Will it ever stop raining? Those were the words of the weekend. Not, "Hey! Look at that hot chick over there in the bikini!" or "Damn! I should have brought my sunscreen; it's so hot." Not even close. It rained in wonderful Atco, New Jersey, both days of the weekend, and it looked like there were no signs of it letting up, as animals started lining up two by two at the snack stands. But luckily the gods looked down on the sad faces of the racers and fans, and allowed for a little bit of dryness and race action late Sunday and Monday. "Monday?" you say. Yes, Monday. Here is how everything worked out.
Pro RWD
Matt Scranton in the Turbonetics Racing Celica started out with an awesome top-qualifying run on Sunday with a 7.249 but unfortunately all of his hopes for the day went up in smoke. Apparently some fluid overflowed from the torque converter and spilled onto the hot engine during the First Round eliminations. The car went up in flames as it crossed the finish line, but Matt escaped with only some smoke inhalation and minor damage to the body of the car. He was able to come back on Monday to try to finish out the weekend only to have the car break when he lined up against Abel Ibarra in the Finals. Funny thing is, both cars broke for different reasons, but Abel was able to at least get his car off the line to snatch the win.
Pro FWD
Christian Rado and the World Racing Celica took the top qualifying spot on Sunday with Nelson Hoyos and the Bothwell Motorsports Cavalier hot on his heels. When the time came for the actual race action, it seems that everyone came down with a case of the "no-shows." Ed Bergenholtz moved through to the Second Round when Jerold Rhodes couldn't make it. Nelson walked into Round 2 when John Brown didn't feel like showing up. Christian ended up in the Second Round when he ran unopposed to the tune of a 9.227 @ 177.39. At the Finals, Nelson had to face Christian on the line. Nelson got the holeshot, but Christian was pulling hard by mid track. Nelson lucked out when Christian had shifting issues, resulting in the win for the GM team. Nelson did manage to achieve his personal best run of 8.47 @ 175.98 during his Second Round run.
Modified
Vinny Ten came out to play with his new back-halved Toyota Supra. New car and all, he managed to qualify Second behind Jimmy O' Connor and the Venom Supra. During the First Round eliminations, Jimmy ran unopposed while Vinny took the win from a broken Paul Efantis. This was all well and good until the Second Round when Jimmy and Vinny fell victim to the power of Carlos Perez and his RX-7 and Cesar Febus and his old-school 300ZX, respectively. Cesar wanted to show everyone that he wasn't playing as he took the win in the Finals from Carlos with a 7.956 @ 170.19 versus an 8.883 @ 142.31.
Hot Rod
The Hot Rod class was all Bothwell all the time as party hearty Marty Ladwig and his '03 Sunfire took top qualifying position and went on to take the win in the Finals. He didn't go unopposed, though, as Mike Crawford and the Phatridz SRT-4 and Sir Lancelot Ho Lung and his Honda Civic took out their own competition in their quest for the top spot. Lance ran a very respectable 8.918 @ 162.84 to take the win from Crawford with less than a car-length at the traps, and Ladwig ran alone in the Third Round for the bye. Ladwig and Ho Lung were running a tight race in the finals when Lance appeared to have some issues finding the gears. This win gave the Bothwell team the double-header for the weekend.