After two years of running with the original paint scheme, the Michalek Brothers Racing dragster has a brand new look for the 2011 season and beyond. Ever since my brother and I purchased this car I have wanted to invest some money into aligning the car’s appearance with the way that we have branded our racing team but the first priority was always getting the car to work properly before putting money in to the way it looked. After a successful final outing of the year last season, I decided it was finally time to pull the trigger and I hit the drawing board to come up with a new look for the MBR rear-engine dragster.

At long last, I am extremely proud to finally present the first images of the new paint scheme on the car as we continue preparations for the upcoming season.

The brand new Michalek Brothers Racing paint scheme puts the team logo and the clean black and white branding front and center with minimal, yet powerful graphics right alongside the cockpit. The other side of the car is identical with my brother's signature instead. (Click to enlarge)

The lighting in the garage was pretty harsh so it's kind of difficult to see, but the nose of the dragster has glossy black flames that overlay on top of the matte black base coat. (Click to enlarge)

A full, back view of the car as we inch closer to the start of our season. We just have a couple minor things to work on and we should be ready to race at the start of summer. (Click to enlarge)

Another side view of the driver's compartment with my name, the team logo, and the Oakley contingency decal. (Click to enlarge)

One final zoomed out shot of the side of the car with my helmet in the foreground. This little bit of blue in the helmet will really pop when it's inside the cockpit. (Click to enlarge)

For the 42nd time, the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series and the fastest racecars in the world return to Gainesville Raceway this weekend to run the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals.

Ahhh, finally! After a long offseason in the cold, the wait is over. I am heading down south this weekend to attend my first race of the year — the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. I’ve been planning this trip for quite some time now and I have a lot of things that I want to do while I’m down there so I decided that I would compose a running blog to chronicle all of the action, both on and off the track, during my stay in the Sunshine State.

In an effort to keep this page from being a mile long, I went ahead and added some additional functionality to the site. By clicking on each of the update’s titles you are now able to expand and contract individual sections to have your desired amount of content displaying on the screen. Just like my blog chronicling the 2010 season finale in Pomona, all of the updates are numbered down the left side of the column and the latest additions will always be on top. Please feel free to comment or ask any questions down at the bottom of this page and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Enjoy!

LAST UPDATED: 9:31PM — Saturday, March 12, 2011

Schumacher, Hagan Grab Nitro Poles

The seven Don Schumacher Racing nitro cars dominated qualifying snatching up the #1,2, and 3 spots in Top Fuel and the #1, 2, 4, and 12 spots in Nitro Funny Car.

Greetings! Sorry about the lack of update last night. After a long day in the sun and not getting back until late, I was spent by the time I got in the room and I just did not have the energy to compose an update. I’ve got coverage of both Friday and Saturday lined up for this post though as we get ready for eliminations tomorrow morning.

First things first — the racetrack. This is my first time ever attending a race in Gainesville and it has been an enjoyable experience. Obviously it’s nice that I’m in Florida in March getting a tan while everyone else is getting 12 inches of snow, but aside from the weather, it’s a pretty cool place to see a race. I wouldn’t call it my favorite track of all time, but I think that it definitely snatches up a place in my top 5.

This race is heavily attended. I noticed this the moment my mom and I pulled up to the track on Friday. It was 10:30 AM, on a work day, and the parking lot was almost full already. Most of the events that I have gone to usually have pretty sparse attendance on Friday morning until the second professional qualifying session later on in the evening once everyone is off work. The Gatornationals are definitely an exception to that rule and it’s cool to see a full house on all three days of a race.

The racing itself has been nothing short of exceptional either. In Pro Stock motorcycle, there has never been a pass in the 6.7 second zone. In Pro Stock, there has never been a pass in the 6.4 second zone. Check that. There hadn’t ever been a pass in either of those zones — until this weekend.

Hector Arana blistered the Gainesville quarter-mile on two wheels in 6.777 seconds at over 196mph to be the first rider to ever eclipse the 6.7 second barrier. Eddie Kraweic was right behind him and he duplicated the feat by posting a 6.788 second run and while running the fastest Pro Stock Motorcycle speed of all time at 199.26mph.

In Pro Stock, Mike Edwards was coming off of a DNQ in Pomona and he ripped off a 6.496 second pass right out of the box at over 213mph to be the first to go sub-6.50 and break the 213mph speed barrier. Rodger Brogdon and the Summit Racing teammates, Greg Anderson and Jason Line, also wrapped up qualifying with 6.49 seconds runs. Brogdon’s 6.495 second pass in the first round earned him the pole.

To touch on the Kurt Busch story that I’ve been bringing up during each post so far, the 2004 Sprint Cup Champ has had two dramatically different days in Gainesville. The first one wasn’t so good. Kurt shook his brains out on his first pass and he then proceeded to get timed out on his second run. He was unqualified going into Saturday, but on the strength of a 6.53 second pass and a 6.55 second pass, Kurt made it into the field to race on Sunday. He’ll face Erica Enders in first round tomorrow.

