Summertime and the Fourth of July weekend in the rolling hills of east Texas, with stands alongside the road selling freshly picked peaches and homegrown watermelons. Temperatures in the 90-degree range, and enough moisture in the air to generate some late day “pop-up” showers, sounds like this past Saturday in Rusk, TX. Racers found themselves back in town for the conclusion of the postponed final eliminations of the NHRA Lucas Oil divisional event at Cherokee County Motorsports Park.
Rodger Brogdon and his Houston based RoofTec Racing team returned to CCMP to continue their work towards securing the 2006 Comp Eliminator national championship. With the first round of eliminations having been completed two weeks ago before the rains came that delayed the event, it was a matter of getting one checkout pass down the track then going straight into round number two of eliminations. Brogdon and team driver Brian Self (“Lump”) both knew that the way the ladder was structured, it would be possible for an all RoofTec team final, but getting there wasn’t going to be easy, as the competition they would need to go through was some of the best the sport has to offer.
In the quarter final rounds of eliminations Rodger was able to take the win in a battle of Super Mod cars, as he dispatched young Clark Smiley with a .007 light, running a .531 under lap, at 8.399 147.99 mph, over Smiley’s 8.958 152 mph challenge. Meanwhile “Lump” was looking at a serious challenge from one of the sports best, David Rampy, with the winner of the match up receiving a bye run into the Comp Eliminator final round. The race lived up to everyone’s expectations, as Self went .011 on the tree to Rampy’s .020 reaction time, then proceeded to run a 8.669 155 mph lap (-.571) to just nip Rampy’s 7.355 179 mph shot (-.555) with a true margin of victory of .025.
The semi finals saw “Lump” advance with his single, shutting it off early knowing that if team owner Brogdon didn’t take the win in his match up with Joey Tanksley, they would need the car as fresh as possible for that final round encounter. In the boss’s pairing with the Steve Kent sponsored C/D driven by Joey Tanksley, another stunning race was won by mere inches at the finish line. Tanksley grabbed the better reaction time off the line (.035 to Rodgers .042) and ran a (-.581) 7.019 186 mph lap to just catch Brogdon’s
(-.569) lap of 8.331 at 162 mph to take the win by a mere nineteen thousandths of a second.
In the final round, “Lump” had the better reaction time (.026 to Tanksley’s .059) and crossed the finish line just ahead of Joey to take the win 8.684 155.19 to the dragsters 7.070 179.59 charge that came up just inches short.
For the RoofTec team it was another notch in the win column, and as Rodger said, “The only thing better would have been to race each other in the final, but “Lump” taking the win just solidifies the effort that the whole team exerts in all of our races.”
Next up for Rodger, “Lump”, Pete, Scott and Steve will be the arrival of the teams much-anticipated AA/SM. Where and when Brogdon’s RoofTec team next appears will ultimately be determined by the new cars arrival and testing. Stay tuned, the balance of the 2006 season in Comp Eliminator looks like it just might become very interesting.
Rodger Brogdon and his Houston based RoofTec Racing team returned to CCMP to continue their work towards securing the 2006 Comp Eliminator national championship. With the first round of eliminations having been completed two weeks ago before the rains came that delayed the event, it was a matter of getting one checkout pass down the track then going straight into round number two of eliminations. Brogdon and team driver Brian Self (“Lump”) both knew that the way the ladder was structured, it would be possible for an all RoofTec team final, but getting there wasn’t going to be easy, as the competition they would need to go through was some of the best the sport has to offer.
In the quarter final rounds of eliminations Rodger was able to take the win in a battle of Super Mod cars, as he dispatched young Clark Smiley with a .007 light, running a .531 under lap, at 8.399 147.99 mph, over Smiley’s 8.958 152 mph challenge. Meanwhile “Lump” was looking at a serious challenge from one of the sports best, David Rampy, with the winner of the match up receiving a bye run into the Comp Eliminator final round. The race lived up to everyone’s expectations, as Self went .011 on the tree to Rampy’s .020 reaction time, then proceeded to run a 8.669 155 mph lap (-.571) to just nip Rampy’s 7.355 179 mph shot (-.555) with a true margin of victory of .025.
The semi finals saw “Lump” advance with his single, shutting it off early knowing that if team owner Brogdon didn’t take the win in his match up with Joey Tanksley, they would need the car as fresh as possible for that final round encounter. In the boss’s pairing with the Steve Kent sponsored C/D driven by Joey Tanksley, another stunning race was won by mere inches at the finish line. Tanksley grabbed the better reaction time off the line (.035 to Rodgers .042) and ran a (-.581) 7.019 186 mph lap to just catch Brogdon’s
(-.569) lap of 8.331 at 162 mph to take the win by a mere nineteen thousandths of a second.
In the final round, “Lump” had the better reaction time (.026 to Tanksley’s .059) and crossed the finish line just ahead of Joey to take the win 8.684 155.19 to the dragsters 7.070 179.59 charge that came up just inches short.
For the RoofTec team it was another notch in the win column, and as Rodger said, “The only thing better would have been to race each other in the final, but “Lump” taking the win just solidifies the effort that the whole team exerts in all of our races.”
Next up for Rodger, “Lump”, Pete, Scott and Steve will be the arrival of the teams much-anticipated AA/SM. Where and when Brogdon’s RoofTec team next appears will ultimately be determined by the new cars arrival and testing. Stay tuned, the balance of the 2006 season in Comp Eliminator looks like it just might become very interesting.
