Friday April 9^th 2004 – Milan Dragway

WOW! Our first Team Z Motorsports Heads-Up Race of the season. Knowing the weather could be anything but nice that early in April, we scheduled a Heads-Up Race anyways. The weather surprisingly was decent and the stands were packed! We were 3 cars short of a full field, with 13 cars qualifying.  All the way from Groveport Ohio, Lee Howie qualified #1 with 7.800 at 168 mph driving his 1984 Corvette. Lee established a new record for the Friday Heads-Up Series. Mike Farrell from Redford Michigan made the 2^nd quickest qualifying of the series at 8.273 – 161 mph.

Eliminations were just as exciting as qualifying. In 1^st round we had a couple upsets, the number 2 and 4 qualifier Mike Farrell and Dave Hopper went out. In round 2, we had 2 cars make their personal best passes ever, Tyson who qualified number 3 with a 8.47 ran 8.362 and Donna Sydor qualified with a 9.280 put her car in the 8’s for the first time running 8.955! Other round 2 notes: Lee Howie ran off the end of the track into the sand, no damage. Round 3 – Semi Finals #3 Tyson vs. #1 Howie, Howie dumps sand all over the starting line and nearly hits the wall, Tyson continues making consistent passes and is now in the final. The half of the semis is #5 Jake Tharp vs. #10 Donna Sydor. Jake unable to run anywhere near his qualifying during eliminations is beat by Sydor.

Finals – 10:50 P.M.  Sydor .5 plus seconds slower than Tyson needs to drill the tree and put the car back into the 8’s. Tyson’s crew is working on the rear end of his Mustang and makes it to the lanes just in time to race in the final. Both cars stage up and the tree comes down, green light starts for both drivers. Sydor’s Mustang goes into a HUGE wheelstand (almost on the bumper) and comes down crooked brushing against the wall. In the other lane, Tyson makes a 16 second pass getting the win light! Tyson’s rear suspension was broke and he was hoping for a red light. All said and done, it was great show with a dramatic ending. Our next event is Friday May 7^th (the 14^th if it rains), we expect a lot more cars. BE THERE!