On the 19th of July, part of our Gasser group headed to Byron,Illinois
for the 3rd annual Meltdown Drags. As we made our way to Byron from the
interstate a weather front came through, bringing lower humidity and
temperatures in the mid-80’s all weekend. When we arrived at the track we
pitted in the same row with the Great Lakes Gassers. We were greeted by
other members Roger Brown, Doug, Wendy, Carol & Lonnie Jent and Steve Bacon
and some of his crew.
On Saturday, Ted Beach, Bill Wamboldt, Tom Cray, Mark Hagen, Doug Jent,
and new members Mark Cambell, Dan Lau and Steve Lau, all fell in line as
everyone prepared for a day of racing. I went over the race day schedule
with track officials and Tim Timoszyk from the Great Lakes Gassers and we
headed to the staging lanes for some test passes just before noon. As the
day went on we made two test runs, then we paired up with a Great Lakes
Gasser and match raced a partner with a similar index. After two
elimination rounds had concluded we prepared for our evening meal with both
Gasser groups in our pits. We had a lot of nice conversations and good
food, followed by a great July sunset !
On Sunday, the Blasey’s, Randy Tavoletti, Ron Normann, Ken Kapper, and
our new member (and old friend) Jesse James arrived from racing the
previous night in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for our Sunday eliminations. Some of
our group made an early test run before the final rounds. Then at 12:30,
we went through the first round and then at two o’clock, the second round.
There was a lot of close matches at the line and in the end our competition
came to a tie! It was decided that the Great Lakes group would take the
trophy this year. After the racing was over Randy Tavoletti fired up his
grill and cooked his famous Brats before everyone hit the road for home.
The Woodman
