9/10/11
Riverhead tomorrow! Finally, after losing all of August to rain and Irene, we ar having an event at the Long Island facility! OH, and the wether is looking good.
Gamblers race added to the regular show. This was rescheduled from the August dates that got rained out.
First we are going to run the entire regular portion of the show. After everything is done, we are going to run the Gamblers event. The entry fee is an additional $20, and is to be collected at the LIDRA tent, NOT the front gate. Half the proceeds will go to the Wounded Warriors Project, and the other half will go to the winner.
Dina and Andrew Parise will be on hand this Sunday, as they continue their support for the Holeshot Drags. They are heavily involved with the veterans, so this Wounded Warrior Project is close to their heart.
Three straight weeks of racing! To help make up for the races we lost last month, the Cromertys are also giving us the 18th as well as the 25th as additional days of racing. So we are racing tomorrow, next Sunday, and the Sunday after that.
Note that the 25th is a scheduled raindate for their last 2 Saturday stock car events. If they lose one of them, we lose that date, so our drag racing season for this year may be over next week. MAKE IT A POINT TO COME OUT NOW! It's going to be a long winter before next spring comes around.
8/3/11
Good weather for Friday! This has been some season for weather. We've lost 5 events at Waterford so far to rain. We lost only 3 for the entire 2010 season. Let's hope the weatherman changes his tune for our last 2 months.
Lots of Shootouts. Harley Shootout this Friday at Waterford. We have 3 Jr. Shootouts left for the season. We have Shootouts for All-Fords, Mopars, and Mustangs as well. Check our schedule.
Gamblers Race at Riverhead this weekend in addition to regular show. Our philosophy at HDRA is to keep all the racing fun. This is why we've stayed with trophies only for prizes. That doesn't stop people from constantly asking to have a money race. Since we're always looking to experiment from time to time, we decided we would try a Gamblers Race at Riverhead this weekend to see how it works out.
Everybody that comes to race this weekend pays the normal $40 to race. If you wish to enter the Gamblers race, it is an additional $20, which is to be paid at the LIDRA table before the event. The Gamblers race will be the last event of the day. Half the money collected will go to the Wounded Warriors Project, and the other half goes to the winner (or winner/runner-up).
If you run in the Gamblers event, you are also permitted to run in the regular portion of the show as well.
Drags in Putnam, CT! We will be part of this spectacular show Sunday August 14th. 2500+ Show Cars are packed in throughout the town. Stunt Bike exhibitions by Luke Emmons. Burnout contests. plus, HDRA HOLESHOT DRAGS! We will be racing from 10:30am to 1:30pm. The entire $20 entry fee will go towards the Deery Memorial Cancer Fund. It'll be a fun event, and thousands of spectators will be on hand.
7/23/11
WOW! Was it hot yesterday! We had a reduced field of entries at Waterford last night, as the heat was brutal. We spent several hours setting up the equipment with trackside temps at over 110. Still, the racing was very good. Surprising was the fact that there didn't seem to be any overheating issues. I think everybody was prepared.
Riverhead #3 this Sunday! The third event for Riverhead NY this season is tomorrow afternoon. Interest continues to grow. The HDRA staff loves coming to the island to do this event.
This July 24th event is a regular show. Class A (2.99 and faster), Class B (3.00 and slower), plus the Orient Express Bike Eliminator.
Added Riverhead date. We have an added date to our schedule, which is two weeks later on August 7th. We are looking to do a regular show, but perhaps (and just perhaps) add an additional event, such as a heads-up event, or a Gamblers Race. We will discuss this with all Competitors tomorrow to get feedback, and then go from there. Please don't go posting on your blogs any information until WE post it here as fact. Too many people are taking casual conversation and spreading it as gospal.
6/2/11
We are in DRAGTIME NEWS! This is a great online magazine, dedicated to the weekly Bracket racer. They did an initial article about us coming to Long Island, and then followed up with an article and pictures from our May 22nd event. This is the link: http://www.dragtimenews.com/ Event number 5 for Waterford. We continue to have great racing at the Speedbowl. Check out our schedule for upcoming Shootouts. Our first is a Mustang Shootout June 17th..
