So we have followed the Michalek Brothers Racing Team through qualifying and now we are with them for round number one competition. They have to face young phenom Justin Ashley who came onto the top alcohol scene in 2017 like a house on fire. The boys have qualified for their first race and while that seems like a victory in and unto itself, they are drag racers and the most important thing you have ever done in the sport is the next thing. The next thing for them is notching their first round victory.
They dreamed big enough to end up with their own car. They dreamed big enough to qualify for their first race. Is it OK to dream big enough to knock off one of the best cars and drivers in the country? Let’s find out.
MILESTONE
Jumping right back into the action post-Q3, we noticed after getting back to the pits that our BDK valve had malfunctioned during the previous run, allowing a large quantity of nitro to enter our air system. In order to remove the excess fuel, we had to take the body off the car and then blow all of the air lines out on the dash. This was the second of four times that we had to do this process during the weekend with 2 separate BDKs.
Side note: we’ve made 10 runs on this car so far, and we have had to take the full one-piece body off after 9 of them. Goal #1 for our 2018 season is to go an entire race without having to take the body off. You’d think we were racing a Funny Car if you came by our pits throughout the weekend and saw how many times it was on the ground after a run.
As we prepared our car for Saturday evening, we were staring down a matchup with Justin Ashley. Justin is as stout as they come behind the wheel and he had already won two races in his first season this year while piloting a car that ended up making the third-quickest run of all time at the end of the season. I’m ultra-competitive, but I was also aware of the circumstances that we were up against. We had made great strides to get to this point, but we were also about two tenths off the pace needed to run with Justin if he made a clean run.
From a Drag Illustrated perspective, this matchup was a “who’s who” of 30 Under 30 alumni. J.P. Gutierrez and myself were fortunate to be honored in the inaugural class in 2015, and Justin Ashley and Chase Copeland were honored in 2017. As far as up-and-coming racers in this sport are concerned, it was pretty awesome having four honorees on the starting line all with a hand in this matchup (thankfully three of the four were wearing MBR gear).
