RAGING EAGLE RACING

September 4, 2011

Our September Winning Streak was broken this past Friday race night (September 2).  We tested on Thursday and all went well.  We were sporting brand new front tires, compliments of our sponsor, The LaFontaine Family Deal, (thanks again to The Family and Mr. Hicks), and we were also breaking in new rear tires.  Thursday was a hot day, and Friday, as you all well know, was even hotter!  We were attempting to make our first qualifying pass Friday when right off the starting line the rear end decided it didn’t want to play any more and our race car had to be towed off the race track.  Back in the pits the crew removed the damaged rear end while Nate drove Bill back home (thanks Nate) to retrieve a back up rear end which has been collecting dust in the race garage for about 7 or 8 years.  Everyone worked frantically to get the back up rear end in, and surprisingly we were actually able to make the second qualifier with a couple of minutes to catch our breaths and calm down.  The second qualifier was OK, nothing great; I think a 4.38 which qualified us in the last (eighth) position.  The third qualifier had our fans, friends and family jumping in the air as Bill laid down a perfect 4.11 pass with our weather station melting at 105 degrees.   This number put us in the third qualifying position.

We matched up for the first round of eliminations against long time racer and friend, Scott Johnson.  Bill blistered the tires at the starting line, while Scott had also had difficulties; however, Bill had to lift and Scott got past him for the win.  We are still in the points leads by 17 points with Brian Robbins and Skinny Kid Race Cars Team hot on our tail.  The October race will determine the points Champion.  Let’s all hope its US!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone who endured the heat and came out to the race track to support and cheer us on.

Marsha

                                                                                             
August 14, 2011

Thursday, August 4th we headed to the race track for an afternoon of testing.  The weather was extremely hot and the race cars were having trouble getting down the track in the extreme heat.  We made a couple of test passes late in the afternoon hoping to duplicate the time and conditions on race day, which we did very well.
 
Bill and Paul B. had made some changes to an already well tuned and finely running race car.  If you ask me, why mess with something that hasn't been giving us any problems?  Oh! That's right, we need to try and go FASTER!!!!!  What was I thinking?

Thursday test session went great as all the changes to the race car seemed to be in the faster direction giving us high hopes for Friday Race Day.
The first round of qualifying on Friday went great.  We were the #1 qualifier as others were not getting down the track as well as we did.  We sat out the second qualifier and watched to see how everyone else did.
The third round of qualifying we ran the same number and ended up the #2 qualifier for the race.  We were very pleased with that standing.
  
In the first round of eliminations we raced our long time friends, the Wisneski's, and won.  The second round of eliminations we raced Scott Johnson.  Scott is not a racer to be taken lightly.  On the right day and time Scott can turn a number and beat just about anyone;  However this race was ours as Scott shook the tires and had to lift.  We moved onto the Final round matching up with Keith's (Skinny Kid Race Cars) Hurst Olds piloted by the infamous Brian Robbins.  A win and we would set a personal best of three event wins in a row and eleven consecutive round wins without a loss.  Bill's strategy was to drill 'em at the tree since the Skinny Kid Racing Team  had just run one of it's fastest times in the semi's and had more than a tenth on us.  As it turned out Bill went RED by .0003 ending our winning streak at ten rounds.   Boo Hoo.
 
All in all we had a great weekend racing increasing our points lead to 27;  And as I have said in the past "Its always a good ride home from the track when we did well and the car is not broken".

Bill and I would like to Thank our pit crew for their continued outstanding performance.  We all worked together flawlessly, and that is a big part of putting Bill at ease and allowing his total concentration to focus on driving and winning races.  Also, Thanks to ALL of our friends and family that came to the track to support and cheer us on.  Some of our friends came from as far away as the Grand Rapids area (Tom & Rosie), Orion Township (Ron Chifolelli, sons and cousin).  Big John wins the award for having traveled the farthest to attend the race.  John came from South Carolina with sons, Shawn from Georgia and Jason from Redford.  Thanks also to all who participated with all the great food and fixings, especially Chef Scott from LaFontaine.  We sure do have some great things to eat on our race weekends as well as fun.

