 All Three Drivers Qualify in Valdosta!!!Bankston Boyz racing knew it would be a tough battle to get all 3 cars qualified in the highly competitive ADRL Pro Nitrous class due to the cream of the crop teams that would be in attendance. Michael Bankston patrolled his team's pit areas ensuring his 3 teams were up for the challenge. John DeFlorian in his 06 corvette was the first Bankston Boyz car out to test the SGMP track. The car left the line hard but then drifted to the left so John wisely shut off. As John was towed back to the pits he said he knew what was wrong and a minor chassis tweak would correct the problem.  Stan Allen was next behind the wheel of the other Bankston Boyz 68 Camaro. Stan ran a 4.051 @ 183.92 and mentioned to Michael Bankston that the car felt soft. Michael Bankston examined the computer data and made the necessary changes to the tune-up for the next pass. With the car on the jack stands, Alan Masson, former crew chief of XTF Viscardi Racing, mentioned that the left rear wheel appeared to have a lot of play in it. The crew pulled the rear wheels and found the hub bearings to be the problem. Stan's Camaro is a McAmis built car and with Tim McAmis at all the ADRL races, the call went out to Tim McAmis. Tim examined the problem and was able to correct the issues before the 2nd test session was called. As the 3 Bankston Boyz cars sat in the staging lanes waiting for their 2nd test pass, Extreme 10.5 driver Mike "Hit Man" Hill had the misfortune of losing control of his 63 corvette, crossing the centerline and tagging Ray Conover in his 95 Mustang. Both drivers appeared ok but their cars were done for the weekend. The carnage from the accident took some time to clean up and only John DeFlorian was able to make the 2nd test pass due to the drivers meeting schedule. On John's 2nd test run, the car rattled the tires just pass the 60' marker so he clicked the motor off. The team wasn't sure if a bald spot on the track created the tire shake or possibly the rear shock settings. After examining the computer, the decision was made to change the shock settings. 1st round of qualifying saw John DeFlorian leave the line and experience violent tire shake before the 60' marker, so needless to say the shock settings were definitely the wrong change made to the car. John beat himself up for not going with his gut instinct on the shock settings. Crew member Mr. Hodges looked at the rear shock experience on a positive note, told John at least now you know how to put bite in the car. Stan Allen ran 4.025 @ 184.98 on his 1st qualifying attempt that put him solidly in the field. It was a single pass that looked great and straight. Tim Savell was up next but at the completion of his burn out the car caught on fire. Tim immediately activated the fire bottle system while ADRL track worker, Jim "Hawk" Fathera jumped the retaining wall with a fire extinguisher in hand. Luckily the fire was extinguished with no damage to the car. It must be noted that 2 wardrobe malfunctions occurred as crew members ran to assist Tim, the crowd roared to life as a parade of plumber's crack ran down the track to make sure everything was alright. With everyone's pants pulled up, the car was pushed off the track and towed back to the pit area for a complete inspection. 
Saturday 11 April 200911-April 2009 -Saturday morning was as normal as it could have been for Bankston Boyz Racing with the exception of an intense photo shoot for Tony Weber of RPM Magazine for an upcoming spread on all three of the Pro-Nitrous entries. All three cars were staged for the photo op and many different combinations of crew, cars, and drivers were shot. With the "bump" set at 4.58 from round 1 of qualifications we knew that we had the capability to get into the 16 car field. Tim Savell was first up for the Bankston Boyz Racing stable in round 2 of qualifying, after working on the "Blue Beast" overnight after the flash fire that aborted the first attempt on Friday night. The strong winds from Friday had faded as the limp flags atop the flagpoles indicated this day. Tim staged the car in the right lane around 10:30. It appeared from where I was filming the run that when he went to bring the motor up in the stage beams the car pulled through the beams before the tree was activated and the run was lost with no ET or mph recorded. Next out was both John and Stan with DeFlorian running in the right lane and Stan in the left. Both drivers staged the cars and when the light turned green DeFlorian had improved on his Friday run to an ET of 4.077 at 180.86 mph. Stan's run of 4.056 at 180.86 did not improve his position from Friday. On Saturday morning, the DeFlorian pit area prepped the car as usual but they knew they were down to their last 2 shots of getting qualified