With all of the broken records in Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, the nitro cars performances weren’t talked about nearly as much as they usually are. The racing was far from a slouch, however. The Top Fuel field was one thousandth of a second shy from being the fastest in NHRA history. Funny Car was just as strong with only fifteen hundredths of a second separating the #1 and #16 qualifiers.

Don Schumacher Racing ran a clinic in both Top Fuel and and Funny Car. The juggernaut claimed the top three spots in Top Fuel and the #1, 2, 4, and 12 spots in Funny Car. As expected, the Force and Al-Anabi cars were strong as well and it’s hard to find a clear-cut favorite for either of the nitro classes heading into tomorrow’s eliminations.

I’ve been doing some minor video-taping for a couple time-lapse sequences as well as capturing a few runs with my GoPro Hero camera, but this is killing me not having a professional video camera here. The light has been absolutely fantastic and I have seen so many angles that would be killer for a video. I’ll hopefully have enough money saved up in the coming months to get a camera that I’ve been looking at for awhile and then I can get back into doing some producing at the track again.

That’s about it for tonight, though. I’m going to try and get to the racetrack as early as possible tomorrow to get a few timelapse shots from the stands before the race starts and a few shots of teams unloading their cars. We’ll see how that works out with the time change.

Anyways, I’m gonna grab some pizza and hit the sack. Thanks for checking in to see the updates. I’ll be back with a wrap-up tomorrow evening!

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Hello Sunshine State! I made it to Florida!

When was the last time you saw a drag racing story on the front page of ESPN.com? Never. Kurt Busch's entry into the Gatornationals has a lot of people talking about this weekend's race.

Comin’ at ya live from Jacksonville, Florida! After a hectic trip down, I’m happy to report that I made it safe and sound and I’m all set to head to my first NHRA race of the season tomorrow.

This is my first trip to Jacksonville and the city is really nice! My mom and I are staying by the airport, about 15 minutes from downtown. She took me out for a great dinner this evening at Olive Garden to celebrate my birthday and then we decided to go kill some time and check out the city.

It’s not the biggest city in the world, but it’s a really neat place. The Jacksonville Landing and Boardwalk is awesome. It runs right along the water and it is full of great restaurants and shops. While walking around, my mom and I noticed that there is a free Chuck Wicks concert going on there tomorrow night and we’re planning on heading back after the race to grab dinner and check that out. Should be fun!

Everything going on at the racetrack tomorrow is shaping up to be a great day. There are two professional qualifying sessions in the afternoon and the weather looks fantastic for racing. The high for tomorrow is 65 degrees. While that doesn’t sound like the best weather to come home with a tan from, the racecars are going to absolutely love those conditions.

The plan is to get to the track by around 10:30 to give ourselves plenty of time to walk around and get familiar with where everything is at. Aside from watching the racing action, I’ve got a couple of drivers that I want to go catch up with and I’m going to go say hello to my buddy from high school, Jason Hemphill, who works on Johnny Gray’s Nitro Funny Car.

I wanted to take a second to add on to something that I touched on yesterday. This Kurt Busch deal is getting huge. As you saw above, he was the lead story on ESPN.com at one point to day. He has been all over Speed and he is getting publicity on every major sports network and auto publication. People are really taking notice of what’s going on and they are excited to tune into the Gatornationals this weekend. Here’s a link to today’s interview with Kurt and a great article by ESPN.com’s David Newton.

This kind of extreme media attention just doesn’t happen for anything NHRA related. And the event hasn’t even started yet. If he qualifies and manages to go a round or two, it could be really, really big. Either way, having him entered this weekend is golden exposure for the NHRA and I can’t wait to see how he does.

Anyways, I’ve got a couple other things that I need to take care of to get ready for tomorrow and then I’m off to bed. I’m gonna get up early so I can be on the road early tomorrow morning to find my way to the track. I’ll report back sometime tomorrow evening with the day’s action and any visuals that I capture while I’m there. I can smell the nitro and I can feel the thunder already!

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*I do not claim the rights to the photos above. Ownership belongs to ESPN.

NHRA Gatornationals Wednesday Preview

As the NHRA continues celebrate its 60th anniversary, the series heads east this weekend and makes its second stop on the tour at the historic and record-breaking 1/4-mile in Gainesville, FL.

Each March, thousands of drag racing fans celebrate their version of “spring break” as they make the trip to Gainesville Raceway to attend one of the most prestigious races on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series tour — the NHRA Gatornationals. I’ve always wanted to make it down to Gainesville to attend this race, but I was never able to because I didn’t have the time or money because of school. Now that I’m graduated and working full-time…BAM! I’m there. And it’s a wonderful thing.

I will be flying into, and staying in, Jacksonville during my time in the Sunshine State. My mom is also driving down for the weekend so I’ll be using her car to commute back and forth from the racetrack each day while she shops and enjoys the city. My plan is to visually document my time both at the racetrack and in Jacksonville as often as possible. I know that text updates will be easy with my phone, but I’ll have to wait and see what I can do with images once I’m there. Those might just have to end up being updated once I’m on my laptop back at the hotel.

