Race report from Big Money VW Race (now with PICS and VIDEO!)

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

It was an awesome day at Temple Raceway on Saturday 5/20 and TVWDRA Race #5!

The total number of VW's in the race program was 26 and the staging lanes & stands were filled with a bunch of VW enthusiasts from the Dallas/Ft Worth, Austin, and San Antonio areas (had more of the "regulars" been there, we could have easily had a 32-35 car field!).

After six rounds of racing, Rick Tarter won the event in his Bug Shop backed "Flashback" Squareback, when he raced Al Smith in the Graffeo Gearboxes supported '64 sedan. San Antonio resident, Clint Royal, was the semi-finalist in his clean turbo sedan that was sponsored by Pierce Automotive. Ricky Marshall and John Henslin took home the quarter-finalist cash.

As promised, BIG MONEY was paid out at Temple, to the tune of over $2850 in cash & prizes

Rick Tarter won $1320 in cash and a full set of custom aluminum door panels from Big Wig Race Cars. The runner up got $630, semi-finalists won $287 each, and quarter-finalists each received $100.

Al Smith won the best reaction time contest, with a .5005 light. Kevin McCartney was closest to his dial-in when he ran a 8.834 on a 8.83 dial-in. For their efforts, Al and Kevin took home a very nice set of GearWrenches and a cordless LED trouble light from Owens & Johnson Racing.

The Volkswagens were a HUGE hit with the people at Temple. The crew and management folks at Temple Raceway were VERY courteous, ran a super smooth event, and invited us to come back anytime. We'll be back!

On behalf of the TVWDRA, I'd like to offer up a HUGE THANKS to all of the great sponsors who contributed to this event, the staff at Temple Raceway, and everyone who came out to race or spectate.

I'll post my pics soon, but if anyone else has digital photos from the race, please either email them to me (hotrodvw@need4speed.com) or upload them to the racing gallery on the Samba at http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_cat.php?cat_id=52.

If you put your pics on the Samba, please use the title "vwtemple" (no quotes) when uploading, so it'll be easy to search for/link to all related pics.

--Eric Ellis

[Beach]

This race was a lot of fun! I went as a spectator. A fun car to watch was the red Bug that said Lyle Cherry on the side, that thing pulls killer wheelies! A lot of people in the stands liked it. There were a lot of sparks flying too, Henslin's buggy and a few of the other VWs would shoot sparks when pulling wheelies. There was a black bug (One of David Crow's cars?) there that didn't look like it would be nearly as fast as it was, but it was running high 6's (eighth mile). Unfortunately I think it broke on its third pass. There were about 3 Pro Stock VWs out there. There were also a few street VWs too and one watercooled new beetle. There was one really cool Oval window that was turbo'd and fuel injected (see pics below). Tom Funnel had his blue Cal looker out there; that was a nice car! Eric (57hotrodvw) was racing a blue street bug with an almost stock 1600 and running high 11s in the eighth. VW racing lasted until about 12:30 AM! As already mentioned, it came down to the red Graffeo bug vs the Flashback Type 3 in the final and the type 3 took the win.

The track also had a "little pooch" 10.5 class. Those cars were insane! A couple of them nearly hit the guard rail and they got right back in the throttle. A lot of 5 and 6 second V8s (eighth mile).

I had a lot of fun, it was great to meet a lot of people out there and talk about fast VWs. I hope the TVWDRA puts on another race like that, I'm not sure how many cars usually show up for a TVWDRA race, but it was awesome to see so many fast VWs at a race. The Temple race track is pretty cool too.

Look here for the pictures I took:
http://web.wt.net/~matbeach/Temple.html

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Here are a few videos shot during time trials at this event. More to come...

Bubba Clifton in his aspirated, bright yellow sedan versus Gary Galvert's NAWS assisted Super:
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/0BCEC742-A67D-4AE8-BAC6-A821A20B4031.htm

Eric Ellis (me!) in the borrowed '64 street car of Rickey Graffeo versus San Antonio resident Clint Royal in his clean turbo sedan. Clint went on to take home ~$300 in semi-finalist cash:
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/BE67D8CF-7869-46AB-A55B-B120902BFACF.htm

Danny Vowell runs against a buggy in his flamed VW. Nick Hendricks and his super clean, turbo charged oval takes on Danny Owens in his beautiful drag car. Unfortunately, Danny broke 2nd gear on this pass, ending his racing for the day:
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/92BD16C0-F768-4732-B0D8-6E6FD25B92FF.htm

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Still working on my pics from this event, but thought I'd give this thread a Friday afternoon bump, for those who may have missed it the first time...

--Eric

[Mitch Pullen]

 ...................HURRY.!!!!.. ........................J/K......

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

...................HURRY.!!!!.. ........................J/K......

Just for you, Mitch, I slaved all morning to get my pics resized and uploaded...

Here are a few photos of the big money winners. No action shots from me this time, as I was busy racing. More at the following link:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_keywords=vwtemple&search_terms=all
(HINT: After accessing this page on the Samba, hold down the Shift key when clicking each of the thumbnails, so that they open in a new window, and you don't have to go back and forth to the index page)


Event winner Rick Tarter and his wife Terri receive cash and a trophy from race co-sponsor, David Crow of Crow Racing Transmissions. Rick also rec'd a gift certificate for a full set of custom aluminum door panels from Big Wig Race Cars


Al Smith and his racing partner, Rickey Graffeo are shown here receiving the $630 cash prize from Mike Chapman, of O'Reilly Auto Parts.


Clint Royal and sponsor, John Pierce, of Pierce Automotive in San Antonio, TX.