RACING WROES RETURN

In early July Nicholas and Ashleigh Wroe got the chance of a lifetime when they were invited to race in the USA (see original story here) ... well now they have returned and this is their take on the experience ...

Hi everyone... Firstly, I have to say ... We had a AWESOME holiday! All our travelling throughout the USA was an amazing experience. We landed in New York and then we travelled to the Supernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway in Englishtown, New Jersey. Ritchie Napp whose family were the founders of Junior Dragster racing in USA invite us as their guests and issued us with complimentary tickets for the entire event! We all stayed at the track in a 38 foot Motorhome that are friends Fred & Vicki Craw from Craws Racing provided for us. It also helped that Fred and Vickie are good friends with Ritchie Napp. The Supernationals was an amazing event. The number of Group One (PRO) competitors was mind blowing. Cars just kept on rolling out. Vendors were selling everything imaginable and the racing was non stop thrills to watch.

From Englishtown we drove the motorhome to Canada to see Niagara Falls. That was a real amazing experience and what an amazing sight with such power and beauty. After Niagara we travelled back to New Jersey to meet up with our friendsFred & Vicki Craw. They are the people who invited us over and they REALLY looked after us. We spent a few days getting to know each other and getting the cars ready to race. My car was owned by Kyle Koretsky of Nitro Fish. Kyle and his dad, Kenny, still race in Prostock.

My Junior Dragster was dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness after a family member developed breast cancer. Kyle Korestsky lent me the car and supplied us with team shirts.

Ashleigh's car was owned by Joey (Joeboy) Gerdelmann whose Grandad raced the Bounty Hunter, the first car to race at 180mph, and who is in the NHRA Hall of Fame. Her car was also sponsored by Nitro Fish.

We visited the Gerdelmann family home and have pictures of us in the "Famous" Connie Kalitta Bounty Hunter, (that's Joey Jr Gerdelmann standing behine me in the pic above) they have the most amazing collection of cars and memorabilia.) Mr Gerdelmann Snr is an amazing person whose contribution to Drag Racing is spoken about with great respect. His son Joey Jr also races but over recent years has spent most of his time concentrating on son Joey (Joeboy) and daughters Linda & Paige racing Junior Dragsters. He now concentrates on 330' racing, which is like Junior Dragsters on steroids. These things roar like a Top Fuel and it would be great to get it started in Australia.

Our first race was on Saturday at Atco Raceway. I ran a ET 7.92 and Ashleigh (being lighter than me) ran a ET 7.75. WOW what a feeling that was. We hopped out at the other end with a smile that wasn't going away for a while. This was a Junior Dragster only event and had approx 70 cars. All the other racers were so friendly. We both did several 7.90 passes and came home all pumped up.

The next day on Sunday we raced at Old Bridge Raceway in Englishtown. They have the 1/4 mile strip and a 1/8 mile strip alongside, so we raced beside the other racers. When there was a break in JD racing, some of the S\ST racers raced on the 1/8 mile track to keep it warm. We did several 7.90 passes before rain (well thunderstorms actually) forced the event to cancel. Approx 90 JD racers were at this event.

Next we were off to Bristol Raceway in Tennessee. It was about a 10 hour drive with 5 of us in motorhomes, with trailers attached, in convoy. We drove all day and arrived at night, parked and camped out the front gates till morning.

What an awesome complex Bristol is. You have Drag Racing on one side and Nascar circuit over the other side. This track is in a valley which has been blown out of the mountain and cleared to make way for the track. It is also called Thunder Valley which is very appropriate since it storms most afternoons for a short time. We had several events being held at Bristol. All the races were in age groups, since there was so many racers. Tech inspections were tough as they were done by NHRA JD officials.

Most got through OK, but to run 7.90 you have to have chrome moly chassis, helmet bars and leg nets as well as the normal requirements. They were very strict and thorough. All safety gear was inspected for damage and cars were scrutineered minus bodies. If you or your car didn't comply then you didn't race. You were given the chance to rectify the problem, but it had to be re-inspected before racing.

