Saturday, January 3, 2009

The calendar shows that Dragway 42's Annual Awards Banquet and 2009 Rules Meeting is 3 weeks from today.

Yes, the event will be held on its traditional date of the fourth Saturday in January (in this case, January 24, 2009) at its traditional location of the Barberton Moose Annex Building.

Dragway 42 is again holding the line on prices for our racers and fans. For the first time ever, the track is offering 1/2 price banquet tickets for all kids age 12 and under. In addition, there will be no increase in adult banquet ticket prices for the third straight year.

"We know that everyone is watching their budget and we want to do everything we can to assist all of the members of our extended Dragway 42 family by keeping the annual Awards Banquet as reasonably priced as possible," stated track co-owner Toby Ehrmantraut.

One of the ways that prices can be controlled is by offering tickets on an advanced purchase basis only. This allows Dragway 42 to provide the catering company with an accurate headcount a few days before the event, so an appropriate amount of food can be prepared for the event. Less waste for the catering company allows them to provide the track (and banquet attendees) with the best price possible.

For those who have not attended a Dragway 42 Awards Banquet and Rules Meeting in the past, the event is kicked off at 6 PM with a social hour with snacks, coffee, beer, and soft drinks. A buffet style dinner of barbeque chicken and ribs with salad, side dishes, and desert is served at 7 PM. The awards presentation and meeting is held following dinner.

Thousands of dollars worth of door prizes are distributed to those in attendance at this event. Headlining the current, 2009 prize list is a certificate from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for any pair of Goodyear racing slicks offered in their catalog as well as a certificate from Larry Dumire's Paint and Body Shop for $500 off of any full paint job. Both of these top prize certificates expire on December 31, 2009.

Dragway 42 will also offer discount prices on 2009 permanent pit spots and 2009 points program entries at the banquet. Raffle tickets will also be offered for a 2009 Gold Card, good for free race entry to all four of Dragway 42's holiday weekend special events.

Banquet tickets may be purchased by check or money order through the mail or online by credit card. The postmark date for mail orders is Friday, January 16th. The online order deadline is Monday, January 19th. Links to the printable, mail order form or the online order buttons may be found on the right side of this story.

"It is always great to see our racers, their families, crew members, and fans at the Dragway 42 Banquet," commented track co-owner Jack Ehrmantraut. "This is an event that we really look forward to every year."

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Dragway 42 launched its 53rd consecutive year of drag racing at the West Salem facility with the running of its traditional, New Year's Day event... the 10th Annual "Hangover Nationals".

The heads-up, index based competition uses the year for the elapsed time goal, so for this year's event the racers were attempting to be the first machine to the finish line without covering the 1/4 mile in less than 20.09 seconds.

Nearly 200 participants including travelers from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California joined racers from all over Ohio for this year's edition of the Hangover Nationals.

Round 7 of eliminations brought the final pairing of the two classes, 4-wheel drive/all-wheel drive and 2-wheel drive. The 4-wheel drive matchup featured reigning, and two-time event champion Brian Chillik running Norwalk's Kurt Murray. Both drivers had fellow racers as "co-pilots" but ultimately it is the driver who has decisions to make at the finish line in any break-out class competition. In this round it was Chillik who slowed a bit too much, giving the stripe and the class win to Murray, allowing him to advance to the "Hangover Nationals" finals.

On the 2-wheel drive side of the competition, round number 7 featured a pairing of Smithville's Corey Griffith being matched up against long time Mopar racer, Charlie Moore. In this case, youth and exuberance defeated old age and treachery as Griffith took the class win to advance to the "Hangover Nationals" finals.

In the battle for the championship title, Corey Griffith took the starting line advantage with a .0990 reaction time in his Pontiac Grand Prix to Kurt Murray's .1500 reaction time in his 2001 Chevrolet Silverado. Down-track, the two battled side-by-side with Griffith getting to the finish line first. Unfortunately for him, the scoreboards and ET slip showed he had arrive there too quickly, recording a 19.9759 elapsed time on the 20.09 index which handed the win to Murray who ran a 20.2691 elapsed time on his run.

Griffith and Murray each received large Dragway 42 event trophies plus winter apparel prize packages that were provided by the Summit Racing Equipment retail store in Tallmadge for their event winner and runner-up. Chillik and Moore each received Summit gift cards for their individual class runner-ups, while all racers who advanced to the 4th round or further earned Dragway 42 "Hangover Nationals" trophies.

Dragway 42's next event will be off the track as the annual Awards Banquet and Rules Meeting will be held at the Barberton Moose Annex on Saturday night, January 24th. Tickets are only offered in advance, with a postmark deadline of January 16th for mail orders and January 19th for online, credit card purchases.

For those who plan far in advance, mark your calendar now for Dragway 42's 11th Annual "Hangover Nationals" which will be held on Friday, January 1, 2010 with racers competing on a 20.10 heads-up dial-in.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The 10th Annual "Hangover Nationals" at Dragway 42 is just one day away. The weather forecast for New Year's Day calls for partly sunny skies, high temperatures in the low 30's, and light winds which should turn out a huge group of participants who will battle it out for the chance to win the first drag racing event of 2009.

Gates open at 11 AM on Thursday for this year's "Hangover Nationals" and eliminations will begin at 2:30 PM. The event is open to any street legal machine and passengers are welcome to ride along in time trials and eliminations at the "Hangover Nationals".

"While it is a lot of fun for the racers to slip and slide down a snow packed track, drier pavement like we will probably have by the first round of eliminations this New Year's Day certainly equalizes the 2-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive machines," commented Dragway 42's Toby Ehrmantraut.

For the 10th straight year, the "Hangover Nationals" will be run as a heads-up, breakout style elimination event with all vehicles dialed in based on the new year. For the 2009 event, the dial-in will be 20.09 seconds.

The full race entry fee for this event is $15.00 while adult spectators pay only $10.00 to be part of the fun. As always, youths under the age of 15 are admitted free of charge to the Hangover Nationals when accompanied by an adult.

In addition to large trophies for the event winner and runner-up, the Summit Racing Equipment Retail Store in Tallmadge is also providing a prize package of winter apparel and gift cards that will be distributed at the race.

"I don't think that anyone would have ever imagined how many racers and fans would make our Hangover Nationals event a regular part of their annual New Year's plans when we started this 10 years ago," said Dragway 42 co-owner Jack Ehrmantraut. "It is great to see so many people come out to participate in a true, fun drag racing event and we are proud to continue to offer it to everyone."


2008: Brian Chillik (GMC Truck) over Doug Richards (Chevrolet Baretta)
2007: A.J. Buchanan (Mercury Mountaineer) over Chris Freeland (Chevrolet Suburban)
2006: Aaron Herbert (Chevrolet Truck) over Ron Stayer (Ford Escape)
2005: Brian Chillik
2004: Rick and Linda Aikey over Joe Soucek, Sr.
2002: Lloyd Bittinger (Dodge Van)
2001: Brian Nickell (Mopar) over Steve Tigelman