It’s the busiest racing weekend of the season so far for the International Hot Rod Association with a pair of double-race weekends for the Summit Sportsman National Championship and the first of nine division races in the Summit Team Finals.

Mike Dunn speaks with Danny Waters Jr at the Summit Racing Sportsman Nat'l Championship at Piedmont Dragway.

This weekend the IHRA Summit Sportsman National Championship series will feature two double-race weekends as the 15-stop series comes to Memphis International Raceway and Empire Dragway this weekend.  This is the second of just two weekends this season that the Summit Sportsman National Championship will feature double-double race weekends.

The International Hot Rod Association Summit Team Finals will begin this weekend, Aug. 18-20, with the Division 6 (Border Bandits) at Northern Lights Raceway in Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada.

Clyde Peake, born and raised in Columbia, S.C., is the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) chief starter.  He works primarily in IHRA Division 9-2 where his son, Josh, 37, is the Division director.  Clyde Peake, 66, also owns and operates his family business, Peake’s Auto and Tire in Columbia where he works about four and a half days a week.  The elder Peake has been an IHRA Race Official for more than 40 years, and while he is clearly the longest-tenured IHRA Official, he thinks of himself as just one of the guys. Below is a conversation with IHRA Chief Starter, Clyde Peake.