The 2023 Midwest Bracket Finals Coverage - World Drag Racing Alliance

The WDRA Summit Bracket Finals Starts Strong with its Debut at Eddyville Raceway Park

The 2023 Summit Bracket Finals, presented by Laris Motorsports, kicked off at member track Eddyville Raceway Park. There was no shortage of opportunities to race at the WDRA Finals as members started the weekend of competition on Friday with a selection of gambler races and a reaction time contest.

WDRA member tracks. Cordova Dragway, US 36 Raceway, Mo-Kan Dragway, Windy Hollow Dragway and host track, Eddyville Raceway Park will send a team of racers to compete against other regional teams. Every WDRA Bracket Finals event will award individual class champions as well as overall team champions.

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Jared Micetich – WDRA 2023 Top Eliminator Champion

Rick VanWyhe – WDRA 2023 Modified Eliminator Champion

Host track Eddyville Raceway Park welcomed this region’s competitors to the 2023 season bracket final. Track owner Gerald Kramer said, “We had good weather, which is always a key factor. With that said, the turnout was exceptional.”

FRIDAY REACTION TIME CONTEST
The first competitive program for the WDRA finals included a reaction time contest within the event Friday time trial lineup.

Norm Weets, competing for Cordova Dragway, cut a .0022 reaction time to win the Box-Reaction Time Contest. For the No Box racers, Joe Kaufmann scored an incredible .0001 as the winner representing Eddyville Raceway Park. In the junior dragster time trials, Jamison Breeding cut a .0028 reaction time, as another win for Eddyville Raceway Park.

FRIDAY GAMBLER RACES
All racers were getting their time shots, plus signing up for Friday Gambler races open to the finalists.

It was a family final in the Box—Gambler bracket category as Bobby Ince Jr. won over dad, Bobby Ince Sr. Though Senior ran a mere .004 from his dial, Junior had a better starting line reaction to get to the finish line first.

In the Gambler No-Box final round, Tyler Brooks had his win light quickly illuminate when final-round rival Bill Randal red-lighted.

The Friday Junior Dragster—Gambler final round paired Kylee Greenwood against Carter Brand. Brand took a big starting line reaction advantage to score the win slip and awards.

Norm Weets – WDRA 2023 Sportsman Champion

Cole Robinson – WDRA 2023 Junior Dragster Champion

SATURDAY GAMBLER RACES
Second version—day two once again resulted with Tyler Brooks in the finals of the Saturday No-Box Gambler class finals. This day though, the win went to Ryan Robinson, who took a .032 package over Brooks, breaking out by .005 of a second.

In the Saturday Box—Gambler portion of the day, Wayne Briggs Jr. packaged up a .010 reaction time and a 6.193 on a 6.19 dial-in to win over Brian Barten.

The winner among the Saturday Gambler—Junior Dragster competitors was Cameron Laffoon over Tyler Barsema. Barsema turned on the red-light, handing the win to Laffoon on the starting line.

THE WDRA/EDDYVILLE NORTHERN BRACKET FINALS SPECIAL AWARDS
As the event continued, a special awards presentation highlighted some exceptionally crafted race cars.
Best Appearing—Full Bodied: Wayne Briggs Jr. (Cordova Dragway)
Best Appearing—Junior Dragster: Cameron Laffoon (Eddyville Raceway Park)
Best Appearing—Open Bodied: Kevin Verkler (Cordova Dragway)
Best Appearing Team: Eddyville Raceway Park.
Best Decorated Grandstand: Mo-Kan Dragway
Best Team Spirit: (Cordova Dragway)

Best Decorated Grandstand – Mo-Kan Dragway

Best Appearing Team – Eddyville Raceway Park

Best Team Spirit – Cordova Dragway

THE WDRA MAIN EVENT
With the weekend’s racers now split within their respective WDRA class categories, Top, Modified, Sportsman, and Junior Dragster, it was time to get down to the racing everyone was focused on.

In the WDRA—Top Eliminator Championship, Knoxville, Iowa’s Jared Micetich was victorious over Kyle Kunze. Micetich had his big-block dragster dialed-in for the finals with a 4.70 and had to be patient for almost a full second, with Kunze leaving first with a 5.55 dial-in.

At the finish line stripe, it was a double breakout situation with Micetich breaking out the least, running .003-second too quick.

“I just told myself to treat this like any other Sunday,” Micetich comments. “I had some good runs in the Gambler’s races but broke out and lost. I was bummed out with my gamblers race performance, but for some reason, the last 3-4 weeks before the WDRA Bracket Finals, it was like Sundays were just my days.”