Thompson... Attempt number 4. This coming Tuesday will be our 4th attempt to get a show in at Thompson. Mom Nature, no friend to any of the race tracks, has been particularly harsh on our Tuesday night program. While it's several days away, the long term forecast is looking very good for June 7th.
Riverhead June 26th. We had a great time at the Long Island facility. Great racers, and a great group of people on the Riverhead staff that helped make this a great first time event. Our next event is less than 3 weeks away. Spread the word!
Putnam Main Street Car Show. We will be at this huge event August 14th. There were over 2500 show cars last year at this show. We will be there producing a Holeshot Drag Event that day. There will be thousands on hand to see our event.
Wall Stadium, NJ. We will be promoting our first event in NJ Sept 18th in conjunction with a Car Show. We are looking for a car club to partner up with us to make this a great event.
5/23/11
Riverhead's first event in the books!Despite the ugly morning weather, plus competition from all the other car events on the island (some raindates from last week), we had a very nice turnout of cars and spectators. More on the Riverhead page on this newsletter!
Thompson Tuesday night! Attempt number 3 this Tuesday with Thompson. Mom Nature hasn't been kind to us these past two weeks, and hopefully we'll get a break for the May 24th event.
Also, we will be doing a special show this coming Sunday afternoon at Thompson during their "Eve of Destruction" weekend. Those interested in being part of this extraordinary day of events, please contact us.
Waterford's 4th event of the season this Friday! Racing continues to be great!
5/20/11
Riverhead This Sunday. The response has been huge for this Sunday's Riverhead event. Along with racing for everybody, we will have a "Cacklefest" with George Snizeks AA/F Altered, and Billy Lynch's AA/F Rail.
Questions. THere's been alot of them. Click on to the "Riverhead" page to get all (well, ok, most) of your questions answered. Just click the Riverhead button found above.
5/18/11
WE WILL BE ON "MOTORMOUTH" RADIO SHOW THURSDAY AT 12 NOON - WHPC-FM 90.3
Tune in! The whole show will be devoted to HDRA, the Holeshot Drags, and our event at Riverhead this Sunday!
WATERFORD THIS FRIDAY
RIVERHEAD THIS SUNDAY
5/17/11
Mother Nature wins again. For the 2nd week in a row, Thompson has fallen victim to the weather. Just a reminder, for those that came this past Tuesday, your tickets will be honored next week on the 24th.
Everything Great at Waterford. We've had our first two events at the Speedbowl, and they've been great. Great racing, and some surprise wins. The biggest surprise was 11 year old Keith Brown in his ATV taking "Bike" Eliminator against the adults. We have a growing field of kids, and are looking at the possibility of splitting them off into their own Eliminator.
Riverhead this Sunday. Our first event on Long Island finally happens this Sunday at Riverhead Raceway. Pits open at 9am (earlier than the published 10am), Test & Tune starts at 12 noon. We are looking at Eliminations to start at 5pm.
Headlining the Riverhead event is the Cacklefest by George Snizek and Billy Lynch. George's car is the famous record holder AA/F Altered "Tazmanian Devil". Billy's car is a beautiful repro of his AA/F Dragster. If you've never heard a blown Hemi run on nitro, this is an event you shouldn't miss!
5/10/11
Thompson opener is here. More on the "Thompson" page.
5/9/11
Thompson opener tomorrow! Pits open at 3pm, Test & Tune starts at 5pm. Eliminations are scheduled to start at 8pm. More on the "Thompson" page.
Great Waterford Opener! Great field of cars, great competition! More on the "Waterford" page here on this newsletter.
5/5/11
HDRA Opening Day Friday! With this ugly winter becoming more of a distant memory, opening day is finally here! It kind of sneaked up on many of us. Many people are chomping on the bit to go racing.
