Recap from Atlanta

24th Annual Summit Racing Southern Nationals
Fan Appreciation Top Alcohol Low E.T. Challenge Winners

First of all, I want to express my condolences to Jason Cannon and his
family for the tremendous loss they have suffered this past weekend. Our
prayers are with you during this difficult time.

The Fan Appreciation Top Alcohol Low E.T. Challenge was hard fought and a
well earned award that was won by three outstanding racing teams this
weekend. The winners in each of their respective classes are as follows:

Blown Alcohol Funny Car



Winner: Jay Payne, Valvoline Camaro, with a Low E.T. of 5.585


Blown Alcohol Dragster



Winner: David Wells, Plain Vanilla Racing, Low E.T. of 5.367


A/Fuel Dragster




Winner: Michael Gunderson, Under the Gun Racing, Low E.T. of 5.346


Congratulations also to Michael Gunderson for also nailing down the number
one spot with that great looking pass!

On behalf of David Smith, Prestress Transportation, Inc. (Team PTI) and
myself I want to thank all the alcohol teams, including the owners, drivers,
and crew members for the incredible reception we received during the event.
I was touched by the appreciation and by the many people who said thank you
all weekend. The whole reason we decided to do this award was to let all of
you out in the alky classes know that you were appreciated by the fans. But
we left Sunday evening with the incredible feeling that YOU, the alcohol
racer and crews appreciate the fans just as much. Thanks for the memories
for a wonderful racing weekend. Special thanks also go to Marty Thacker and
crew, David Wells & crew, Jay Payne & crew, Michael Gunderson & crew, Paul
Lee & Jeff McGaffic, Alan Bradshaw, Len Cottrell, Will Smith, Mick Snyder &
family, Marc White & Jeff Wilson, Richard Bourke & crew, and David DeAngelis
for the wonderful conversations and the many kind words of appreciation on
behalf of this fan appreciation award. I also want to thank Marty Thacker
and David Wells for putting me to work this weekend on their crew. It was a
thrill to help you guys out both in the pit area and on the starting line.
It was an honor to also join both Paul Lee and David Wells in their winner's
circle photos. Thank you for that opportunity. I look forward to continuing
my personal and my company's support of this award at both the U.S.
Nationals and at the Joliet race later this year.

George Turner
Team PTI Racing

Cell phone: 678-614-7065
E-mail: gncturner@alltel.net

David Smith

Cell Phone: 973-670-3129
E-mail: dave1971@earthlink.net

 

Hi David,
As Marc White told you (at Atlanta), I am willing to produce decals for the Alky classes. Let me know if you have a logo, or if you need one made. E-mail me @ bwestfall@colorscans.com to communicate, or call 800-895-0233. Thanks again for your interest and support in the class!
Bruce Westfall

 

George & David,
Thanks so much for your support of our class. It means so much more than the money and the award plaque. It's knowing that there are informed, knowledgeable fans out there that appreciate the challenge and effort it takes to field a competitive car in the Top Alky classes.

David, looking forward to seeing your pictures from Atlanta. When do you think they'll be posted?

Thanks again,
Marty

 

Marty got 380 more pictures to sort through. I have alot I want to post and people I wanna thank but wanna get the pictures done first. I took over 1300 photos this past weekend. Hopefully later tonight I will start uploading photos and finish up tomorrow.

David

 

1300 photos!!!!!!!!!! Man dude you have got to have one big memory card in that camera!

 

David it was nice to meet you this past weekend. I wish there were more people with an interest like yours when my family was racing. Thank you for all that you do.

Nick Bell

 

Nick,

Is there plans in the future to bring back out the Bell Boys team?

tjenna

 

Bet thats the Photo Your looking for Marty

Ladon I have 2 512 meg cards and 1 256 meg card. Look foward to seeing you and your family hopefully Thursday evening in Topeka should be fun!

Nick was great meeting you as well ,I enjoyed watching the Bell Boys TAFC run for years at the NHRA events in the northeast area and the specialty match race shows at Englishtown.

Again I would like to thank everyone for there support for the Fan Appreciation Top Alcohol Challenge Series.

David Smith

 

Lets put it this way....There have been plans in my mind for that since the day my uncle passed and even more since my father passed and still more since spending the race weekend with Paul and team in atlanta. Now you two find a way for me to pay the bills and run hard and not worry about parts and we'll do it tomorrow....Got any bright ideas?

[ May 24, 2004, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: nick bell ]

 

I am trying to figure that out myself. Once I do we will be out racing and hope to see you.

 

You guys come up with anything yet?