Check it out.....:)

This Friday at 3:30 PM. And again on Saturday at 6:00PM. Check out (or tape-you won't be sorry that you did.... ) a program called "On the Edge" on Speedchannel.

My Son and I attended this event both last Septemeber '05, and the year before. It is the "World Wheelstanding Championships" at Byron Dragway, out in Byron, IL. (Just south of Rockford).

These are mostly local guys who Drag Race there on the weekends. I know a few of them. One is my Nephew, Kevin. He goes back and forth Racing on the 1/4 and 1/2 Mile Clay Oval out at Sycamore Speedway. And Drag Racing at Byron. (He doesn't do the Wheelie thing....yet.... He's seen all of his Uncle Frank's battle scars.... ) But some of the guys that I know participate in this Wheelie Competition. One was the 2000 Champion. You gotta check this out.....It is a blast! Both watching it on TV, and going in person in October. ( I'll post a reminder when it is coming if anyone is interested.)

You might even see Frankie and me. We were in the first row of the West side grandstands, with the beautiful view of the steam rising into the nice clear blue sky, coming from the cooling tower at the Byron Nuclear Power Plant behind us a few miles away.... Yikes!!!!

Something pretty cool happens at the end....I won't say what, though.

Did I mention the Lil' Red Gremlin doing lengthy Wheelies, standing, literally, on it's rear bumper, and almost flipping over backwards...?....

Chelle...do you still have that photo handy of the 308 Dragster?

Check out this site: www.byrondragway.com. OHhhhhh Yeahhhh!! Click on "Pictures"....I give it:

 

O.K. It is also airing at Midnight tommorow, (Sat.) night on Speed. You will not be sorry if you watch it or tape it.....I quarantee.....Let me put it this way. One of the catagories is "Most VIOLENT Wheelie"....

 

Yes. And how about that little Gremiln.... If you want to see alot more of that. Along with some really cool Acrobatic Motorcycle Riding. Like Wheelies, standing on the seat, sitting on the handlebars, spinning around on the back wheel, ETC....by "Vertical Mischief". You can get the DVD from the Byron website. It is a blast! Better in person, though.....

 

No, thats O.K. by me. Actually, the point of it is to show what Massive, Extreme, Raw Horse Power that these cars have. No other type of cars can do that. Yeah, it's just "Showing off" basically. Nothing more. Like any type of Car...be it NASCAR or Formula 1, doing "Doughnuts" after they win a Race. Kind of the same thing, really. Just goofing off-showing off. Or,like a Motorcyclist would do when pulling a Wheelie. Like Jets doing Aerobatics. "Road Cars" Drag Racing. Like anything else "out of the norm." Is any of it "neccessary"? No. It's just for the fun of it. Showing off. Simply because they can do it. And there are plenty of people around that like to see them do it. Alot of New Sports are created by doing just that. And, besides the guy in the Cutlass. It doesn't do anything to hurt themselves or their Cars. They Race all day. Pop a few wheels to please the Big Crowds, who paid to get in to see that. Then go home at the end of the day.

I mean, it's like any of those "Extreme" sports. Skiing down a steep Mountain in an Avalanche. Skydiving out of an Airplane with a snowboard. Skateboarding. Freestyle Motocross. BMX. Any of that stuff. Is it neccessary? No. Does it please the Crowd? Yes. Does it generate Alot of Money? Yes. I suppose that it's just like anything....either you like it , or you don't.

But, IMO, Seeing a CAR doing something like that....Is just alot more spectacular. I mean, come on....a Car?....something that big....doing something like that? All of that Power! Anyone can do a wheelie on a Motorcycle. But, in a Car? IMO, pretty cool....DEFINITELY very unusual. Which is a whole other point, I suppose, of them doing it in the first place. And SpeedTV deeming it important enough for them to come all the way out from California to some little hick town, to cover and air it for the past 2 years... Definitely...Not just the "same old same old" everyday kind of stuff....

Hey, I like all things Motorsport. I just cannot limit myself to just one style of Racing. Or one type of Vehicle, for that matter. I like it all. ( Well...except for Tractor Pulls.... ) But All styles of Auto racing....whether it be just a few local boys in home built cars running on a 1/4 mile Clay track. All the way up to the most outrageously expensive, Formula One. It accomplishes the same thing. I like Boat Racing. Have you ever seen small Airplane Racing on TV? No, I am not "Into it". But, I saw it once as I was flipping through the channels and stopped and watched it. Simply because I never saw it before. And thought it very unusual. Something Different. I mean, who in their right minds would think of doing that?....

Yeah, I must admit....I like the Monster Trucks now that I've gone to see them Live a couple of times. I never really got into them. And I still am not "into them" I don't know who is who, (well, I do know who Gravedigger is)What truck they drive, or where they come from. But when I started taking Frankie there a few years ago....because he saw the on TV and wanted to see them 'Live". I thought...."Great! He likes things with Motors that Race!!!".... ) So I went, and I like it simply for it's unusual, "out of the norm" simple Entertainment value. Thats all.


Hey, right now I am watching "Freestyle Motocross" on TV. These are regular Motocross racers. But, they do the individual Custom Jumps and Tricks just to "Show Off" and to let everyone know just how good they are. Nothing wrong with that....Just fun.... They call it "Motocross". But, it has absolutely nothing to do with actual Motocross racing. Though it is just something out of the ordinary, thats for sure.

Sorry....didn't mean to ramble on and on....I ate WAAAAY Too Many "Peeps' today!....

 

No, it is not intended to be racing. It is just for the fun of it.

 

LOL! Yeah, I was just bein' silly.....too much sugar!

Oh well....little miss teenage daughter is home, and wants to go on the computer...NOW!!!! (Waaahhhh!!!!.... )