First up for Day “Last” at the K&N Spring Fling presented by Optima Batteries was the Spring Fling Reaction Time Challenge.  Twenty randomly selected racers were invited to take one shot at the ‘tree. A .00X reaction time earned the driver a $100 bill while a perfect .000 gets $1,000. Six drivers received hundred, Matt Schapiro, Bug McCarty, Vince Shrawder, Matt Brehm, Antoine Jett, and Jeremy Brewer.

Just when it looked no one was going to earn the grand, Tim Thomas pulled up to be the last of the 20. Lo and behold, triple zeros showed up on the board and Thomas was now $1,000 richer and given one more shot to duplicate the effort which would have earned him $10,000 if he did it again. A red -.002 was close but not close enough, however he still walked away a happy man. Continue reading →

They say that in life, a little rain must fall, however, while it might have sprinkled yesterday, the “rain” surely didn’t fall on Jeff Dobbins in his win from Wiseco Thursday’s $20,000 race. All that changes today at the gorgeous Galot Motorsports Park.

While the rain fell pretty heavy overnight and delayed the start of the day, it might have only delayed the inevitable, which was Strange Engineering Friday where the ante is upped and someone will walk away with a $50,000 check tonight.

With round six in the books, the survivors were Tommy Plott with both his dragster and door car, Richard Alford Jr., 18-year old Angela Gantkowski, Terry “Turtle” Brannon, Wednesday’s winner Shane Carr and receiving the last bye run of the race will be Tommy Cable in his door car.

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Just another day at the K&N Spring Fling presented by Optima Batteries; another day of big money bracket racing.  Today’s schedule called for all new entries to be given the opportunity for one time run, followed immediately by eliminations. Survivors in the seventh round were Andy Lloyd, John Corbin, Jimmy DiCiacco, Brandon Collins, Tim Butler, Jeff Dobbins and Will Holloman. By virtue of the best reaction time of the previous round, Florida racer and the veteran perennial winner Butler receives the last bye run of the night, moving him right into the semifinals.

First up for the quarterfinal round was Collins and Corbin with Collins taking the win. Next up was Dobbins and Lloyd but after their burnouts and while staging, the skies almost immediately darkened and Mother Nature reared her ugly head, albeit with just enough spritz to halt the action for the time being. The entire area had been flirting with the wet stuff all day, but it seemingly always seemed to go around the Galot facility.

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Open in 1957, Dunn-Benson Dragstrip has a long history as an eighth-mile facility. Four years ago, all of that changed.

That was when Earl Wells purchased the property and made “some improvements.” Some improvements? Anyone who had been there on opening day in ’57 could never have imagined just what Galot Motorsports Park looks like today. “When our racers come into a Spring Fling event, they are expecting a one-of-a-kind experience at a premier facility,” co-promoter Peter Biondo explained earlier this year. And that’s exactly what the hundreds of racers who came to the K&N Spring Fling presented by Optima Batteries found when they pulled in the gates.

Yesterday’s Test & Tune session included the American Race Cars/Racetech Dragster Shootout which found Paul Warick and his door car taking home a new dragster for his efforts. Today’s schedule called for one time run for all competitors followed by eliminations on Yukon Gear & Axle Wednesday with $15,000 on the line for the winner.

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This year, the K&N Spring Fling presented by Optima Batteries moved from its home at Bristol Dragway for the past seven years to the new Galot Motorsports Park in Dunn, North Carolina. The Bristol event moves to September and becomes the Sparco Fall Fling presented by Optima Batteries but first up were the hundreds of racers who came to Galot for Day 1, a Test & Tune day in addition to the American Race Cars/Racetech Dragster Shootout with an elite 32-car field.

Beginning this past February, all racers were invited to send in a request to be part of the 32-car Dragster Shootout field. A week ago, 32 names were pulled out of a hat and were asked their intentions to be a part of the field. When you’re racing for that kind of prize, very few declined, and so the race field was set. Two time runs were allotted the 32 in between the Test & Tune session.

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Back in April, TruSTART was introduced to the sportsman racing world at the K&N Spring Fling Million race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The goal of TruSTART was to change the handicapped bracket racing world by awarding the win to the driver who red-lighted by the least in a double red situation. Following the Vegas event, TruSTART also was used at the Bristol (Tenn.) Spring Fling 5-Day May 17-22.

“This should have been done years ago,” said Bob Brockmeyer of Compulink. “So when Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel wanted it implemented at their Spring Fling Events I was all for it. The current system, where the first driver goes red and it’s ‘race over’ is boring and unfair. Tracks have pre-ordered it and I’m excited to say it’s finally ready for nationwide release.”.

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Earlier in the week, K&N Spring Fling 5-Day presented by Sparco came to the realization that the weather gods just might not be as excited about the event as the over 300 racers were who showed up for the event.

“We always want to stay proactive and give our customers the best chance to complete all of our races,” said co-promoter Kyle Seipel. “A successful event for us is when we can complete every race. The forecast left us little options so we decided to shorten the program and make Thursday’s race a double which would give us Friday, Saturday and Sunday to complete the event.”

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With a much better forecast for Thursday, the combined FTI Thursday and Optima Batteries Friday races began early with eliminations. Combining the two races is a proactive move on co-promoters Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel due to Friday’s weather forecast. It means the purse is doubled all the way back to third round winners who instead of receiving $200 for a loss in the fourth round, it doubles to $400. Instead of $20,000 to win, the winner will now take home $40,000.

“We are so thankful that over 300 cars have showed up to support our event despite the likely weather forecast,” said Biondo prior to Thursday’s eliminations. “Both Kyle and myself thought long and hard about this and we feel there’s only one thing we could do to show our appreciation. Because of that, we have decided that we’ll throw another $10,000 on top to the winner making it $50,000 to win.

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Yukon Gear & Axle Wednesday dawned bright and sunny at the K&N Spring Fling 5-Day presented by Sparco, with the Sun deciding to hide behind the clouds but still allowing a time trial session for all competitors.

The Racetech/American Race Cars Super Tuesday Dragster Shootout still needed to be completed from Tuesday night with eight cars left in the quarterfinals with both the winner and runner-up scoring a brand new dragster. Sean Serra defeated John Taylor Jr, Jeff Taylor looked to avenge his brother’s loss to Serra and he did by defeated Vinny DiMino, Kevin Brannon took out Ben Parks, and making up the balance of what will be the semifinals is Michael Paschal defeating Robert DiMino Jr.

In the semifinals, Brannon turned on the redlight by .002 advancing Paschal and Serra used a better reaction time to end the Taylor brothers chance to bring home a new dragster. In the final, Paschal parlayed two wins last weekend locally to another win today earning him a new Racetech dragster while Serra took a new American Race Cars dragster home with him to Pennsylvania.

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