World Finals Press Release

Bankston Boyz, as One Season Ends Another Begins at Texas Motorplex

27 October 2009 - Teammates Stan Allen and John DeFlorian rolled into the Texas Motorplex located just outside of Ennis, TX this past Thursday for the first race of the 2010 National Guard ADRL race season to be contested on Saturday. However, before this could occur there was one little thing on the forefront of everyone’s mind; the 2009 Speedtech Battle for the Belts world championship to be held on Friday during qualifications. With a new car in the trailer and ole Steady Freddy in the spare rig Stan Allen was confident in his odds of going rounds in the pursuit of the $50,000 bounty placed by Speedtech Innovative Nitrous Systems for the 2009 ADRL Pro-Nitrous champion.

After completing a lack luster test session at the nearby Dallas Raceway located in Crandall, TX the day prior the teams got their respective areas set up for the weekend. Stan Allen had both of his cars available and pitted next to one another near the top end of the track, with John only two pits down. With the rain gone from earlier in the day, a stiff wind blowing, and temperatures hanging in the mid 40’s everyone decided to call it a day to get a good night’s rest before thrashing on the car in the morning.

Friday morning rolls around and it is business as usual for Bankston Boyz Racing with the exception of one item; the car under the canopy is a 2008 David Janes ’68 Camaro in team Al-Anabi colors of Shannon Jenkins. This recent acquisition by Michael Bankston sports a 798 ci Reher-Morrison power plant with 4 stages of Speedtech nitrous as a power adder. This combination is then attached to a Lenko 4 speed tranny to get those big Goodyear 1230’s moving. I admit that this took a while to get used to seeing under our canopy but I did not mind at all!

Crew members David Shelton, James “RedEye” Goodson, Innis Goodson, and LeOtis Kelley got their respective assignments completed with the new ride and waited for team owner Michael Bankston to give the go ahead for the warm up. Stan Allen services his own clutch pack and for the entire year he had been servicing a Crower clutch in the McAmis Camaro and found Black Ice outfitted with a Ram clutch. After somewhat of a learning curve he got up to speed on the differences in settings and was ready to fire that puppy up. Stan brought the motor called Sweet Pea to life and conspicuous grins came across everyone’s faces. With engine timing, and carbs set we dropped Black Ice off the Pro-Jacks and rolled into the staging lanes for our first qualifying hit of the day for our newest steed.

In the meantime teammate John DeFlorian, coming off a career best et of 3.97 in Rockingham last month, got his ’06 ZO6 Jerry Haas Corvette ready to go. Clutch can Dan Helmer was up to his elbows inside the car servicing the Ram clutch in preparation for the first round of qualifying. It appeared to me that John was a little more anxious than usual to get the run completed and I think this was probably due to concerns with tire speed off the line and the ability of getting a complete run to tune from for the rest of the event.

So as an added benefit Bankston Boyz Racing’s team sponsors Mississippi Foundation repair Specialists, and TeaCo Geophysical provided all crew members new crew shirts to wear at future events. These professionally designed sublimed crew shirts were made by Vicci Fashions out of California and working with them has been satisfying and we are happy to endorse them.

With this Bankston Boyz Racing was in the staging lanes and were ready for the first chance at the track for the day. Track conditions for this attempt were good with density altitude coming in around 1550’ corrected; track temp 93 degrees, and relative humidity holding at 37%. John DeFlorian was first out in the right lane sporting a new Jerry Haas Race Cars logo prominently on the side of his immaculate 06 Corvette. With the car staged and up on the two step, DeFlorian launched hard before drifting slightly left on a really nice pass for the first attempt with a 4.046 et and a mph of 185.51. Next out was Stan Allen in the newly acquired Black Ice, Speedtech, Reher-Morrison sponsored 68 Camaro running the left lane. After a lack luster burnout Stan brought the car into the beams and when the tree dropped he ran a slow 4.652 et at 160.38 mph. After talking with Stan in the pits I was told that he had a glare from the sun in the cockpit and did not notice the nitrous system was not armed and made the pass on all motor. Things like this are bound to happen anytime you change cars illustrating the necessity of testing.

With this error identified Michael Bankston put a tune up into Black Ice and had her ready for qualifying round 2, which is also round 1 elimination for the 2009 Speedtech Battle for the Belts. Stan Allen was third pair out and was matched up with Kahlid al-Balooshi of Al-Anabi Racing from Qatar. Again when the car left the line it was on all motor only to have the third kit come on into the run giving Stan a round one loss to Al-Balooshi on a 4.53 pass. Stan Allen finishes the 2009 ADRL season sixth in points after a very exciting year and I commend him and his crew for their hard work and dedication. I am excited about the 2010 ADRL season and am confident to say that there will be 2 Bankston Boyz cars in the points chase next year and more than likely running in the 3.80 range!

After this John DeFlorian is in the staging lanes waiting for the Pro-Extreme class to finish round one when Jason Hamstra has a horrible accident just as he came through the traps. Due to safety issues and clean up required the ADRL’s director of competition Bubba Corzine decided it would be best to call it a day and complete the Battle on Saturday. This caused everyone in the staging lanes to return to the pits without getting the hit and losing a qualifier. This really put the pressure on the competitors knowing that with Saturday comes only one qualifier to get into the 16 car Pro-Nitrous field. If you were one of the fortunate who won their rounds in the Battle for the Belt you were allowed extra shots at the track and these times counted as qualifiers. It became evident to me that even though in my opinion the surface here in Ennis was better than the Rock, our fans would not see another 3.99 Pro Nitrous field due to the loss of 2 qualifying rounds and this surprised me. There is little doubt in my mind that this would have happened after seeing the incredible bite in the track, just like last year.

