Most of Team Surrey In A Hurry spent a scorching weekend at the Eagle Motorplex attending the 6th Annual Zimmer Wheaton “Thunder In The Desert” Night Drags. One word sums up the whole thing: WHOOPAH! If that doesn’t make any sense, then sorry… you must not have been in earshot of pole six in the pits.

While we still have to get the details straightened out, there are a few things we know for sure:

Pete Bereditsch took out Gerry Epp in the second of the weekend’s Lordco Super Combo Series race. Congrats Pete! Also, Zak Clarke and clinched the Outlaw Top Comp championship for 2008! Even better, in order to lock up the series all he had to do was qualify for the show! Unfortunately, Zak’s day was cut short in the second round when his crew chief wasn’t around to help out in staging. A lame duck out-of-the-water burnout resulted in the Beretta trying to dig holes in the pavement on the launch. And with that the round was handed to Tyson Wells and his sweet big block Chevy powered VW Bug. Wells had a free ride into the final round after that, let’s hope his luck held out all the way to the end.

Conditions on Saturday were ridiculous. Nobody’s fault of course… it was just a scorching day in the BC interior. Lot’s of lemonaid, water and all manner of liquid refreshments were being consumed at probably record pace. Shoot the Moon! Shoot the Moon!

In events completely unrelated to the Wayne and Tami’s wedding at ‘Plex on Friday, Jim “the Steak” Behnke and Cory Thompson were bridesmaids in Super Pro and Pro respectively on Sunday

The Gibson family had an eventful weekend. It all started when Allison (aka K.C.) Gibson faked a case of heat stroke so that yours truly would have to step in and work the bottom of staging all freakin’ night! Oh well, it was better than making everyone suffer through my chicanery on the mic had I succumbed to the the persistent group of people trying to convince me to be the announcer. Just as well any ways, as it probably staved off some fines from the FCC as I’m sure some of the seven words you can’t say on television would have made it on the air. Besides, Shane took that ball and ran with it all weekend, doing a better job than I ever could have… except for maybe calling the “Nitro Alky’s” to the lanes. Kidding! But back to Allison and her Oscar worthy performance; she even faked uncontrollable, uhm, technicolor yawns repeatedly as part of the show! Just kidding, K.C.; hope you are feeling better!

Keeping with the Gibson family theme, Team SIAH’s youngest member, Justin Gibson won again in his Junior Dragster on Saturday night. Here’s the part where we promise Justin yet again that we will get him a shirt… Good work J.G. Jr!

Rounding out our coverage of the family Gibson, Jason Gibson had a bit of bad luck on Sunday. His gorgeous Mustang decide to barf a head gasket and ooze on a sizable section of the track and return road. (Incidentally, it was during the down time of said ooze cleanup Zak’s crew chief disappeared…) We don’t have any other details yet, but wish him luck as he’s got a couple of big races on the next two weekends.

Anyone with more info can send it to us through the contact page . Come on people! Help out with all the details that we already forgot while shooting the moon. Whoopah!

---

UPDATE #1: For those that are worried that the Dodge Dually and black racecar trailer in the horrendous accident on the Trans Canada on Sunday was Zak, it’s not him. No idea who the unlucky rig belongs to or their condition, but Zak and the Beretta are safe and sound at home. Apparently Zak’s phone rang off the hook until well into the night. Thanks for the concerned thoughts.

---

UPDATE #2: Seems like the crew chief not showing up for the second round of Door dinger was a good omen. While backing the Beretta out of the trailer at his shop, a front wheel locked dead solid. Turns out that a piece of hardware holding the brake pads in place on the caliper failed, cocked sideways and destroyed much of the assembly. That kind of situation is not something you want to have happen on the fast end of an 8 second Door Slammer pass. See Zak; Mega D’s DQ craving may have saved your bacon!

At the rain-delayed Lordco Auto Parts NHRA National Open Double Header at the Eagle Motorplex on July 12th, 2008 (original race date: May 30th – June 1st) Justin Gibson and Pete Bereditsch each snagged the ‘Holy Grail’ of drag racing trophies. Nice!

Justin’s win came in Jr Digger with a hard-on-the-brakes 9.24 on his 9.07 dial while Chloe Carre’s .47 was a liitle to quick for her 10.48 prediction. Great work by Team SIAH’s youngest member! We promise… a shirt is coming; seriously!

The Dragon Slayer’s Pete’s Wally was the fruit of yet another all Surrey In A Hurry Super Pro final round. His 0.016 RT got the jump on Al Quigley’s relatively sleepy 0.039 in his 2 year old new RH Racecars Mustang. Al’s 9.710 on a 9.69 wasn’t enough to get around the founder of ‘80 Black Camaro Eliminator’s 11.799 on a 11.78 lap.

Hey Quig: Did you find where the ~0.040 delay is hiding in your ‘box yet? Some might take that as a burn, but it’s not meant to be. The normally “Quick Quig” really seems to think there’s some bonus numbers stuck in his new delay box.

Dave Jung was doing everything he could to make it a three-fer with a win in Pro. Unfortunately, he had to settle for the much less desireable third-place ‘Whalley‘ instead.

By the way; in case anyone wants to know to become a member of Team Surrey In A Hurry? Sure, bribes work… but you go out and win a Wally or two and we’ll probably just claim you as our own!

SIAH founding member Zak Clarke and his Baretta have been on an absolute tear the season. He was looking to add to his slate of wins and bring home the Team’s third Wally of the July 12th / 13th weekend at the ‘Plex .

In what is about to be the longest sentance ever put down, Zak paired up with the bitchin’ Camaro driven by Lane Wooley for the 12th Annual Aurora Electronics Night Drags and Christmas in July final round of the Canada West Doorslammers class sponsored by Surrey In A Hurry. Whew! Still with me? Anyways, It was Baretta against Berlinetta, and the race was over in the first hundredths of a second… literally.

Zak scored a 0.020-something RT while Lane, in the other lane, put up a 0.150-ish light. Unfortunately though, that’s not why the race was over so soon. It seems that after only 800 or so passes, Zak’s ring and pinion decided to expire. Lane lifted at the 100 foot mark to ensure the win, despite another team’s diminutive crew member chanting “Run out, Lane… Run it OUT, Lane… RUN IT OUT, LANE…” hoping for a breakout mistake. Oh wel… you win some you loose some. At least the prize money for second place was $100 dollars bills, not like the stack of tens they paid out for the win.

As Zak and the Baretta enjoyed a slow tow back to the pits, Pro winner Corey Thompson dove across thetrack wall to bring out a frosty refreshment. As they say: Win or Lose, Hit the Booze!

Hey, speaking of Zak, Corey and diminutive crew members… It shows that getting a good night’s sleep before the race is a smart thing to do. Seems that those guys, plus Brian Barbie and a few other dedicated racers benefitted from the rest by all but owning the final rounds of Pro, Super Pro and Door Dinger. I wonder how those animals that made the drunken racket until 7:30 in the morning fared on race day. Oh… wait a minute…