What a difference a week can make!
Rodger Brogdon and the RoofTec race team captured the Comp Eliminator win at the opening event in the Division 4 Lucas Oil 2006 points chase this weekend. But, it certainly wasn’t without major calamity, both before and after the event.
After suffering damage to two different engines in Rodgers D/SM Cavalier last weekend in Phoenix, the team was forced to burn a large amount of “midnight oil” during the week in preparation for this win. Pete Smallwood, Scott Benham and Brian Self all pushed into the wee hours of the morning throughout the week to get the team cars refurbished and ready for action again.
While on the 17-hour drive home from Phoenix, the team was on the phone arranging for the much needed parts for repair. Michael Gianoni at MGP “expedited” a set of rods that had to be delivered in time to get the bullet rebuilt for the Belle Rose meet. Once the rods arrived, the lights in the shop never went dim before 4:00am for the next 4 days, with the final dyno pull being completed at 3:30 am Thursday morning.
Loading the rig, and getting to Louisiana came next, and the team was rewarded for all the late night work with not only the number one qualifying spot, but number two as well, with both cars dipping into the seventy under zone to claim the positions. The event itself saw the top three cars at -.70 or better, and it took a -.57 under to make the top half. New records were set in D/SM (Brogdon), C/SM (Brian Self), G/SMA (Scott Cashio), and H/A (Charles Watson Jr.). With ‘prime time” atmospheric condition, and an exceptionally prepared race track it was an action packed day of racing
Final round action saw RoofTec team owner Rodger Brogdon taking the win over the quickest and fastest A/ND (6.856 191 mph) in the country, the machine of Craig Bourgeois. Both drivers had inflicted the wrath of the CIC during eliminations with the D/SM of Brogdon taking a permanent five hundredths during the event. Bourgeois’s dragster though, in the final, smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle and Brogdon cruised down track for his first win of the year.
Calamity continued though after the event. While enjoying the sweet taste of a hard earned victory, the team received a call that Rodgers father Leon and his wife had been involved in an accident some 30 minutes from the track and were being transported to the regional hospital. While Rodger headed for the hospital, the team finished packing and made arrangements to spend the night, rather than head home as planned.
Latest word on Leon Brogdon and his wife is that both are going to be ok, and have been released from the hospital after being checked out. Evidently, someone backed a flatbed trailer out in front of senior Brogdon’s PT Cruiser while they were going down the highway. The car is totaled, and both Leon and his wife are feeling the effects of life saving airbags and seatbelts.
A week of emotional highs and lows has finally come to an end. After bowing out early in Phoenix, then taking the win in Belle Rose, followed by the phone call about the wreck, the roller coaster ride of the last 8 days has finally come to an end.
A GOOD end at that!
Rodger Brogdon and the RoofTec race team captured the Comp Eliminator win at the opening event in the Division 4 Lucas Oil 2006 points chase this weekend. But, it certainly wasn’t without major calamity, both before and after the event.
After suffering damage to two different engines in Rodgers D/SM Cavalier last weekend in Phoenix, the team was forced to burn a large amount of “midnight oil” during the week in preparation for this win. Pete Smallwood, Scott Benham and Brian Self all pushed into the wee hours of the morning throughout the week to get the team cars refurbished and ready for action again.
While on the 17-hour drive home from Phoenix, the team was on the phone arranging for the much needed parts for repair. Michael Gianoni at MGP “expedited” a set of rods that had to be delivered in time to get the bullet rebuilt for the Belle Rose meet. Once the rods arrived, the lights in the shop never went dim before 4:00am for the next 4 days, with the final dyno pull being completed at 3:30 am Thursday morning.
Loading the rig, and getting to Louisiana came next, and the team was rewarded for all the late night work with not only the number one qualifying spot, but number two as well, with both cars dipping into the seventy under zone to claim the positions. The event itself saw the top three cars at -.70 or better, and it took a -.57 under to make the top half. New records were set in D/SM (Brogdon), C/SM (Brian Self), G/SMA (Scott Cashio), and H/A (Charles Watson Jr.). With ‘prime time” atmospheric condition, and an exceptionally prepared race track it was an action packed day of racing
Final round action saw RoofTec team owner Rodger Brogdon taking the win over the quickest and fastest A/ND (6.856 191 mph) in the country, the machine of Craig Bourgeois. Both drivers had inflicted the wrath of the CIC during eliminations with the D/SM of Brogdon taking a permanent five hundredths during the event. Bourgeois’s dragster though, in the final, smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle and Brogdon cruised down track for his first win of the year.
Calamity continued though after the event. While enjoying the sweet taste of a hard earned victory, the team received a call that Rodgers father Leon and his wife had been involved in an accident some 30 minutes from the track and were being transported to the regional hospital. While Rodger headed for the hospital, the team finished packing and made arrangements to spend the night, rather than head home as planned.
Latest word on Leon Brogdon and his wife is that both are going to be ok, and have been released from the hospital after being checked out. Evidently, someone backed a flatbed trailer out in front of senior Brogdon’s PT Cruiser while they were going down the highway. The car is totaled, and both Leon and his wife are feeling the effects of life saving airbags and seatbelts.
A week of emotional highs and lows has finally come to an end. After bowing out early in Phoenix, then taking the win in Belle Rose, followed by the phone call about the wreck, the roller coaster ride of the last 8 days has finally come to an end.
A GOOD end at that!
