The European drag racing scene consists of FIA rounds all over Europe and to become the FIA champion you must be committed to traveling very long distances to race. For some to spend 30 plus hours on a ferry is not uncommon! And the costs are astronomical at any exchange rate or any currency.

I had committed to travel to the FIA round at the famous racing facility in Hochenheim, Germany with Marcus Hilt's Trouble Racing team, again. Our goal was to see about getting the car, the driver and the crew all dialed in and on the same page. Marcus has a great, dedicated crew and the team just needed some outside help in putting all the pieces in their correct places. It does take all three, part and parcel to make an operation work and work well. Marcus had fitted a late model Lenco between the frame rails of his TM 63 Split window to replace the 35 year old one that he had destroyed at the Santa Pod round in June. And JanCen Engines in Buffalo, NY had repaired the leftover head damages from Marcus' blowup at Hockenheim in 2009. So all that was left to do was to fit the bigger fuel pump to the car and then see if the car could go from one end to the other under power.

The first qualifying round on Friday proved that gremlins still abounded in the car. Marcus depressed the clutch to arm the two step and it did not come on when a relay decided to stop working. With that issue being diagnosed and repaired the Punisher was ready yet again to try and make a full pass. With a decent 60 foot for a Littlefield blower at 20 over amongst all the DMPE pieces the Vette set sail till 3.6 seconds when the burst panel did it' s job! ONE more anomaly had shown up! The clip that holds the fuel shutoff cable broke and allowed the fuel shutoff to slowly go closed. All air and no fuel does not a happy combination make, so the burst panel ended that run as well.

Saturday dawned a beautiful day and the entire team was ready to finally show the true potential of the Swiss Pro Mod! The car left the line well and appeared to be doing a fairly good job of making its' way down the track until it nosed over and gave up an 8 second time slip. This was starting to really get to all of us! How many things can go wrong was heard from one and all!

When the crew tore into the car they quickly found the reason why the engine had stopped running 3 seconds in! A broken timing belt was the first sign of things not being happy internally. And after further diagnosis Marcus and the crew discovered not one but TWO broken connecting rods! And that ended yet another run at that elusive 6 second pass all were looking for! Although they were all dejected as is to be expected, the long faces did not stay long! They had all done their part and mechanical gremlins had been the cause of their demise, not any people failures.

So then there was nothing left to do but have another great meal in The Punisher pits! That is the one and only bad thing about working with this team. I would weigh 200 pounds if I ate with them all the time. They really, really eat well and I have enjoyed some great dishes that have names I can't pronounce. It is great to see and great to be a part of the camaraderie on this team. As I said earlier people are ALWAYS the key to success. So it will all have to be done again in 2011. There are no tracks for a Pro Mod in Switzerland so it looks like England again in the spring.

More 2010 ADRL Pro Mod News Here:

I'm an old trucking guy from way back, just like my friend Roger Henson, although with a whole lot less money! For the most part I enjoy the peace and solitude of the open road and as John and Tracy like to tell me, it is where I dream up all kinds of things.

And I must admit I do come up with some doozies! Some of them are really great reminders of things we may need to change. And some of them may perhaps be a better way of putting something where it is easier found. My do to lists after after a long trip such as a Dallas or Houston can sometimes be what appears to be an entire trash can of sticky notes!

And then there are the times where I wish I was the one riding in an airplane! The return trip from St Louis was one of those times. As I was motoring along the highway of life on Sunday morning I noticed a strange smell like brakes smoking and heard a faint screeching sound coming and going. When I was able to I pulled over to the shoulder and walked all around my trusty Mack, Clifford the Big Red Dog. I looked all around front to back and could find nothing wrong. So I attributed the smell to another truck and headed off yet again. But was I ever wrong!!! Being the super trucker I like to be I was in the passing lane cruising at 75 miles an hour when I suddenly discovered part one of my dilemma. The right front tire blew out with a thunderous KAPOW! Now that was fun and I had a brief flashback of the last time I blew a front tire on a Mack! That time gave me a free thrill ride to the bottom of a mountain gully coupled with a free ambulance ride!

I got Clifford stopped on the shoulder of the road without any drama and when I got out to assess the damage I found the inner front wheel bearing had given it up. Luckily I was by an exit with a truck stop across the way. Although they could not do anything for me I did find a nice fellow who was on call at a truck repair facility who called me a very reasonable wrecker service called Pardoe's! With nothing able to be done on Sunday I settled in on the back lot of Greenforks Alignment. I had no idea at the time I was going to be spending several days there! On Monday the very efficient staff at Greenforks set out trying to find me a spindle to replace the ruined one. There were none available in any of the truck salvage yards anywhere close and a new one could come from southern Ohio for Tuesday morning for the paltry sum of $1400 plus dollars! And since we are not my buddy Roger I opted to put that process on hold.