I was fortunate enough to travel across the country to a lot of great tracks during my time as a pit crew member on Mark Thomas’ Alcohol Funny Car team, but this is my first time going to a race in Florida. This event is one of the most well-attended races of the year by both racers and fans alike. Needless to say, I’m really excited about these next couple days. Sooo…looking ahead, here are a couple of stories to watch for at the racetrack this weekend:

Morgan Lucas, Robert Hight, and Jason Line Bring Early Points Leads to Gainesville

Morgan Lucas, Robert Hight, and Jason Line were the first drivers to host the 60th anniversary, special edition pewter Wally's following their victories in Pomona.

While the first race of the year usually won’t make or break a season, the three professional category winners from Pomona all come into Gainesville with sky-high confidence looking to build on their early success. Morgan Lucas won a showdown over teammate Shawn Langdon in Top Fuel, Robert Hight drove his way past Matt Hagan on a holeshot in a fantastic final round in Funny Car, and Jason Line dominated is way through eliminations to take the Wally over Greg Stanfield in Pro Stock.

Morgan Lucas didn’t have the most spectacular runs on raceday, but he found a way to get the car to the other end of the racetrack on all four runs and he managed to take home the trophy. He’ll need to have a much faster racecar this weekend if he plans on winning back-to-back events, though. There were a lot of mistakes by the Top Fuel field on raceday that he took advantage of, but I can’t see some of the best teams out there beating themselves like that again.

Robert Hight and Jason Line’s racedays were another story. Both drivers pummeled their competition all day with great reaction times and flawless runs. Both Robert and Jason each ran quicker on every single run during eliminations on Sunday. If they can pull off similar performances this weekend in Gainesville, both of these previous World Champions will be well on their way towards earning another Wally.

Kurt Busch Makes His NHRA Pro Stock Debut

Having already won a championship on America's biggest motorsports stage, Kurt Busch will try his hand against the world's best Pro Stock racers.

Kurt Busch is one of the most recognizable names in NASCAR. He has won a Sprint Cup Championship, he has won some of the sport’s biggest races, and he is off to a fantastic start to his 2011 season. The stock car boys have this weekend off before they head to their next race in Bristol. Busch, however, is as busy as he’s ever been. Kurt has been in Bradenton, Florida since the beginning of the week running the wheels off of his brand new NHRA Pro Stock Car. That’s right, Kurt Busch is attempting to qualify for a professional category at this weekend’s NHRA Gatornationals.

This isn’t the elder Busch’s first foray into drag racing, but it will be his first attempt to qualify for a 16-car professional field to race on Sunday. He will battle it out with the best Pro Stock racers that the world has to offer in four qualifying sessions to try and make the cut. This is far from a walk in the park, but Kurt has teamed up with the right guy in Allen Johnson and he has a car under him that could potentially qualify in the top half of the field. Whether that happens or not all depends on how Kurt drives.

I definitely feel like Kurt will make the show though, and I think he will turns some heads while doing so. He has taken all the right steps in the licensing process, tested multiple times, and he has surrounded himself with some of the best talent in the business. If Kurt can keep everything in perspective and cut a few good lights, I look for him to be a contender on Sunday.

Larry Dixon Looks to Rebound From His First Round Loss at Pomona

After dominating qualifying at the season opener, Larry Dixon and the Al-Anabi Top Fuel Dragster team stumbled in the opening round of eliminations.

Three qualifying runs into the 2011 season and Larry Dixon looked just like he did during all of 2010 on his way to the NHRA Top Fuel World Championship: unstoppable. Dixon put on a clinic during qualifying on his way to setting the national elapsed time record at 3.770 seconds and he paced the field into raceday on the pole. Then raceday happened.

Dixon faced Terry McMillen in the first round and he was on pace for another killer lap while racing out to over a car length’s lead in the first 300 feet of the run. As the clutch was being applied, though, Dixon’s car overpowered the track and his tires (as well as his Winternationals title hopes) went up in smoke. Larry did a good job of pedaling the car and somewhat getting it to recover, but it was too late as McMillen blasted on by and into the next round. That’s 0 for 1 for the Champ in 2011 so far.

Is Dixon worried? No. Should he be? No. They’re too good of a team and they made a mistake by trying to be too aggressive at the first race of the season. It happens. Look for the Al-Anabi team to be right back on top in Gainesville and going deep into eliminations.

Pro Stock Motorcycles Begin Their 2011 Campaign

Past Full Throttle Champion, Eddie Krawiec, comes into Gainesville riding a wave of momentum from a national record performance at the 2010 NHRA finale in Pomona.

Of all the professional classes on the NHRA tour, I’ve got admit that I know the least about the Pro Stock Motorcycles. The one thing that I do know, though, is that Eddie Krawiec is bringing a nasty bike into the season opener.

Krawiec pummeled his competition in the final race of 2010 on his way to winning the Finals in Pomona. Eddie is a previous Full Throttle World Champion and he holds the current NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle National Speed record due to his performance last November. The experience and success that both he and Andrew Hines’ teams have had in the past will be huge this year as the try to dethrone the current Full Throttle World Champion and last year’s Rookie of the Year, LE Tonglet.

If the forecast holds true to what it is right now, I would bet on there being runs right on, if not faster, than the current national speed and elapsed time records with these three drivers leading the way.