Marsha

Our first race was May 1st and we were totally prepared with some new go faster parts.  We made a couple of very successful test passes on Thursday and felt that we were ready for the Friday night race.  We qualified in the #4 position in a very fast field.  The first round of racing was bizarre to say the least.  Bill went straight down the track getting the win light with a time of 2.85!!!!!  NOT POSSIBLE.  WHAT THE HECK??????  Then we were told Bill didn't really win.  Many spectators and friends stopped by our pit and were stunned to hear we didn't get the win.  More than a few told us that they were seated at the finish line and that Bill was definitely out in front and crossed the finish line first.  We were also told by the track officials that something must have blown off our race car and crossed the finish line ahead of our race car, producing the false time, ridiculous.  Our time slip did not show our elapsed time at all.  Had there not have been the screw up in the first round, we would have won and had a bye into the second round, putting us in the finals.  What can I say????  BUM RAP!!!!!!!!

Our second race took place on June 3rd.  We tested again on Thursday, making and refining changes.  We were very pleased with the test session and felt we were ready for the Friday night race.  We qualified in the #4 position again.  In the 1st round we raced long time friends and rivals, ?The Wisneski's, and moved on with the win to the second round where we faced the current champ and points leader, Todd Robertson, piloting the Eaton sponsored Hemi powered Mopar.  We lead him through by only a couple hundredths (4.10 to his 4.08) winning on a hole shot and leaving his crew speechless.  What a great way to win a race and also a terrible way for Todd and his great crew to lose.   In the finals we matched up with Dan Millen in his Livernois Motorsports and Al-anabi sponsored Mustang which ran 3.90's every pass.  Just before we were to race, there was a huge and very messy oil down on the track which left us sitting in the staging lanes for almost 2 hours.  Now, almost one in the morning, Mr. Millen and his crew decided they weren't going to wait around and race on a cold and dewy track surface, (smart) so they left the staging area where we stayed to break the starting line beam and take the win!!!!
 

September 5, 2010

Hello Race fans.

After taking Saturday to recoup from Fridays race and now Sunday, tearing myself away from watching the US Nationals in Indy, I'm finally getting to my racing update!

GOOD  NEWS!!!!!!    WE WON!!!!!

First I would like to start out by telling everyone about last weekend, August 27 thru the 29^th. We were invited to attend the 8^th annual Crusin the Park held in the Lower Huron Metro Park.  The weather was great, warm and sunny all weekend!  Brother Paul and his wife Dyan helped us show the car and promote our sponsor, The LaFontaine Automotive Group.  We also promoted Milan Dragway by inviting everyone that stopped by to take a close look at our race car, to come out to the race track for an exciting night of heads up racing.  We would like to take this opportunity to Thank the great group of people; Brad and  Diane and their kids, Mike and Linda, and Jerry and Patti, which worked hard to put this huge car show together and for their wonderful hospitality.  A very good time was had by everyone who attended.

This Friday's race weather was cool, sunny, dry and very breezy and brought out a very large field of race cars as well as spectators.  We qualified #4 with a 4.21 @ 171mph in a field of 17 cars.  We won the 1^st round of eliminations by eliminating the team in the #3 points position, with a 4.20 to our competitions 4.55. The 2^nd round of eliminations we met up with the #1 qualifier and points leader Todd Robertson.  When Bill and Todd line up and do their burn outs they bring the crowd to their feet.  Everyone loves to hear these two blower cars rev up their engines.  I am usually standing between the two cars at the starting line waiting to help direct Bill back.  Even with the head set covering my ears, the noise and power I feel is unbelievable!!!!!  We beat Todd for the second time in as many races and advanced into the Finals.  The final round was run at approximately 11:30p.m.  The temperature had fallen quite a bit and it was threatening to rain.  We lined up with another great competitor and long time racing friend, Jackie Sloan.  When the starting lights came down Bill launched the car and sped off down the track and unfortunately for Jackie his car broke on the starting line.

