2011 Comes to an End...... MAGICALLY!
October 19 , 2011 - Ryan Ondrejko
The setting was supposed to be perfect, coming into the last race of the year, the Pennsylvania Dutch Classic, we had the points lead and a chance to win not one but two "NHRA Wally's". We were supposed to race the Cecil County Final which was being made up from August due to the tracks curfew. This was suppose to take place on thursday and then we were to continue with the scheduled Dutch Classic Friday through Sunday. As with almost every race this season, mother nature was not willing to cooperate. It rained from Wednesday to Saturday morning straight with 30mph winds which would eventually force us to race 1/8th mile only.
Saturday Morning.......
We made one qualifying run in which we ran a 4.388 @ 160mph and then waited all day to make the second qualifying run which was going to be the make up final. They call us to the lanes at 7:30pm in the cold, dark, windy and dewy weather. We get all strapped in and ready to go and the cars just in front of us couldnt get down the track so they sent us back to the trailers. TALK ABOUT STRESS! We have waited two months to finish this race and now it has been delayed yet again! This would mean that the entire season would come down to a single day of racing. Oh did I forget to mention that the person we were racing in the final was Ron Proctor who just happened to be in second in points and if he beats us he would take the points lead? Well that was the scenerio. Couldnt have written the script in a more dramatic fashion.
Sunday Morning........
"Top Sportsman to the lanes" came over the FM radio frequency and we were off. Was it really going to happen? Would we finally finish this race from Cecil County? YES! We stage up, and....... DEAD LATE! NO! I would say being a little too relaxed going into that final would have been the understatement of the year! Needless to say my Congratulations goes out to Ron Proctor for teaching me a valuable lesson that morning that would come in handy later on that day. When someone beats you that bad it leaves an awful taste in your mouth. One I never wanted to taste again. My team and I towed back to the trailer and reflected on what had just happened and I went into the motorhome to clear my head. Not only did I need to recover quickly, I had to recover and win the race inorder to win the championship now. NO PRESSURE
Beggining of Eliminations for the Dutch Classic.......
Round One was against Mike Cerro, I had to go right back into the lane I just had a horrible reaction time in and get the job done. My team was counting on me, I couldnt let them down two times in one weekend. I Staged Up, released the button and my win light came on. Cerro went red. Phewwww, thats one down. My reaction time was a .011 which made all my doubts go away. The anticipation didnt last long as Ron Proctor won right behind me. Second Round was against Drake Hooke a very experienced bracket racer. Same lane, same amount on the line, win or lose the championship that I have held the lead in the entire season. Got by another one, having a .010 reaction time and getting the win. Once again Ron Proctor wins right behind me.
3rd Round..........
3rd round matched me up against a friendly competitor in Don Bean Jr. Don was coming off a .009 thousanths package the round before and was not going to be easy. Keeping with the aggressive approach I took .003 out of the delay box and confidently let go of the button to a .004 reaction time and dead on the dial-in 4.392 for a .006 thoudanths package. This was the best package I had all year and what better time to have it then Now! Now the team and I are really pumped. As we are towing over the scales I hear the announcer say " and now we have Ron Proctor and Mike Kaufman" my stomach was in knots, what was going to happen? Mike Kaufman throws down a .007 thousanths package to take out Proctor and we were back to Tied in the points standings. We were excited but knew there was a few more rounds to go.
Semi-Finals......
Now we have to race Mike Kaufman who just took out the points leader and had a .007 thousanths package. This was not going to be an easy task. We stage up and go, I catch Mike early and I realize I must of had a good light or im really fast so I pump the throttle a few times to kill some E.T and the win light comes on. "This cant be happening" is going through my mind. We just took the Points lead back to win the championship! My reaction time was .006. One round to go for the ultimate ending.
Final Round.....
The final round was against a fellow Massachusetts racer, Dennis Gaboriault. It was going to be heads up, 4.40 to 4.40! How exciting! Fortunately for me Dennis accidentally deep staged and pushed through the beams handing me the win. This would cap off the most amazing weekend ever!
Special Thanks
I want to thank all my Crew, Family, Friends and sponsors for the continued support of this race team. It means alot to all of us and each and every week we go out there to represent you as best we can. Back to Back Championships have never been won in Division One Top Sportsman History, it is because of your support that this is all possible.
Thanks for Reading
-Ryan
Another "DREAM" weekend!