Several Top Fuel and Funny Car Teams Hit the Track for the First Time This Season

Multi-time TF World Champion, Clay Millican, is one of several nitro drivers that will be making their first appearance on the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series tour in Gainesville.

Although the NHRA has already run its first race of their 60th Anniversary campaign, several teams elected to not make the trip out to Pomona, CA and they will make their 2011 debut in Gainesville. Qualifying for either of the nitro categories will be a tall order as both Top Fuel and Funny Car have pre-registered entries well over the 16 car cutoff.

Clay Millican, Dominick Lagana, Ike Maier, Pat Dakin, Chris Karamesines, Fred Farndon, Stig Neergaard, and Doug Foley all will mix it up in the Top Fuel ranks for the first time this year. On the Funny Car side, John Smith and Justin Schriefer each will be participating in their first race of the season at the Gatornationals.

In all, there are 22 Top Fuel cars and 20 Funny Cars that will be battling it out for a chance to race on Sunday. Yes, that’s 42 nitro cars. That place is going to be rockin’ all weekend long!

And that’s just a taste of what to look forward to. There’s way too much going on to write about all at once, but I will do my best to check in as often as possible and keep everyone updated with how everything is going. I leave Columbus at 9:31 tomorrow morning, make a quick stop in Atlanta, and then I hop on one more quick flight and land in Jacksonville 1:21. I’ll check in with more information once I’m there. Have a great day!

*I do not claim the rights to the photos above. Ownership belongs to Mark J. Rebilas, CompetitionPlus.com.

]]> http://www.coreymichalek.com/2011/03/09/2011-nhra-gatornationals/feed/ 0 http://www.coreymichalek.com/2011/02/28/blue-diesel-rebrand-concept/ http://www.coreymichalek.com/2011/02/28/blue-diesel-rebrand-concept/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:32:26 +0000 admin http://www.coreymichalek.com/?p=986

The 'Creating Your Now' moodboard illustrates a specific moment in time where all of your history and data converge together at a particular point and it's our job to prepare you to get the most out of it and use it in the best way possible. (Click to enlarge)

The fine folks at Blue Diesel and I have been working on rebranding our company for the past couple of months, and although I cannot release the final initiative that was chosen, I thought I would share one of the intial concepts that I helped work on prior to it being eliminated. A few of my team members came up with the idea of “Creating Your Now” and I was asked to create a moodboard and two sets of tactics to help illustrate to our management team how this concept could potentially look, if it were chosen.

As a quick little bit of background information, the idea of “Creating Your Now” is based around a precise moment that is always happening. It looks to remove the notion of what you’ve done in the past and it helps you to not get caught up in what will take place in the future. It is all about making the most out of this exact moment in time.

The following are examples of tactics that could be used for this type of branding effort.

Mock Print Tactics

Some of the print tactics that I designed were new business cards, an advertisment that would go into the MedAd news, and a commemorative, old-fashioned alarm clock where the second hand would have a 'NOW' tag on it to indicate that very moment in time is what matters. (Click to enlarge)

Mock Digital Tactics

For the digital tactics, I carried over elements of the moodboard and the MedAd News advertisement to create desktop backgrounds and I designed custom iPad and iPhone apps that would allow clients to edit the content that we provide for them on the fly. (Click to enlarge)

A quick look back at one of the best summers of my life with all of the footage taken on the extremely handy and versatile GoPro Hero HD camera.

My first summer after graduating from OU was one for the ages. It was action packed and full of time spent with great people. I was fortunate enough to attend multiple races, both as a fan and a driver, spend countless weekends on the lake, attend perfect-weather outdoor concerts, and the list goes on and on. All-in-all, it was one of the best summers of my life.

Thankfully, I took the time to capture some of the moments that made it so much fun. The following is a quick look back at some of the great memories from this summer.

All shots used in the video were recorded using the HD Motorsports Hero from GoPro.

The Ohio University Men's Basketball team had a magical tournament run to cap off a successful 2010-2011 campaign.

It has been quite awhile since I added a new blog post (my apologies) and I was going through some of my old work last night and this series of splash pages that I did for OhioBobcats.com for the men’s basketball team during their outstanding run in the MAC and NCAA tournaments brought back some good memories. For those of you that don’t know, a splash page is an introduction page to a website that you land on before moving on to the full site. As always, the superb photography was done by the extremely talented Joel Hawksley.

Anyways, since I don’t really have a dedicated section in my portfolio for this type of work, I thought that I would showcase them on the blog. While none of them are large enough to fill your entire desktop, if you click on the image to enlarge it and then click and drag it onto your desktop to save it, you can use them as desktop backgrounds. Just change the positioning to centered and your overall background color to black and they should fit quite well. Enjoy!

