OWH's "Almost Live" USRA Div 1 Nats Coverage

[Bobhardt]

Heartbreaker for Swiss. He almost pulled it off though

[Chubby]

Mike u almost had it...Great Run Benny"HAPPY BIRTHDAY"


JOE SSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[Neal Stewart]

what happened to him? bad heat? smoked motor? DETAILS!

[Rotorranch]

Way ta go Benny and Les!

What happened to Mikey? Another drive by fruiting?

Wow! Benny came from WAY behind! How'd he do that?

Rotor

[oldweirdherald]

Just prior to the start of the Expert Cobalt 12 main, someone (I forget who) looked at the drivers getting ready to race and said: "Is this the Cobalt 12 race, or the Geezer Warm-up?"

Mike didn't break down - he just finished on black, came off a couple times, and Benny and Les kicked it into Hillbilly overdrive!

There's a new battle cry here at the Nats as onlookers cheered on Benny. Every time Benny came off, made a move, or any other opportunity, a bunch of Benny's "fans" would chant out together:
"EOAW, EOAW, CHINGA CHINGA CHINGA!!!"

(pronounced EEEE'- AW! EEE'-AW!)

I absolutely had no idea where this chant came from or what it meant, but it always seemed to result in a big laugh.

After the race, it was somewhat explained to me. I was told that "EOAW" stands for "Equal Opportunity A$$ Whoopin'". I'm still not sure what the "CHINGA CHINGA CHINGA" means - but they said that if they yelled it, that it almost always resulted in expediting the turn marshalling service.

It's a "hillbilly thang", I guess, and I believe that when properly primed with sufficient quantities of the correct beverage of choice, the meaning of the incantation becomes instantly more clear, and substantially more humorous.

EOAW! EOAW! CHINGA CHINGA CHINGA!!!

Congrats to Benny on an awesome race!

Check out the 2002 USRA Div 1 Nats Photo Gallery!
Gobs of new photos added!!!!
NATS PHOTO GALLERY - CLICK HERE

[1SLOWHAND]

Paul , please pass along my congratulations to Brian Eardly for his big win in I-15. USRA Mid-Atlantic is proud of ya bud !
Thanx ,
Glenn / Richmond , Virginia.

[cheater]

Congrats to Benny on his come-from-behind win! You make your fellow Georgians proud!

Hey, Mom, this Div I Almost-Live coverage is a bit terse compared to the Div II Almost-Live coverage from ECR.

I think if you sent a plane ticket and hotel reservations to the guy who did the Div II Almost-Live Coverage he'd be glad to do the same for the Div I Nats.

And you could then concentrate on your racing! Just trying to help . . .

:-)

[oldweirdherald]

Actually... I'm not racing - but nice try.

I'd gladly send the OWH private Lear Jet to pick you up, as you did a heck of a nice job at the Div II's, but I'm afraid the jet is still in the pipe dream stage.

I'll have to look up "terse" when I'm up to it.

I may not have your gift for the prose, but I'm trying to make up for it with the pictures. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what's a thousand pictures worth???

[Bobhardt]

Hey Paul,
I see Connie is there. What about Carlos?

[oldweirdherald]

Carlos and Connie are both here. I will be sure to get a picture of them both sometime during the week.

[oldweirdherald]

Senior Group 7 (Geezer Race)

B Semi

1 - Philip Larcom - 542
2 - Gary Puetz - 536
3 - Mike Swiss - 516
4 - Mike Delmonico - 494
5 - Peter Cada Caprez - 480 (Switzerland)
6 - Jim Swofford - 467
7 - Gary Haworth - 424
8 - Vlado Okali - 423 (Slovakia)
9 - Roman Kormeluk - 383

A Semi

1 - Richard Curnutte - 588
2 - John Tore Anderson - 585 (Sweden / USA)
3 - Larry Blanton - 581
4 - Les Wright - 547
5 - Wendell Smith - 512
6 - Spove - 511
7 - Ron Herrera - 445
8 - Per Persson - 441 (Sweden)
9 - Ron Vanwagnen - 210

Senior Group 7 (Geezer) Main

red - Gary Puetz
white - Richard Curnutte
green - Les Wright
orange - Mike Swiss
blue - Philip Larcom
yellow - Mike Delmonico
purple - Larry Blanton
black - John Tore Anderson

The "Geezer" main event will begin shortly - at around 3:05 PM Pacific Time.

