new promod series will debut, culminating a lot of hard work by racer Paul Gibbs and the folks at Brainerd Optimist Dragstrip, just outside Chattanooga. As detailed in the previous post, Paul is recuperating from a broken back suffered in a workplace fall and won't be able to race the Cuda Beast, but he is planning to be there with the Beast to welcome fans and racers, and maybe do a burnout (my .02: I'd forgo that).
    A big hurdle for this series has been sponsorship. One sponsor has apparently bailed on the series, and most other possible sponsors have already committed what sponsorship dollars they have to other races. So this series, at least for now, is launching without sponsors, but the track says it will increase the payout if spectator support enables that.  It's a bit of a Catch-22, but if you like good promod racing, this should be a good show. Paul said he had a tough decision on the payout -- whether to make the purse levels as big as possible, or guarantee $500 for qualifying for the 8-car field. The qualifying guarantee won out.
     It has been awhile since these cars have run at Brainerd, so it should be a treat for fans. The track has new management, and has made a series of improvements, as shown in the before/after pics below to the racing surface, guardrails (that old one had seen too much use), and shutoff area (they are real low-res screenshots, but will give you the idea). The weather is looking good, just a slight chance of precip Saturday night, but it looks like, at this writing, the only thunder should be on the track.
     The Fantastic Brian C from promodifieds.us will be in the house, providing his usual peerless race coverage. Here's hoping for a harmonic convergence of fans and racers for a fast, fun, safe event.

'Better than I was'

     That was Paul Gibbs' assessment of his condition Monday after last week's worksite accident that has put his 2014 racing season on hold.
    As you may already know, Paul suffered a broken back last week when a ladder slid out from under him while he was working on a house. As bad as it was, it could have been much, much worse.
    I talked to him yesterday, after he had been released Friday from a Chattanooga hospital, where he had been taken after the accident last Wednesday. Paul said he dropped about 10 feet to the ground, landing on his feet, which resulted in a compression fracture of his spine.
      The pain, of course, was excruciating, but Paul said doctors at the Fannin County hospital were really alarmed by bone fragments they feared could move into and damage his spinal cord. So he was taken to the trauma center of Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. After a couple of days of observation, doctors there determined that the fragments were moving away from the spine, thus averting the need for surgery.
     Paul is back home in Mineral Bluff with a back brace that he will have to wear for six to eight weeks. In subsequent rechecks, doctors expect to see the fragments become encased in scar tissue -- sort of a natural protective response by the body -- which will neutralize them. Paul was also fortunate that no discs were dislodged; time and rest will let them heal.
    All this occurred less than three weeks from the start of the 2014 racing season and the launch of the  Scenic City Thunder pro-mod series at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip in Chattanooga, a no-screw-blowers competition Paul has created. That inaugural race is April 25, and Paul said he plans to be there with the Cuda Beast, to welcome fans and racers, do an invocation and maybe a burnout. If all goes well with the doctors, Paul said he hopes to be back on the track for the series' second race, on May 24.
    Details are still being hashed out for the first race. One big sponsor has suddenly gone incommunicado, so the structure of the race payout is not yet finalized.
    "It's a real big disappointment," Paul said of his setback on the cusp of a new racing season, one that carries extra anticipation at being able to race at his home track and pride in a fast, fairer series he has developed. A race preview and coverage of the first event will be here, and I hope fans and racers turn out in big numbers for a real grass-roots, local racer-focused event.