Open 4x4 Nationals Will Be Long Remembered

[Millsey]

There were a lot of things to remember about the Open 4x4 Nationals, but none like the story of Steve Barton vs. John Dreher in the first place race for Competition Eliminator.
Big money and a good title on the line: Both racers had been running great! Then as the tree comes down! Dreher red-lights with a .393. Well normally that would have just given the win to Barton, but guess what? Barton broke at the starting line! Well if anyone other than Barton touched the car he would have been disqualified. So what did he do? He got out and litterly pushed a 2,200 pound car across the finish line some 300-foot away. It took some time and some unbelieveable hard work by Steve, but with the crowd chanting his name and cheering him on he pushed that damn car across the finish line... UNREAL.... Way to go Stevie....
Here's some other stuff from last night (earlier this morning), Daniel Wies of Wentzville won first place in Open 4x4, but J.R. Dreher of Wentzville took top eliminator and second place. J.R. also posted the fastest ET of the night at 3.592 sec. and 89.71 mph.
In Competition Eliminator, as I told you, Steve won first but John Dreher came back and won second and then top eliminator when Steve could not get his car fixed in time to race.
In Stock Eliminator, it was unreal. For years Gladys Edwards and Philip Beaird battled for the top spot even when there was only two or three cars there. Well tonight, same basic results but with a 28 car field. Philip won first place and top eliminator with Gladys taking second.
In Super Pro ATV, Mark Dickens of Bloomsdale finished first, Shawn Jasper of Festus second and Doug Brown of Bloomsdale third.
In Junior ATV (PeeWee), Andrew Zack of High Ridge was first with Courtney Kling of O'Fallon, Mo. taking second and top eliminator.
It's 3:17 a.m., I'm poooooped and going to bed. More later.. I'll post one of Steve working on his car on the track to get it across the line and one of J.D. Dreher... Photos by PDQ....


Night all!!!

 

[Millsey]

Well it's some 12 hours later than when I made that first post and I've had some sleep.

Some other things that really, really stuck out from Saturday was the great crowd both in the grandstand area and in the pits... You people rock! I mean it was a good enthusiastic crowd all night long. It was great hearing the chants coming from the crowd cheering Steve Barton on and the number of people who lined up at the end of the track to see what all happened.
It was just a fun night. Honestly, everyone at the track picked up their game to provide the best possible show and it showed. I know we picked up some new racers because of a large number of first time guys that were there that said they were coming back. That's fantastic.
Special kudos to all the guys who went out and got the over 40 sponsors for the event and everyone at the track who spent a ton of hours the past two weeks getting the place ready. There's still things to do, but we made a huge stride in making that track what it's capable of being.

By the way, special awards went to:
Daniel Wies for Open 4x4 "Best Reaction Time"
Steve Barton for Competition Eliminator "Best package of time/reaction"
Ronnie Maples of Farmington for Stock Eliminator "Best package of time/reaction."

Tim Dee also ran a (this is on memory so I'm probably wrong) a 4.250 on a 4.25 dial in.

J.D. Dreher won the award for "Fastest ET"

OK, no time to waste!!! The Buggy Nationals are this Saturday, June 17th.... That also should be a great show and then on June 24th Bigfoot will be at BRSD...

 

[jeremysutton]

no Jeff u are correct Tim and I raced in the 2nd round, and he dailed in at a 4.25 and ran a 4.25.

 

[sandguy356]

Hey Jeff, just wanted you to know you were great on the mike saturday night. Have a great race this weekend too!

 

[brsd415]

Finally! Terrible thing when you don't have internet service. Just wanted to thank all the sponsors and all the people that helped in making the Open 4x4 Nationals the best race of the Year. Unless we can top it sometime this summer. Thank You Everyone!!!!