Welcome to ECTA

Landspeed Racing has lost a dear friend

rob.rankin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:08:30 +0000

Edward Kowalski Sr.

Edward Kowalski Sr., 75, Bern Twp., died of natural causes during the afternoon of Aug. 25, 2010, in his residence.

Born in Reading, Ed was a son of the late Felix Kowalski and Joanna (Gajewski) Englebrecht.

Ed is survived by his loving son, Edward J. “E.J.” Kowalski Jr., Bern Twp., and “E.G.” mother, Donna M. Ratynski, Wernersville.

Ed was predeceased by a daughter, Tracy Lee Kowalski in 1967.

Ed was a veteran of the U.S. Army.

Ed was the owner and operator of Ed Kowalski Speed Shop from 1958 to 1965, with locations at Ninth and Union Streets, and River Road and Route 222.

Ed was then employed in the Reading area in various capacities until joining his son “E.J.” at Kowalski Customs, where he was doing what he loved.

Ed was inducted in 2008 into the Maple Grove Raceway walk of fame, where Ed has a brick engraved with his name for his participation over the years with his Double-A Fuel Dragster.

Just this month, Ed and “E.J.,” went to Bonneville Salt Flats and set a record after 22 years of trying.

On Sunday, Aug. 22, Ed and “E.J.” went to Manassas, Va., where Ed was presented a plaque commemorating his “Top Eliminator” win on July 28, 1957, which is where Ed’s racing career started.

Ed was an active member of the RSCA, ECTA, BNI, AMCA, NHRA, NSRA and EMMR.

Funeral services will be private. A celebration of life service for all of Ed’s friends, fans and other acquaintances will be announced later by his son, “E.J.”

In lieu of flowers, it has been suggested that contributions be made to Russ Eyres, 3673 Millikin St., San Diego, CA 92122, to benefit Salt Flat Racing, which was so dear to Ed.

The Kopicki-Bradley Funeral Home Inc. is in charge of arrangements.

The East Coast Timing Association offers it’s condolences to EJ Kowalski and his Mother, Donna Ratynski. It was an honor and privilege to have Ed as one of our competitors, a true racer and friend of Landspeed and Drag Racing.

Throttle Nation Top Speed Streetbike Challenge

rob.rankin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:18:46 +0000

September 25-26th 2010 will mark the 5th annual motorcycle top speed event at Maxton. This year, we are excited to announce that Throttle Nation has stepped up as the sponsor of the event. Throttle Nation is a national magazine focusing on sportbikes and sportbike events. The classes and rules will remain the same for 2010 so bring your bikes and get ready for heads up racing at the Maxton Monster Mile. More details will be announced soon including the prizes for the class winners. Stay tuned here and at www.throttlenation.com for more details in the near future.

June 2010 Meet

rob.rankin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:12:46 +0000

The only way to describe the weather this past weekend at Maxton is “Hell Hot”! It was so hot that the Devil himself left town! The corrected density altitude read 4048 feet above sea level Saturday afternoon.

Attendance was light, but 51 records were set with many teams getting in a ton of passes.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

Daryl White ran 205.886 to set the AA/GCT record and earned a Green Hat. George Gallimore set the AA/CGC record with a pass of 215.526 mph which earned him Top Speed of the meet for cars. Jim Cosgrove drove a Mercedes powered Belly Tank to a 188.832 mph record in F/BFL class. Great job guys!

How about Tom Reiser, running 182.506 mph with his Bad Black Harley Bagger, or Eddie Powell…196.693 mph with a turboed side car. Todd Dross ran 175.778 mph with his normally aspirated side car. WOW!!!

Keith and Tonya along with Donna and Joe would like to thank all of the ECTA volunteers who simmered through the weekend with 112+ heat indexes all three days. There is no way we could have done it without every one of you!!!

As the song goes ”See you in September, when the Summer’s thru.”

April 2010, WOW what a meet!

rob.rankin — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:29:06 +0000

The grounds were immaculately groomed, the shut down section of the track repaired for a wider path and the shutdown lines repainted for better visual guidance through shut down! Great improvements to the track! The weather was picture perfect! Cool, gentle breeze, bright blue skies! What more could you ask for? Speed you say? Yes, that we had plenty of!!!Bradley Everhart rocked the track with an outstanding 200.529 MPH run on a PUSHROD motorcycle!! This earned him entry into the ECTA 200 MPH club! This is the first pushrod motorcycle to enter the 200 MPH club since 1997!!!

Mike Reichen of MRM Racing upped the track record for cars with a fabulous 237.634 MPH record run!

Steve Van Blarcom & Eric Yost entered the 200 MPH club in their cars with record runs of 210.494 MPH & 233.731 MPH respectively.

Eric Yost started off Sunday morning with an awesome run of 241.408 to claim the track record for cars!

Shane Stubbs of Scott Guthrie Racing banged out an amazing run of 264.375 MPH to up the motorcycle track record that had stood since 2005!

Bill Warner then laid down a phenomenal pass of 272.340 MPH to claim the track record for motorcycles. This is also the fastest speed ever recorded for a motorcycle on a one mile track in Land Speed Racing!

Eric Swarr of Half Fast Racing and George Gallimore of Buckwheat Racing rounded out the meet with entries into the 200 MPH club in their cars at speeds of 205.914 MPH and 212.493 MPH respectively.

To summarize, the motorcycle track record was upped twice by two different bikes, the car track record was upped twice by two different cars and there were 5 new entries to the 200 MPH club, one bike & four cars! How’s that for a meet packed full of speed!!!

The Hot Rod Magazine Top Speed Challenge was a great success! Racing entries were high and spectator attendance even higher! Details on all of this will be posted later and likely published in the newsletter.

