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Welcome to DragraceResults.Com, the official website of Edmond Richardson racing. This site will feature monthly updates on the progress of two-time NHRA World Champion Edmond Richardson, Jason Lynch, championships in Super Stock, Stock, and Super Comp Eliminators, and run for big money at many of the nation's largest E.T. Bracket races. No matter how hard I tried, I don’t think I could have written a better script for the last month. Since my last update, the BorgWarner Automotive team has enjoyed more success than we did all of last season The week after the NHRA Pennzoil Nationals in Houston, we headed off to Seeley, Texas for a major E.T. race. The event in Seeley was scheduled to pay $50,000 to the winner, but the car count was off a little, and it was pro-rated to $17,500. I didn’t do much in the big race, but my BorgWarner teammate, Jason Lynch and I ran in the final round of Saturday’s $10,000 to win the event. With 16 cars left in eliminations, we had four entries left between us and scooped up all the money. More importantly, we gave ourselves a much-needed shot of confidence. There have been so many highlights this year it would be hard to pick just one, but if I had to, I’d go with the Super Comp win at the NHRA Castrol Nationals in Dallas. Winning a race in my home state is always special, but this one was even more so, because as many people are aware, I haven’t won a national-event since 1997, when I won the Stock title at the Matco Tools Supernationals in Houston. It was the longest dry spell of my career, and at times, I was beginning to question my ability to win national events. I mean I have always felt like I had what it takes to win, but a number of things, including just plain luck, have escaped me. When I turned on the win light in the final against Paul Buell, it gave me a huge boost of confidence. Now, I honestly feel like I can win the 1999 Federal-Mogul Super Comp championship. I’ve been the points leader for most of the season, and even though there is a long way to go, I believe that I can do it. I certainly plan to give it my best shot. From Dallas, we went to the Federal-Mogul points meet at Indy, where I won in Stock with my I/SA ’69 Camaro convertible. Another good weekend, and another confidence builder. The points and the money aren’t bad, either. After Indy, I was back home again at "the Hill", Music City Raceway for one of their big bracket races. I was runner-up in a $5,000 race and by my brother, Scotty, in the final of the $10,000 race. It was a great race with both of us cutting .50 lights. I also ran dead-on my dial-in, and no, we didn’t split the money. I cooled off a little at the Southern Nationals in Atlanta with a quarterfinal finish in Stock and a third round loss in Super Comp, but jumped right back on the horse the next weekend at Gateway Int’l Raceway in St. Louis with a $2,000 Gambler’s race win and a runner-up finish against Kelt Louden in the $50,000 main event. I don’t like losing any final, but this race paid $25,000 so I didn’t lose too much sleep over it. Anytime a race pays $50,000 to win and $25,000 runner-up, I don’t see any need to split it, and like I said, I can’t be too disappointed with $25 grand. Bracket racing has been great to me this year, but I’m also pretty committed to the NHRA points chase in Stock and Super Comp, so we headed back to Commerce, Ga. For the Federal-Mogul race at Atlanta Dragway the week after St. Louis. To make a long story short, I got another runner-up finish, this time in the Super Comp dragster. Right now, I feel pretty good. I’d like to get just one more big win in Super Comp before the year is over and I think I’ll be in good shape. Why did I struggle so bad last year? Heck, if I knew the answer to that, I’d have fixed the problem then, but I can tell you that this year, our cars have run well, and Jason and I have felt comfortable on the track. I don’t know how long our recent hot streak is going to last, and I’m not going to spend too much time thinking about it. I just want to keep riding the wave as long as I can. Everyone who races will tell you that you need one lucky round to be a consistent winner, and I think that’s true. That’s been the difference in me between last year and this one. In 1998, I couldn’t buy a lucky round, but this year, things seem to have fallen into place pretty well. Jason has been in a little bit of a slump, but he’s working himself out of it as well. We recently took his dragster back to my shop and did some work on it. We took it all apart and I asked him what we could do to make it a better racecar. We made a few minor changes including moving the steering wheel a little closer to make it easier for him to reach. That might not sound like a big deal, but I’ll tell you, if you’re not comfortable in the racecar, you’re going to have a hard time winning. We’ve been on the road so much we haven’t had too much time for fun stuff, but we did go to my buddy Bruce Dawson’s house in Dexter, Missouri after the $50,000 race in St. Louis to do a little fishing. I’m also planning on watching my son, Ryan’s baseball team. Right now, they’re 19-0 and just four wins from a perfect season. This week, I’m at the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago, which is an important race for me, not just in the points battle, but also because Chicago is the home of BorgWarner Automotive. There are over 11,000 employees at the plant in Bellwood, Ill. And about 90 of them are coming to the race this weekend. I’d like to make them proud by chalking up another win. |