for the extremely competitive Pro Nitrous field. As John and "clutchman" Dan looked over the car, Dan noticed that the left wheelie bar had a bow in it; John said everything would be ok, so off to the staging lanes for the 2nd qualifying run. The car left hard, no tire shake, scoreboard showed 4.077 at 180.86 mph, but the crew noticed yellow flames and heard the motor popping as John went down the track. The 4.07 was good to see but everyone was concerned about the yellow flame and popping noises. Towing John back to the pit area he told us he had no shift light on that 4.07 run and the motor was hitting the rev limiter, hence the yellow flames and popping noises. The tire shake from the 1st qualifying pass not only bent one of the wheelie bars but also disconnected the shift light. The 4.07 run had John qualified but with the quality of cars at this event he wanted to step it up to get in the top half of the field. For the third and final qualifying session which began around 2:30, Stan and John were matched up against one another again this time with Allen in the right lane and DeFlorian in the left. The track had warmed up to the low 120 degree range and a mild westerly breeze was blowing over the partly cloudy track surface. John launched hard and his crew kept their fingers crossed until they saw the scoreboard light up with a 4.012 @ 184.83mph. That pass was another career best for John and put him in the field at #9. Congratulations go out to the entire team for their hard work and perseverance in getting this Jerry Hass ZO6 Corvette to perform. Check out the videos on this site to witness the balance the car demonstrated on the pass. The most obvious to me is the fact that the car did not pull the front end near as bad as it has done in races past. Stan Allen's run was a little slower than earlier in the day at 4.074 and 182.92 mph. Stan Allen's Friday night pass of 4.025 placed him in the field in the 11th slot.  With qualifying under our belts and all 3 cars qualified in the bottom half of the field we knew our jobs were going to be tough in order to go rounds because all cars would be matched with quicker qualified rides of our talented competitors. Round one of eliminations began around 5:00 and John DeFlorian was first out in the right lane against Steve Vick of North Carolina who had qualified his beautiful 68 Camaro in the 8th position. The cars rolled in and John cut a .029 light against a .084 light from Vick. John got out of the box smooth and it appeared that after his 1 -2 shift the car shook and drifted right and out of the groove allowing Vick to drive around him. Both cars had identical 1.01 sixty foot times however John shut it off allowing Vick to advance to round two of eliminations with a stout run of 3.96! That would have been one hell of a race if John's car could have duplicated the 4.01 pass. Vick eventually found himself in the finals against Jim Halsey eventual winner of the 09 ADRL Hardee's drags. A while later it was Stan Allen's valiant effort against Burton Auxier who had his Al-Anabi Racing entry qualified in the 6th spot. Stan staged his Tim McAmis 68 Camaro in the left lane and when it was all said and done Stan had posted a losing 4.054 ET at 183.27 mph to Auxier's blistering run of 3.950 and 189.58 mph. Stan cut a .047 light against Auxier's incredible .013 and this one was done at the tree. With two of the Bankston Boyz Racing's cars on the trailer Tim Savell and his "Blue Beast" was last out and staged the car in the left lane against Mike Castellana who had qualified his Al-Anabi Racing Firebird in the third slot in the right lane. When the tree dropped Tim's car left hard and went immediately left and out of the groove ending the race weekend for the entire Bankston Boyz. Hey that's drag racing; you suck it up and head to the next race. After completion of the race Stan Allen finds himself holding on to 4th place in the Battle for the Belts standing with three races completed. Tim Savell moved up to 10th place in the standings and John DeFlorian moving up one position in the points from 18th to 17th. It is the goal of Bankston Boyz Racing to have all three racing entries competing for the championship in October in Ennis, TX. Bankston Boyz Racing would like to thank our sponsors who without their help and dedication we would not be able to compete: Mississippi Foundation Repair Specialists, Level Home, TeaCo Geophysical, and Goodyear. A special thanks goes out to Tim McAmis and his employees for their hard work in getting the hub and bearing issue resolved. Bankston Boyz racing was elated to have all 3 cars qualify and look forward to the next ADRL race in Memphis May 22-23. Every racer goes to the track for one thing, to win. Regards, Mark Teague & Jim Kelley |