Battle of the Boards round 4 at Gateway International Raceway took place Friday July 23rd under relatively clear skies, but brutal temperatures. If you thought the June event was warm, the July version was just plain hot. Some cloud cover had dampened the sun a little but track and air temperatures were up. 4 teams showed up to battle the brutal heat and each other, STL Mustangs, STL Speed, Southern Illinois King of the Street (SIKOTS), and Lethal 1320. With daytime highs over the century mark, by racetime at 10 pm it was a balmy 90 degrees with a DA of 2700 and a track temperature of 100.2 degrees, despite the extreme conditions, this BOTB’s was a no cruise event and brought out a fast group of cars.

Round 1:

Temp- 89.3 Humidity- 59 Track Temp- 100.2 DA- 2719

First out of the gate were Eric Luig of Lethal and Frank Signorelli representing Speed. Luig, usually piloting an 84 Monte Carlo brought his other ride, a 64 Chevy II to do battle with Signorelli’s 200 T/A. Both cars had less than stellar lights, but Signorelli’s race was over just before the 60’ mark as tire spin slowed his nitrous’d machine to a chasing 12.27 @ 117 while Luig streaked to a 9.37 @127 for the win.

Next up, Jeffrey Long of STL Mustangs versus Marty Stinnett fronting SIKOTS. Long had a red light foul and breakage in the May event and had something to prove while Stinnett had made the long trip from Kuttawa Kentucky to show what his ride could do. At the hit, Long’s 86 Stang got a slight jump over Stinnett’s 90, but at the 1/8th it was anybodies game when suddenly Stinnett’s car got loose and he had to lift coasting to a 9.81 @105 which provided Long the opening he needed to advance to the next round with an 8.67 @ 164.

Tim Gehrs’ 82 Cutlass representing Lethal took on Nick Burch and his unique 2006 turbo-charged Mustang running for Speed. They left a little under 3 hundredths apart at the tree with Burch getting the leave, shortly after though, Gehrs pulled in front and was on a quick pass when his car got extremely loose forcing him to get completely out of the throttle. It also unnerved Burch who also lifted as Gehrs appeared to almost want to swap lanes. Both cars slowed dramatically with Gehrs pulling out the win with an 11.83 @ 110 over Burch’s 12.05 @ 119.

Rodney Overfelt of STL Mustangs brought his Naturally aspirated 65 Stang up to line next to face Matt Martin of SIKOTS. Martin’s car failed to be ready in time, but without an alternate available, rather than forfeit the round he elected to run his 1962 Ford F250. Neither driver was winning any awards at the tree, and between diesel smoke from the truck and tire smoke from a traction impaired Stang it was tough to see the first 60 feet, but from the haze emerged Overfelt coasting to a 10.13 @106 over Martin’s 15.21 @ 88.

Tommy Bantle driving a 92 Mustang for Lethal, a somewhat regular SCSS participant faced off against Ron Hamm for SIKOTS next. Hamm in an immaculate 69 silver and black Camaro is still getting used to the car and found himself chasing at the hit. Bantle ripped off a 9.02 @162 to take the win over Hamm’s respectable 9.59 @ 164.

Crowd favorite Orson “OJ” Johnson for STL Mustangs brought his 99 turbo’d Mustang to the line next to face Brandon Carter’s 03 Turbo-charged Cobra for Speed. Carter’s car bogged slightly at the line and was chasing from the start with no luck as OJ went wire to wire with a 9.31 @ 173 over Carter’s 10.78 @133. OJ’s 173 would also stand as fastest elimination pass of the night speedwise.

Birthday Boy Daryl Jauerning was next up running for Lethal. Dirty “D” in his familiar nitrous assisted 88 Fox body faced off against another familiar face, Lawrence Bass and his procharged 88 Mustang running for STLMustangs. Both took their time staging and at the hit it was Bass with an unlucky -.041 red light that tossed a 9.29 @ 146 run into the trash bin. Worse yet, “D” had electrical issues and only ran an 11.16 @100 to advance and add further salt in the wound of Bass’s red light.

To close out the first round Alex Richardson for SIKOTS paired up his 90 Mustang against Nick Witherell of Speed in his Modular motivated Mustang. Despite a slow start at the tree, Richardson pushed his car into the next round with a 10.18 @ 133 over Witherell’s game 11.41 @ 129.

