ST LOUIS – The heading says it all!! Unfortunately for both racers and fans, Mother Nature did not cooperate over the weekend and ensured that cars remained in the ready but not racing state.   Jake and the Allstar Dodge Challenger NFC team were one of the featured cars at Gateway Motorsports Park on Saturday, 9 May as part of the 2^nd annual St. Louis Nitro Rendezvous and were looking forward to entertaining the home town fans with heads up racing against the Kansas City based, Metal Mafia Nitro Altered car and team.   Some classes were able to make qualifying runs on Friday before weather forced the events cancellation late Saturday afternoon but we were not able to.

“The car was as ready as its ever been. We were ready to try a few new things in the car’s setup and tuning to address a few gremlin’s that bothered us at the end of last season but that’s just going to have to wait until the next event,” said Jake.   “What’s really cool is despite the weather, we had a great turnout of our fans and sponsors….really shows their support and commitment to me and my team.   I can’t say thank you enough, it really does matter.”

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ST LOUIS, MO – Jake and the AllStar Dodge Challenger are set to take on the competition at the Summit Racing Equipment World and Nitro Jam Finals, Friday and Saturday, October 11 and 12 at the Memphis International Raceway, Memphis, Tennessee.  Our last race in Pittsburgh did not turn out as planned but did provide valuable data and opportunity for lessons learned. There was plenty to think about but more importantly there’s plenty to forget about and set sights on this next race.

The World and Nitro Jam Finals will provide the perfect stage for our redemption. At minimum, a 12 car field is anticipated and with the points championship decided in the AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car class there’s a big reason we should aim for the winner’s circle in this last race of the 2014 season.   Braggin’ rights and the chance to remind everyone what we are capable of! We’ll go back through our notes from last year’s event, add to that this year’s experience and set the car up to finish strong and win rounds.

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The AllStar Rug Doctor Dodge Challenger returned to Pittsburgh Raceway Park on 1 August attending the IHRA’s Pittsburgh Nationals Nitro Jam.  As predicted in our most recent press release, the path to winners circle wasn’t easy but we had no idea it would be this tough.

The resultant was the team’s first failure to qualify.  Disappointing and frustrating to say the least.  It’s possible that the early afternoon rain shower “washed the track” or that the track’s surface was really “green” and new as a good portion of it was replaced in June due to fallout from an unusually cold and freezing winter….but there’s no excuse.  It’s in the racer’s blood to adjust to these conditions. It was clear early in the qualifying rounds that this weekend was not going to be a record breaker for anyone.

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Nestled in the country side just over 40 miles south of our nation’s capitol is Maryland International Raceway, one of the fastest tracks on the 2014 Nitro Jam Racing Series and home of the President’s Cup Nationals on Friday and Saturday 13 – 14 June.  Jake and the AllStar Rug Doctor Dodge Challenger NFC team will be there and are extending a special invite to local race fans on this Father’s Day weekend.

This weekend’s race will be the 6^th stop for IHRA professional series and the 3^rd race of the season for the Allstar Rug Doctor Team.  If performance from our last two races is any indication of results for this weekend, this should be another strong weekend for Jake and after two runner-up finishes, confidence is high that we’ll be in the thick of things during eliminations.

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Madison, IL – The second race of the season was filled with a complete spectrum of challenges, successes, frustration and elation.   Coming off a solid performance and a stack of lessons in San Antonio, Jake’s confidence was high that qualifying for the 6 car field would be within reach.  The goal for qualifying was to put a set of high 5 sec passes in the books without hurting the motor.  Based on the experiences in San Antonio where each of qualifying rounds caused cylinder damage, adjustments were made to settle the two most vulnerable cylinders down by lowering compression and adding more fuel.  But before the first pass was made an unexpected  problem arose during the warm-up.

The motor’s idle was much higher than normal with the throttle completely closed.  An indication of a lean fuel mixture likely caused by an air leak on the intake side or a problem with the fuel delivery system.  No obvious issue was discovered after a complete top end tear down and reassembly looking at each most likely cause.  We were able to determine the problem was associated with the left bank of cylinders only.  In this condition a qualifying run was too risky so the decision was made to forego the first round of qualifying and focus on solving the problem.  Determined to make the field with a single qualifying pass, the team went to work to locate the cause of the problem.

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Hello Race Fans!!!  Greg “Jake” Jacobsmeyer and the AllStar Rug Doctor Dodge Challenger are set to take on the competition at the DragRaceOnline.com AA/F Challenge Racing Series, Friday and Saturday, May 9 and 10 at the Gateway Motorsports Park, St. Louis, Missouri.

Coming off a solid record setting performance at the IHRA’s San Antonio Nationals in San Antonio, Texas, Jake’s and team’s expectations and confidence are high.  San Antonio’s race proved the tune-up decisions are one the edge but the car’s performance continues to improve.

Although not a regular in the DRO Challenge Series, Jake believes the car will be highly competitive in the field which typically sees qualifying and elimination times below the 6 second mark.  Qualifying will begin on Friday night and continue Saturday morning with eliminations set to start around 5 PM on Saturday.

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