The Shootout is over, what a week it was. We are always busy for the shootout but this year was even more so. I have to really thank Tym and Ted for busting there butts the entire week to make sure everyone got their cars in time to race.

I haven't gotten the official count of the cars and spectators from the track yet but it seemed as big or bigger than any year in the past. I know the hotels were PACKED with DSM's I have never seen them so full.

The EVO class went great. I counted about 25 EVO's that were racing.
One of the guys that had just bought all of our parts won the class. He ran GREAT, first time ever to the track in anything and won the class. He ran a best of 12.5 at 109 mph.

Bruce Kwartler the owner of my old RWD car had bad luck, he broke a torque converter. The car is here now and is going to be bad ass when it comes back out, be patient Bruce.

Darryl Hudson with our old orange shop car ran a 10.7 on Sunday. Saturday he broke a trans and Daniel came back to the shop with him so he could use our press to rebuild it. Sunday he completely grenaded a transfer case and axle all in the same pass. He ended up with more bad luck when a front seal went and caused an oil leak. He'll be back.

The Conquest ran unreal. On Saturday we won the Summit Street class. On DOT's, full exhaust and 65 pounds of ballast in the car (2695 pounds) we ran a 9.15 at 149 mph. On Sunday we would have had a great race against John Shepherd, he too ran into some bad luck. The pass before the pass against us he turned up the wick to give us a butt kicking. John ran a 9.08 at 157 mph, this is in an AWD on four slicks!! The round against us something happened. The cars had identical 1.34 sixty foot times and then John dropped back running a 13.3 to our 8.9 second run. I wish it had been closer. The final round against Curt Brown was SICK! That AWD of Curt's was on Kevin's ass. Kevin lifted in the Conquest about 1/2 track to get the car back straight. Again the two had identical 60' times, 1.33. Kevin pulled off the win with a 9.22 to a 9.6 of Curts.

Kevin is doing an outstanding job in the Conquest. He qualified number one on Saturday and Sunday with the car. On Sunday we had the slicks on the ballast out and the exhaust off. He qualified number one with an 8.79 at 151 mph. Of the 11 runs he has made in the competition so far with the car well over half of the reaction times are in the .400's. This driver and car are going to be a team to be feared as time goes on.

For those of you that missed the shootout, you gotta make it next year.
What a weekend it always is.

David