The Bobcats Advance to Cleveland

After starting out on the road just trying to make the final eight in Cleveland, the Bobcats knocked off Ball State in Muncie, Indiana and came into The Q peaking at the right time. (Click to enlarge)

MAC Tournament Championship

Game after game, the Bobcats picked apart and knocked off higher seeds to advance to their MAC Tournament Championship matchup against the Akron Zips. (Click to enlarge)

NCAA Tournament Qualifiers

The Bobcats went on to defeat the Zips in the tournament finale and they gained a berth into the NCAA tournament where the would face off with the #3 seed, Georgetown Hoyas. (Click to enlarge)

Ohio Upsets the Georgetown Hoyas

The Bobcats pulled off the impossible in Providence, Rhode Island by manhandling the Hoyas in what was considered to easily be the biggest upset of the tournament. (Click to enlarge)

The first poster on the left was my opportunity to really get creative and come up with a design that included all of the players on the team, Coach Groce, and the excitement of the team’s run towards winning the Mid American Conference Tournament. This poster was one of the most time-consuming projects that I did for the OU Athletic Department because of the amount of details that were included on the players all the way to deep in the background.

The second poster was made to commemorate the Bobcats’ improbable, dominating victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament over the powerhouse #3 seed Georgetown Hoyas. The goal was to showcase the way that the Bobcats stepped up to shock the nation with larger-than-life individual performances on an unforgettable night in Providence, RI.

Photo Credit: Joel Hawksley

World Championships are on the line as the NHRA makes its final stop of the year in Pomona, California for the 2010 NHRA Auto Club Finals.

In an effort to keep up with what is shaping up to be the most widely covered NHRA drag race in history, I am going to be compiling a list of updates throughout the weekend chronicling the latest developments and points scenarios as the newest NHRA World Champions are crowned. The updates are numbered down the left side of the column and the latest additions will always be on top. Let’s get this thing rolling!

Force Reduces Deficit to 39 Points

John Force burns out in his all black Castrol sponsored Ford Mustang before blasting to the #3 qualifying position on Saturday evening in Pomona, California.

It took only 4.085 seconds for John Force to reach 310mph and shave off a precious point from Matt Hagan’s lead to get himself back within two rounds of the 2010 NHRA Nitro Funny Car World Championship.

Matt Hagan had the best seat in the house to watch Force rocket into the #3 qualifying spot when his Diehard sponsored Funny Car lost traction early in the run. That’s back-to-back flawless runs for Force as he has now run the 3rd and 4th quickest runs in the first two qualifying sessions. After sitting on the pole in the first session, Hagan now sits in the #6 spot with two more shots at the track during qualifying tomorrow.

Hagan has to been feeling a little uneasy that Force is routinely getting down a track that most nitro teams are struggling mightily with and doing it so quickly. What makes it even worse is that Hagan’s teammates all struggled with him today too so there will be a lot of work in their pits tonight to try and right the ship for tomorrow.

Force’s team, however is the class of of the field currently sitting in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions. How’s this for a Friday night qualifying session: Ashley-Force Hood: 4.076, Robert Hight: 4.080, and John Force: 4.085. All three of John Force’s cars ran within less than one-hundredth of a second of each other. That team was flat out dialed in today.

The #2 man in the points in Top Fuel also made up a little ground on the points leader when Tony Schumacher ran the seconds quickest run of the session while Larry Dixon had to abort his run after losing traction. While his mountain is a lot steeper to climb than Force’s, Schumacher trimmed his deficit from 86 to 84 points on the merits of a 3.855 second pass at just over 307mph.

That marks two runs in a row for Schumacher where he ran a strong, mid-3.8 second lap. While Dixon isn’t sweating the two points that he lost tonight the way that Hagan is, if Schumacher can gain 5 more on him in the final two qualifying sessions tomorrow, you better believe Dixon will have a lot of pressure on him in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.

Saturdays two qualifying sessions will have more importance than any two other qualification sessions all year. Force cannot surrender the points that he gained back tonight if he wants a legitimate shot to pass Hagan on Sunday. Schumacher desperately needs to get his 84 point deficit down to 79 points or less to force Dixon to win two rounds on Sunday to completely lock up the title. Single points from the two runs tomorrow can make or break one of these racer’s shots at winning a championship.

Just a quick heads up…highlights from all 4 qualification sessions will be on ESPN2 tomorrow night for 2 hours starting at 10:30PM. I’m looking forward to seeing how everything plays out in the last two sessions and I can’t wait to see the final Sunday raceday scenarios!

Larry Dixon on losing two points off of his lead to Schumacher:
“It’s about round wins, he can have two points, and I can have 20. We talked a little bit about it yesterday, but last year, I came in this race one or two points behind Tony. It doesn’t matter; I have a lot of confidence in our team and in the car. We’ve done really well this year, and I’m still planning on that kind of a weekend where we can hold our own and not be defensive. We’ll just go out there and race hard. It’s a pretty good car; I’m not worried about two points. Not at all. Not yet.”

Tony Schumacher on trimming his deficit from 86 to 84 points:
“It may not seem like much, but we’ll take whatever we can grab. We got back the point we lost yesterday and then gained one on him. We’ll be trying to trim his advantage even more tomorrow. I guess the stars will have to align for us. With that said, we have to believe it will happen. We’ve proven over the years that miracles can happen.”

Dixon, Hagan Fire First Shots in Pomona

Larry Dixon got off to a great start in Pomona taking the early qualifying lead with a 3.813 second run at over 318 miles per hour.