Upgraded timing system. We ran a Portatree "stand alone" timing system last year, and have now done another upgrade. Brandy Donahue had the responsibility of running "the box", which was the heart of the system. While it served its purpose, it was a bear to operate, not user friendly, and it was incredible how Brandy ran it so fast and efficiently.
This year we've upgraded to their new PC version, which gives us more options, more efficiency, and more organization. We will have the ability to have racers information on hand on each run. The system will tally and keep track of points every week. It will also keep better track of each round.
Non-points night. We just received the system a few days ago, so we are still in a learning curve. For this reason, plus to account for 1st day gremlins for racers, the first night will not be a points night. We did this last year, and will probably do it every year. This will be a shake down night for everybody. We still have Test & Tune, plus Eliminations with trophies for May 6th, just no points for the first night. Points will start next week.
Other improvements. Racer Dave Gagnon has built a new tree for us, and we are looking to debut it next week. It's basically finished, but needs final touches. It has a nostalgic look, as it looks much like the Chrondeks from the 60's. The new tree has lights facing both sides, so fans and racers from all sides will be able to see what is going on. Dave did a great job!
We will also have an LED message board by the finish line which will display ET's and RT's after each run. We are looking to have it in our hands before the end of the month.
See you at the races!
4/26/11
We are just days away from opening the 2011 season! Waterford is just a week and a half away, and Thompson is 2 weeks from today as of this writing. More racers than ever will be participating in the "Holeshot Drags" this season.
HDRA expansion. We started this gig in 2007 running occasional events. 2010 was our first full time season at Waterford, and it was a success. We also did a special event at Thompson in October, another success.
Now we have 5 venues for 2011, with Waterford and Thompson as our weekly tracks, running from May until October. We also have Riverhead Raceway for 5 events this summer. The Putnam Car Cruise (August 14th) will be hosting us as a main attaction during their huge summer show. We just added Wall Stadium to out schedule for a Sept 18th event. Details are still being worked out for that one, as we may also include a car show there. And more tracks are coming!
Rules. The rules for this season are still being refined, but remain mostly unchanged from 2010. Our "rules" page will reflect any changes by next week.
One change... any AWD or 4WD vehicle running 2.99 and faster will automatically run in the "Comp" class. When you have a little 4 cyl. motor pushing 300 horses, or a 7800 lb. truck running in the 2's, obviously there has to be serious modifications. This is in an effort to keep the Street class as "street" as possible.
Using DOT slicks and Drag Radials still puts you in Comp. We are still looking at determining a number for the wear factor. Right now it is set at 200, which is a very high performance street tire (DOT slicks and drag radials have a wear factor of 0).
2/28/11
Banquet date changed. Due to last minute changes and ticket sales, we feel it best to change the date for our first Banquet from March 4th to April 8th. This will allow more time for ticket sales. We want this event to be a great one, and the extra time will help make it so.
2/7/11
Drivers Roster. We just started a drivers roster page on this newsletter site. If you signed for a Competitors number for 2011, your name is on this page.
The Riverhead racers have been sending in apps for their numbers on a regular basis. As a reminder, we need to have an idea if you are planning to race with us at Riverhead. Quite simply, the more that get their number in advance, the bigger our staff will be, and the schedule will be adjusted to allow for ample time for test and tune. Getting your Competition number will guarantee that we will make room for you.
Many of the CT regulars will be renewing their numbers when we have our banquet next month. For those of you in CT that have sent in to register that weren't with us in 2010, we will assign your number after the March 4th banquet. For those that want to keep last years number, get your app in by March 4th.
Speaking of the Banquet, it's sneaking up on us. It looks like we're going to have a great turnout on March 4th! Everybody is looking forward to getting together to do some bench racing! Don't forget that we will have Dennis Tate on hand to show old time Drag Movies. We'll also have the timing system set up to do Practice Tree Shootouts throughout the night. Of course, we'll be awarding trophies for all the top ten points earners in each Eliminator; Comp, Street, and Bike.
