Wed, 12 Jun 2013, 15:09 PM Olympics of Drag Racing

Courtesy of Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit Photo by William R. Swanson

Monty Stotz's beautiful Blue Thunder '69 Camaro.

May 25-26th 2013: As been a tradition for well over 30 years and started by former owner Broadway Bob the Memorial Day Weekend is ushered in in Wisconsin by Da Groves yearly event called The Olympics of Drag Racing. This year's event was set to be no exception as Randy Henning had a spectacular line up of talent set to tear up the Union Grove Dragstrip.

The 1320 Group was there with a great array of nostalgia drag racing vehicles. The Chicago Wise Guys were there along with The Nostalgia Prostock Group. There were super stocks, nitro front engine dragster, nitro nostalgia funny cars The GLNFCC and special appearance by Arnie the Farmer Beswick.

Saturday started early and there was qualifying all day for the various classes. Some of the exhibition vehicles chose to take advantage of the open track time during the day to make test passes. It was an unusually cold and cloudy May Day so the track surface proved to be a challenge all day, especially for the non-suspended cars. By late afternoon the show was underway.

Nick Tilley in the Shyster takes on Mark Horvath in the Damn Yankee.

The GLNFCC brought four cars to this show. The first pair up, the Blue Thunder 69 Camaro, driven by Monty Stotz taking on the Solid Rock Mustang, driven by Rocky Ausec. Both cars did their burnouts and staged.

Monty blistered the tree with a .016 reaction time and stopped the clocks with a career best 7.065.196. Rocky had recently made a to his engine combination and he seems to be sneaking up on the tune-up. Next up was the always tough Hallet Family Shyster Corvette driven by Nick Tilley. They took on another tough family operation, The Damn Yankee Vega driven by Mark Horvath. Both cars are coming off strong performances from previous weeks.

The cold day seem to be catching up with the track as it did seem like the left lane had a little more bite in it then the right.

Solid Rock's Rocky Ausec thunders down the quarter mile.

The cars moved together but the Corvette took a hard right toward the wall, which forced Nick to get off the throttle and straighten the car up down track. Mark clicked the timers with a 7.065/191.

As we were called up for our second run the track seem to be turning on the competitors.

Management made the decision to stop racing for the evening and keep the cars in one piece for The Sunday show. Sunday morning came with sunshine and warmer temperatures.

With everyone pretty much ready to go from the previous day there was a lot of bench racing going on, old friendship's rekindled and new ones started.

As the day progressed the sky's started to cloud up and the temperatures were cooling.

The funny cars were called to the lanes. As the teams buckled in the drivers it started to sprinkle a little, this turned into more rain and the cars were sent back to the pits.

The rain persisted and the management called the event.

Monty Stotz Driver of Blue Thunder

Monty Stotz Driver of Blue Thunder

The winner of The Peak Trophy for this event was Monty Stotz with the Blue Thunder Camaro. Monty also won The Good Vibrations Motorsports Reaction Time Award.

We want to thank Mopar Mike & Kenny Thatcher of the 1320 Group for working with the track to make us a part of this great event.

Union Grove is such a cool step back into time track, we always enjoys going there. We look forward to being a part of the Dinosaur Nationals on July6th. & 7th.

Thanks to all of the sponsors who help us put on these fine shows. Peak Auto, Good Vibrations Motorpsorts, Mickey Thompson Tires, Pace Performance Blu Def, O'Reilly Auto Parts, Summit Racing Equipment and Total Flow Products.

Check out our website www.glnfcc.com and our Facebook page for up to date information and next years schedule.

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