2022 Havana Fall Nostalgia
Havana, September 17, 2022
A great day for racing at Central Illinois Dragway. At race time the temperature was in the mid 80’s. All the pit spaces were full and spectator parking had expanded to the green area between the entrance and exit driveways.
All cars were in place by 11:30 am. Members in attendance were: Jim Brandon, Howard Crull, Gene and Sherman Devening, Paul Eikel, Doug Henderson, Craig Pfohl and Joe Szydlo. Crews in attendance were: Sherry Bizzle, Amy Lowis (our back-up girl), Betty Devening and family, Liz and Justin Eikel (our photographer in residence) and family, Alicia Henderson (t-shirt sales), and Rich Pfohl,
We were happy to see Larry Quinn in attendance with his car and Bill Berry driving his car in the parade lap. He also brought his 5-year-old grandson to introduce him to NSS racing. He is progressing well and is expecting to return to the track in 2023.
Our first run was at 1:08 pm. After our first run, we went ahead and did our parade lap while Bill drove Larry’s car. The announcer actually explained to the crowd the reason Larry was not in the car. By the way, the announcer was great all evening, telling about the drivers and cars.
Our second run was passed over as a result of the box and no box classes. Each had in excess of 50 cars, thus eliminations for them started early. At 3:00 the Star-Spangled Banner was played and the show was underway.
Our second run was at 5:34. Three members in the left lane experienced the lights on the pro tree displaying the three amber and the red, coming on simultaneously, thus indicating a foul.
Our last run was at 9:31 pm. By that time there had been a lot of track downtime due to oil downs, track prep, etc. Racing continued and at 11:30 pm they called us again. By that time three members had left, the rest of us had put our cars in the box and were sitting in the circle, a very small circle at that. Racing continued until 1:30 am when everything went dark.
Gary came by and thanked us for coming. We all enjoyed the event and are looking forward to next year.
In addition I would like to thank Ike Andrews and Dale Chenoweth for helping out and all the extra help at the starting line. Always nice to have members on hand to help at the line. It was also nice to see Ernie Keppler who stopped by for a visit.
– Doug Henderson