On Saturday, October 2nd 2021, the All Star Racing Association held its annual Shoot-Out race matching up the top 16 points earners through the first 5 races of the season. Gutter by Design and Tim Stickles were the proud sponsor of this year’s shoot-out. The race was held at New England Dragway under pretty fast conditions common for fall racing in new England.
Round two kicked off with George Mirza using a .004 light in his 340 powered Duster to get past Peter Foster in his ’67 Camaro. Mirza was able to ease of the throttle on the top end running 10.924 (10.81 dial) against Foster’s 10.948 (10.91 dial). The next pair would see Eric Merryfield throwing down a 0.013 total package in his T/SA Gremlin to get past Gregg Sutherland with a very game .036 package. Merryfield was 0.003 and 13.480 (13.47 dial) to Sutherland’s .030 initiated 9.986 (9.98 dial). In a match up of two CT residents, Bill Pomponi wheeled his ’69 G/SA Camaro past Ed Bendnaz’s ’69 B/S Nova. Pomponi held a slight reaction time advantage and ran 11.39 (11.36 dial) to hold off Bednaz’s hard charging 10.34 (10.25 dial). The round ended with Gene Monahan leaving first in his ’89 Firebird Formals with a red light giving the round win to DJ Pires in his ’69 Nova.
In semi-final action, Pires would grab a reaction time advantage against Merryfield but Merryfield ran closer to his dial with a 13.48 (13.47 dial) to take the stripe by 5 thousandths. The other pairing saw Mirza gaining a couple hundredths advantage at the start to hold off Pomponi as both drivers ran 5 hundredths over their respective dials of 10.83 and 11.37 respectively.
The final round would be two Chryslers of very different genres against each other. As he had done in all prior rounds, Mirza would gain an advantage off the line but this time it was a mere 0.006 as they headed down the track. Both drivers would scrub ET on the top end with Merryfield running 13.516 (13.48 dial) to take the win and park the Gremlin in the winner’s circle as Mirza was further off with his 10.905 (10.85 dial). Congrats to Eric for the win, George for the RU, and to Tim Stickles and Gutters By Design for sponsoring the event.
