Beaver Springs Dragway - York Nostalgia Reunion - July 11 & 12

Saturday, July 11

It is hard to believe it has been 7 months since our last race. The Covid19 virus has significantly impacted the northeast and social distancing rules resulted in the cancellation of our May race at Lebanon Valley, and the June race at Cecil County. Having said that, it was great to see everyone at Beaver Springs! Despite a tropical storm that made Friday towing an event, we had a robust attendance of 21 cars. The sun made an appearance for Saturday with temps and humidity in the 90’s! Despite a spritz or two of rain, the show went on!

Saturday qualifying results were as follows:

Category	Round 1	Round 2
Low ET	Paul McCorkel - 9.11	Paul McCorkel - 8.76
Top MPH	Denny Stewart - 138.55	Paul McCorkel – 151.11
Best RT	Jim Wheeler - .0169	Scott Hasko - .0951

Saturday Eliminations Round One:

Race One: Ray Bloom vs. Dave Fenzel. This was a tight one with both racers cutting good lights. Bloom cut a .0959 light and ran 1.559 on an 11.55 dial. Fenzel had a .0438 light but lost on a close break out running 10.78 on a 10.81 dial.

Race Two: This one saw Robert Carson pitted against Bruce Deming. Robert took the win running a 10.83 on a 10.79 dial with Bruce breaking out with a 10.90 on his 10.98 dial.

Race Three: In this “race of relatives” Clayton Deming ran a 10.83 on a 10.70 dial to edge out Jim Wheeler who had a very respectable .022 light but broke out running an 11.08 on his 11.10 dial.

Race Four: Bill Magliane and Kevin Lynch went at it in this race. In the end, Bill ran a near-perfect race for the win cutting a .0155 light and running 11.08 on a 10.90 dial to Kevin’s .54 light and 10.78 on a 10.63 dial.

Race Five: Scott Hasko took the win against Tommy Magers with an 11.74 on an 11.65 dial, but this one was over early as Tommy went red by thin -.011

Race Six: Paul McCorkle eliminated Ray Bruno running a near-perfect race with a .038 light and running .03 over his 8.75 dial, but this one was also over early as Ray went -.017 red.

Race Seven: Call this the trifecta of red lights! Dan Bergeron bested Don Fardie with a respectable .097 light and running .14 over his 12.97 dial, but once again this one was over early with Don going red by -.18.

Race Eight: This one saw a couple of Jersey boys (Ed Linus vs Ron Carson) go at it. Despite Ed’s better light (.10 to Ron’s .21) Ron came out on top running 9.90 on his 9.83 dial in to Ed’s 10.47 on a 10.27 dial.

Race Nine: This pairing was to be Denny Stewart vs Bob Brower in the Rambler gasser but ended up being a bye for Denny Stewart as Brower broke. In Denny style he didn’t idle down the track but instead ran a 9.66 at 136.78

Saturday Eliminations Round Two:

Race One: Robert Carson and Paul McCorkle squared off and Robert emerged the winner running 10.74 on his 10.80 dial as Paul went -.03 red.

Race Two: Despite both cars running very close to their dials 10.04 on a 9.83 dial for Ron and 11.79 on an 11.70 dial for Scott Hasko, Ron Carson’s .097 light bested Scott’s .25 and gave Ron the victory.

Race Three: This one had Denny Stewart up against Clayton Deming in the off-season re-motored Falcon. Clayton would go -.14 red giving Denny the win and test run opportunity. Denny went 9.56 on his 9.67 dial and Clayton ran 10.96 on his 10.81.

Race Four: This race matched Ray Bloom against Dan Bergeron. Both drivers had very good, and almost identical, reaction times! Ray’s .097 to Dan’s .095. In the end Ray ran .05 over his 11.55 dial to take the win over Dan who ran 13.14 on his 12.98 dial.

Race Five: By virtue of his low reaction time (.0155) in round one, Bill earned the bye run. Bill took advantage of the free run ran it “out the back door” at 11.11 on his 10.90 dial showing the consistency of Bill and the Mister C car.

Saturday Eliminations Round Three:

Race One: Denny Stewart and Robert Carson lined up for race one. Robert ran .02 over his dial and Denny ran .09 over his dial but Denny’s quicker reaction time (.127 to Robert’s .268) was the margin that gave the win to Denny.

Race Two: Ray Bloom had the bye and took advantage for a test run at 11.62 on an 11.55 dial.

Race Three: Despite running slightly closer to his dial (9.85 on a 9.83 dial) Ron Carson was eliminated by Bill Magliane who ran 11.02 on a 10.97 but had a quicker reaction time (.095 vs .195) giving Bill the margin of victory.

Saturday Eliminations - Semi Finals:

Ray Bloom and Bill Magliane were paired for this one. Bill had been cutting lights that started with .01 all day but this time he was a bit too aggressive and went -.093 red, handing the win to Ray who ran 11.77 on an 11.60 dial.

Saturday Eliminations - Finals:

Unfortunately due to mechanical issues Ray Bloom was unable to make it to the line so Denny Stewart got the competition bye and the top eliminator win for Saturday. Would Denny be content to simply idle down the track to victory you ask? Answer—no! Denny put an exclamation point on the day cutting a .099 light and running 9.67 on his 9.62 dial with a top speed of 136.32. Congratulations Denny!!

Some Post-Race Thoughts:

Saturday was a day of mixed emotions. Excitement and club member congratulations for winners, disappointment and despair for others. Saturday morning Clayton Deming learned that his mother Marsha passed away. The ECG family was there to support and comfort him. Godspeed Marsha.

