Renegade #1

It's the start of a new season at Barona 1/8th Mile Dragstrip, but there was still some leftover clean up from last year. When one of the Renegade races was rained out, so was the 2017 Member Track Madness, leaving us one championship, trophy, and tickets to Pamona for the NHRA Winternationals to give out.


The way it works is simple. The Renegade Electronics and Renegade Non-E are ran as normal. Once we have winners in both brackets, they run one last race against each other, and the winner gets to be the Member Track Madness champion, and get to take home a big #1 trophy declaring them such.


First, in the Renegade Electronics, Paul Wagner and his Valiant went up against Jeff Martin and his Datsun. Both cars were nearly even at the line, but Paul was a little jumpy; he launched 3 hundredths of a second early, disqualifying himself and giving Jeff the Renegade Electronics win.

Paul Wagner (Far) against Jeff Martin (Near) in the Renegade Electronics final. [Photo by Pete Liebig]

The other half would be found via the Renegade Non-E bracket, where John McKinney and Tracy Perez were matching up. Tracy's 70 Nova would launch first off a 7.60 dial, while John's 77 Camaro would be playing catch up with a 6.54 dial. He'd have to try and make up a 2 hundredths disadvantage too, as Tracy beat John on the line. But, John's racing would come through, as he gets a 6.547 E/T on a 6.54 dial, making up that 2 hundredths lost at the line, and getting the Renegade Non-E win.

John McKinney's 77 Camaro making a run. [Photo by Pete Liebig]

With our Renegade Electronics and Non-E Champions decided, there was just one last race to decide who'd win the 2017 NHRA Member Track Madness Championship. This one was a heads up race, between John McKinney's 77 Camaro and Jeff Martin's 74 Datsun. Again, John was slower off the line, as Jeff launched 15 thousandths of a second sooner, but John would pass Jeff on the track, and finish with a 6.537 E/T, beating Jeff's 6.717 by a more than comfortable amount.
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John McKinney (Far) against Jeff Martin (Near) in the Member Track Madness final.

And with that, John McKinney wins the Member Track Madness Championship. And that was just the first Renegade of the season! In two weeks, on February 17th, the gates open at 10AM to start this again! Also, bring in your car for some Test and Tune trial runs, or try to get into the Gambler! See you there!

John McKinney and his 77 Camaro, accepting the award for the NHRA Member Track Madness Championship.