And we’re underway! Larry Dixon and Matt Hagan did exactly what they needed to do in order to inch closer towards capturing a NHRA World Championship by the end of the weekend. Their chasers, Tony Schumacher and John Force, both ran well but find themselves a little further behind the points leaders than they were to start the day. Dixon and Hagan each hold the #1 qualifying spot spots for their respective classes while Schumacher and Force are currently qualified second and fourth.

In Top Fuel, Larry Dixon used a 3.813 second pass at 318mph to blast to the top of the order comfortably in front of Tony Schumacher’s 3.840 second run. By running the quickest time of the session, Dixon gained 1 more point on Tony Schumacher and increased his lead to 86 points. If Tony wants to have a shot to beat Larry without resetting a national record, he needs to gain 7 points on him during qualifying and have Dixon go out in the first round. After the performances in their opening runs, it’s looking like that could be a really tall order.

As of right now, Dixon’s name is extremely close to being put on the championship check. His run from last night will not get bumped out. It was way too quick for 16 other cars to run faster than. Schumacher has made miracles happen before, but his deficit might be too much to overcome right now. His only chance to win the championship at this moment is for Dixon to lose in the first round and then Tony has to go on and win the race and also reset the national record. Which, ironically, is exactly what he did in 2006. But, Dixon now drive’s for Schumacher’s 2006 team and I feel that Larry’s lock.

In Funny Car, Matt Hagan motored to top of the pack with a 4.14 second pass at 293mph. John Force made a respectable run as well finishing the first round qualified fourth. The disparity in qualifying positions was enough to add 3 points on to Hagan’s lead and stretch it to 40 points. If qualifying ended today, Force could be in big trouble. The difference between being 37 and 40 points behind is massive. If he’s 39 back, he needs to go 2 rounds further than Hagan on Sunday to win the Championship. If he’s 40 back, he needs to go 3 rounds further than Hagan on Sunday to win the Championship.

While Force still has 3 more rounds of qualifying to be able to at least get a point back, he’s got to be a little uneasy about his chances with the way Matt is running. Hagan is too good to count on him going out in the first or second round. Every single point is critical going into Sunday and nowhere is that more evident than in the matchup between these two. I do see Force’s team finding a way to get the deficit back under 40 during Friday’s session though and having new life going into the final qualifying runs on Saturday.

Larry Dixon on his opening qualifying run:
“Really, all this did was get us qualified. We’ll be in the show, but you don’t know what happens with oil down penalties and things like that, anything can happen, but we’ll be in the race. There were some cars that had trouble getting down and others that ran well, but everybody did their thing and it was just nice to make a clean run.”

Tony Schumacher on losing ground to Dixon:
“It was a good run. We may have put a cylinder out down track which cut into our elapsed time. Unfortunately, we lost a point to Dixon today. We’ll just have to come back on Friday and look to get the maximum number of points while hoping he gets shut out.”

Matt Hagan on taking the provisional pole:
“I’m just proud of Tommy DeLago and my guys. They’re doing a great job in putting the car together well. I doubt that will stick for No. 1, so we’ll just have to go back up there and still try to be aggressive and try to pick up every point we can.”

John Force on now being 40 points behind Hagan:
“I am staying positive. I have a great Ford with great sponsors. The fans have been great and they are counting on us to deliver.  We have the same conditions as all the other teams. We are going to stick to our strategy every round. We are just going to keep going and going. We are going to try and get those points back so it is only two rounds and not three rounds. He could win the next two but that won’t get him another round. We took it in Vegas and we’ll take it here.”

How the Teams Got to This Point

John Force is vigorously pursuing his record-setting 15th NHRA World Championship and must make it around Matt Hagan this weekend if he wants to get the job done.

The 2010 NHRA Finals have arrived! In just 4 short days, two extremely talented nitro drivers will be named NHRA World Champions. There is a buzz in the air about this race that hasn’t been present for any season ending event since I’ve been following drag racing for the last 7 years and it’s for good reason.

The biggest stories coming into this weekend deal with the battles between drivers racing in the Top Fuel Dragster and Nitro Funny Car categories. The drivers remaining with a shot at a nitro World Championship are the best of the best and the teams that they have behind them are nothing short of extraordinary. The story lines run deep in the classes and here is just a taste of how the points got to where they are at today.

In Top Fuel, Larry Dixon has been the most dominant driver in the NHRA all year regardless of what class you look at. Larry has reset an NHRA record by going a perfect 12-12 in final rounds and no matter what happens this weekend, he is guaranteed to have won at least half of this season’s races. He has an 85 point lead (over four rounds of racing) coming into the final event of the year and basically needs to qualify to all but solidify his 3rd Top Fuel World Championship. Lurking behind him in second place is the 7-time (6 in a row) and defending Top Fuel World Champion Tony Schumacher.

In Funny Car, the most dominant driver all season long is no longer in the points lead. John Force battered the Funny Car class for the majority of the NHRA regular season and he held on to his points lead through the beginning of the playoffs until one fateful Sunday in Reading, Pennsylvania. Force, a 15-Time World Champ, was unable to get his car in reverse in the first round and young-gun Matt Hagan took full advantage of the opportunity by going to the final round in Reading and he gained a points lead that he has yet to give back. Hagan comes into Pomona with a 37 point point lead over Force.

