Hardee's Gateway Drags II in St Louis, Missouri Wrap up6 August 2009 – St Louis, Mo The 2009 ADRL race weekend at Gateway International Raceway began with waiting in line before the gates opened at 2:00 to begin parking the motorhomes in the pit areas. With about 8 hours to wait prior to this a decision was made by Amy Allen, wife of driver Stan Allen, that this would be a great chance to get out and experience some of the world famous sites in St Louis. So, when one thinks of this historic city what sites immediately come to mind? Well, we first went to the Arch on the Mississippi River and it was really neat to go up into the top and get a bird’s eye view of the metropolitan area. While we were up in the top of the Arch, we noticed a large area with red bricks just to the south of our location that appeared intriguing from this vantage point. So, we decided to hail a cab and go to conduct further investigations of this site.    With all of the preliminaries out of the way, John was invited by "Big Don" of Talkradio93x.com to discuss the ADRL and Bankston Boyz Racing’s efforts on the 2009 season for a national audience. It was quite cool to witness this and I recorded about five minutes of this interview and it in the video section from this race under the miscellaneous file. After the interview wrapped up I called it a day and went back to the hotel for a good night's rest before a long hot day at the track on Friday On Friday testing began on time and was uneventful with the exception of bad luck for Tim Savell and his "Blue Beast". On his first test hit Tim got out about 100’ and broke a new third member with only 4 runs on it and oiled the track down. He did a great job in keeping the car straight and immediately got out of the groove near the left wall and coasted to a stop past the shutdown. The cleanup lasted quite a while due to the synthetic oil from the rear end being a little harder to get off the track. Meanwhile, Stan Allen sat in the staging lane suited up and sweating because he was next out in the right lane for his first test hit. Due to our team not having another third member to replace the broken part, Tim's race weekend was over because of a mechanical failure. Later in the afternoon, with track temperatures at a moderate 125 degrees and density altitude around 2850 feet the second test session began for the remaining teammates. John DeFlorian was first out in the right lane and had a nice run to the 330' marker until the third nitrous kit came in and caused the car to get "squirrelly left" forcing John to abort the run. His time was a mere 4.711 and 116.29 mph. Next out was Stan Allen who also ran the right lane on a nice straight pass with an ET of 4.015 and a mph of 186.64. Both cars were brought back to the pits for servicing prior to round one of qualifying. While I was in the pits, jumping between all 3 teams, I noticed that traffic on the interstate was backed up once again with fans attempting to get into the race! I heard an announcement made on the facility’s P A system that said traffic was backed all the way up to the Mississippi River in St. Louis several miles away. The state police were forced to close the track at 8:00 for any more fans to be allowed into Gateway International Raceway. Unofficially, I heard that the Friday fan total was 64,000 and if this is true it shattered our previous Friday record, set 2 weeks ago at Richmond, of 41,000! What a great turn out of fans on a hot summer day, thank you St. Louis, MO! Qualifying began on time and Stan was out first in the right lane and he ran a 4.003 ET and put a 187.00 mph on the scoreboard placing him solidly in fourth after one round of qualifications. Next up was John DeFlorian and he too ran the right lane. When the tree dropped the ZO6 Corvette left the line nicely but once again when the third kit came in the car jumped hard left crossing the centerline into the left lane. Thank goodness that John was on a single pass and had the option to cross over rather than risking serious damage by snatching the car back into his lane to avoid another competitor. So with this the night was over for Bankston Boyz racing.  I showed up to the track on Saturday morning around 8:30 with a dozen bags of ice and another 2 cases of bottled water in anticipation of a 98 degree and 85% humidity day as predicted by local meteorologists. By the time that the second qualifier arrived we were witness to 95 degree temperatures and humidity around 70% making the track warm up to 138 degrees with a corrected altitude of a little less than 3100 feet. The round began at 11:00 and DeFlorian was determined to bump his way into the field of sixteen. With the bump set at an ET of 4.78 he knew that this was an important pass and hoped he had taken the right amount out of the third nitrous kit in order to keep the car calm enough to handle. As the Christmas tree dropped John dumped the clutch and launched his Jerry Haas Corvette out of the box! By the time the run had completed he had powered his Reher-Morrison machine out the back at 4.099 at 184.52 mph placing him solidly in 6th place after two qualifiers. Next out was Stan Allen in his beautiful black and gold painted 68 Tim McAmis Camaro in the left lane as well. He left the line soft and by the 330’ marker the car was out of the groove to the right forcing him to click the run with a recorded run of 4.272 and a mph of 142.75. Later in the day when it came time for the third and final qualifier conditions had worsened with track temperatures well above the 145 degree range, however the density altitude remained the same. John came out in the right lane and made a 330' hit and ran an ET of 4.945 and 106.81. He ends up qualified in the 7th slot for the race. Stan Allen went out in the right lane and once again the car went right and out of the groove forcing him to again abort the run. It appears that the suspension changes made last night were not the answer to the 60' problem. This places him in the 5th overall slot after 3 rounds of qualifying. Round one of eliminations began at 4:00 with Stan Allen being first out for Bankston Boyz Racing and was matched up against Lee Atkins in his McAmis torque converter car. They were the second pair out with Stan having lane choice and taking the left lane over Atkins. Both machines left the line clean but once again Allen’s car went right and out of the groove allowing Atkins the win light and placed Stan Allen on the trailer. John DeFlorian was out next for our team and was matched up against Jim Halsey. He cut a light on Halsey and got the win with a 4.073 ET and a mph of 183.69 over Halsey's 4.34. . Round two saw DeFlorian on a bye run due to Pat Stoken not being able to make the call due to a broken car. This placed him into the semi finals against team Al-Anabi Racing's rookie driver Khalid Al-Balooshi. After getting the car into the stage beams John dropped a red cherry ending his weekend due to a foul. Al-Balooshi hit the wall on his run and under the ADRL rules this is not a foul and was allowed to make into the finals against teammate and eventual Pro-Nitrous winner Mike Castellana.  We are heading into the next race in Hebron, OH in hopes of breaking another attendance record. We wish to thank all of our fans because without them we could not put on a show that forces the state police to close facilities anywhere we go! Thank you all! Regards, Mark Teague |