John Done Made Him Mad !!!

By Camp Stanley / Photos By Axle Weiss

Hagerstown, MD – The race weekend in beautiful Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas sure wasn’t one to write home about after all three of Friday’s qualifying sessions were completed.

We found ourselves and our normally potent race car on the outside looking in! We were number NINETEEN out of a field of THIRTY! So much for the headline at the end of the Martin race. We may have thought we were back but on Friday night it wasn’t looking so good!

A lot of Thinking 101 went on and the crew spied what they thought may be the issue Friday night and then Mr. Bigtime Crew Chief came to the same conclusion on Saturday morning while the crew were still snuggled in their beds like bugs in a rug. He, being ME had made a really Dummy 101 tilt error mistake when making some mathematical calculations. That’s right, he can’t count! But as an Australian racer used to tell me: “if you did it-put your hand up.” And I have both hands up and am standing on a ladder for one and all to see!

So all that was left to do was to go into Saturday morning’s last shot at qualifying and see if anything had been retained about racing a blown door car. John carefully staged the car and not willing to risk anything to chance, when the yellow flashed he waited on Scottie to bang on the car as they planned to be his signal to leave! The Appalachia on Steroids Camaro did what it had wanted to do all day Friday. Went straight down the race track and put a number on the board that should solidify them in the elite field of sixteen. All that was left was to let the other fifteen cars make their runs and we would know. And when the smoke and dust settled we were “in the show” in the fifteenth spot. Anyone in ADRL Pro Extreme drag racing will tell you that the winner can come from anywhere in the field!

Which brings us to the headline: “John done made him mad!!!” followed by: “We are in so much TROUBLE……..” Our number fifteen slot allowed us to be paired against the Texas Tornado Terror, his-own-self: Frankie “Madman” Taylor. And his moniker aptly suits him in this instance. He told John Stanley that not only was he going to leave on him, BUT he was going to beat him like a red headed stepchild! He claimed for one and all to hear for miles around that he owed John one!

But alas it was not to be; Mother Nature frowned on the ADRL along with their racers and fans by dumping copious amounts of liquid sunshine on them midway through the first round of ADRL Pro Extreme eliminations. And now Mr “Madman” is going to have to wait till the rescheduled race in St Louis to fulfill his prophecy!

All we can say is be careful what you wish for….. Stay Tuned !!