“Dog House” Diaries 2004 #10
Bruce Biegler - October 12, 2004
The Official News Letter for Carl Spiering Motorsports
Jordan Station, ON -- It took two attempts but Carl “Big Dog” Spiering and the Eaton Cutler-Hammer Motorsports Pro Modified team were finally able to complete participation at the IHRA’s Sunoco World Nationals in Ohio. The event, which is the single largest event on the entire IHRA Hooters Drag Racing series and was originally pegged for August 25-28th, was postponed until Oct. 9th after major league rain storms clobbered Norwalk Raceway Park.
Back in August, Carl qualified for the very tough 16-car field when he ran a 6.358 secs at 222.03 mph to nail down the #13 slot.
 “Racing at Norwalk is always exciting because it is without doubt the IHRA’s biggest event,” Carl confided. “As a driver it’s the one race you want to win and that seems to bring out the best in everyone. Unfortunately the atmospheric conditions (3700 ft corrected) held us back. We found out that we had not yet perfected our “bad air” tune-up. In retrospect the rainout did give us an opportunity to work out a few kinks because we got to race elsewhere in between.”
When the team returned to Norwalk Raceway Park some six weeks later, racing conditions had changed vastly too much more favourable. After aborting their single allowed pre-race time trial run, Carl’s team faced a formidable foe in round one, racing 2000 IHRA World Champion Fred Hahn, driver of Jim Oddy’s Summit Racing Corvette. Carl clicked off a strong 6.279 secs at 218.37 mph to win that and to earn a date with fellow Canadian driver Rick Distefano (from Calgary) in round two. It was then however that the unexpected happened.
“For the first time in my career my car would not start,” revealed Carl. “The starter would not engage so we push the car to get it going but soon the IHRA officials told us to shut off because their Pro Mod rules don’t allow for that. It was disappointing for sure because we had found our stride and were running well, I was really looking forward to racing against Ricky “D” -- who is a terrific racer.”
While obviously disappointed with the unexpected development, Carl and his crew are very optimistic about their chances for the final event of the season, at IHRA’s Bethusda Softworks World Finals at Rockingham Dragway (Oct. 22-24th).
“Our expectations are very high going into that race,” concluded Carl. “I have a feeling we are going to finish the season strong.”
Spiering’s Eaton Cutler-Hammer Motorsports team receives valuable support from other major and associate sponsors in 2004 including: Pace American, The Trailer Shop, Yamaha, Optima Industries, VP Fuels, Excel Tool & Machine, Hoosier Tire Canada, BRP Bicknell, Weld Racing, Fioravanti Custom Engines, Alan Johnson Performance Engineering, Tim McAmis Race Cars, DragRaceCanada.com, Performance Racing News, Pennzoil, and Fast Eddie Racewear.
(Photo by: Bruce Biegler)
To check out the latest progress on the team this season visit on-line : www.DragRaceCanada.com and www.carlspieringmotorsports.com.
For additional information on the team write to: Bruce Biegler: bbiegler@cogeco.ca
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