Myers wins WCOPMA Saturday Night Nitro event driving for Don Carter Racing
Bakersfield, CA – The Don Carter Racing team took delivery of a brand new Jerry Bickel Race Cars 1969 Camaro in late June and from 
the time they picked the car up it has been an all uphill ride. The first outing with the new car was July 4th at Sonoma Raceway where the team made 3 strong half track passes with driver Dan Myers behind the wheel.
The team’s first event entered was with the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association at Sonoma Raceway during the July 19-21 weekend at the NHRA Division 7 event. The team was still in the learning process with the new car and through 3 qualifying sessions they barely failed to make the field with a 6.202/200.17 pass where the blower belt came off around the 1000’ mark, that was the team’s first attempt at a full quarter mile pass with the new lightweight car.
The next weekend some of the top West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod teams were invited to run at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals as an exhibition show. Carter’s team was one of the teams invited and they showed their true potential at this event. With one pass a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday Dan Myers laid down a best of 5.798/252.14 and a 5.785/254.18 Friday and Saturday. These were the quickest passes of the weekend of all the cars that were invited.
The team then packed up and headed north to Firebird Raceway in Boise, Idaho for the big “Nightfire Nationals” event on August 9-11. After 3 qualifying sessions Myers landed second on the qualifying order with a 6.099/211.51 and beat the likes of Jeremy Hanger and Rod Burbage to square off against Marc Meadors in the final round where Meadors would get the best of Myers; still the Carter Racing team was happy with a runner-up finish with a new car, in a tough class, so soon.
That would bring us to this past weekend’s event at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California. It was the race tracks final “Saturday Night Nitro” event of the 2013 season. After 2 qualifying sessions Dan Myers was atop the order with a 6.024/225.22 pass, sitting second was Meadors in the Pure Hell 2 Camaro that beat Myers in the final round at the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association’s previous event.
Myers took a single in the opening round of eliminations but didn’t go the easy route clicking off a 5.899/245.72 pass. In the second round Myers squared off against Tim “TK” Krupa in his Randy Anderson tuned 1953 Corvette. The two took off and were glued all the way down the quarter mile, Myers posting a stellar 5.803/241.37 pass to Krupa’s career best 5.849/245.81, the margin of victory was just .02-hundreths of a second at the stripe, Myers getting the win light.
In the final round it would be Myers versus Meadors, a rematch of the Nightfire Nationals final round in Boise less than a month ago. The anticipation for this final round matchup was high; number 1 and 2 qualifiers squaring off in the final, the cool midnight air rolling in, a killer Famoso Raceway track surface and both cars easily capable of 5.7x runs. Dan Myers and Marc Meadors did not disappoint the fans in the stands as both cars left the line at the flash of the green, Myers with a .027 reaction time to Meadors .066. At every incremental clock down the track the two cars stopped the times within thousandths of a second of each other, Myers leading the whole way but he knew Meadors was there. When the cars made it to the finish line it was Myers getting the win light with a 5.789/239.61 to Meadors game 5.795/250.41 pass, a margin of victory of 4-thousandths of a second, the same difference in the two drivers reaction times.
Dan Myers was quick to thank team owner Don Carter for giving him the opportunity to drive his bad hotrod and to Carters tuner Jeff Butler for making it run so quick and so smooth. Without the great help of crew guys Bill Fox, Robbie Barrios, Penny Atkinson and Myers wife Carolyn the weekend wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.
The Don Carter Racing team would like to thank all of their sponsors that make it possible: Nitro A GoGo, Network Office Systems, Life Med ID, Pacific Repair Services and Red Line Oil.
Next up for the Don Carter Racing team will be the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Associations event at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California on the October 4-6 weekend running at the “Mega Mopar Action” event.