As the weekend progresses, I will continue to fill you in on the history between these drivers, what the new points scenarios are, and what my personal opinions are on what the drivers need to do in order to give themselves the best shot at taking home the trophy at the end of the weekend. Strap in, this promises to be an incredible finish!

The future Mr. and Mrs. Michalek enjoy a perfect day on the lake this past 4th of July.

As of Wednesday, October 28, 2010, it is my pleasure to announce the engagement my brother Kyle Michalek and his new fiancée Stephanie Andrews!

It’s so exciting seeing my brother with someone like Steph. I’ve had the privilege of getting to know her through the past few years and she is one of the kindest and most sincere people that I have ever known. Kyle, along with anyone else who is around her, is constantly smiling and having a great time whenever she is present. She is one of a kind and I’m so excited that she’s going to be a part of our family.

Kyle has been one of my biggest role models from day one and I really, really look up to him. His positive attitude and exceptional work ethic are contagious and I try to model my behavior after him because of how successful he is at everything that he does. He’s one of the easiest people in the world to get along with and he has paired himself up with the perfect girl. I couldn’t be happier for him!

Congratulations again, Kyle and Steph!

Staring down the track before making my first full 1/4-mile run in the Michalek Brothers Racing dragster.

It took more than a year, but we finally did it. Nearly 13 months after making the initial runs in our new car, my brother Kyle and I finally got back behind the wheel of our rear-engine dragster at Quaker City Raceway in Salem, Ohio for the final race weekend of the year. By the time that the day was over, we were packed up with four successful runs in our pockets and we headed home with a new sense of confidence.

Rather than write a novel about everything that happened during the day, I’m going to put the focus of this post on my first ever full quarter-mile run. Prior to this outing, I had only made runs to half track (1/8th-mile) and then shut the car off as part of slowly getting acclimated to the process of driving it. I quickly found out after crossing the finish line on my first ever full run that it’s a lot harder to figure out where I’m at on the track when I’m trying to slow down a car that’s traveling at a much higher rate of speed than I’ve ever gone before.

I’ll start off by saying that when you’re racing, the more routines that you can get yourself into, the better off you’re going to be. Everything is more consistent this way and it’s much easier to diagnose any problems if you ever have something go wrong. There was nothing routine, however, about my first full run starting all the way back in the pits.

We were at the track strictly to test the car — not to line up and race. We’re still in a data gathering mode and Kyle and I are still getting acclimated with the challenges of driving this car. Being that we weren’t involved in the normal race day lineup, we would just drive up to the staging lanes and wait for our turn to make our runs as there were breaks in the action of the classes that were racing for money. Prior to this run, including last year, I had never been strapped in the car and had to wait for more than 10 minutes before making a run. This is where everything started to go a little haywire.

I drove up and I parked the dragster in the front of the testing line, quickly got strapped in, and I patiently waited as they finished up running the class that they were on. When it got to the point where I thought that it was my turn, they moved on to another class. This didn’t end up being something that happened just once either. It became the norm and they kept skipping the cars there for testing over and over and over again.

Nearly an hour and a half later, I couldn’t take it anymore. My neck was killing me from my helmet being on for so long, I was roasting from the multiple fireproof layers that I was wearing, and I was having a hard time breathing from the seat-belts being so tight. I couldn’t just sit there like that anymore so I hopped out of the car.

I took my helmet off, walked around, and stretched out a bit to clear my mind. I then waited until what I thought was the last possible moment to get strapped back in. Turns out that I was wrong again and I had to wait nearly another 30 minutes until they finally gave me the signal to fire up the car and drive it up to the starting line. Of course, it couldn’t be that easy. I got halfway there and they signaled me to shut the car off again because there was oil on the starting line.

After another 10 minutes the call came to start the car back up again and I drove up to the burnout box behind another pair of cars so that I had a little bit of time to get some heat back in my engine. I pulled forward, did my burnout, and everything felt great. When I was backing up, however, I noticed that one of the track officials was going down the track in the other lane and I was once again ordered to shut my car off. Apparently a car in the previous pair dropped some debris on the racetrack and thus I was forced to sit strapped in the racecar idle for another 10 minutes while they cleaned everything up.

Finally, after being in the car for nearly 2.5 hours, it was my turn to make a run. While I was pulling up to the starting line, I was still processing some last minute advice from my brother in my head. He had informed me that the shutdown area at this track was relatively short and that the end would come up quickly on me so I needed to be on the brakes soon after crossing the finish line. I kept looking down the track to make sure that I knew where everything was, but this track has an uphill shutdown area that’s continuously cresting so there’s really not much that you can see past the finish line until you’re down there.

I then pulled forward into the pre-stage light, took a deep breath, pulled my visor down, put my head back into the roll-cage, and I pulled into the stage beams. When the first light came on I released the transmission brake button on my steering wheel, mashed the throttle, and I focused all attention down track. The car then took off like a rocket planting me back in the seat and it picked the front wheels up off the ground twice as it left the starting line.