I called my friend and the maintenance engineer behind helping us keep Clifford on the road, Dave Kline at D&D Truck Repair and Towing. He has just about anything and everything for a Mack that you can fathom. Sure enough the elusive spindle was in stock and in no time Dave had it off, cleaned up, and boxed up and his bride Diane, the other half of D&D had it on UPS red label to me! What great friends and sponsors they are! So on Tuesday morning the driver of the Big Brown Truck arrived with the part to get Clifford back among the living. Then with all the bits and pieces in place and my very reasonable invoice paid to the Greenforks people I was finally back to looking at life through the windshield! It didn't take long for Clifford to hit his stride and back on our hill in Appalachia we were Tuesday evening.

My only thoughts now are: "What's next?" These trials and tribulations are really starting to get old!

More 2010 ADRL Pro Mod News Here:

Our friend, that fickle woman Ms Lady Luck appears to have deserted us. We survived the first races of the 2011 season with a lot of her magic. And after St Louis with the rained out Topeka race included we knew she was off and gone to help some other wayward soul. With our spare motor planted between the frame rails on the off weekend between Houston and St Louis we were ready once again to give our fellow ADRL warriors a run for their money. Or so we thought!

On our first qualifier John informed me that he had no oil pressure at the end of the burnout. So for the first time in our short ADRL career we pushed the car off to the side after John backed up through the water box. Strike ONE!

On our second attempt John had to pedal the Camaro when it started to light the tires at the top of low gear. Strike TWO!

But on our third qualifier we thought we were finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel! When we rolled out from under the tunnel at Gateway, we were the slowest non qualified car in the field. That night session was nothing short of astounding for the ADRL crowd! They saw the ADRL's second quickest ever Pro Extreme field created! And it was done in August racing next to the Mississippi river! In the Missouri night time on that Friday night an amazing, unheard of FIVE Pro Extreme racers recorded times of 3.78! We were one of them when John piloted the Appalachia on Steroids Camaro to nearly an all time best run of a 3.78 with a ONE! The only sad thing about it is that it left us qualified in the SEVENTH spot! That meant that were 3.70 cars in the bottom half of the field! But we had now qualified again amongst the Big Boys with our little team that could! We had become yet again the quickest non-hemi car in the field. No strikes, no balls, just a good old qualifying run!

But on Saturday morning before the last qualifier that witch woman deserted us yet again! Scott realized that our brand spanking new oil pump had a seal leaking and oil was dripping out the front of it! Oh boy, joy of joys, an oil pump seal was needed in Missouri before lunchtime on a Saturday! How was that going to work we had to wonder. Then magically down out of the clouds our lady friend appeared to tempt us yet again that she still had a place in her heart for us.

Our newfound friends, the Rister clan that we met at the Martin race were from within 20 minutes of the race track and operated an automotive repair shop. Mrs. Candy Rister, being the parts procurer for the family run business spent a lot of time on her cell phone till she found us a seal at a local Carquest parts store! You really have to love Carquest! If you need it, invariably they will have it! So off Mr. Axle Weiss and I went to find this place and find it we did without getting lost ONCE!

With the car fixed and the team ready to race, to the staging lanes we went for our first round matchup with the venerable one, Quain Stott. This time it was our turn to have lane choice, so again we did what we did in Houston, we raced in the lane Quain was not in! And this time he got the win light when that fickle woman got to us yet again! The two cars left the line welded together but it was over right after that. The throwout bearing collar broke, turned in the bellhousing which never left the clutch release!

We are planning on a really nice seance session with this Lady Luck female person in the not so distant future before Rockingham. We plan on lots of candles, lots of incense and anything else it may take to get her back in our corner yet again! We have even thought of calling Stan Allen or one of them other creole area boys to recommend a good voodoo lady to help us out!

But we shall persevere! We shall not give up the fight! Never! Ever! We are in this till the bitter end!

More 2010 ADRL Pro Mod News Here:

The second trip to Houston in 2010 for an ADRL race was most definitely a lousy experience! It was bound to happen to us sooner or later, the odds were in fate's favor. The July journey to Texas started off just fine but started to go wrong at the outset of the second day's journey. While cruising along the highway of life in a two lane construction zone I hit a piece of steel in the middle of the road when there was no place to go and no way to avoid it. Luckily I didn't have a blowout! At that time we didn't! But I did down the road an hour or so. ON THE TRAILER! So out into the 105 degree heat I went and changed the tire.!

And then there was the racing itself. We had not yet qualified for the first Houston race and with everyone only getting one shot at it we failed to make it in! There went our qualifying streak we were so proud of! But we also had our car magnet facts reinforced yet again when Jason Scruggs ended up bowling for cones out of the right lane. And that was a close one yet again! We were all glad it was a matter of two experienced drivers paying attention or it could have been ugly! The orange car magnet was in the house, AGAIN!