The first race was Mike Bos National Titles. There was a total of approx 600 JD racers. Ashleigh raced in 14 year olds which had approx 180 racers, and I raced in 16 years olds which had approx 230 racers. The staging lanes were 12 lanes wide and filled from one end to the other. Each age group was called up individually to avoid confusion. Sometimes it seemed you were waiting forever while they started at 8 year olds and worked their way up. We raced with Team Atco which had approx 30 racers representing their track.

Next was the Mike Bos 7.90 HEADS UP PRO TREE CHALLENGE (how huge is that!!!) Everyone raced on a 7.90 dial in on a PRO TREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had 2 time trials then off to age groups. Only 14 years and older could race this event, but it still surprised us how many cars raced 7.90 (still a few hundred JDs). As if the experience of racing 7.90 wasn't mind blowing enough, then Pro Tree was something else. Never having raced on a Pro tree before, Ashleigh and I both surprised ourselves and cut really good lights. We got through 1st round but then thunderstorms cancelled racing. I still can't believe we raced 7.90 PRO TREE...that is a memory...

The next 2 days was Test n Tune, however rain spoilt a lot of that. We got limited passes due to rain. When it rains, boy does it rain. You could watch peoples belongings washing down the pit area in a flood of water and then only moments later people would come looking for there long lost belongings. Each day they had activities for all the kids (and parents). We played Dodgeball, Volleyball, video games,movie night,cook out and a climbing wall. Plenty of different activities to keep everyone entertained. Considering what a HUGE event this was, we were really welcomed by the other racers and families.

This event trophy is called a "Wally". Basically it is the Holy Grail of NHRA Racing, similar to our Gold Christmas Tree. This trophy is named after Wally Parks who was the founder of NHRA. Next the O'Reilly Junior Dragster Nationals. Again we raced in age groups for bracket racing. Some cars ran 7.90 and others ran slower cars. The time you ran was irrelevant since it was Dial Your Own. Consistency and dial ins were the only important things. We had a day of time trials. Both of our cars ran consistent 7.90s so we were hoping to cut a good light and stay in the competition for a while. Next day was eliminations and the pressure was on! Ashleigh went out first round but raced really well. I made it through first round but lost on the next round. We were a bit disappointed but still had a fantastic time.

We came home knowing that we will probably never get to race like that here in WA. The number of JD racers in USA is huge yet in Australia it is still quite small, and racing 7.90s here is probably not going to happen in my JD time (hopefully soon though). I think what people need to remember about 7.90 racing is that it is not another bracket. It is no different from 8.50 racing 12.90 cars. All the cars race each other, just different ETs for different ages to keep everyone enthusiastic. We need the sport to grow, so we need to move with the times. We follow NHRA in most of their guidelines, so why not 7.90 for JDs. They don't have a problem with it, so what is holding us up? No one is saying that over 14 years you MUST race 7.90s, same as there are a number of older racers racing 9 or 10 sec cars when the are old enough to race 8.50s.(Both Loughlin Boyde and I won Australian championships running 9 sec cars..) It is DYO, so you race what you have...

We met some very interesting people and made some new friends who we will keep in touch with. Ashleighs car (Feedin' Frenzy) is a Mike Bos chassis. We met Mike Bos and he invited us to come to his workshop and meet his sons who run the shop now. We saw some awesome chassis, both JD and full size, and talked to his sons and himself. A very interesting man. After all the racing was done we headed off to Florida to see Disney. Another place that was larger than you imagine. None of this holiday would have been possible without Fred and Vicki Craw from Craws Racing. Fred is a very clever man who has been around JD racing for many years. Both his daughters have raced and this will be his first year without his own kids racing.(maybe he can adopt Ashleigh & I ) but he has other kids waiting to step in and keep him busy. Sorry for the long long letter but it was hard to edit it to keep it short... SORRY Thanks for the time to tell you all about our holiday. Nic (still smiling) Wroe