Opening day for the 2007 racing season at Southwestern International Raceway got underway about 12 Noon on Jan. 13th. Preceding the race, a team meeting for Team SIR was held to discuss changes for the upcoming season and elect team captains. The first pair of cars included a beautiful ‘51 Henry J facing a silver Vega. Matt Ballard’s Vega came out the better of the pair over Ken Payton’s ‘51 at the ¼ mile for an exciting start to the 2007 season. During the Open Test and Tune there was a grudge match race between the Arizona All Wheel Drive Club (AZAWD) and the Dodge SRT Club. Several cars from both clubs came to prove how quick and how fast their cars were. We are not sure about clear cut winners, but the quickest AWD was a Mitsubishi EVO car #1355 who ran a 12.03. The quickest SRT was car #3140 who ran a 12.60. The fastest AWD was the same EVO car #1355 going 118 MPH and the fastest SRT was car #844 who ran 121 MPH. So it looks like the AWD drivers were quickest and SRT drivers were the fastest.

A small Gambler also took place as the air and track temperatures started to fall. The first gambler pitted the 1/8 mile Shoot-out Box champion, Chuck Hawk, Jr. driving his ford powered rear engine dragster, against Scott Frederick’s four speed ‘90 Mustang. Chuck took the big check home when he had a better reaction time with a .016 and ran closer to his number. Chuck dialed a 7.86 and ran a 7.930 at 165.29 MPH. Scott had a .037 light an ran a 12.574 on a 12.47 dial at 107.93 MPH for the close race to the stripe.

The next event at SIR will be an open Test and Tune on Jan. 27th. Gates will open at 9 AM. The new management team would like to welcome all past , present, and future racers and spectators. Please watch for all the exciting changes at our facility.

Bruce Mabry, Track Announcer

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