[jjones752]

Anybody know this off the top of their head? I seem to remember reading about J.J. Yeley making it from around the "D" one year, or am I dreaming? Anyone have a better (longer) night than that, or just come up short after a tough slog?
Meant to say "who's come" in the title, BTW; I am my own Grammar Police

[Stealth87]

I remember Sammy coming from deep one year to make the show... Even took the lead in the Championship A main. Looked like he was getting ready to check out. But had a driveline failure of some sort dropping him from the event. I think he even came from deeper than the D. Danny Stratton had a good run one year winning his D, then winning his C, finishing 6th in his B and finishing 7th in the Championship A.

[darnall]

I am pretty sure both Yeley and Wayne Johnson have come from an "F" to put it in the show

[darnall]

I did some checking...in 2006 Wayne Johnson in Wayne Simmons F5 came from the F to the A, had a brake caliper shred very early in the A, and was credited with 23rd place

[jjones752]

Originally Posted by darnall I did some checking...in 2006 Wayne Johnson in Wayne Simmons F5 came from the F to the A, had a brake caliper shred very early in the A, and was credited with 23rd place

That's a serious move. It's no wonder his caliper gave out; how often do you have to come from the back of 5 races?

[SteveB31]

Several years ago, about 2007 or so, their was a car that started the J and made it to the B. The car was an old non down tube car with some type of boat motor I was told, that smoked so bad that it filled the whole building up in each race. He wheel that car thru each race, made some great moves, missed every wreck and made it to the B. After the B started the motor siezed up in a ball of fire, and the whole crowd gave him a standing ovation!!! I wish I could remember what year and who it was, but it was awesome to watch. Spoke with the guy after the races and he was flat exhausted- he could barely stand up!!!
Looking forward to watching anyone try to unseat the Swindells on the podium next week.

[JakeCroxton]

Boat motor was Matt Sherrill - and he brought he house down...

Seems like JJ was E to 3rd in A but could've been D. That was same year as Stratton that you're talking about.

[hoosierdaddy]

in 2016, I plan on winning the whole deal from the "H"!!!

[darnall]

Guys I am pretty sure that Yeley made an F to A run a year or 2 after Wayne Johnson did it, but I'm not sure how he finished in the A....and I suspect maybe he was in a Wayne Simmons car that year....

And a huge alphabet run is impressive, don't get me wrong, but they transfer so many cars out of each race that you don't have to really go from the back to the front a buncha times...most places transfer 2 cars out of and lower main and 4 out of a B feature... at the Bowl they transfer between 6-8 cars out of the 1st main of the day, 4 or so out of the lower mains, and 6 out of the Bs, Cs and Ds...so the format in a way helps to "manufacture" some of these legendary runs. You can literally pass one car, let a couple break down, and transfer out of a race that has no yellows down there... nearly half of the cars in each race are cars that transferred out of the previous race..and before the track gets freshened up you can start 9th in a 14 car race and be in a transfer spot before the 1st lap is over by just hugging the bottom and following the guy in front of you while the outside row guys get freighttrained.

If they went to more typical numbers of transfer spots F or G features would be the absolute bottom instead of Is or Ks.

Please don't get me wrong, the format is awesome, I wouldn't change a thing....as a driver I would totally want to see so many transfer spots available each time I pulled onto the track...as a fan I love watching how far guys can climb the ladder on Saturday down there. The alphabet runs that have been made by Johnson, Yeley, Boyles, Stratton, Beechler and Swindell are very very impressive and deserve the legendary status they have tied to them. But to say they had to come from deep in each and every race to the front is a bit misleading...

And Sherrels run in the outboard motored car....holy crap that was stellar... that car had a hard time running right more than 2 consecutive laps on it's qualifying night...like the motor would load up and bog down for half a lap, then clean out a run right for a lap, and over and over...but when it did clean out my gosh it was bad fast.... and it looked like something a couple guys built in their basement 30 years ago. By looking at it you would think it was possibly the lightest car there...small tubing and not much of it, no extra anything... except all the brass pipe, house plumbing pipe, that they used to store and circulate water through the engine..hahaha... I just loved seeing a car that probably could have been purchased for less than $4500 complete blow through a field of hundreds of new Spike Esslingers that had all cost over 50 grand to build or had been rented for 5-9 grand... that should be considered the all time greatest alphabet run in the history of the Tulsa Expo Center hands down.

[Blitzman]

Any pics of the outboard motor car?