Congrats Balaska347

[Rodeheavers]

Good job Mike Balaska for winning the bracket finals tonight!

I dont know if you guyw are aware but this is the biggest bracket race of the year for PRP, and he won the whole thing!!!

Grdat job buddy!

[cwh19]

congratz man

[Red]

way to go Mike B.

[police4.6]

congrats!

[Balaska347]

Thanks guys like Tim said this is the biggest race of the year. The one the best of the best want to win. At the end of the year IHRA holds this race, the bracket finals, for all the tracks in the northeast division which is a total of 9 tracks. Each tracks brings their top drivers and pay for the drivers to enter this race. This is something I always wondered what it would be like to win but never imagined it would ever do it. This is a 4 day event which started of with some traction issues which I took care of with a couple suspension adjustments. It came down to the last day which I was driving great and the car was running great but I still wasn't trying to think ahead of what I could possibly win. A class that started with somewhere around 150 cars I was the last one standing. The cash is great but winning the Ironman trophy is an honor (the same trophy the pros get) and I also get a silver card that allows me to race at any IHRA track till the end of 2011 for FREE. :cheer2:

[TheBigKoala]

Great job and congrats

[Quik83Z]

WOW that's super!!

[mgtf289]

Great job.

[AdamantiumSilvr]

Congradulations, thats awesome!

[LittleM]

Mike your a boss

[ChuckT]

Mikey didn't tell you about the drama. He and I have always talked about how if we're going down, in anything, we're going down swinging, never giving up. 7th round, he won on a red light. I turned around to hoot and holler, never seeing that he bailed out of the pass. I get back to the pits, and there is a crowd around the car. He bailed out because he had a dead cylinder. I pull the plug, it's dirty, so we think maybe it's fouled. Put a new one in, no difference. Pull the wire off, and it's getting spark. Figured it was the injector or harness. Oil pressure was good, water temp was good, nothing on the oil dipstick. 8th round is the semi finals, and all 3 cars are PRP: Mike, our buddies Scotty and AJ. Scotty has the bye, so Mike has to run AJ. Mike says throw an 8.00 dial on it (after running 6.98-7.00) and hopefully the car can cover that. He goes down and lays a .0001 reaction time and drives the stripe to an 8.01 for the win! He thought the car was getting was worse, so he dialed it 8.20 for the final with Scotty. Mikey was .009 on the tree, and got the Ironman when Scotty went red. Mike was poking at the car Monday, it looks like 2 cylinders are dead, either valves, head gasket, or both.

Pics from IHRA are on the Flickr link.
Pittsburgh Summit Team Finals 2010 - a set on Flickr

Some of my pics... last burnout and launch with 8 cylinders, 6th round:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q248/chucktcutlass/2010%20racing/PRP2010151.jpg

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q248/chucktcutlass/2010%20racing/PRP2010152.jpg

Grin hasn't left his face, getting his Ironman from IHRA's Sherri Barbour:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q248/chucktcutlass/2010%20racing/PRP2010156.jpg

Much of Team PRP:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q248/chucktcutlass/2010%20racing/PRP2010161.jpg

[Balaska347]

Thanks for the post Chuck and by the way Im still smiling :party:

[1Badbird]

Congrats man, that's awsome!!

[ruger77]

Thats awesome Mike! Way to go!!:thumb:

[ChuckT]

If you get IHRA's Drag Review Magazine, the new issue has the coverage from the Bracket Finals. It's available for reading online as well, hopefully the link works:

http://bluetoad.com/publication/?m=298&l=1

Go to page 10 for the start of the coverage. Page 12 has Balaska's interview. Page to the end as well... there is a shot of Mike and Scotty pulling up for the final round, and it was just a hair early. What the pic starts to show is just about everyone from Team PRP coming behind both cars and applauding both Mike and Scotty. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, period.

The link will get you to the cover. You can hide the past issues by hitting the down arrow right above the word "Archive"

Then go to the white box above the magazine, click it, and you'll get a dropdown to choose which page you want to go to. Go to page 10-11 for the start of the article. Page 20 has the final round pic I mentioned above

[Rodeheavers]

Here you go.
http://i441.photobucket.com/albums/qq137/Rodeheavers/balsaka.jpg