Don Fardie lost a transmission during Saturday time trials. Ed Linus and Vinny Cocchiaro were eager to slide under Don’s car to help him install his spare so Don could race the weekend.

*The friends and family culture is what makes ECG different from all of the other racing organizations!*

“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sunday, July 12

Arriving back at the track on Sunday there was abundant sunshine but the forecast was for another hot and humid day with a chance of passing showers….and they were right. High temps and oppressive humidity slowed ETs and developed into heavy rain that interrupted afternoon eliminations. The BSD team did a great job drying and re-prepping the track and eliminations went on! We started eliminations with a 16 car field.

Sunday qualifying results were as follows:

Category	Round 1	Round 2
Low ET	Dave Fenzel - 10.38	Ron Carson - 9.81
Top MPH	Don Fardie - 127.3	Ron Carson - 133.77
Best RT	Don Fardie - .078	Tom Magers - .0081

Sunday Eliminations Round One:

Race One: John Labuda and Clayton Deming started off Sunday eliminations. John prevailed with a 10.76 on a 10.65 dial with a respectable .045 light. Clayton, who re-motored off-season, was plagued with mechanical gremlins all weekend and ran a 12.73 on his 10.68 dial. He will no doubt get it sorted out.

Race Two: This one had Robert Carson pitted against Dan Bergeron. Robert had a good run at .05 over his 10.75 dial with a .269 light but it wasn’t enough as Dan prevailed running a 13.04 on a 12.88 dial with a .149 light.

Race Three: Race three saw Ron Carson against Bruce Deming. Ron’s 9.81 on his 9.80 dial with a .115 light was enough to get him the win over Bruce’s 10.78 on a 10.75 dial with a .125 reaction.

Race Four: Tommy Magers and Scott Hasko squared off in race four. Tommy ran a near-perfect race with a lightning-fast .006 reaction time and .02 over his 10.61 dial for the win. Scott cut a good .053 light but broke out running 11.64 on his 11.70 dial

Race Five: Bill Magliane took on Ed Linus in race five. Bill took the win running .01 over his 10.95 dial with a .125 reaction while Ed broke out running 10.19 on his 10.25 dial.

Race Six: Kevin Lynch lined up against Saturday’s winner Denny Stewart for this one. Neither racer had their best light; .429 for Kevin and .566 for Denny. Kevin took the victory with a 10.64 on a 10.57 dial vs. Denny’s 9.92 on his 9.62

Race Seven: Jim Wheeler took the win over Ray Bruno in this one. Both racers had similar lights and it was close in the beginning but Ray had issues mid-track and his 11.88 was way off his 11.13 dial. With a good lead, Jim very wisely got out of it rolling across the stripe at 11.20 on his 11.00 dial.

Race Eight: The final match-up of round one was between Dave Fenzel and Don Fardie. This one was over early as Don went -.033 red. Dave went through the lights for the win at 10.47 on his 10.28 dial.

Sunday Eliminations Round Two:

Race One: Tommy Magers ran .01 over his 10.61 dial with a .13 light to defeat Bill Magliane who had a better .05 light but broke out running .02 under his
10.95 dial.

Race Two: John Labuda and Kevin Lynch were paired for race two. This was almost a heads-up race with John dialing 10.65 and Kevin dialing 10.57. John came out on top with running .11 over his dial with a respectable .04 reaction vs. Kevin’s .04 over dial with a .20 RT.

Race Three: This was a rare double red light-double breakout race. Ron broke out by -.117 and Dave by -.054 but Ron ran closer to his dial (9.78 on a
9.80) than Dave (10.35 on a 10.44 dial) so The Rigor Mortis car advanced.

Race Four: The final race of the round pitted Dan Bergeron against Jim Wheeler. Dan’s .069 reaction time p e

Sunday Eliminations - Semi Finals:

Race One: The first match up in the semi-final was between Tommy Magers and Ron Carson. Both racers had excellent lights, Tommy at .0051 and Ron at .0021. This was a close double break out run with Magers advancing to the final with a 10.60 on a 10.61 dial to Ron’s 9.79 on a 9.80 dial.

Race Two: The second race of the semi saw John Labuda in the Old Warrior vs Dan Bergeron in the Woodsman Shaker. John had been tough on the tree all day and cut a .027 light, running .10 over his 10.65 dial to advance over Dan’s .153 light and .12 over dial.

Sunday Eliminations - Finals:

Race Three (FINAL): The final match-up of the day was Tommy Magers in the Destressor vs John Labuda in the Old Warrior. This was almost a heads up match with Tommy dialing 10.60 and John dialing 10.65. Once again, John had the better RT at .085 vs Tommy’s .253. John’s 10.83 just wasn’t enough get around Tommy, who ran razor close to his dial at 10.61, for the top eliminator win. If my math is correct the MOV was .051. Congratulations Tommy and John!

ECG “Back Up Girl” contest

Would have never predicted this one… Kevin Lynch went from drag racer to drag queen! Carly Boyer went from racer girl to back up girl.

*So boys will be boys…or girls? Some girls will be bad girls! No offense Carly, but Kevin just had “the look” and the legs!*

*Hey Mike, owning a drag strip is like being a rock-star, right?*

Final thoughts for the Beaver Springs weekend…

Win, lose, or break it was great to get out, reconnect with friends, and race again! Despite heat, humidity, and sporadic rain showers, it was an excellent weekend. Can’t wait to do it again. See you all at Maple Grove!

– Ray