2022 Milan, MI
Milan Michigan September 17th and 18th 2022 summary
Our Friday entry into the Milan Dragway went smooth as silk as the young ladies working the booth had our credentials ready to go for us. When John and I pulled into our pit area at 6pm eastern we were greeted by Craig and Milt Schreindl and Bob and Diana Durling that were already in place. Dave and Wes Wesolowski and Jenn Beagle came in shortly after our arrival and followed by Tom Cartwright and Shelly Smith. The temperature was a pleasant mid 80’s going into the evening and cooled off pretty quick after the sun went down. All three days were pretty much the same with daytime temps in the mid 80’s.
With new ownership that purchased the facility last winter they have spent a lot of money freshening the grounds up. They did much replacement of concrete and asphalt in the areas of replacing the concrete water box, starting line, new asphalt staging lanes and new asphalt from the eight mile to 100 feet past the finish line. Craig S, John and I walked the track Saturday morning and found the track’s resurfacing to be really nice. We stopped at the “sandbox” and gazed back toward the starting line and realized the shutdown area is extremely long which is very welcoming for us racers. To mention the first eighth mile is concrete and is still in excellent condition from whenever it was installed.
Saturday morning we met Rob Reis and family who was going to run with us with his Chevrolet. A very interesting story on how his dad drove this car home from California in 1969 after returning from Vietnam and the car is still with the family but in racecar fashion. Also met with my track contact Steve Timoczyk who is also the owner/driver of the Detroit Tiger nostalgia funny car. We went over our two day agenda. Our schedule was determined to be two runs on Saturday and one on Sunday.
We ended up with ten cars for our racing with picking up the Chevy and a “B” body Dodge Hemi car. Members present were; Chris Kuhl, Bob Durling, Craig Schreindl, Mike Cicciarelli, Rich Berlisk, John Grinwald, Dave Wesolowski and Tom Cartwright. Family and crew included; Pam Kuhl, Diana Durling, Paul Ritenour, Milt Schreindl, Wes Wesolowski, Jenn Beagle, Shelly Smith Rob, Danielle and Abby Reis.
My estimate in total race cars is 200 plus. It was a very busy place with ten funny cars, handful of top fuel dragsters, two dozen Great Lakes Gassers, around 50 Great Lakes Super Stocks and several other groups plus all the bracket cars.
Our first run on Saturday was at 3:47 pm and our second for Saturday was at 7:29 pm. We finished the night and went into “Milt Mode” with food and liquid refreshments as racing continued until a little after 1am.
Saturday night John and I spent from 8:30 until 9:45 in the tower on the hot Mic with Radio station CKIW radio 76 interviewing and calling races with the radio man John Sarver. That was a blast for both John And I. This is the same Radio station that interviewed me back on 4-26 earlier this year. He loves our group cars.
During the day on Saturday Tom and Mary Kowal stopped in and chatted with a lot of us. They were crewing with their son on his front engine dragster so would stop by occasionally to visit. They really miss being out racing with our group and will be back in 23 with a new motor. They did all the paint striping at the track after all the new surfaces were installed and I must say Tom & Mary are very good at that ! We caught Mary on our way back from the interview Saturday night and we could determine she was ”in no pain” if you know what I mean. It will be great to have the both of them back. Also Gary McKenzie another old face was there racing with another organization and he stopped in to chat a lot as did Tom and Mary along with their son Tom Jr.
Moving on to Sunday with the temp in the mid-sixties at wakeup time and smell of breakfast in the air from people cooking in the pits. Eventually the smell came from Craig and Milt’s grill next door in which Milt And Craig made us “world class” breakfast sandwiches. They sure know how to cook.
The track was going to have a very busy day with many classes having to do their semifinals and finals. I spoke with Steve Timoszyk in the morning and he told me they would get our run in at 1pm as scheduled or maybe earlier. According to my time slip my run was at 12:40 pm eastern. That was great as we could get loaded and “Out of Dodge” at a very early time to travel in the warm and beautiful sun-filled afternoon of the Michigan skies.
A proxy vote was e-mailed to the participants that were going to be in attendance to take a vote for accepting Chris Heuton into the organization. Attaching that vote I had in hand with me to Milan our verbal vote there would constitute a quorum. Chris is now a member of NSS Inc. Welcome Chris and Jaynie into the NSS Inc family! John called Chris on our drive home Sunday to notify him. He also gave us an update on his blood issue and he is improving as time slides by, get well Chris and maybe a chance we’ll see you at Terre Haute.
In summary it was a very good weekend with good weather and surrounded by good people and friends. I got to speak with many people and had a good time in doing so. Seems as if everyone in Michigan is a gearhead ! With the motor city Detroit being so near this is probably so true.
Let’s put on a good showing at Terre Haute on October 1st and put an exclamation mark behind our 2022 season !!!
Rich