“It was just weird,” Micetich adds. “I would either runner up or win on a Sunday. We just had a 5k race at Eddyville the weekend before, and I won the Sunday race on that. So I was feeling pretty good about it.”

Micetich won with his ’01 Race Engineering dragster. Micetich finishes, “I just had to try to keep cool as much as I could; I know I was getting amped-up after each round win. I rolled more into my delay box where I should have cut a .015- to .018-second reaction time, and I cut a .004 in the finals, I knew I was amped-up—that was luck.”

Wayne Briggs Jr – WDRA 2023 Best Appearing Full Bodied

Kevin Verkler – WDRA 2023 Best Appearing Open Bodied

WDRA—Modified Eliminator Championship paired neighbors Rick VanWyhe, from Montezuma, Iowa, against Timothy Sparks from nearby University Park, Iowa. One-tenth of a second divided the two racers’ dial-ins, with VanWyhe set in a 5.46 and Sparks with a quicker 5.36. The finish line was the deciding factor as VanWyhe turned the timers off just .002-second off his dial as Sparks ran a .018-second break-out pass.

“This WDRA Finals event is cool, it is especially great having many friends there at the end of the day to celebrate with,” explains VanWyhe. “The event started rough; the car wasn’t launching right, and I broke a front coil-over-shock on a time trial. It probably went 6-feet out and just blew the tires off it.”

VanWyhe continues, “After getting that sorted, the track was awesome, and I was proud of the car every pass after that and proud of myself to get to the finals. Tim Sparks is a great racer; that final could have gone either way. I was celebrating in the car all the way back to the trailer. Now I am gearing up to go to the WDRA World Championships in Darlington.”

Moving to the WDRA—Sportsman Eliminator Championship finals, Quad-Cities area racers Norm Weets from Clinton, Iowa, was mounted against Jim Petersen from Davenport, Iowa.

Weets took a starting line reaction advantage to win over Petersen. The pair of breakouts on the Eddyville scoreboards showed Weets with a .025-second under ET to Petersen’s minus .069-second pass, giving Weets the win light.

Norm Weets comes from a long lineage of Weets family racers competing at Cordova Dragway. Even more in line with the family filled with Dodge race cars, he is constructing an entirely new 1965 Dodge Coronet. In the meantime, he is racing his street-driven ’95 Trans Am regularly, including the WDRA Bracket Finals.

Cameron Laffoon- WDRA 2023 Best Appearing Junior Dragster

Team Champions
Eddyville Raceway Park

“It was kind of funny,” told Weets. “I woke up Sunday morning and told my friends at the campsite that I am going to win Sportsman. Sure as anything, I did go on and win it.

Weets continues, “The stock EFI engine can jump around in ET, so I hold a little and can be prepared for anything. Doing that all weekend, I think I drove both ends of the track well when I needed to. It was really fun to have the friends from the morning stand in the winner’s circle and recount that I said I was going to win.”

The WDRA—Junior Dragster Championship final pair did not disappoint when it came down to a tight final round of bracket racing. Cole Robinson from Cammanche, Iowa, representing Cordova Dragway, scored the big win over Carter Brand, from Lynnville, Iowa, representing Eddyville Raceway Park.

“My family had fun representing Cordova Dragway, my home track,” says Robinson. “I have been to Eddyville a few times in the past, so I was comfortable with the ‘tree. Plus, it is an eastbound track like Cordova, which helps with the transition, too.”

“Robinson has a 2021 Mike Bos chassis dragster with a 3 1/2-inch bore outlaw motor.

“I had a good race at this bracket finals. I struggled a little with the ‘tree at the start of the season, but I have worked that out.” Robinson adds, “I raced an electric Junior dragster in the WDRA eliminations, which was wild. They are very different in how they charge off the starting line differently from my dragster. It was, overall, a cool event.”

Robinson dialed-in a 7.93 ET and ran .011 above his prediction. Brand had dialed-in at 8.68 ET, but the reaction time benefit went to Robinson, who finished first.
As each round won by individual racers during the main event eliminations were tallied up, congratulations went to Eddyville Raceway Park, the 2023 Team Champions.

“As WDRA grows, and it is growing well, we will see the racers this year that had a good time telling their friends,” adds Gerald Kramer. “The caliber of racing was exceptional. Combine that with how close the track competition points tallied up; it is everything a great bracket final event is created for.”