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2004 MMRA Grand National
Race - East
Lake Erie Speedway, Pennsylvania - August 7-8, 2004
Zach Coll
Joseph Meyer
Bill Christie
The 2004 East Grand National event was a great success.
The facility was awesome again this year and the track staff did a
tremendous job of running the show. The ARCA Re-Max series added
glamour and the weather was picture perfect.
MMRA tied our modern day record of 62 cars with 15 Future
Stars, 31 Open Division and 16 PRO Division racers. The Future Stars
put on a great show, running 50 caution-free laps with Zach Coll leading
Chad Willis and Jacob France to the finish line. It was great to see
our kids run such a clean, yet exciting race with lots of 2 and 3 wide
action throughout the event.
After some rough starts in the Open Division, there was lots of passing and
excitement with some 4-wide runs into turn one. Slowly, the cream rose
to the top however as 2003 winner Joseph Meyer showed he hasn't lost his
touch at Erie. He took the checkered flag ahead of Josh Byrns and
Jesse Hartloff.
Unexpected delays for the Open Division race meant the
PRO Division had to wait until after the ARCA race. When the field
finally got to take the green flag, the many fans who stayed got their
reward. The PRO Division race was action packed with the lightning
quick Baby Grand cars screaming around Lake Erie. The most amazing
incident of the night involved Tyler Cole who flipped and rolled before
coming to rest on his wheels. To the delight of the crowd, before the
safety workers could reach his car, he drove off and rejoined the field.
At the end of a long day, it was Bill Christie who solidified his
championship with another win ahead of Tyler Brown and Chris Wilson.
The next day, almost 90 people packed the Lake Erie VIP
tower for our 2004 Eastern Awards Banquet. All the racers were
recognized and Lake Erie provided a great breakfast. The biggest
announcement of the banquet was when David Daniels announced he was stepping
down as the MMRA National Director to focus on his manufacturing
business. He also introduced Lee Griffith as the 2005 MMRA National
Director and asked everyone to encourage and support Lee in his new job.
Finally, there were several announcements made about the
2005 season. First, racers will be able to run regional qualifiers and
receive points in any region - not just in their home area. This
should encourage more racing in regional qualifiers and increase car count
everywhere. Secondly, in 2005, MMRA will award one championship point
for the fast qualifying time at all Touring and Grand National events.
This will provide incentive to go for the pole, even when you know an invert
pill will be drawn.
In followup conversations with the track, we are all in
agreement that the goal will be for MMRA to return to Lake Erie in 2005,
hopefully with the ARCA Re-Max series again. If you missed the race
this year, make sure you join us for the Grand National race in 2005.
See you there!
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