It was a cold, snowy day but the competition was fierce inside the New Alexandria Fire Hall. The 5th annual Steel City Practice presented by Pittsburgh Raceway Park was in full swing. Over 70 competitors made their way through the door to stake their claim at the over 2000 in prize money and the many door prizes from our great sponsors. Competitors came from a distance, some from Salem, OH others from the neighbor to east, NJ and many from close to home, Pittsburgh. The day started off by randomly handing out t-shirts donated by Bob George Racing as competitors walked through the doors. All of the door prizes were set up to place ticket in the bucket next to them for a chance to be drawn for the prize. There was a demo of the Victory 1 performance PC based practice tree software. This allows you to use your existing computer to practice on the tree with a USB interface for the buttons. This is a great was to hone your skill on the tree at a fraction of the cost of a standalone practice tree. There were also 10 prize packs raffled off containing the vTreePro 2.0 software and 25% off coupon for accessories. There were two dyno sessions being raffled off, one from Rodeheavers Performance in McClellandtown, PA and the other from OST dyno. M&M leather donated a $25 gift certificate and there were miscellaneous items from PRP, NAPA and Bob George racing.
The little race started out with nearly 100 entries, after several grueling rounds it came down to 2 locals and two out-of-towners. The final 4 consisted of Scotty ‘Superman’ Campbell, Rich Penn, JP ‘World Champ’ Schuster and Bob Randolph from Faze II Performance.
JP fell to Bob and Rich fell to Scotty pitting local young gun against the elder wily out-of-towner. JP and Rich received Advance Auto Gift cards courtesy of Bowman performance. It was a killer final with it coming down to the last hit where Bob from Faze II performance pulled out the kryptonite and superman fell to his knees. Bob Randolph took home the little race victory and quickly became the favorite to take home the title in the big race. I cant say for sure but watching Bob’s hits on the tree his average had to be better than .007. Scotty took home a cool $100 and Bob a sweet $225 along with a copy of the vTreePro software and a switch of his choice.
The Big race set out to be a killer event. ChuckT made the announcement before the first hit was ever made that this race would pay a cool $1000 to the winner. This perked up the room. The 68 entries in the race would take their shot at the big prize. When it was down to the nitty gritty there were 6 competitors left. Rich ‘The Thumb’ Penn, Scotty ‘Superman’ Campbell, Russ ‘Sugar Daddy’ Benish, Kevin ‘New Daddy Again’ Romeo, Jim ‘Button Head’ Young and Rick ‘B Singers Babysitters’ Pearson. This would set up to be a great final 6. Robbie ‘I got a purse calculator in my head’ Berschnider helped with split. When the swinging was done we had Scotty ‘Superman’ Campbell making his second final round appearance facing Russ ‘Sugar Daddy’ Benish. Once again it came down to the last hit and the kryptonite struck again. The Sugar Daddy took home the win and a prize pack from Victory 1 performance consisting of vTreePro 2.0 software and choice of 2 switches.
What a day it was in the hall. Thank you to all of our sponsors:
Pittsburgh Raceway Park
Bob George Racing
Bowman Performance
Cadamore Racing
Victory 1 Performance
OST Dyno
Rodeheaver’s
NAPA of Greensburgh
M&M Leather
Jim Young Calendars
Scotty Richardsons Drag Racing School
Phase II Performance
We thank all of you for your help with the event. Without you we could not reward the participants the way we do. With your help we able to reward over 50 participants with a prize.
Thank you to all of the participants without you we could not make this event happen. The crowd grows every year and the family atmosphere is unbelievable. Jim Young said it best as he came in to the event. Jim told me when asked why he was traveling to Pittsburgh he said, “To visit family”. That sums it up. That is the reason we continue to come back and are all involved in this sport.
The full list of winners:
Little Race:
Winner: Bob Randolph
RU: Scotty Cambell
Semi: JP Schuster, Rich Penn
Big Race:
Winner: Russ Benish
RU: Scotty Campbell
Semi: Rick Pearson
Cadamore Racing Bounty
Scotty Campbell, JP Schuster, Matt Obertanic, Jim Young, Rich Penn, Mark Romeo, Rich Pearson
Bowman Performance – Advance Auto Gift Cards
Little Race Semis: JP Schuster, Rich Penn
Schooled by Scotty Classroom Entries
Drawn from the 1-4 round RU’s of each race.
Kara Jo Bowman, Jeff Hann
Victory 1 Performance
Perfect Light Ace: Bob Randolph (4 perfect lights during the Big Race)
Door Prizes:
M&M Parts and Leather gift card: Jordan Haase
OST Dyno: Frank Romeo
Rodeheaver’s Dyno Session: Eric Macchiaroli
Bob George Racing
-HEMI Engine Model: Rick Z
-Super Bee Die Cast: Jim Gagnon
-Charger DieCast: Jacob Benish
-Cuda Diecast: Scotty Campbell
NAPA of Greensburg
-Car care bucket: Amy Romeo
-Ron Capps Funny Car: Julian
PRP Prize Packs: Shawn Matis, BJ Barger, Bob Randolph
Jim Young Calendars: Mike Barnyk, Matt Obertanic, Rick Pearson
Phase II Performance game chair: Markie Brewer
Victory 1 Performance vTreePro2.0: Shawn Matis, Matt Obertanic, Mike Dorell, Don Matis, Rob Morris, Nick Bowman, Evan Sansenburger, Jeremy Sampson, Jim Penrod
Thanks again to everyone.
Perks of being a Mod...I can correct the spelling of my last name
...great time AJ..Chuck and Mark