It usually takes me about until 300 feet into the run to really be able to see what’s going on and this run was no different. Everything was going relatively straight and a few adjustments here and there kept the car in the groove. Soon after, the next thing I knew I was going past the 1/8th-mile markers and charging hard toward the finish line. About 400 feet before I got there, I had a thought that maybe it might be a good idea to pull the parachutes when I crossed the finish line because it felt like I was going extremely fast. In the end, I figured that I would just get on the brakes early to see how much the car slowed down initially and then pull the parachutes only if I absolutely needed to.

Just 8.454 seconds after leaving the starting line, I was traveling at a speed of 158.46mph and I began second-guessing my decision to not pull the parachute.

In order to fully understand the next part of the story, please click on the image below to see where the turnoffs are at Quaker City Raceway.

Quaker City Raceway Shutdown Overview

Visual overview of the track layout and turnoffs at Quaker City Raceway. (Click to enlarge.)

There are technically three turnoffs at this track. The first one is for if a car breaks and stops before the finish line. An ATV will usually come down, hook up, and then tow the car off using this exit. Otherwise, the gate is closed for this exit and a car under power will make the turnoff at either the second or third exit depending on its rate of speed. More often then not, if you’re making an 1/8th-mile run, you’ll turn off at the second exit. Likewise, if you’re making a 1/4-mile run, you’ll turn off at the third exit. Easy enough.

The problem is that when you’re going 160mph, if you blink, it’s extremely easy to lose track of where you are. Upon crossing the finish line, I still had my brother’s words in my mind that the end of the track comes up quickly and that I needed to get it stopped fast so I glanced at the parachute lever thinking it might be a good idea to pull them just in case. By the time that I looked up, I was going past an exit and at that moment I wasn’t sure if it was the first or second exit. When I then focused my attention further up the shutdown area at the next exit and I couldn’t see any return road beyond it I was like, “Oh crap, I’m still going reallllllly fast and I’m already coming up on the last turn off? I need to get on the brakes big time right now.”

Turns out that I was just going so fast that I over compensated for where I was at and I had no idea this was really only the second turnoff coming up. Another factor that led to my confusion was that during my 1/8-mile run earlier in the day there was not an ambulance parked at the second exit like there was this time. With all of this, I thought for sure that that was the end of the track so I pumped the brakes really hard and I managed to bring the car to a stop just a few feet past the turnoff. Normally, that would be the end of the drama, but this only triggered a brand new problem.

When you get on the brakes really hard in one of these cars, it will often cause the engine to stall out because all of the fuel will get thrown to the front of the fuel tank away from the fuel pump, thus not allowing it to stay running. Well, when the car stalled out, it couldn’t have been in a worse place. The front half of my dragster was sitting across the center of the track and halfway over in the other lane. This normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but again, because of the uphill shutdown area, it’s impossible for anyone at the starting line to see if there is still a car on the track before the next pair goes down.

Luckily, I finally had something going for me. I was fortunate that I was on an uncontested run. It was just me, and no one else in the other lane. That meant that the next person making a run would also be on a solo pass and there would be no one making a run in the lane that I just came down. This was crucial because as it turned out, no one at the starting line knew that I was still on the track and while I was still sitting there, they sent the next car down the track.

The video below is cut off before you can see where it gets bad, but the guy that is walking towards me after he exits the ambulance ends up having to sprint onto the track and push me back into my lane. And no more than 3 seconds after that, the car in the other lane comes flying by. Had there been two cars racing down both sides of the track, there would have been nowhere to go and it could have gotten really ugly in a hurry.

Thankfully, though, everything turned out alright and no one got hurt. I personally learned quite a few lessons during those hectic moments as well and I’ll be better prepared to handle that situation in the future if it ever presents itself again.

Please take a moment to check out a few of the pictures from the day at the track below as well as take a ride along with me on my first ever full 1/4-mile run and relive the experience that I just shared. I’m countin’ down the days until we can fire it back up and do it again next year!

The view from the top of the roll-cage on the Michalek Brothers Racing rear-engine dragster looking down into the cockpit and up the front of the chassis. (Click to enlarge)

The view that you’re seeing comes from a GoPro Hero HD Camera. These small cameras have become extremely popular recently because of their exceptional quality and affordable price. They are also used by many of the major TV networks on their sports telecasts for POV footage.

This model came with several different mounts that you can use and I’m hoping to experiment with multiple angles on the car as the weekend progresses. The image above is with the camera set up on top of our “bodiless” racecar in the shop and I plan to utilize this perspective the most. This view will give great looks both into the cockpit and far down track. Although the front rollcage bar is blocking the main part of the dashboard, you will still be able to see all of the control switches on the left side of the cockpit, the RPM gauge, shifter and parachute levers on right side of the cockpit, as well as the transmission-brake button and steering wheel. As far as that big red button on top of the steering wheel goes, let’s just hope that you never see me push it.

I’ve already used this camera multiple times this summer for boating and for recording races in the stands, but this weekend will be the first time that it has ever been strapped to the racecar. I’m really looking forward to taking you all along for a ride down the dragstrip with me. Stay tuned!