It was this past weekend May 17th & 18th. I was in Gainesville, FL with some friends to watch the NHRA Summit Sport Compact Drag Racing Series' stop at Gainesville Raceway. The event was called Auto Trader Magazines Southeast NHRA Sport Compact Nationals. While we were there on Sat, my friend Jim and his wife Crystal talked me into entering the ET-2 class (12.00 sec. & slower) bracket racing competition. This was my first time bracket racing so I ran practice runs most of Sat and Sun before eliminations started. I set my dial-in time to an easy to replicate 15.55 sec. After 4 rounds of eliminations, I faced a 350Z track edition in the finals. I got a good reaction time and then he got a red light, so then I started honking my horn the rest of the way down the track (I know, I know, I'm retarded). After I got my winning time slip, the 350Z driver congratulated me on the win and said he wasn't too disappointed, because he still gets $100 for second place and he also won the Quaker State dyno competition for the most horsepower put out of a N/A 6cyl car and got prizes for that too (also, before that run, he said he was glad it was two nissans in the finals). So after that, I went over to the payout room in the tower and they cut me a check for $500. After the Pro classes finished running, they had all the winners drive into the winners' circle one at a time for trophy presentation and photo ops with the different sponsors. A couple magazines got some pics of me too, Turbo and Import Tuner I think were the two, or maybe Honda Tuner was one, I forget. Also the event will be aired on ESPN 2 on June 8th at 10:30pm and again on June 14th at 3:30am, they may not show any footage of the class I was in though, but it would be cool if they did. Anyway, I had a great time and I'll be back next year to defend my title.

I put my time slips and some pics of the event on my website here:
website page 2

 

Congrats on the win. Getting paid to race is fun isn't it?

 

Nice job!! Nothing better than drag racing especially getting paid to do it

 

It beats working.

 

 

Man, if I knew you were racing I would have come out. It's only 20 minutes or so from me. Congrats on the win!

 

Yeah yeah yeah, big deal, whoptie chris, your just lucky my max wasnt at the track buddy. Wouldve taken your precious 500 dollars. But nooo, my *** was at the mall buying nothing!!!! WTF?

Oh well, next time, i going bracket racing with ya chris...


Oh yeah, and congrats biatch..

Eric

 

yeah. if i was up there for summer i would have gone too.

 

nice job representing, you are the man!

 

Great Job!!! Holding down the Max's on the track..

 

Damn your lucky as he11 to have a track 20 mins from you. Im stuck driving an hour and a half

 

same here...

How far are you from brandenton motorsports blub?!

Eric

 

damn son....1st time ...very sweet.

the Northeast NHRA Sport Compact Nationals are here in NJ this weekend. I was thinking about racing but I didn't think I would stand a chance. You gave me some inspiration. hehe. maybe ill give it a shot...

 

 

Good job Chris.

 

kickass.congrats!!