2/3/11
We now have a "Banquet" page on our website (www.100footdrags.com) that will give you all the information you need to order your tickets. The banquet will be held at the Elks Club in New London, CT on Friday night, March 4th. A buffet will be available, as well as a cash bar.
We will be awarding trophies for the top 10 points earners in all three Eliminators.
We will also be showing movies of drag races from the 60's and 70's. Dennis Tate from the TV show "Cars & Us will providing the movies, as well as background music.
Our timing system will be on hand for "Practice Tree Shootouts" throughout the night. Let's see who really has the best reaction times!
Please send your name, number of people in your party, along with payment to the address listed on the "Banquet" page. You may also make payment through PayPal, if that would be more convenient. Tickets are $20 per person.
We look forward to seeing everybody there! It's going to be a blast!
HDRA at the Maratta Show
in Hartford
Frank Grillo's Super Gas Camaro at the HDRA booth.
1/31/11
The Maratta Show was GREAT! We handed out thousands of fliers out to the crowd that showed. Frank Grillo's Mohegan Sun sponsored Camaro was part of our booth, and it drew alot of attention.
We also had Frank's Practice Tree on hand. People all weekend were going up against each other, testing their skills. Many people that had never done this before found out that they were actually pretty good. It was a great tool to have on hand in promoting our 100 foot gig.
The original Connecticut Dragway tree
Connecticut Dragway tree. One of the displays we really enjoyed were two Willys pulling the wheels off the ground" at the starting line. The tree is the original tree from CT Dragway. This thing is TALL... my best guess is close to 8 feet! While the standard now is to have 3 ambers, older trees sometimes had more. Some earlier trees had four, this one has five!
While we welcome everybody that wants to race, we have to admit that we like the nostalgia theme. We are looking to build our own tree this season, and we are going to make ours look like the Chrondeks that were used back then (don't worry... we'll still have 3 ambers).
Cacklefest Anyone?
Remember this one? George Snizek's Tazmanian Devil in earlier years.
Skip Hultgren's "Mr. Boston" Nostalgia T/F
Nostalgia events planned in 2011. Our Nostalgia Shootout we had this past July at the Waterford Speedbowl was very successful. Everybody had a great time. Many racers from the past came back out, and some continued to race weekly with us for the remainder of the season. The Nostalgia Shootout, by chance, ended up with two Willys in the final round. It just doesn't get any cooler than that!
We are trying to put together a "Cacklefest" as part of our Nostalgia night events. If you've never been around a Top Fuel Dragster or Altered when they're lit up, it'll be an experience you won't forget! The sound is incredible! So are the flames shooting out of the headers!
We finally met George Snizek, the original driver of the record holding Fuel Altered "Tazmanian Devil". We remember seeing this car make several exhibition runs at CT Dragway back in the 60's. George usually smoke the tires the full length of the quarter, while going through the traps at over 160!
Although George no longer has the original car, he has a perfect copy that he built from scratch. Almost every piece is identical to the original. The car is used throughout the summers in Cacklefests and "Nights of Fire" events all over the country. We are doing our best to get George at our Nostalgia events.
We also met nice guy Skip Hultgren at the show this past weekend. Skip owns a Nostalgia T/F Dragster. The car doesn't have many runs on it right now, but so far it's gone 6.49 at 247. He plans to have it running in the 5.90's this summer. If we can work something out, this car will also be part of our Cacklefest. As soon as we put it together, we will post it on the website, the schedule, and here on the Newsletter.
Don't forget about the Banquet! It's only a month away! We're already getting requests.
1st HDRA Banquet Set!
1/26/11
Our first Banquet set for Friday night March 4th! We thought it would be appropriate to hold our first banquet on the same night we ran our weekly events -- on a Friday night! It will be held at the Elks Club in New London, CT, located on 81 Washington Street. Time will be 7pm until ???.