Be sure to hit "refresh" button every 5 - 10 minutes for OWH's "Almost Live" updated coverage!

After Heat 1:

1 - Les Wright - 133
2 - Richard Curnutte - 130
3 - Mike Swiss - 126
4 - Mike Delmonico - 125
5 - John Tore Anderson - 123
6 - Philip Larcom - 122
7 - Gary Puetz - 118
8 - Larry Blanton - 112

After Heat 2:

1 - Richard Curnutte - 262
2 - Mike Swiss - 256
3 - John Tore Anderson - 251
4 - Les Wright - 250 (tire fell off)
5 - Philip Larcom - 248
6 - Mike Delmonico - 247
7 - Gary Puetz - 247
8 - Larry Blanton - 202 (motor out)

After Heat 3:

1 - Richard Curnutte - 395
2 - Mike Swiss - 391
3 - John Tore Anderson - 390
4 - Gary Puetz - 374
5 - Mike Delmonico - 373
6 - Les Wright - 371
7 - Philip Larcom - 368
8 - Larry Blanton - 321

After Heat 4:

1 - Richard Curnutte - 527
2 - Mike Swiss - 527
3 - Les Wright - 493
4 - Gary Puetz - 491
5 - Philip Larcom - 476
6 - Mike Delmonico - 457
7 - John Tore Anderson - 432(out twice for gear problems)
8 - Larry Blanton - 429

After Heat 5:

1 - Mike Swiss - 664
2 - Richard Curnutte - 659
3 - Les Wright - 627
4 - Philip Larcom - 600
5 - Mike Delmonico - 580
6 - Gary Puetz -561 (smoked motor)
7 - Larry Blanton - 498 (smoked motor)
8 - John Tore Anderson - 432 (out of race for broken gear, motor and magnet)

After Heat 6:

1 - Mike Swiss - 793
2 - Richard Curnutte - 772 (body pin)
3 - Les Wright - 760
4 - Philip Larcom - 710
5 - Mike Delmonico - 689 (bent rim)
6 - Gary Puetz - 661
7 - Larry Blanton - 616
8 - John Tore Anderson - 432

After Heat 7:

1 - Mike Swiss - 917
2 - Richard Curnutte - 904
3 - Les Wright - 876
4 - Philip Larcom - 834
5 - Gary Puetz - 861 (leadwire broke)
6 - Mike Delmonico - 756 (smoked motor)
7 - Larry Blanton - 740
8 - John Tore Anderson - 432

After Heat 8:

Geezer Group 7 Official Results

1 - Mike Swiss - 1038
2 - Richard Curnutte - 1027
3 - Les Wright - 961 (bent rim)
4 - Philip Larcom - 895 (spun a pinion)
5 - Gary Puetz - 879
6 - Mike Delmonico - 831
7 - Larry Blanton - 798
8 - John Tore Anderson - 432

The "Geezer" Group 7 race was not as bad a crash fest as I remember in previous years (except for the B Semi - whew!), but it was still quite destructive - however it was also very entertaining to watch. The racers were still quite serious - but once things spread out a bit they maintained a pretty good sense of humor.

My thanks to Keith "bOkeifus" Bauer for helping me out with posting the heat-by-heat "Almost Live" updates!

We now break for a while, and there is practice time for the Group 7 Warm-up race. Tech for the warm-up race will be at around 6 - 6:30 PM Pacific Time.

We'll have results of the Semi's, and will post the starting time for the "Almost Live" coverage of the Group 7 Warm-up Main once I have a good idea of what time it will be at.

Ta-ta for now - this reporter is HUNGRY!

[Bobhardt]

Good job Mike. 1038 in the warmup race. Pro group 7 should be awesome

[purple haze]

Hey ... I was impressed that Gary Puetz went 200 laps in heat 7
(861 - 661 = 200). And with a broken lead wire! That's even fast in Texas!

Good run Mike

[purple haze]

Nice job in 15A Brian. You da man!

[hitman516]

Congratulations...Benny & Les!!!!

Glad to see that the Drag Racing Tips helped!!

Happy Birthday to ya Benny!! What can we say except......

"You Da MAN!!"

From your Drag Racin' buddies in Michigan!