Two Florida drag racers hope to tend to unfinished business when popular SPEED television show, PINKS All Out, opens its 2010 tour with a return visit to Florida’s Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIR) on Saturday, March 6.

On one of the chilliest days in recorded South Florida weather history, the first PINKS All Out shoot at PBIR in late February of 2007 was a marathon on many levels. Multiple delays, untimely accidents and messy breakdowns added to the two longest time trial sessions in PINKS All Out history, lasting more than 10 hours and pushing the start of the final 16 to 11:00 p.m. But that was just the beginning.

Additional woes strung out the competition into the wee hours of the morning, as elimination rounds continued until 3:30 am where a final four had eventually been established. At that point however, cold temperatures and high humidity created noticeable levels of condensation, while the left lane was weakened with repeated incidents. Track conditions had deteriorated and it left Niko Rastrelli, Chris Clinton, Todd Abrams and Darlene Dollins with a tough decision to make. Would they agree to continue?

Host Rich Christensen and the PINKS All Out technical team gathered the four competitors to gauge everyone’s inner warrior. While the desire to compete and find a winner was still very much alive, only Rastrelli, who was 16 years old at the time, thought it was a good idea to soldier on. Each racer received a quarter of the $10,000 prize, while Rastrelli also gained the new NAPA tool chest filled with tools for his bravado.

“Being that cold, that late at night, with the way we wrecked the track that day with everyone blowing up, they could just not get that left lane clean,” said Todd Abrams, 41, a West Palm Beach, Fla. resident. “I would have loved to have gone all the way, but it was way too dangerous that night to do it. If they would have put me in that left lane for that next race, it would have been dangerous. I would have gone for it, but it would have been more balls than brains.”

“My car just dug in, held on, and I really never had a twitch of the steering wheel,” said Clinton, 49, of nearby Fort Myers, Florida, who drove a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle. “At the end there, we had to shut it off, and I didn’t feel comfortable pushing anyone beyond their comfort level and getting hurt, so I agreed to throw in the towel. I was then sitting there reflecting on things, and noticed the rest of us were all in our 40s - except the kid. I was at the track at his age with my first car, and I thought to myself, ‘man, if I had won tools like that when I was his age, I would still have them.’ That’s when I came up with the idea of, ‘let’s give the kid the tools.’ Obviously the rest of us have had the time and money to enjoy life a little, and really, how many 9/16ths do you really need?”

While Rastrelli and Dollins have moved to other adventures, Collins and Abrams are back for more. Both are small business owners - Collins owns All-Star Equipment Rentals & Sales, a construction equipment sales and rental company; while Abrams owns Rigid Repair Center, one of 250 endoscope medical equipment sales and service companies in the country - and part-time racers. The thought of what might have been still lingers.

“The track conditions made it really unfair for the other two racers, so I would have loved to have had everyone come back,” Abrams added. “But I think one is out of racing and another has a dragster now, but that would have been fun to see. We would be able to finish what we started.”

“I’m sure at this point we’ve all made a few modifications on our cars,” Collins said. “But I would still be interested, even just for the heck of it, to line up against all three and go at it.”

In reality, the chances of them getting another shot at winning the competition are remote, as fields are chosen through a subjective set of criterion.

“Just being able to go back again is like lightening striking twice,” Abrams said. “If by some chance they get in the field, it would be a dream come true and like hitting the lottery twice. It just doesn’t happen.”

PINKS All Out, which is the spin off series to the original PINKS, started life as a Labor Day weekend production at the Texas Motorplex back in 2006. Despite the show’s relative brevity within the overall motor sports landscape, its stature among the grassroots drag racing community is immense, while still offering a day’s worth of family fun.

“This is the Super Bowl for weekend warriors like me,” Abrams noted. “I don’t even do weekly bracket races. I just go to the test n’ tunes and play and to get into the final 16 of the Super Bowl was incredible.”

“It’s a wonderful outing and a great experience that you get to meet a lot of people,” Collins added. “The great thing about the ‘All Out’ deal is that everyone is there, and for the most part, people are pretty much running ‘All Out.’ You have to be willing to do that and just see where it goes. No games. No BS. Just go out, enjoy yourself and it can be one of the greatest drag racing days in your life.”

About the Show

PINKS All Out is a very unique television property which combines a ‘made-for-television’ grassroots drag racing competition with the sites, sounds and atmosphere of a large-scale motor sports event. Each episode – shot at 13 drag strips throughout the country from South Florida to Sonoma, Calif. for 2010 – invites up to 500 grassroots racers (door cars; 12.99 seconds and quicker) to compete for $18,000 in cash and prizes on some of the biggest drag racing stages in the United States, running ‘All Out’ on national cable television network, SPEED, and in front of a packed grandstand. Show host and creator of the original PINKS brand, Rich Christensen, sets the tone for the show through his signature ‘arm drop’ starts, edgy personality and ‘firm but fair’ approach to the competition.

The rules are simple, run your car ‘All Out.’ After two timed sessions, the PINKS All Out technical team – led by Christensen and supported by technical advisors Willie B, Clay Millican, Ken Herring and Brian Bossone – selects a group of either 16 or 32 cars are to compete for the title. The selection process is subjective in nature, focusing on a close grouping of elapsed times, great storylines, characters and interesting cars that generally make up the final field. Subsequent two-car elimination rounds set up a best two-out-of-three, ‘hot lap’ final. Racers can be eliminated from the competition if they click off elapsed times that aren’t consistent with their previous passes, thereby ‘sandbagging’ or trying to position their cars for the final field by holding back.

 

SPEED™, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in more than 79 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services. For more information, please visit SPEEDtv.com, the online motor sports authority.