Once again, at this point in my update, I would like to thank our major sponsor The LaFontaine Automotive Group.  It was great to see John Hicks "The Man", Karrie Bradley, Don Vandongen (our good luck charm), Scott "Panda", and so many of the LaFontaine employees come out to support us and watch us race.  I also want to thank our crew members;  Crew Chief Paul B., Nate, Bro Paul & Dyan, Glenn and Ron for all their hard work and proficiency at the jobs they do.  Each task must be performed religiously to help insure our race car flies safely down the track and turns on the win light.  It was also great to see my family members; Carol & Larry, Susan & Bill, Louise & Dennis, Laura, Mike & Evan and the entire Sturgill family come out and cheer us on.  As always, Deider and Gretchen were great kids and enjoyed lot's of attention and meeting so many people.  They are still catching up on their sleep from the weekend.

Marsha

August 8, 2010

It's hard to believe August is here already.  It seems like such a long time since we last raced.  This past Friday, August 6^th, was our 4^th race of the season at Milan Dragway.  The weather was great, the temperature finally went down some and the humidity was also bearable.  We made two qualifiers Friday night and both were very consistent, placing us in the #4 qualifying spot with a 4.23 at 171mph .  Feeling very confident and looking for redemption, we won the first round of eliminations on a hole shot by a mere .010 of a second.   Proceeding onto the next round we faced off with the #1 qualifier and current points leader, Todd Robertson, whom we also eliminated by leaving the starting line first and crossing the finish line in front by only .0014 seconds.  Both races were very exciting and close.  The spectators were on their feet and cheering us on as they were thrilled to see such close competition.  The finals found us unable to make the race due to a crack in the oil pan which was leaking a fair amount of oil.  We decided to play it safe and not endanger our driver/car and the next car following us, as we may have dumped oil onto the track.

We were very pleased to see all of the people from the LaFontaine Automotive Group come to the race.  We missed one of our faithful supporters, Betsy, and hope to see her at the next race.

Thanks again to Carol and Larry for attending the race and bringing hot dogs and snacks and cooking lunch.  Also thanks to Scott (Panda) for cooking up another round of hot dogs for us all later in the evening between rounds.

We hope everyone had a great time Friday evening.  We sure did. Talking and visiting with everyone and racing and WINNING made for a great night.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone on September 3^rd, at Milan Dragway, for another great evening of friends, fans, and racing.

Marsha

July 4, 2010

We packed up on Friday, June 25^th, and headed for Grand Bend, Canada to attend the RPM Magazine Family, Power Fest & Media Weekend.  It was great to be back at a track we once raced at exclusively in the Top Sportsman series.  We saw many old and longtime friends and their families.

The Pro Modified competition qualified and raced on Saturday June 26^th.  The  field consisted of 23 Pro Mods competing for a first place finish pay out of $10,000.00.  Friday evening was the test session and we watched as many of our competitors were having difficulty getting off the starting line and down the track.  We waited until Saturday morning and made a perfect shake down pass, stopping the clocks  with a respectable of 4.22 @ 170 mph.  We felt we needed to step up the car in order to make the field of 8.  We ran our first qualifier and turned a 4.17 landing us in the #4 qualifying position amongst the fastest Pro Mods in Canada.  We were very pleased; however we severely  damage our engine catching our race car on fire and were unable to make first round.
 

Our ride home from the track wasn’t the greatest because of the hurt engine, but as they say, always look on the bright side of everything.  If we had gotten home approximately ½ hour sooner, we would have been directly in the path of the tornado that hit our neighborhood in New Boston, Sunday June 27^th at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon.

Upon arriving home we had many long hours of work to perform on the race car and the severely damaged engine.  We thrashed on the race car right up until the very last minute we left for Milan; but thanks to a little help from our friends and crew, Brother Paul, Paul Baird, Glen Zubok, Jack Bach, Don Hardesty, Jack Hausworth and Dave Petite (Our Machinist), we made it to the July 2^nd Heads Up Race. 

Our first qualifying pass at the Milan 2^nd race, and in front of one of the largest July crowds (in excess of 10,000 people), stopped the clock at 4.20 @ 172 mph landing us firmly in the #3 position.  We were thrilled to see that our racing engine stayed together.  The first round of eliminations, our car shook the tires, causing us to lose the race.  We weren’t terribly disappointed after having been through the hard and laborious week prior, and we were just pleased the car made it to the race and ran great.  Nevertheless, our team hates to lose (especially Bill) under any circumstances.  Before the next outing we will be replacing the car’s slicks due to wear and  the number of runs we have on them.

