FLYING PIG RACING: ANRA Fall Nationals- Woollybear and Zac and the hardware!

Wow! What a blast that was! The ANRA Fall Nationals and annual Track or Treat did not disappoint.

The Flying Pig Racing pit was in full swing with Me and the Wingman, Kenny the Nuke, Sneaky Zac plus Chuck, and the dynamic duo of Woollybear and Gangster Frankster .

We procured the same approximate pit space as last race and immediately set up camp and pilfered the picnic table from the late oil dump. I decided to up the lunch game a notch and BBQ'd some delicious brats, topped 'em with some sauerkraut and put out the habanero mustard that Wingman snagged at Blackwell's Corner (aka James Dean's last stop). That made for a pretty spicy and satisfying lunch! Oh yeah and we got an early start on Mrs. Racer's brownies and Pammy/Tiegen's chocolate chip cookies!

Anyway, the weather was a pretty tolerable 90-ish and we completed set up and tech before 5PM. Beer-thirty at the track is always a pleasure!!

Saturday rolled in beautiful, waking to the sounds of Jimmy Black "draggin' the track" laying down lots of sticky for us racers, and the smell of sausage and pancakes on the griddle. Yep. Zacster treated us to breakfast again! Dang, that was good.

Qualifying went well- I had a decent .013 reaction time. Woollybear was inching his way towards 10.60 in D-Gas. And Zac nailed the #1 qualifying position in Open Wheel picking up a nice little trophy (the traditional ANRA October pink-ribbon-trophy) for his effort! Way to go Zac and Chuck!

After qualifying we began to set up for what was to be an EPIC Halloween track or treat. This got started a couple or 3 years ago and has just begun to blow up. I can't believe the extent to which some pits were decorated! There was chaplain Matt running around in his Uncle Sam costume, and ANRA grumpy guru Butch and Cindy tooling around in a cart dressed as Fred 'n' Wilma.

Yabba Dabba Do.

We had a pretty bitchin' set-up too. I brought a 6' motion activated screeching witch that I thought was pretty cool, that is until Zac brought out his home created "Scary Flying Pig". Holy crappers. That thing was cool. He had the pig sitting in a chair holding a bowl of candy. When the wee ones stuck their hands in the bowl the Pig reared back his head and let out a frightening squeal followed by some kind of sinister laugh! The kids were pretty wary of that thing. I saw a couple kids standing there working up the nerve to reach for the goods and when they went for the treats that pig scared the candy out of 'em. They spilled half the candy on the ground with their hasty retreat. Mom and dad sitting in the golf cart had a good laugh!

scary pig video

the witch video

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!

Eliminations kicked off at 9:00 AM with Jr. Dragsters. They were probably all still jacked up on candy from the night before!

Anyway, Hot Rod hit the lanes around 10:00AM and I was gifted a first round win when my opponent red lit.

In open wheel, Zac had a competition bye as his opponent was unable to make the call. Thank you very much! As I tell everyone- It seems like you never win one of these events without a gift or two along the way...

And in D-Gas Woollybear lit up the win light, so we had 3 cars in 3 classes going on to round 2! Nice.

In round 2 I lost in a close one when I went too quick by .008 second, running a 10.562 on my 10.57 dial. That left Zac and Woolly to carry the Flying Pig Racing torch for the remainder of the event. And boy did they!

Zac and Chuck have put a ton of work into that Sneaky Topolino over the last three seasons sorting out the bugs, chasing gremlins and figuring out the fickle fuel system, and they have finally got it done! Zac drove his ass off, running some consistent 10.44s and absolutely crushing the tree in the final round to take the Open Wheel win with a deadly .005 reaction time and another 10.44 with a 4. Super impressive!

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Woollybear put together a string of deadly runs that took him all the way to the final in D-Gas. As the #1 cheerleader for FPR I got to watch both of these finals from the starting line and when I saw Woolly pull ahead of his opponent I was getting off the gas in my mind and Woollybear was getting off the gas in the car trying to prevent the breakout loss. unfortunately he reeled 'er in a little too much and handed the stripe back to take a loss and finish with the Runner-up trophy. All in all a great day of racing in the Flying Pig camp!! Next goal is to get all three cars in the finals!