Diedrich – the new Pro Mod MPH record holder for Bandimere Speedway

Courtesy of  Firebaugh Express

Morrison, CO – Jay Diedrich left his mark in Morrison, Colorado at Bandimere Speedway with a huge 237.09 speed in the final qualifying session Saturday night for the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association while headlining at a Super Chevy Show event. The speed isn’t very fast compared to his quickest ever 249 MPH shot earlier this year at Sacramento, but considering it was made at “the mile high raceway” with a corrected elevation of 8,800 feet it starts to pack more of a punch.

In testing on Friday Diedrich was making laps of high 6.20’s to low 6.30’s at over 230 MPH all day. On Saturday’s first qualifying session, the “Evil Outlaw” 1957 Chevy broke the blower belt as soon as the clutch pedal was released which would make Jay have to wait for the second session to come around to secure a spot in the 8-car qualified field.

On his second qualifying attempt Jay jumped right from a “no time” at the bottom of the qualifying list straight to the second spot with a great 6.235/234.74, the Firebaugh Express Racing crew knew there was a little left on the table during that pass as the number 7 cylinder was out at the hit and took a couple hundred feet for it to “clean up”.

The third qualifying session had some added excitement added to it as Diedrich bumped Bret Williamson out of the top spot by one-thousandth of a second (.001) with a 6.213/237.09. Bret was the next car down the track, in the same lane as Jay, and knew exactly what happened when he saw Jay’s run. Diedrich’s time in the number one spot only lasted a couple minutes as Williamson blasted to a new track record ET of 6.13 and bumped Diedrich to number two on the qualifying order.

Diedrich’s number two qualifying position faced him with Good-Guy’s Rod & Custom Association’s president Marc Meadors and his Good-Guys Racing 1969 Camaro in the first round of eliminations. When Diedrich has faced Meadors in the past it always seems to be great side-by-side racing action but this weekend in Bandimere Jay had the advantage on paper as he was consistently quicker than Meadors each time down the track.

When the tree dropped both Diedrich and Meadors instantly blew the tires off and drove into tire shake, Meadors was quicker to pedal and get his car to hook up but Diedrich was charging with his big BAE screw blown power and quickly closing the gap between him and Marc. At the top end Jay just ran out of race track and narrowly missed getting the round win. Meadors 7.29/213.84 was just enough to edge out Diedrich’s 7.36/223.52. At the top end both Jay and Marc were unsure who got the round win because Meadors stated he could hear Jay coming the whole time and Jay knew he was closing the gap quickly.

The Firebaugh Express Racing team’s weekend was ended early in Denver but Diedrich yet again took another new track MPH record, something that is becoming common for him as he holds the track Pro Mod MPH record at each race track he has been to this 2010 season which includes Sacramento Raceway (Sacramento, Ca), Famoso Raceway (Bakersfield, Ca), Woodburn Dragstrip (Woodburn, Or), Firebird Raceway (Boise, Id) and now Bandimere Speedway (Morrison, Co).

Jay will take the engine to be freshened up/rebuilt up by Joe Bettencourt with JB Motorsports and from there the Firebaugh Express Racing team’s future race plans are unsure. They have a lot of options of races to go to between now and their season ending event, the Street Car Super Nationals in Las Vegas on November 18-21, which they don’t want to miss. There has been talk of attending some of the final 3 ADRL events this year, running at the Throwdown in T-Town, of course the local West Coast Hot Rod Association’s “World Finals” event or the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Associations final event of the 2010 season and even some Texas Outlaw Pro Mod events.

One thing is for sure, Diedrich and the Firebaugh Express Racing team are not slowing down as the 2010 season is winding down and they keep finding more races across the country to possibly attend. The team is working on a schedule of events to attend so stay tuned for more information about the Firebaugh Express Racing team as is becomes available.

Jay Diedrich & the Firebaugh Express Racing team would like to thank their sponsors:
Diedrich Farms

Bunker Race Cars
Joe Bettencourt Motorsports
Earl W. Schott, Inc
Dan Olson Racing Products – www.OlsonMotorsports.com
LHP Racing – www.LHPRacing.com

For more information about the Firebaugh Express Racing team visit their website at www.FirebaughExpressRacing.com.