Tickets are $20 per person. A cash bar is available. It will be a buffet style dinner, so there will be something there for everybody.
Dennis Tate (from the TV Show "Cars and Us") will be there showing old drag race movies throughout the night, and providing a little music. Incidently, you will see Dennis at many of our shows this coming season, taping for his TV show. It airs weekly here in CT on Public Access stations.
We will also have our tree set up for some ongoing "Practice Tree Shootouts". Will the reaction times get better as the evening goes on, or will they get worse? Regardless, it will be a fun night.
And what would a banquet be without trophies! We will handing out trophies to the top ten point earners in each Eliminator, for a total of 30 trophies.
We will have a ticket request form for the banquet online by next week, or if you want us to send you one, just send us an email at: sparky@100footdrags.com We must have all completed forms and money in our hands by the week before (Friday Feb. 25th).
WATERFORD SCHEDULE SET!
Opener set for May 6th.
2nd Annual HDRA Nationals Oct. 15th
More details on the Waterford page.
1/20/11
The Frank Marratta Show will be here in less than two weeks, and we'll be there. This show has been around for as long as I can remember, and it's one of the bigger indoor shows around.
Practice Tree Shootout. We will have a booth set up for the weekend, and will be handing out fliers by the thousands to promote our ever expanding form of drag racing. We will also have ongoing "Practice Tree Shootouts" throughout the weekend. Stop by and give it a try!
1/11/11
Nick Fusco to run at Riverhead. We had a nice phone call from Nick Fusco today about his Firebird that was a cover car on Hot Rod Magazine in 2002. He's been running this car for over 20 years.
The story in Hot Rod was great. Nick essentially started racing this car right off the showroom floor. He managed to eventually get this car into the 10's without pulling the engine... it was a stock block until 2009! He ran a 125 hp shot for 10 years. The engine finally gave up the ghost in 2009 on a chassis dyno. He now has a big inch small block, and can now run in the high 9's on motor alone (he's done with NO2).
Nick is one of the many racers on the island that can't wait for HDRA to be at Riverhead. The trip to NJ had become old. We look forward to seeing him run there.
1/3/11
Reserve your "Competitor's Number" for 2011. We now have a form online on our main website (www.100footdrags.com) on the "HDRA Comp Number" page. Save both you and our staff time by reserving your number now instead of opening day. This will be your number you will use for the season on your race vehicle. The number goes with the driver, not the car. Points earned throughout the season will be awarded to the driver. All competitors must register.
Top point earners will receive trophies at the end of the season. The top point earner in each "Eliminator" at each track we promote races will be Track Champion.
Competitors from 2010 may keep their number from last season, but must still fill out the form and send it in by February 15th. Otherwise a new number will be assigned.
It's only $5 to reserve the number for the season if you do it now. We may raise the fee to a higher amount on race day as an incentive to do it now. Other advantages may be available by registering early as well. This will be especially important to Riverhead Competitors!
Banquet in February! We will be having our first banquet for the 2010 season next month. A final date will be coming soon. It will be most likely at the Elks Club in New London CT, and we are actually looking at a Friday night for this gig. More news coming soon.
12/16/10
Maratta Show. For the moment, it appears we may have room for one or two cars at the Maratta Show in January. We are looking to get more space so we can bring in a total of 3 or 4 cars. If that happens, we will keep you posted.
HDRA Practice Tree Shootout. We will know more in the next day or two, but we may be sponsoring a "Practice Tree" competiton at the show. The management we spoke to liked the idea, and we should know by Monday if they can find the time for us to do it.
If that happens, we will post the day and time. It should be a fun event for everybody.
12/15/2010
We will be at the Maratta Car Show in January! The Maratta shows have been around for decades! They're big, and they do a nice job putting them together. We are going to set up a booth at their next one. The crowds are enourmous, and we expect to get great exposure during that weekend.
The Friday - Saturday - Sunday show will be held at the Hartford Expo Center January 28th-30th. We are in the process of making arrangements with the show management to bring in cars that ran with us this past season. More news on this will be coming.