June 29 , 2011 - Ryan Ondrejko
The weekend started off very slow, rain washed out our last qualifying run and all of Friday as well. We did a lot of hanging around telling "war" stories. Those types of weekends can be very difficult, you tend to get into a laxidasical state of mind. I tried to do a little bit of exercise and running while dodging rain drops just to keep active. We ended up qualifying in the #24 position out of 32. This was an extremely fast field of Top Sportsman cars, the bump ended up at 7.018. On the last run we were actually worried about not qualifying, we debated whether to change launch RPM, Shift points and Rear gears to try and pick it up a bit. More and more Top Sportsman cars are using huge engines and even equip them with more power by adding Nitrous. This makes our 760 cubic in Engine seem slow! Remarkable if you think about it. I’m not going to go into a round by round breakdown, but you can check the results by clicking here.
I really owe this Race win to my entire crew. They definitely do not get enough credit. A lot of Top Sportsman teams have their cars set-up to basically "Fuel-n-Go" but lately we have been incorporating a new system to our program that limits the amount of mistakes and gives us the best chance of consistent runs. This new system entails a lot of work for the crew. Chris Cherry, Mark Wiktorowski and my father John, busted their butts in the muggy weather to get the car turned around every run on Sunday with limited time between rounds and I never have to worry about anything falling off which gives me a clear mind when letting go of the transbrake button. In the end we were hoisting our first "PEWTER" Wally as a team in the winner circle which put a exclamation point on our Dream weekend. Congrats is due to Gino Fagnilli who gave us a tough race in the final by running dead on his 6.98 dial. He is a nice guy and fierce competitor and I’m sure he will get a win sooner than later in this tough class.
Our next race is the NHRA Divisional @ Lebanon Valley Dragway in New York. Please check back for results.
Thanks for Reading.
Kudos to the Competition
April 19, 2011 - Ryan Ondrejko
First off I would like to congratulate my good friends Anthony & Carol Arcuni for winning the 4-Wide Nationals at Zmax! They are great people and deserve the win very much. Its also very nice to see another Division One racer take the honors for the second year in a row. As for RTO motorsports, we began the weekend still battling some transmission, Converter and tire issues that lingered on from Atco.
We made a few adjustments and qualified #15 at a 6.85. In the first round we matched up against Tony Fagnilli and dialed a 6.85. The competition red-lit and I was .019 and 6.847. We felt pretty good going into the second round against tough division two racer Jeffrey Barker. On this day it was his race. He was .009 to my .022 and I broke out by one thousanth of a second. 6.849 on my 6.85 dial. That is a heart breaking way to lose, but we just got beat, he made a great run and I give him alot of credit.
Our next race will be Maple Grove Divisional on Memorial Day weekend. Check back for Updates. Thanks for reading.
Strong beggining to 11' for RTOmotorsports!
April 10, 2011 - Ryan Ondrejko
This weekend marked the opeining weekend for the 2011 Season. The race took place in Atco, NJ and was Sponsored by P.C Richard and Son. The first race of the season is always a tough race, one in which most drivers need to knock the rust off from sitting out all off season. Over the winter we did alot of maitenance to the race car including new transmission components, rebuilt the converter, fixed a leaking head gasket and new wheels and tires. Needless to say we had our fingers crossed that all of our hard work would pay off and we would run good right of the box. This was not the case, our first run consisted of the engine bogging off of the starting line due to a carburation issue. We also noticed the Transmission and Converter combination was slipping excessivley.
Normally the weather at Atco is usually fast which puts us in the 6.70 range. Our GTO was running high 6.80's. We knew something was wrong and we were going to have to race this event by the seat of our pants. We still managed to qualify # 3 and survived the first 3 rounds. We had a bye to the finals in the 4th round and thats when the transmission finally let go. We ran a 7.00 flat out because the transmission was slipping in first gear so bad that it shifted into 2nd gear almost insatantly and we made a high gear pull the whole way. We scrambled to try and adjust the "Band" in the transmission but knew that was probably not going to help. We raced Robert Roeder in the final who dialed 7.06. All I could do was pray that the transmission would duplicate what it did the round before with another 7.00 run. I dialed 7.05 to give him the opportunity to Red-Light first and my plan was, if the transmission stayed together, to cut a good light and pace him down the track.
It turned out to be our day, I had a .011 light and paced him down the track for the win! I want to thank everyone that came and helped me this past weekend. I have the best support team and thier dedication is proven time and time again.
Stay tuned as RTOmotorsports is heading straight to Charlotte, NC to try and defend its title from last year at the Zmax 4-Wide Nationals.
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This weeks Featured Video
Please take a look at the Final Round from the Summit Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio
Ryan Ondrejko .011 Light 6.956(6.94 Dial) def. Gino Fagnilli .051 Light 6.981 (6.98 Dial)
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This weeks Featured Fan Picture
This picture was taken at Lebanon Valley Dragway during the 2010 Divisional Race. This boys name is Gavin and he wants to grow up to be a race ar driver.
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