Hello, All:'Just got back from the 2006 Pure Stock Musclecar Drag Race in Stanton MI September 15 & 16. Five Studebakers were among the record 137 participating entries at the event, up from the previous record of 129 entries. [
]The five Studebakers were Peter Sant's red 1963 R2 Avanti, Chuck Kerns' white 1963 R2 Avanti, John Raab's white 1963 R1 Lark Regal 2-door, Doug Tjapkes' gold 1963 R2 Lark Regal 2-door, and Ted Harbit's red 1963 R2 Lark Custom 2-door, The Stude Tomato. All cars are automatics except The Stude Tomato, which is a 4-speed. [}
]It was an excellent event this year: Perfect weather both days and no Studebakers broke anything. John Raab won his 2-out-of-3 shootout in the first two rounds, beating a 1973 Ford Torino Sport both times. Peter Sant also won his shootout in the first two rounds.
Doug Tjapkes had fuel delivery problems and was 'way off his Friday best ET of 13.569, [:0] so he lost his shootout in the first two rounds when he could not get back into the 13s. Of course, he had been rightfully paired with another car that was close to his 13.569 on Friday.
Chuck Kerns split the first two rounds with a 1969 or 1970 Grand Prix, so they had to go to the dreaded third and deciding round. Chuck got a little anxious going into #3 and red-lighted, handing the shootout win to the Indian even though Chuck had a better ET in the third race (phooey).
Ted Harbit drew a 1971 454 ([:0]) Corvette for the shootout and won it in the first two rounds. Ted beat the Corvette outright in the first race. The Corvette owner must have succumbed to The Pure Stock Drags' chronic "Omigosh, I've gotta run Ted Harbit"
syndrome and red-lighted round two, handing the Round Two win (and hence the shootout) to Ted. 
My brother Stanley Palma is a Ford man
and attended The Pure Stock Drags for the first time about three years ago. He noted Ford's habitually poor corporate showing at the event [xx(] and decided the one Ford that needed to be there running would be an "R" code 1966 or 1967 Fairlane 427...so he built one! [:0] He just barely got it done for this year's event but was there on time Friday for "Tech." It's first run down the Mid-Michigan Motorplex strip was its first run ever down the quarter-mile, but it did four important things on its first run ever: It turned a fine 13.12, it ran over 108 MPH, it didn't break anything, and it beat a GTO! Stan wasn't driving; he had a couple hot-shoe Ford buddies he knew would be better at it, so he let them drive.There was enough time after the shootouts that the event staff announced they would leave the track open and the timers on for anyone who wanted to grudge-race. Ted and brother Stan agreed to run The Tomato against the 427 Fairlane for the various cameras that were rolling! [
] The track announcer got a little confused with the mention of brothers, Studebakers, and Fords, and announced that there would be a grudge-race between "the Harbit Brothers!" (That would probably be of interest to Ted Harbit's only sibling, his sister Phyllis! [:0]) Anyway, the lights came down and they both ran excellent runs. The Tomato was a little more excellent, though, beating the 427 Fairlane with the Tomato's first-ever sub-13 second run at The Mid-Michigan Motorplex: 12.999 seconds in the quarter mile!
[][8D][:I][:0] Nelson Bove was there and asked me before-hand who I was rooting for. That's a fair question. Suffice to say it wasn't me that made brother Stan choose Fords! [^] GO TED!This was by far and away the most interesting Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race ever. Not only did we have what could have been a record number of Stude fans on the premises, but I believe the overall spectator count Saturday for the shootouts might have set a record as well.
But the best part were the number of really unusual fast cars that are now appearing at the event. This year saw SDCer John Feistritzer bring his supercharged 1957 Thunderbird, in which he won h
We've got to quit saying, 
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