Goldstone, Taylor and Manuel Run a Trio of Tri-State Sixes at Day Three of Sick Summer
The top three of the Motion Raceworks Sick Summer leaderboard remained unchanged following day three at Tri-State Raceway, just outside of Earlville, Iowa.
The results sheets might show Bryant Goldstone with the quickest run of the day, but that was only part of the story for the driver of the Unlimited Iron class-leading AMC Javelin. Problems with the diff gears saw Goldstone miss the first session and he then overpowered the track in the second. A later attempt, with the tune-up backed way down, saw a 6.729/215mph come up on the timing boards. Goldstone now has a 6.580 average, giving him some breathing room in the final two days of competition to come.
Alex Taylor was one-and-done thanks to a 6.926 run (6.987 average), which has her second overall. She can’t afford to rest however, thanks to the efforts of one Michael Manuel (above). The unheralded Illinois racer, who currently leads Modified, punched out a 6.950/210mph on radial tires, bringing his average to a 7.015.
Across the other heads-up classes, Timothy Blythe is the last man standing in Unlimited, with his 8.307 current average guaranteed to win so long as he finishes the event in the Triumph Spitfire.
Alan Whitaker stayed atop Heavy Metal with a conservative 7.606 pass (7.277A), with Tony Karamitsos and Bill Schwarz holding second and third respectively. Whitaker has had some issues under the hood however, diving into the motor to replace some internal parts overnight.
Several more classes seem to have been locked in for their leaders since day one, with Pro Street (Tom McGilton, 7.529A), Super Street (Doug Cook, 7.168A) and Sick Week Freaks (Trevor Branden, 8.390A) unflinching.
Stick Shift’s top three are locked together, with Dan Hardt (8.717A), Bob Gruber (8.755A), Bryan Crane (8.787A) and Damon Elff (8.843A) all giving themselves the best chance at an orange helmet. The class featured some of the wildest runs of the day, with Elff’s center-line hugging effort in his Supra a particularly good drive.
Radial Rowdy also features a thrilling top three, with Nathan McMaster (5.204A), Blayne Stark (5.229A) and Matt Arwood (5.274A) all delivering good runs today.
Brett LaSala closed the distance some to Alex Cuttle Jr in Naturally Aspirated, where the pair both ran 9.763 passes today. Cuttle’s average of 9.581 has a good margin on LaSala’s 9.659, but certainly not enough to guarantee anything.
The 8.50 classes were spectacular at Tri-State with not one but two perfect passes today. Jeremy Ortiz and Chris Merry both ran 8.500 in Street Race 275. But even those runs were not enough to move past class leader Dean Anderson and his 8.528 average. Cameron Alley leads Sick Street Race thanks to an 8.519 average.
Rajveer Ahuja remained the leader in Pro DYO, though his spread went out to 0.024 in the Oldsmobile. Greg Jones is number one in DYO with a 0.005 spread — pretty good for three days of racing.
After racing, the longest drive of the week awaited as teams traveled east into Wisconsin. The first checkpoint at the Field of Dreams was familiar to those who did Sick Summer last year, before the show rolled on to the Boar’s Nest — a dive bar featuring a General Lee replica jumping the roof. Those on the road late had to battle severe weather as extreme winds battered the route.
In one of the scariest moments of the week, Tim Pouw’s Pontiac Torpedo sheered an axle on the interstate, sending the supercharged black coupe off the road and almost down an embankment. Fortunately all aboard were not hurt.
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Day three of Motion Raceworks Sick Summer will take place at Great Lakes Dragaway today (Thursday). Racing starts from 8.30am. See you there!
