George Howard Debuts B&M Racers Reunion at Memphis International
6/19/2012
Birmingham, AL
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The B&M Racer Appreciation Series, played out over several seasons in the late 1990s and beyond, was a bracket racers’ dream, and made drag racing history - never before had the bracket racer enjoyed such low entry fees and high payouts at tracks spread throughout the United States, thanks to the entrepreneurship of racing promotor George Howard.

 

Now Howard, of Birmingham, Alabama, has teamed with track manager Paul Cartwright of Memphis International Raceway in Tennessee to present the first-ever B&M Racers Reunion, a three - day big - money bracket race that features three days of bracket racing, to be held Friday through Sunday, September 21 through 23 at the famed Memphis International
raceway. The races will be held on the eighth-mile.

“We are doing this to get together all the racers who in the past raced the series plus the ones who missed it all,” Howard said. “We had a great time and made champions of bracket racers in the first and only full-time bracket series at the time. We made several guys somewhat rich too.”

Typical B&M payouts included $5,000 to $20,000 per racing day to the winners, with money paid back to eight and 16 places for a low entry fee, plus non-contingency prices. The Memphis September 2012 Racers Reunion race payouts will include $5,000 to the winners of Friday’s and Sunday’s races plus $20,000 to Saturday’s winner. Entry fee is free for all three races for a one-time $50 weekend pass for all competitors. Kids 12 and under are allowed in free.

A racer can enter a car only one time. Buy backs, at $100 on Friday and Sunday and $200 on Saturday, will be allowed, and Friday’s and Sunday’s runners-up will get $1,500, while Saturday’s runner-up will receive $5,000. Semi-finalists will receive $500, quarter-finalists $250, and eighth-place finishers will get $150.

Bill Taylor of Bill Taylor Enterprises in Memphis will also donate a new racing transmission and converter separately to two lucky Reunion competitors.

Unique will be the Reunion racing format. Two categories of race cars will be contested, Delay Box and No Delay Box, with the classes separated through the sixth round. After that, they will be combined and paired, based on reaction times from the previous round, from the best to the worst. Each round thereafter, the cars will be re-paired. There will be only one “wait-and-see” bye round per round of racing, and a car can have only one bye run.

If the last car in the non-electronics class does not have another No Box car to race against, that car will race the first Delay Box class car in the electronics lane. Bye rounds carry over if not used until round six.

“This is a good deal for all bracket racers,” Howard said. “I started the B&M series (so-named after the series’ first big sponsor, transmission, converter and blower maker B&M Racing Products of California) years ago to make it affordable for the average bracket racer, and I think it worked great. This Reunion will be great too. Since our announcement in early June, we have had an interest in the race, and I think it will be big.”

Plus “The Deal or Big Deal” drawing for ten lucky people (includes racers and fans).

For more information, contact Memphis International Raceway manager Paul Cartwright at 901-969-0661 or Reunion promoter George Howard after 5 p.m. Central Time at 205-616-4490.
 

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