For the third installment of Battle of the Boards during Midnight Madness at Gateway International Raceway the racers were treated to the Metro areas triple threat……. ………..Hazy, Hot and Humid. With temps before the event hovering close to triple digits, a thunderstorm passing just south of Gateway managed to drag in some slightly cooler air and drop temperatures to a balmy 91 degrees with a heat index of 100 as racers filed in to the track.
This round of BOTB featured a mandatory cruise for all racers before elimination rounds, which had the racers take 2 laps around the gateway oval and 4 laps through the road course totaling about 8 miles and a few more turns than your normal street cruise and then pull up straight to staging for a cool-off period and racing. All of the competitors completed the cruise with only Ben Craven of Pur Performance suffering some slight overheating problems with his just finished Challenger, but he and the remainder of the field pulled in front of the grandstands to await round one.
Once again, a three team field produced a random draw bracket that would pit 2 teammates against each other from each board in the first round, with one racer getting a first round bye. As round one got underway the temperature had dropped to 85 with a Heat Index of 91, but the track was still at a blistering 100 degrees.

Round One:
The first pair up were two cars from Lethal 1320. John Manno in his 65 turbo mustang carded a 10.25 at a coasting 97 mph for the win over Ben Nunster’s immaculate orange 69 camaro which posted an 11.16 @ 129.
Matt Bungenstock representing STL-Speed pushed his 01’ TA to a 12.39 @ 111 in the next pairing to take the win over Rocky Fox of STL-Mustangs and his 02’ Mustang running a 14.86 @ 96 mph.
Gary Tripp of Lethal was the lucky first round bye winner, but wanting lane choice for round 2 pounded out a stout 9.96 @ 137.99 to move on to round 2.
The next pair turned into a solo pass. Ben Craven for STL-Speed who suffered overheating problems during the cruise had the problem reoccur and was pushed to the side and had to watch Derek Fox representing STL-Mustangs and his 02 mustang move on with a 13.61 @ 103 effort. Despite his elimination, Craven later ironed out some of his bugs and ran a exhibition pass which featured copious amounts of tire smoke and pedaling on his way to a 10.49 carded ET.
May BOTB semi-finalist Jeremy Heizer for STL-Speed took the win light next with his 91’ GTA running an 11.02 @ 124 to put fellow teammate Chad Duckworth’s 05’ GTO running a 14.20 @ 108 out of the contest.
Next up, Joe Britton for STL-Mustangs against Dan Schell for Lethal 1320. In a David vs Goliath contest, Schell was too quick at the line and went -.087 red wasting a 10.11 @ 121 run from his 93 mustang and sent Britton’s 85’ mustang and his 14.02 @ 101 run into round 2.
The first of the final two pairs in round one featured one half of a husband and wife racing combo, with each of them on different teams. Jill O’toole for STL-Speed brought her 03 cobra to the line to face Brent Sansoucie of Lethal 1320. At the hit O’Toole found herself chasing as Sancoucie jumped out to a 6 tenths lead off the line. Down track her 11.25 @ 125 ran out of real estate as Sansoucie’s 11.81 @ 114 held her off and took the holeshot win.
Next up Ken O’Toole for STLMustangs hoped to fare better than his wife when he took on teammate Eric Hulsey. Neither driver had a stellar light, but O’Toole’s spinning 10.97 @ 133 was enough to hold off Hulsey’s 11.96 @ 118 run.

Round Two:
John Manno was first up against Matt Bungenstock and he carded a coasting 11.49 @ 86 mph for the win over Bungenstocks game but losing 12.44 @ 111.
First round bye recipient Gary Tripp took his favored left lane and lead wire to wire. His slowing 10.45 @ 126 was enough to overcome Derrick Fox’s 13.63 @ 104.
Jeremy Heizer motored on again carding a 11.06 @ 123 to take out a traction impaired 14.90 @ 97 mph run by Joe Britton.
The final round 2 pair saw half of the husband/wife O’Toole team move on yet again. Ken O’Toole solved his traction problems from the previous round, and with nearly identical reaction times at the line made sure Brent Sansoucie would not pull another holeshot win. O’Toole’s 9.95 @ 137 over Sansoucie’s 10.68 @ 127 sent him to round 3.

Round 3:
First up, a pair of Lethal 1320 cars bidding for a final round appearance with John Manno facing off against Gary Tripp. In previous rounds Manno had been able to coast to wins, but with dialed-in Gary Tripp in the other lane the ante had been raised and he knew he would have to turn up the wick. Unfortunately, Manno turned it up a bit too far. At the hit Tripp carded a stellar .003 light, and .272 seconds later Manno went into instant tire smoke. Despite the handicap he pedaled the car and gave chase, ending up running an 11.09 at a blazing 149 mph which proved to be top speed of the night. It wasn’t enough, Tripp led the whole way and made his best pass of the night, a 9.75 @ 138 that sent him into the finals.
The other final round spot was filled by Ken O’Toole. He parlayed a .172 starting line advantage and the quickest pass of the night, a 9.62 @ 141, into a final round berth taking out Jeremy Hiezer’s 10.14 @ 134.

Round 4:
The final round match-up proved to be the race of the night. With a storm front moving in and lightning appearing on the horizon both racers did a quick turnaround in 15 minutes and pulled to the line. Ken O’Toole had lane choice, but it wasn’t factor because both racers were in their preferred lanes. Tripp, in the left lane, had sorted out his round 2 troubles and was dialed in the high 9 range with the potential to go lower and had chopped down the tree on his opponent in his previous round. Meanwhile, O’Toole in the right lane had been getting faster with every pass and had carded the fastest run of the night the previous round. As they staged it was even money as to who would take the win. At the hit, Tripp gained a .046 advantage, but by the 1/8 mile Ken O’Toole’s machine had cranked it up and caught him. At the stripe Ken O’Toole had pulled away with his 9.62 @ 138 besting Gary Tripp’s 9.81 @ 139, a distance of 27 feet and the win.

With the win, Ken O’Toole drew STLMustangs level in points for the race with Lethal 1320, but Lethal still took the team title by having the most cars the farthest in the brackets with 2 cars in the semi-final round.

Final Stats:

Points: Lethal 1320- 12 STLMustangs- 12 STL-Speed- 6

Single Winner- Ken O’Toole (STLMustangs)

Board Winner- Lethal 1320.com

Best ET- Ken O’Toole (STLMustangs) 9.622

Best MPH- John Manno (Lethal 1320) 149.07