SPORTS
Drag event celebrates 10th anniversary
After waiting more than six months for his custom-made Chevrolet Camaro to arrive, Adam Gerety couldn’t wait to see what it could do. Less than a week after picking it up at the dealership, he broke in his new whip at the inaugural Drag-N-Brag in June of 2009 at Texas Motor Speedway.
A second-round dismissal, however, left the new car owner disappointed yet invigorated.
“I lost to a Mustang,” Gerety recalled. “I didn’t like how that felt.”
Nine years later Drag-N-Brag, known now as the Universal Technical Institute Friday Night Drags.
It is celebrating its 10th anniversary and Gerety’s 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS is the class of the Super Car Division.
“It’s a (one of a kind) from GM, and despite that I still felt it needed to be modified,” said Gerety, a 49-year-old resident of Trophy Club.
“It’s a Lingenfelter setup with Honeywell Garrett turbos. … It’s a color they don’t make anymore. It’s imperial blue metallic, so I try to keep it looking stock. I keep the paint stock and I keep the interior fairly stock. It is caged, has welded wheels – skinnies on the front and Mickey Thompson rubber all the way around. I’ve been able to get some fat tires underneath it with the 15-inch wheel package, so that helps with the traction.
“Inside, the car is still relatively stock. Stock interior seats, stock rear, full interior. The air conditioner still works. The heated seats still work. It has a Brink’s Racecraft … six-point cage that I had installed this year,” he continued.
“I have an OBD2 setup that allows me to remotely connect to the car and monitor all the telemetry data and modify the tune based on how the car is operating that evening or how the weather is performing – the different characteristics and things that need to be accounted for.
“It’s a pretty special car that’s been purposely built for Friday Night Drags.”
Since his second-round exit in June of 2009, Gerety and his Camaro haven’t missed a night of UTI Friday Night Drags. Over the last decade, Gerety has driven his turbo-charged, finely-tuned Camaro from a stock competitor to one of the cars to beat for six Fridays every summer.
And while he couldn’t give an exact number on how many races he’s won over the years on Texas Motor Speedway’s 1/8-mile dragstrip that is situated on pit lane, Gerety’s hard work in turning his stock Camaro into a championship contender culminated in 2015 with a Texas Harley Super Car Division title.
“That was pretty special, especially when you consider the competition out there,” Gerety said. “I’ve made a lot of friends through Friday Night Drags over the years and a lot of those guys race in the same division as me. I’ve won weekly trophies and a fair share of races over the years, but that really meant a lot to me. That’s something that I’ll never forget.”
Neither will a recent trip Gerety took with his father, David.
Gerety spent a week turning his hot rod into a street car.
The two spent June 9-15 traveling more than 3,700 miles as part of the Hot Road Power Tour, a seven-day, seven-city journey that featured more than 6,000 vehicles in the world’s largest traveling car show.
“My father’s birthday was earlier this year so I thought it would be fun to take my dad on the road,” Gerety said. “We met lots of cool people and saw lots of cool cars and it was just great times with my dad.”
Gerety and his father visited five states – Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina – as part of the tour. His prized Camaro spent two of the days at the Lingenfelter display booth. He also had the opportunity to run it down the four-way dragstrip at Max Dragway in Concord, N.C.
“It was on street tires and de-tuned, but still whole the experience was amazing,” said Gerety, who works in the financial services industry. “Most of the memories involve my dad. It was a great time.
Gerety choked back the tears when asked what it meant to spend so much quality time with his 75-year-old father.
“The world,” he said.
Gerety returned home from the trip with less than a week to prepare his Camaro for the season opener of UTI Friday Night Drags on June 22. The short turnaround didn’t give Gerety enough time to prep the car the way he wanted; yet he still nearly drove off with a Round 1 win, dropping a close final showdown with Stephen Kamp and his 2017 Chevrolet Corvette.
“We were out there and we gave it our best Friday night. We took second, but the car wasn’t quite ready,” Gerety said. “We noticed a couple things that needed to be changed, so we woke up Saturday morning and got the car ready. We’ll be ready for Week 2.”
The first week of Universal Technical Institute Friday Night Drags featured a record-breaking, opening-night car count of 366 vehicles.
Texas Motor Speedway was once again the place to in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with fireworks presented by Snap-on Tools.
“I remember that first year, I would take the Camaro to be a part of the Show-N-Shine and then take it over to race in the drags. There might have been 50 cars that first year and now there’s 50-plus cars in our division alone,” Gerety said. “It’s great to see how much it’s grown over the years.
If anyone would know, it’s the man who hasn’t missed a race in 10 seasons.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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