Gateway Sets November Test-N-Tune Dates!

[Bret Kepner]

Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, has announced dates for its extended 2008 season schedule. Two Saturday Test-and-Tune sessions, open to all vehicles, will be held on Saturday, November 1st, and Saturday, November 15th, presuming that minimum weather standards, (a forecasted high temperature of 40 degrees twenty-four hours before the day of the event), are met. A swap meet is also scheduled for the November 1st event.

Gates will open for both events at 8 AM with racing beginning at 9 AM and continuing until 4 PM.

Therefore, the remaining 2008 GIR drag racing schedule includes the following:

Tuesday, October 7: Street Car Shootout Series/Open Test-N-Tune

Wednesday, October 8: Slick Tire Test-N-Tune/Street Bike Shootout Series

Tuesday, October 7 through Saturday, October 10:

10th annual Run ‘N Gun Nationals Replica Car Challenge
(contested on both the road course and the dragstrip)

Tuesday, October 14: Final Street Car Shootout Series/Open Test-N-Tune

Wednesday, October 15: Final Slick Tire Test-N-Tune/Street Bike Shootout Series

Friday, October 15 through Sunday, October 17:

14th annual United Black Drag Racers Association Black Sunday
(Open to all vehicles and, yes…all ethnicities…and the event includes a grudge racing division)

Saturday, November 1: Open Test-N-Tune/Swap Meet

Saturday, November 15: Open Test-N-Tune/Season Finale

By the way, this does not include track rental events on the dragstrip nor does it include five more events scheduled on the GIR road course. For more information, go to Gateway Raceway.com.




On a personal note, many of you will remember the original proposal I made to (then) GIR Drag Racing Manager Jason Dukes and GIR General Manager Lenny Batycki prior to the start of the 2008 season included weekly Saturday Test-N-Tune events through November to the first Saturday in December. While both originally agreed, (enthusiastically), to the proposal, nobody could’ve foreseen the drastic changes to the nation’s economy in the past ten months.

GIR is owned by shareholders and virtually none of them were willing to take a risk on any events after the end of the traditional season. In all recent meetings of the shareholder and board of directors, Batycki presented this option but was shot down repeatedly. Somehow, he managed to get them to agree to these two events...just in the past fourteen days.

Therefore, if you have any desire for Gateway’s future seasons to continue past October 15, I highly suggest you support these events. It also wouldn’t hurt, if you can find a few spare minutes, to drop a note of thanks to Lenny Batycki at lbatycki@gatewayraceway.com. The guy really did go to bat for all of us.