2008 Pro Nationals

[bos9]

2008 Speed week

24 straight years of the Men's Club and Title Series working on putting on the Best Damm Race in the country.
Somethings that are going on fuel will be delivered on tuesday, it will be $200.00 a barrell plus $20.00 deposit on drum.
The drivers party is on Wednesday night in the pits.
Banquet will be held at the Eagles in Peru jsut like last year, working on getting a shuttle van for the ride from the pits to the banquet and back to the pits.
As we speak we are parking the trailers by the water edge, I want to park the 5th wheel's up between the beer tent and the restrooms. I'll have it flagged off so no parking other trailer there until we get the big ones parked.
IF there in the wrong spot they will be moved.
Talk to me before parking
If you need anything shipped use my address. Let me know whats comming so i can look for it.
I'm leaving for Constantine Thursday sometime if you need anything call me and leave a message, or ask me over the weekend.
As always the Men's Club and the Village has worked hard on getting ready for this race and looking forward to seeing everyone again.
Have a safe trip to Constantine and then on to the BEST DAMM RACE COUSRSE for the best 2008 Pro Nationals.
Once again if you need anything give me a call. See you in a couple of day's
Good luck to everyone and safe driving.

Paulie

[rball82]

Cell service

Does anyone have Sprint service at the DePue race site. Want to go to this but need to be in cell range.

[David Weaver]

Sprint Service

I believe that you can get Sprint service and AT&T. On occaision, the AT&T signal can get weak and sometimes you need to up on the hill or in town to get good service.

[rball82]

Thanks David, I am coming from Woodstock Ga and will plan on being there on Friday morning. Good luck. Mark OB

[guedo499]

Media Source

Q. What is the local newspaper/media source for Depue?

[jkimble12]

newspaper

The Newspaper is the Illinois Valley News Tribune.

http://www.newstrib.com/

Josh Kimble

[RyanWarner]

Congrats to all of the 2008 PRO National Champions, and good luck to all drivers heading to NY for stock and mod nationals. See everyone at Dayton for season finale of the USTS.

[David Weaver]

2008 PRO Nationals - Overall Recap

Without getting into too much detail regarding the race course events (later), let me say this was one of the most interesting weeks I have spent in DePue. After the annual trip over to DePue from Constantine, things got really interesting.

First thing monday morning, I headed back to the DePue to meet Denny H. and Paul F. at the Giants Den for breakfast before golf . I ended up driving in the worst storm that I have encountered. There was no place to go that looked safe, so I continued onto the Giants Den, where I could at least get Chorizo and eggs (with Corn Tortillas and pico). After breakfast, we went down to the pits and came upon utter devestation. The collective effort to restore the pits and spectator areas was absolutely huge. The town of DePue is amazing and the resources marshalled with no notice were amazing. And I have never been prouder of the PRO category members than working with so many people who dove right in to help with the clean-up. This was a big time mess and could have ruined the week without an amazing collective effort. The Thirlby's took the brunt of the equipment damage, but ralied back like the true champions that they are.

No suprise, byt the DePue Mens club exhibited its ever-present enthusism. These guys and GALS are just tireless, hpaay volunteers. Next year will likely be the 25th consecutive year with the PRO Nationals at DePue. And it is rumored that Ray Rodda nosed out Moses and Noah in the first PRO Nationals at DePue back before calendars and type writers.

Brutal conditions were again present at Lake DePue. This lake lives on eating pistions!!! The attrition is simply amazing and there is no one explanation. The USTS races here in May and June with very low engine failure rates. But in July, things simply change. Is it the heat? Does the water condition change? Do teams just push too hard? Some of the best teams in PRO history were simply at a loss this week.

Camaraderie and sportsmanship were in abundance. I continue to enjoy the tremendous effort that teams put forth for the benefit of theie competitors. This is such a strength of the PRO category.

More to come later. The racing action was intense and heartbreaks were abundant.

[aojesus]

Thanks for the reports

Dave,
Thanks for the updates and reports. Joey and I look forward to reading them.
We didn't realize our buddy Ray Rodda was that old, He carries himself well.
How did the new MJR boats do?
You guys need to hurry back to Region 5, Joey is having USTS withdrawls.

See you at the Worlds!

[racingfan1]

Nationals Pictures

Here a few misc. pictures from 2008 Nationals.

[RLR]

We didn't realize our buddy Ray Rodda was that old, He carries himself well.--Thanks Russ, I appreciate the help. My kids want to know if there was any history before I was born, and say no, just before we left the Spirit World to come here.......

Ray

[aojesus]

We didn't realize our buddy Ray Rodda was that old, He carries himself well.--Thanks Russ, I appreciate the help. My kids want to know if there was any history before I was born, and say no, just before we left the Spirit World to come here.......

Ray

Just playing with you Mr. Rodda. Our family thinks very highly of you.
We look forward to seeing you at the Worlds!

[David Weaver]

Fortunately

We didn't realize our buddy Ray Rodda was that old, He carries himself well.--Thanks Russ, I appreciate the help. My kids want to know if there was any history before I was born, and say no, just before we left the Spirit World to come here.......

Ray

Ray,

You are like a fine bottle of Bourdeaux that gets better and better with every year!!!!

See you soon.

David

[racingfan1]

Nationals Pictures

A few more pictures from nationals

[racingfan1]

Nationals swim ?

Being it was his 1st national at age 78 , did Marshall get the traditional pitch into the lake for winning his 1st national?