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Gardner and Schutte Make Drag Racing History at Gateway International Raceway!
By Bret Kepner
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| Brian Gardner. bretkepnerphotos.com |
Madison, IL, May 12th, 2007---Missouri racer Brian Gardner and Illinois campaigner Dave Schutte combined astonishing performances to create what is believed to be an historic moment in drag racing during the second point-earning event of the 2007 season at Gateway International Raceway. Competing in the fifty-three car second round of eliminations in Super Pro Eliminator, Gardner marked his victory in the fifth race of the stanza by driving his Chevy-powered Racecraft Chassis dragster to victory over fellow O’Fallon, Missouri, resident Bob Stone with the eighth quarter-mile “perfect run” in GIR’s eleven-year history, recording a Reaction Time of 0.000 seconds and an Elapsed Time of 7.550 seconds, (7.55-second Performance Prediction), at 170.39 miles per hour.
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| Dave Schutte. bretkepnerphotos.com |
In the sixteenth match of the round less than thirteen minutes later, 2001 GIR Super Pro Champion Schutte, (pronounced SHOE-tee), piloted his Quincy (IL) Machine & Welding/Triple R Performance Engines Chevy-powered dragster to the ninth quarter-mile “perfect run" in track history with a 0.000 RT and a 7.570 ET on a 7.57 “dial-in" at 176.60 mph while defeating Winfield, Missouri’s Phil Rebello.
Drag racing statistician and GIR consultant Bret Kepner immediately believed the monumental occurrence to be the first time in drag racing history two quarter-mile “perfect runs” were recorded in one event, let alone in one round. With bracket racing lacking consistent record-keeping, however, Kepner spent a day on the phone contacting virtually every bracket racing aficionado and statistic archivist for verification. None could remember a similar scenario.
“Two perfect runs have occurred in one event while competing on the eighth-mile”, said Kepner, “In fact, Gateway has had seven perfect eighth-mile runs since 1996. However, none of the people with whom I spoke has ever witnessed or received information of two perfect quarter-mile runs coming up in the same event. It appears that, until disproved as the first, the runs by Gardner and Schutte made for a truly unbelievable night”.
While Gateway’s weekly purse of $14,135 is considered to be the highest regular payout in bracket racing history, the competition for that cash in six eliminator categories has reached astounding levels. During the May 12th event, 21.60% of all quarter-mile Super Pro competitors ran dead-on their Performance Prediction and 13.84% had Reaction Times under 0.010 seconds. With all classes considered, 14.90% of drivers at the event ran dead-on their “dial-in” while 12.58% had RTs better than 0.010 seconds. At total of ninety dead-on runs and seventy-six RTs between 0.000 and 0.009 were clocked during the race.
Bret Kepner
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