Hi blog fans … Jim “O” here. I wanted to share a cool trip that my brother Jon “O” and I took before our last race in Gainesville. Now it was not as cool or far away as the trip my insane driver Hillary Will took over to Afghanistan after the Phoenix race, but it was cool as it pertains to our jobs as crew chiefs.

On Tuesday, March 11, I got a call from Bill Bader Sr., who many of you know as one of the owners of Summit Raceway Park in Norwalk Ohio. Bill Sr. asked if Jon “O” and I could meet with him down in Toledo, Ohio, the next day to look at a GPS survey of the racing surface at SRP. Now, I really didn’t know what to expect but since everything was on its way to Gainesville and not a lot was going on that day, I figured we should go check this deal out.

On Wednesday, Jon “O” and I made the 45-minute trip down to Toledo to meet with Bill Sr., Dean Frederick of Frederick & Associates, who did the GPS survey, and Gary Ferguson, who is responsible for the massive amounts of pavement you see at SRP. After getting the standard big hug from Bill Sr., Dean rolled out a 15-foot long survey of the racing surface at SRP which took him two weeks to produce. After Dean explained to us what we were looking at, we began to diagnose a very detailed map of the racetrack. The view that we were most interested in was a side view of the track which split up each lane into four, 7.5-foot wide sections. This view showed the elevation of the racetrack from starting line to finish line and every little bump in between in each section of each lane. Bill Sr. then wanted to know what the worst bumps are and how they affect the performance of our cars and what we thought would be a good plan moving forward. After Jon “O” and I voiced our opinions as greedy crew chiefs, Gary educated us on how asphalt and concrete work and the challenges this project would encounter. He offered up different options on what to do. To say that we learned a lot in our four-hour meeting is a huge understatement.

The one thing that we already knew was that Bill Sr. his son Bill Jr. and everyone at Summit Raceway Park are very committed to making SRP the very best NHRA Drag Racing facility on the POWERade tour. I even told Bill Sr. that my wife Tammy thought there needed to be more speakers at the top-end of the racetrack because it’s difficult to hear what Bob Frey and Alan Reinhart are saying. Bill Sr. quickly opened up his notebook and wrote it down. Bill Sr. explained to us that not only are the fans and sponsors his customers but so are the racers…wow what a concept! I guess this is one of the many reasons that the Bader family has had so much success with SRP and will have much more in the future and why we here at Kalitta Motorsports call Summit Raceway Park our home track. With the exception of not being able to visit the corporate offices of our good friends at Mac Tools, NHRA made a great move by moving the old Columbus race up to SRP in Norwalk, Ohio.

I hope everyone can make it out to SRP for the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, June 26-29, to hopefully enjoy good weather, good racing, buck-a-pound ice cream, fireworks, and whatever else that the Baders have up their sleeves. Oh, and if the weather cooperates and the track is good and I don’t have my head up my…well you know…you might just see Hillary Will in the KB Racing Top Fueler go really fast!

Thanks for reading! See you at the races.

Jim “O”