More 2010 ADRL Pro Mod News Here:

The race weekend in beautiful Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas sure wasn't one to write home about after all three of Friday's qualifying sessions were completed.

We found ourselves and our normally potent race car on the outside looking in! We were number NINETEEN out of a field of THIRTY! So much for the headline at the end of the Martin race. We may have thought we were back but on Friday night it wasn't looking so good!

A lot of Thinking 101 went on and the crew spied what they thought may be the issue Friday night and then Mr. Bigtime Crew Chief came to the same conclusion on Saturday morning while the crew were still snuggled in their beds like bugs in a rug. He, being ME had made a really Dummy 101 tilt error mistake when making some mathematical calculations. That's right, he can't count! But as an Australian racer used to tell me: "if you did it-put your hand up." And I have both hands up and am standing on a ladder for one and all to see!

So all that was left to do was to go into Saturday morning's last shot at qualifying and see if anything had been retained about racing a blown door car. John carefully staged the car and not willing to risk anything to chance, when the yellow flashed he waited on Scottie to bang on the car as they planned to be his signal to leave! The Appalachia on Steroids Camaro did what it had wanted to do all day Friday. Went straight down the race track and put a number on the board that should solidify them in the elite field of sixteen. All that was left was to let the other fifteen cars make their runs and we would know. And when the smoke and dust settled we were "in the show" in the fifteenth spot. Anyone in ADRL Pro Extreme drag racing will tell you that the winner can come from anywhere in the field!

Which brings us to the headline: "John done made him mad!!!" followed by: "We are in so much TROUBLE........" Our number fifteen slot allowed us to be paired against the Texas Tornado Terror, his-own-self: Frankie "Madman" Taylor. And his moniker aptly suits him in this instance. He told John Stanley that not only was he going to leave on him, BUT he was going to beat him like a red headed stepchild! He claimed for one and all to hear for miles around that he owed John one!

But alas it was not to be; Mother Nature frowned on the ADRL along with their racers and fans by dumping copious amounts of liquid sunshine on them midway through the first round of ADRL Pro Extreme eliminations. And now Mr "Madman" is going to have to wait till the rescheduled race in St Louis to fulfill his prophecy!

All we can say is be careful what you wish for..... Stay Tuned !!

More 2010 ADRL Pro Mod News Here:

In the early winter months of 2010 the drag racing team known as Stanley & Weiss Racing decided to out source a new design for a t-shirt to sell to our many loyal fans worldwide. We settled on Tyler Clark's WickedGrafixx t-shirt emporium as our newest supplier of a quality shirt that anyone would be proud to wear.

Camp and Tyler burned up the internet and the phone lines over a 2 month period tweaking and perfecting what became a GREAT design for our newest shirts Showing off Our ADRL Pro Extreme Camaro! While Tyler provided the insight to the design, Camp provided the essence of the team and all were melded into a design that said much about who the Hillbillies from Appalachia really were.

These shirts were debuted at the ADRL race in Houston in March to rave reviews! There were orders via mail and phone for them from literally around the world!

And then later there was a new avenue opened for the WickedGrafixx / Stanley & Weiss Racing partnership. The ADRL powers that be had very wisely asked that all the teams wear at least a collared shirt while on the starting line. Now the hillbillies had been doing this for some years and had carried over their Pro Street uniform shirts to the ADRL. The edict from the ADRL prompted them to revisit this issue and the decision was made to go all out and order some REAL, DOUBLE THROWDOWN, PROFESSIONAL crew shirts. There was no one besides Tyler Clark's WickedGrafixx emporium to do this after our good friend Steve Hall had a very serious bout with a cancer bug.

Tyler had never done a crew shirt before but was game to give it a whirl. So Tyler and Camp set off to design a shirt befitting of the world class Pro Extreme Camaro piloted by John Stanley. And after weeks that became months the finished product was delivered to The Hill in Appalachia and then they were hung in the trailer with care for their debut at the ADRL race in Topeka, KS.

And on that bright, sunny, hot Friday morning they were worn and profiled for all to see by the crew that maintain the Appalachia on Steroids ADRL Pro Extreme Camaro Pro Mod. And unsure of the response they would receive we played it very low key while in the staging lane for first round. So you can imagine what at first was astonishment and then instantly became pride when the two marketing ladies from the ADRL made their way down the staging lanes and stopped to compliment Camp on how well they thought the new crew shirts were. And then they informed him that everyone who had a vote had agreed as well and that they were to be given the Best Appearing Crew award for the Topeka race! How cool was that? Really, really cool we think!

And now Tyler Clark has to think about getting completely out of the crew shirt business. This being his first and only design and being a winner instantly says that if he quits now he will go out with a record unequaled by anyone else in his industry. But knowing him like we do that will most definitely not happen!

Thank you Tyler, you have done well by us!

More 2010 ADRL Pro Mod News Here:

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