Round 2:

Temp- 88.1 Humidity- 61.2 Track Temp- 99.9 DA 2650

For round two the first pair out found Jeffrey Long continuing his point proving campaign, this time against Eric Luig. Long chopped down the tree with an .007 light while Luig trying to do the same went red by a mere 17 thousand (-.017) to gift the win to a still quicker 8.46 @ 163 by Long over the red-lighting 9.42 @ 110 by Luig.

Next up, Time Gehrs hoping to NOT have a repeat of his first round wild ride facing off against Brandon Carter. Carter having lost in the first round, and Martin having elected to park his vehicle put Carter in the place of running a test pass for no points. Gehrs assured of a win put down a blazing and straight 8.88 @ 160 with a game attempt to get lane choice for the next round. Unfortunately, in the other lane, the ill-fated test pass by Carter turned into a 45 minute clean up as his car left fluids on the track requiring attention from the Gateway crew.

After the clean up, Dirty “D” found himself gifted with a solo pass into the next round. Richardson’s car upon start up could only muster 10 lbs of oil pressure so as he was pushed back to the pits, Jauerning ran a traction impaired 10.84 @121 that was plenty to go into the semi’s.

To round out the pairing for the semi’s, Orson Johnson faced off against Tom Bantle. Both mustangs had been in the low 9’s on previous runs with OJ setting the speed mark for the night, but both had also experienced traction issues as well. When the tree dropped, OJ cut a .038 light to take the advantage and stretched it out all the way down the track with an 8.84 @ 164 win over Bantle’s 9.12 @ 160. Despite his loss, Bantle would later come back and run in the eights on an exhibition run with an 8.94 @ 171.

Semi Finals:

Temp- 85.9 Humidity- 66 Track Temp- 92.6 DA- 2485

Jeffrey Long had been getting faster as the night wore on, but Tim Gehrs had seemingly tamed his car into straight strong passes. On paper it was anybody’s race as they pulled to the line. Long, as he did all night, left first by 2 hundredths, but both cars were on good passes. At the stripe, Gehrs came up short with an 8.77 @ 161 not enough to take out Long’s even quicker than the previous round 8.36 @ 164.

The other finalist would be decided between Jauerning and Johnson. OJ and crewchief Paul Schoelich had been getting down the track in fits and starts. An 8.17 the previous week in NMRA competition had shown their cars potential. Meanwhile, Dirty “D” had been riding his birthday luck past tire spin, electrical gremlins and a lengthy cleanup to take his place for a shot at the finals. At the hit Jauerning did his best chopping down the tree for a 2 tenths lead, unfortunately, he immediately had traction issues. He watched OJ streak by on his way to a 9.09 @ 155 for the win and a spot in the finals over Daryl’s 9.91 @ 145.

Finals:

Temp- 84 Humidity- 68 Track Temp- 92.3 DA- 2347

For the finals, it was all about the bragging rights. STL Mustangs had clinched the event title for the board. The winner and runner up would both be from STL Mustangs, but who would win it all had yet to be decided. Jeffrey Long had gotten faster all night and had pounded the tree against every opponent. His fuel pump and tire issues from the past weeks had evaporated and he seemed on a mission to prove his point. Meanwhile, Orson “OJ” Johnson fresh off an NMRA semi appearance had his car flying and dailed into the track conditions. At 2 am the cars took to the line to decide. Long left first with a slight 4 hundredths lead and began stretching it out further as OJ ran into tire spin just off the line. He began chasing and wound up the turbo for that high end charge but couldn’t catch Long who though running a slightly slower 9.03 @ 134 was through the traps for the win over Johnson’s 9.94 @ 170.

Final Stats:

Points: STLMustangs- 16 Lethal1320- 12 SIKOTS- 2 STLSpeed- 0
Single Winner: Jeffrey Long (STLMustangs)
Board Winner: STLMustangs
Best ET: Jeffrey Long (STLMustangs) 8.369

Best MPH: Orson Johnson (STLMustangs) 173.23

Cuda, Bellman, OJ, Chute Guy..............aka STL Mustangs Team