Duck Tape Racing's Roll Continues
November 20, 2006
Rockingham, N.C. - The obvious headline of "Duck Tape On A Roll" may be overused, but there's no better way to describe the dominance shown by the Duck Tape brand duct tape sponsored 1980 Volare, driven by Michael Beard. Beard outlasted the best drivers in the Carolinas at the season finale of the Torco Race Fuels Carolina Coalition series at Rockingham Dragway, in Rockingham, N.C., to take the Footbrake class win Saturday night. It was Beard's third win in the last four weeks, and his fifth of the season.
Saturday's Footbrake class took eight rounds of competition to complete. The Duck Tape Volare ran dead-on in four of those rounds, twice "with a zero". Beard trailered multi-time champion Richard Alford, the 5.2-second 135mph Thunderbird of former Farmington Dragway champ Robert Benge, Jr., and recently crowned Rockingham track champ and IHRA Division 1 Modified Champion Eric Aman en route to the win.
In Sunday's competition, Beard recorded consecutive reaction times of .012, .010, and .004 before falling in the fourth round with a -.006 red light. The Volare ran dead-on two more times among those runs.
"The car was just stuck this weekend," said Beard. "A lot of guys complimented me the next day on driving the stripe, but to be honest, I didn't do a whole lot of finish line driving. I did a lot of work dialing the car, though. You always try to do that on paper, but it doesn't always work out that way. This time, the car ran what I wanted it to run almost every time.
"I'm so happy with this car right now," he smiled. "It was a long, frustrating year, until the end of the summer, when my dad and Billy Nees fixed the problems, and tweaked some things on the car. For a long time, I was wondering if the car COULD win, but I remember something Billy told me years ago: 'Michael, I've never had a good car that went down the track right the first time'. There's still a few improvements on our to-do list, but there's no doubt now that this car is a winner!"
Beard thanked Duck Tape brand duct tape, Loctite, Polyseamseal, and the rest of the Henkel family of products, along with Mickey Thompson Tires, K&N Filters, Billy Nees Race Cars, Stephen Beard, Sloan Racing Engines, Biondo Racing Products, Matt Zapp, Terry Knott, and Scott Macy.
Michael Beard
Staging Light Motorsports & Graphics
beard@staginglight.com - www.staginglight.com
Cell: 440-415-3541