We are confident and looking forward to the next race and hopefully coming home with the win. 

Thank you, as always, to all our family and friends who came out to the track and supported/cheered us on.

Marsha

June 5, 2010

Friday June 4^th was the second Heads Up Race at Milan Dragway.  We were looking for our third consecutive event win.  The weather forecast did not look good.  We were suppose to have severe storms, off and on, all day.  The skies were overcast and it was extremely humid but it never rained.  We would like to thank all of our friends and our sponsor LaFontaine, and all of their employees who braved the weather to come to the track and support us. 

On our first qualifying pass, we ran a 4.26 at only 170mph (in the 8^th  mile race).  We were anticipating a much lower ET, based on last months performance.  After analyzing the data we made some changes for the next qualifying pass, improving to a 4.23.  This qualified us in the 5^th place, our lowest since 2007.

The 1^st  round of eliminations, our driver (Bill), left the starting line .003 (thousands) to quickly resulting in a RED light start.  I am going to have to limit his intake of Pepsi cause he gets all jacked up on the caffeine.  All in all, the team performed marvelously, and all is not in vain because we learned a few things about tuning and running our car in (bad air) terribly humid weather.
 

We promise we are going to improve the next race, at Milan Dragway, July 2, 2010, and, hopefully win the race.  Look forward to seeing you all there.  

Marsha 

May 16, 2010

Hello friends and race fans,

We went out last Thursday the 6^th of May for a test run.  The weather was pretty good but the track wasn’t the best.  Not many of the racers were able to get down the track.  We made 2 partial passes and were able to get enough data to tell us everything was working as it should.  We stayed Thursday night at the track in anticipation of the first Heads Up Race of the season Friday May 7, 2010.  I heard it start to rain around 6am and it continued to rain until approx noon at which time the track officials informed us the race was being cancelled and re-scheduled to Friday, May 14^th.  We were able to catch a small window of no rain and got home and unloaded before it started to rain again.  We would have to wait another week to race.

As some of you may know we were hoping to obtain LaFontaine as a sponsor last year and it never all came together;  however early this year they contacted us and informed us everything was approved and ready to lend a helping hand as our sponsor.  We had graphics prepared for the car and trailer and Bill and I applied all the graphics.

We were invited by LaFontaine to attend a car show this past Thursday May 13^th at their dealship in Highland.  The weather prediction was not good;  however we didn’t have to worry about rain because we were given a spot inside their beautiful dealship showroom.  A lot of people came Thursday evening to LaFontaine for a fund raiser/benefit for Leukemia and Lymphoma.  Following the benefit we went to Milan Dragway for our first race.  The weather on Friday was great…sunny, warm and breezy.  The wind dried things up with the sun’s participation.

 Milan Dragway has changed the Friday night Heads Up Race from a ¼ mile race to an 1/8 mile race, much like the down south races.  We made our 1^st qualifying pass shortly after 3 o’clock.  Bill drove the Raging Eagle Racing/LaFontaine sponsored car straight down the track with a time of 4.11 seconds qualifying us in the #1 position.  We sat out the next two qualifiers and remained the #1 qualifier of the evening.  The 1^st round action we once again ran 4.11 with the WIN.  The 2^nd round we ran an even better time of 4.10, WINNING again.  The final round was at approx 11pm and it had been getting increasingly colder and damper out.  Our opponent left the starting line and immediately made a sharp left hand turn and crossed over the center line into our lane;  however Bill was ahead, and continued down track for the final round WIN.  GREAT WAY TO START THE SEASON!!!!!

Bill and I would like to thank all of our supporters, our new sponsor, LaFontaine Automotive Group (who attended the race) and special thanks to Larry and Carol for their continued support, cooking and serving up hotdogs and treats for everyone.  A big THANK YOU goes out to our crew, Paul Baird, Nate Hughes, brother Paul and wife Dyan, Ron Siedlak and our newest crew member, Glen Zubok, who all performed flawlessly.  Thanks everyone!

One final note:  It’s always a better ride home from the track when we’ve won!

Marsha