An old air base was the site of the NHRA
Lucas Oil divisional race held in Great Bend, Kansas, the home of the first NHRA drag race. The track was not the same quality
as the tracks that host the national events but the people are great and friendly and do a good job with what they have.
The weather was warm and sunny on Thursday
for the test session. The team made two passes, the first one was 8.238 and the second one was a 5.835.
The weather for the first qualifying was
warm and very windy. Darryl hit the pedal and the car went up in smoke. It was found that the clutch studs had broken on the
flywheel. The team changed a few things, did the repairs as was ready for the second round of qualifying on Saturday. The
weather turned cold and windy and Darryl ran a 5.735 @ 240.17 for his second qualifying pass. The third and final qualifying
pass, Darryl ran a 5.867 @ 246.21.
It was 5;00 am on Sunday morning when the
first large thunderstorm hit with lightening and hail. That moved on and everything was quite again however the bigger one
was an hour behind and it hit with a bang. Wind, hail, lightening hit and there was rotation causing the tornado sirens to
go off. Most racers as instructed headed for the National Guard armory that was on the premises. The police was out telling
all the racers that had not awaken. Needless to say, Cindy and the dogs were in the shelter.
The racers were just about ready to go
back to the trailer when another rotation was spotted and everyone just stayed put. After that pass over, the racers left
and got ready for first round. Rain showers continued off and on. The radar showed a massive streak of storms heading toward
the track and that is when it was finally called at 12:00 noon. The message was “Pack up and leave before the storms
get here!’ The Hitchman racing team already had most packed because Cindy was on the computer and watching the radar
since waking up to hail and high winds.
Darryl, Cindy and Justin took the big rig
home and ran into some heavy wind and rain for the first 50 miles and then got a break for the rest of the trip. Rex left
in his truck first and made it fine. Tim was heading north right into the path of the massive outbreak of bad weather to pick
up his mother in Omaha, Nebraska where they were to attend a funeral.
The eliminations was rescheduled
for the Thursday before the national event in Topeka, Kansas. Update: The race has been rescheduled to run on June 26th
and 27th. The decision to run it will be made at a later date.
After a little drying out, the next race
will be a divisional race in Baytown, Texas.