Meet results have been posted and can be reviewed by clicking here.

Motorcycle Top Speed Shootout racers please read the article below for an important updated for 2010!

Changes for the 2010 September Motorcycle Top Speed Challenge

rob.rankin — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:50:52 +0000

We have just been informed that Super Streetbike Magazine has decided to no longer sponsor the Maxton Top Speed Challenge. This event has traditionally been held in conjunction with the normal September event that SSB magazine and the ECTA have co-promoted for the last four years. Currently ECTA officers are determining the best course of action based on the recent announcement and as soon as we know more, we will report it to our members.

As we have all witnessed these tough economic times, the ECTA is considering partnering with another magazine or other media outlets, but we can assure you that come September 25th and 26^ththere will be land speed racing at Maxton as always. This announcement does not change the ECTA schedule or our plans for the future. Just as in the past, it is the goal of the ECTA to attract the fastest racers in the USA to the Maxton Monster Mile.

The ECTA would like to thank Super Streetbike Magazine for all of their support and sponsorship for the last four years.

Happy New Year Racers!!!

rob.rankin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:34:16 +0000

The 2010 race season is quickly approaching and we are ready to roll!! It’s time to get your membership and medical form completed and sent in so we can get down to the business of racing.

Rule Changes

There have been just a few changes to the rule book this season, so make sure you read over it carefully. Listed below are just some of the changes:

Front spoiler may not come in contact with the racing surface at any time. Competitors must insure that their suspension will bottom out before the spoiler contacts the surface. This is a safety concern and will be checked as part of your tech inspection.
Beginning 2011, all cars over 200 mph shall have an engineered and tested SFI Spec 38.1 type head and neck restraint system. We highly encourage all competitors to use one of the approved devices in 2010.
Beginning 2011, all cars over 175 mph shall meet the lateral movement requirement with a full containment seat or funny car style cage system.
Classic Category - All pre 1949 bodies may have a 3 inch beauty chop

Policy Change

Any pre-registration fees that have not been utilized throughout the race season and have not been requested by the racer as a refund, will be donated at the end of that same year to the Save the Concrete Fund. These pre-registration fees will no longer be carried over from year to year.

So launder your fire suits (please), and dust off your leathers guys and gals….it’s time to Race!!

A statement from the President

rob.rankin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:04:16 +0000

On Saturday, October 24 Guy Lombardi died of injuries sustained in an accident in the shut down area. The investigation is ongoing.

Obituary from the Sarasota Herald Tribune

Gaetano R. “Guy” Lombardi, 67, of Sarasota, formerly of Bronx, N.Y., died Oct. 24, 2009.
A memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Faith Baptist Church, 8751 Fruitville Rd, Sarasota, FL.
A celebration of life service will be at 2 p.m. at the Potter Building next to Robarts Arena, 3000 Ringling Blvd, Sarasota, FL. Please wear Florida Gator gear in honor of Guy.

Survivors include a daughter, Gina Lombardi Tidwell of Charlotte, N.C.; sons Joseph and Vincent, both of Sarasota; a sister, Carole Ortiz of New York City; a brother, Burt Zupa of Sarasota, and his granddaughter, Kelsey Tidwell. Guy is also survived by two nieces, Carol Post and Jean Wallace, and a nephew, Burt Zupa.

He was a 1966 graduate of the University of Florida and a member of Phi Delta Theta. Guy was the owner of University Motors of Sarasota. He was an avid motorcycle enthusiast who broke the 200 m.p.h. land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2008. He was a strong Christian who loved the Lord and dedicated himself to helping people and animals.
Memorial donations may be made to the Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C.

I know I speak for myself, as well as the entire ECTA membership when I say that we are all deeply saddened by Guy’s untimely passing and would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the entire Lombardi Family and Guy’s life partner, Ruby Justice.

Joe Timney
President
East Coast Timing Association

September meet in the books

rob.rankin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:31:21 +0000

Rain rain go away… and it did! For the believers it panned out and turn into a great racing weekend!  Friday was extremely muggy an misty in the morning and that was it! The Super Street Bike meet was a success! The meet results have been posted. Congratulations to all of our new record holders. Check out the meet results pages for the latest.

June meet was a hot one!

rob.rankin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:24:00 +0000

The racers that braved the heat and humidity were rewarded with the ability to run as much as they wanted!  Towards the end of each race day the tower was heard making requests for racers to keep the fun going! John Augustine had the most runs this meet with 22 in his car & Wayne Shultz was the second runner up with 20 on his bike! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen multiple runs like that! Be sure to check out the meet results page for the final outcome of the meet!

Enjoy your summer break and as Joe was singing…. we’ll see you… in September!

Good luck to those Loring and/or Bonneville Bound! Be Safe, Have Fun & Go Fast!

Welcome to the ECTA

rob.rankin — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 22:12:56 +0000

The East Coast Timing Association LLC (ECTA) is the principal sanctioning organization for Land Speed Racing in the Eastern United States. Five times a year, scores of car and motorcycle racers gather at the Laurinburg-Maxton airfield just outside Maxton, North Carolina, to speed down the Maxton Mile race track. Vehicles range from production cars and bikes (basically off the showroom floor) to exotic, purpose-built racers. It is quite a show!

The ECTA is a membership organization. You can become a member by completing and returning the membership information form available on this site to the ECTA. (Click Here for full details). You must be a member to participate in our events as a rider/driver.

Spectators are welcome at all ECTA events. Come out and watch us go fast!

Photos: Above is a view from the racer’s point of view down the Maxton Mile of concrete. Below is the beautiful Sam Samson Coupe entry, driven by Greg Samson, at speed approaching the timing lights.
(Photos courtesy of Mark Amrhein (top) and Bob Dill (below))