As DeFlorian was in the lanes Michael Bankston decided that based on the lack of performance from Black Ice that he should put her up for the weekend and get the black and gold ’68 Tim McAmis Camaro out and warmed up for a hit during scheduled Pro-Nitrous qualifying on Friday night. We had informed the ADRL officials of our intent to withdraw Black Ice and her two poor attempts and were planning on running the colors that our fans are used to seeing all season. As we were getting the car out of the pit and ready to hook to the tow vehicle, we were informed of the situation with Hamstra and the suspension of activities for the day. So, with this the stage is set, John DeFlorian is in the field on his only hit of 4.046 and Stan was not on two qualifiers. Mike withdraws Black Ice and is now taking a shot to get into the field on his only remaining attempt left on Saturday and continuing Stan Allen’s qualifying streak.

Saturday rolls around and everyone appears to be moving a little slow either because it was a cool fall morning in Texas, or possibly the liquid spirits enjoyed by all the night before! In actuality, the car was serviced and ready to go from last night and we just needed to warm it up in order to be ready to play. DeFlorian was in the same situation with his car as well. So with a little time on our hands I decided to take Brother, Stan Allen Jr, to the tattoo parlor located on the Midway for some ink; be sure to watch all 3 videos on this site under misc videos.

With the cars serviced we brought them into the staging lanes for our final attempts to improve John’s position and to get Stan into the Pro-Nitrous field. The air conditions this day were nearly the same from Friday with density altitude coming in around 1400 feet and track temps were in the mid 90’s. First out is John DeFlorian and is running the left lane with me shooting video from the 100’ mark on the wall. The video appears shaky due to me zooming in to see John leave the line to come at me and then past me. This video stuff is not as easy as it appears to be, but I digress! John gets up on the two step and makes a nice clean run at 4.023 et and a mph of 184.88. With the bump set at 4.34 we see John is going to make the field and are confident that Stan can run a 4.34 or better to get in the game.

Stan Allen brings the McAmis 68 Camaro into the left lane and completes a clean burnout indicating his familiarity with the car as compared to the Black Ice. In what could be described as a well rehearsed routine Stan makes a good clean run of 3.988 et at 189.68 mph putting him in the top eight of the field. What a relief on all of us involved to know that out of the 34 nitrous entries at the Texas Motorplex that both Bankston Boyz Racing’s cars will make the race. Just qualifying for one of these ADRL events is an accomplishment in itself and we were quite proud of this.

After getting both cars serviced and ready for round one of competition we managed to get our drivers down to the ADRL’s Driver Autograph Zone for some fan interactions and pictures. It is at this point that I feel it necessary to thank John and Stan for their patience in dealing with my scheduling and coordinating issues for the season. This is not an easy job in the least but it is rewarding. We wish to thank all our fans that took the time to come see and visit with us throughout the year and we look forward to seeing all of you in the future at the track.

Round one of eliminations began on time and we find that Stan Allen is paired up against Dave Pierce of Oklahoma, who is in on a 3.989 as compared to a 3.988! John DeFlorian is paired up against Mike Castallena who has been solidly in the low 90’s and high 80’s for the weekend. DeFlorian is first out and is put in the left lane by Castallena who had lane choice. John lights the pre-stage and Mike rolls in shortly after; John then rolls into the stage beams and in what seemed like an eternity Mike brings his Camaro into the lights. After all was said and done we see John DeFlorian run a 3.973 et at 186.82 losing to Mike Castellana’s 3.891 et and 194.32 mph. With this John DeFlorian’s ADRL race season ended until March when race number two of the 2010 season commences allowing him to work on his car. DeFlorian stated that he was about to put that Corvette on a diet and get her to shed some weight over the winter and that she will be ready to rock in March at Baytown.

Two pairs after DeFlorian loses to Mike, Stan Allen rolls out for his match against Pierce who is in a recently purchased ’68 Bickel Camaro formerly driven by Khalid Al-Balooshi. Pierce made the purchase earlier this summer at St. Louis and put the Purple Gorilla Corvette away. On a 77 degree track they met one another and when the tree dropped this one was over due to a red light foul by Pierce. By the time the run was complete we witnessed Stan Allen run a career best et of 3.922 and speed of 189.20 putting him into the second round.

After the run everyone was ecstatic for Stan and Michael Bankston on their combined personal best! Putting aside the emotion it was once again time to get thrashing on the car for a second round pairing against Jim Halsey of Maryland. Halsey who has been on a tear this weekend has demonstrated he is not scared to lean on a Fulton motor to the point of destruction; he had already popped one motor last night in the Battle for the Belts and one in the first round today. It is our plan to tweak our tune-up in the hope of getting past Halsey because he has been running low 3.80’s all weekend. When the time came for this matchup Jim puts Stan in the right lane based off motor blowing 3.82 that gave him lane choice.

After the cars stage and the tree drops I get to see another personal best et and speed for Stan Allen of 3.917 and 190.59 losing to Halsey’s motor breaking run of 3.864 and 194.38. It has never felt this good to lose to anyone but knowing that the McAmis Camaro is on a roll makes the sting a little less intense. So if my count is right I saw Halsey pop 3 motors this weekend and there is still 2 rounds of eliminations left for the Minuteman trophy.

With this comes a close to this synopsis from Dallas with Bankston Boyz racing poised for a great 2010 ADRL race season with Stan Allen in 8th place and John DeFlorian in 14th spot after 1 race. Stan Allen finished the 2009 ADRL in 6th place after finishing 3rd in 2008. Michael Bankston has got the tune-ups on these 822 Reher-Morrison motors down and is going in the right direction. I am proud of you all and regret that I will not be able to make all the races in 2010 like I did this year. I will miss ya’ll!

Regards,

Mark Teague