Defending Division 5 Hot Rod Champion Takes Home Sunday Ironman at Byron Dragway                          

Erich Beer’s defense of his Division 5 Hot Rod championship didn’t start out the way he would have liked, but his weekend turned out just fine. Beer claimed the Sunday Hot Rod Ironman at the two-day Division 5 Summit Racing Equipment Pro-Am presented by Mr. Gasket event at Byron Dragway, knocking off Jeremy Lehrke in the final round to secure the victory.

“I lost in the second round yesterday and I knew I had to tighten it up,” Beer said. “We weren’t really down and out because we knew we could make the adjustment. Today we ran well this morning, the air changed and the car responded.”

After being bounced in the second round Sunday, Beer wanted to make sure his weekend was not wasted. He drove strong all day before claiming the Ironman with a double-breakout victory.

“I was just hungry for it,” Beer said. “Those tight races you know what’s going to happen because the competition is what it is, it’s very tough out here. You just have to dig down.”

When he saw his win light, Beer heard voices in his head. He explains:

“My grandpa had a really heavy German accent, and every time I won and would take him a check he would say ‘You did it’ in that German accent,” Beer said. “Now, every time I win I hear that voice in my head.”

Rockville, Ill. resident Ron Tallacksen also found the winner’s circle at Byron Dragway Sunday, driving his beautiful ’04 Dodge Dakota past Bill Goldammer in the final round. Tallacksen did not compete in the Saturday event. We was at the track, but had to work on his truck to get it ready for Sunday’s competition.

“All I did was thrash all weekend,” he said. “At six o’clock this morning we were putting a new transmission in. I blew the transmission Friday night, built a new one Saturday and put it in the winner’s circle Sunday.”

Tallacksen is a bracket racer who really has not chased Divisional points before.

“This was my first Divisional event,” he said. “I’ve run the brackets down here, but that’s it. I usually run for the points at Byron Dragway every year and this was a good place to win one. I’m happy it happened here.”

Vincent Nannini topped off a successful weekend by driving his ’04 VRN Rear Engine Dragster to the Quick Rod title. Nannini also had a couple of customers find success at Byron Dragway over the course of the weekend as well.

Vincent Nannini capped a successful weekend with a Quick Rod Ironman

“Jim Privo won Top Dragster yesterday, Chad Covert won the shootout last night and we won Quick Rod today. That’s a great weekend,” Nannini said. “Jim Privo also won best appearing, so that was excellent.”

Privo defeated Chris LaBudde in the final round Sunday, and thinks it was his mindset that allowed him to get the victory.

“Everything came together, the driver put it in his mind and just went for it,” Nannini said. “I got tight on the tree and didn’t back off. I was real consistent on the tree and consistent with my ET. Everything just stayed around that .90 mark.”

Jeremy McCormick had payback on his mind when he staged his ’02 Undercover Dragster for a Top Dragster final-round battle with Brian Folk.

“I got down to the semifinals here last year and lost to Brian,” he said. “So a little payback was good. We’re buddies and I come up here and hang out with him when we’re not racing. He owes me pizza for losing, so that’s good.”

Jeremy McCormack won an Ironman...and a pizza from his friend Brian Folk

McCormick switches divisions from year to year. He competed in Division 5 last year but will campaign in Division 3 in 2007. The Fountain, Mich. resident found a unique way to save money on the trip to Byron, taking a ferry across Lake Michigan into Illinois. But once he hit the track he was all about driving, especially with an out-of-division claim in the works.

“To come out of the division and get a win is great,” McCormick said. “That’s a very good start. We jumped on a boat to come across and it was sweet. It was $240 one-way and it saved me from having to drive through Chicago.”

Bettendorf, Iowa resident Matt Lund was relieved. Not only had he won the Super Stock Ironman, he finally was able to turn things around with his ’90 Camaro.

“I feel great about it,” Lund said. “The car has been crappy all year and we finally got it figured out. We put a new motor and transmission in it and the car was leaving really hard. We finally softened the hit up a little bit and it’s going really good now.”

Matt Lund figured out his '90 Camaro in time to win the Super Stock championship at Byron Dragway

Lund really didn’t have to worry about his car leaving hard in the final against Darrell Chiaravino as long as it left on time. Chiaravino rolled through the beams to trip the red-light to hand Lund the win.

“We actually got the car figured out last night and won,” Lund said. “So it was a really good weekend for us. We’re happy with it.”

Daryl  Bureski is excited about racing. After winning the Stock Ironman Sunday at Byron Dragway he is anxious to get back out to the track again.

“Winning a race early in the season really gets you in the right frame of mind to want to race more,” Bureski said. “The races are decided by thousandths of a second, and when things start going your way it gets you excited to go out and race more.”

Bureski had a difficult path to the Ironman, especially in the final round where heavy hitter Forrest Lipke waited for him. He was able to drive by Lipke by taking a slight advantage at the tree and holding Lipke off at the finish line.

“The thing that was ironic was I ran him yesterday in the first round and was able to get by him,” Bureski said. “Then I had to run him again in the final the next day. It was kind of weird, but that’s just the way racing is.”

Drake Hooke traveled a long way from his home in Mountainhome, Pennsylvania to Byron Dragway, but the trip was more than worth his trouble. Hooke defeated David Dins in the Top Sportsman final Sunday to

“This does a lot for me, especially since my whole family came out for this race,” Hooke said. “It was nice to win in front of them. It was good having them here but I already had enough pressure getting the car ready to run today.”

Drake Hooke overcame electrical problems to win the Top Sportsman Ironman

Hooke had electrical problems with his ’59 Studebaker and had to scramble to get things smoothed out before Sunday’s racing.

“We had some wiring problems,” he said. “We had an electrical gremlin yesterday and figured it out today. It ran well. The battery had went dead at the end of the run and it wouldn’t start down there at the end of the track. The run was fine but apparently we broke a cell. Between the last time shot yesterday and the first round we put three starters on it. But it was the battery that was the problem.”

The Division 5 racers will be right back in action this weekend when they head to Knoll-Gas Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan for the second doubleheader of the year.

For complete coverage of the Saturday event click here.

 For complete round-by-round coverage visit www.dragracecentral.com.