11/18/10
OUR FIRST ONLINE NEWSLETTER! During the 2010 season we printed a newsletter for our weekly shows at the Waterford Speedbowl. It turned out to be popular, and we felt we should continue the newsletter throughout the off-season. The best way to do this is to publish this magnificent piece of journalism online.
Advantages? While we still have all our adminstrative costs, we won't have the printing bill, the postage, plus any of the other costs associated with publishing a hard copy. We would have to charge $40-50 per year to do this. Instead, this newsletter will continue to be FREE! Keeping this online will also allow us to charge DIRT CHEAP ad rates for businesses.
As this newsletter develops, we will have a web page devoted for each track that we promote events. This way racers and fans can go right to the news that is of most interest first. This also allows businesses to target their crowd to their market in a very affordable way!
Speaking of businesses advertising, we will be coming out with ad rates in the next few days. While we haven't nailed down the exact numbers yet, they will be very affordable!
WATERFORD SPEEDBOWL
We've been at the Waterford Speedbowl since 2007 in one fashion or another, but 2010 was the first season we ran Holeshot Drags on a full time basis. We were very pleased on how the season played out. It was gratifying to show the world that racing in the 100 foot events were fun, exciting, and viable. We ended up with a nice field of cars, as well as a growing fan base.
We are in the process of putting together the 2011 schedule, and should have it online in another week or so. It'll be great to go back to HDRA's home track for the 5th year in a row.
THOMPSON SPEEDWAY
We had our first event at Thompson October 24th, and it was nothing less than a complete success. Despite the bad weather forcast, plus the short time we had for promoting the event, our field of cars was excellent, and everybody had a great time. Most racers were first timers for the 100 foot format, and were not used to the fact that they could get 8 or 10 time shots in before eliminations!
We will be racing at Thompson every Tuesday night for 2011, starting May 10th, and running every week through September 20th. We will also be running an end of the year special, most likely a Sunday event at the end of September or begining of October.
RIVERHEAD
After trying for 4 years, it looks as though we will finally have some events at this historical Long Island venue. We are in talks with the owners, and if all goes well, we will most likely have 5 events for 2011. The plan is to have one event each month starting in May, and finishing in September.
It's amazing. Long Island has so many people, so many drag fans, and no place to race. In a relative narrow strip of land with 3,000,000 people, they've gone from having 3 stock car tracks and 4 drag strips down to one stock car track and no strips. They've gone 6 years without a place to do drags. The good news? They don't have to wait a 7th.
We will post more as we put this together. Special thanks goes to Barbara and Jim Cromerty. This is going to be great for Riverhead Raceway, for HDRA, but especially for all the drag fans and racers of Long Island!
PUTNAM CAR SHOW
The Putnam Car Show (CT), held the 3rd weekend in August, is an awesome sight. The whole town is closed off for a massive car show. They estimated 4000 cars showed for the 2010 show. They also have two burnout contests during the day, one stationary, and the other rolling.
What makes this show so different from most others is that the whole town embraces the show, including the city fathers as well as the Police department. When we were approached by the show organizers as well as the police chief to see how they could fit us in for next season (which is almost unheard of), we were thrilled. We anticipate and look forward to being part of this coming summer's event.
More will be posted on this as this develops.
MONADNOCK
What a nice place. This New Hampshire facility is also run by some great people. They are always looking for alternate ways to use the property, one of them being Mud Bogs that they run on a regular basis.
We are looking at running some events on Wednesday nights. We are in the process of determining how often we will run the Holeshot Drags; weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or? Stay tuned!
OSWEGO SPEEDWAY
The "Steel Palace". This place is a class operation all the way. We were to have an event this past August, but mother nature had other ideas. Because we were at the end of the season, we could not find an alternate rain date. We will be looking to have at least one special in 2011.
OTHER TRACKS
We have at least three other tracks that may host Holeshot Drags in 2011, and more will be added as time goes on.
