WHAT A WEEKEND!
WOW
Shady internet @ Home, so sorry, no updates yesterday.
Bear with me, i'm not used to writing 'weekend reports' anymore!
I'll try to hit the events in the proper order...
Showed up to the track Friday morning to set up for the afternoon test & toon session. Met up with Justin, and Austin was with me. Buttoned the car up, double checked everything, and pulled up for the first T&T hit. Had a tad too much air in the slicks for the conditions, and spun pretty hard about 10' off the line. Went 7.81 @ 181mph. Looking at the numbers, had the 60' been what it was supposed to be (was a 1.31, should be a 1.15), pass should have been a hi 7.50. That was a nice way to start the weekend!
Towed back to the Means Compound in the pits, and looked everything over. Pulled the filter, made sure there were no donations to the metal gods happening, and it looked great. Justin, my puke tank bitch, as he calls himself dove in and was ready to pull the pan and the push the rack out...i had to explain that this is an alky car, and we don't speak that language.
After reconfiguring the tire pressure, we pulled up for another hit. I tried the left lane, and it was ok. 1.15 to the 60' clocks, spun down track a little (sac bump syndrome), went 7.69 @ 180.898. Nice representative pass. Greg was very happy after this. PUlled back to the pits, again had to restrain Justin from pulling the pan.
we serviced the car, and got ready for our last TnT hit.
After pulling up and getting strapped in, the burnout went great, the 60' was 1.17 (hit the bar pretty hard and unloaded a little), then it went dead about 150' out. All 8 pipes went wet. i lifted and coasted off the track, and it was idling fine and taking small amounts of throttle so i cleared the track and we coasted back. This was the begining of our only thrash of the weekend. Checked out all the wiring, fixed a loose wire on the mag ground, but that couldn't have done it. Then I found a cut in the coil wire where it passes thru the firewall, and saw it was burning to the motor plate. Replaced the coil wire. Refueled, checked everything and cooled it off for Q1.
Q1 call came thru, and we pulled up to the lanes. Car ran well, laid down a 7.67 / 179 pass, i got caught up in the down track bumps and it spun some, but was the first 7.6x i ran in competition in a long time. Felt great. We were number one!
Q2 went a little better, 7.66 / 179mph. Still number one! Cleaned up, headed home for a shower & cold beer. My brother showed up and we had a round of beers then headed for sleep. (sorry justin for not rescuing you from the conversation with Rob, he is a little loud.
Saturday morning, we all headed to breakfast and chatted about the upcoming day. Austin did so good Friday running the car; this was his first race as ring leader. He got me belted in every time, took his time, and didn't let anything distract him. I made sure he was early to bed and got good sleep. And Dad, thanks for the PM's. We discussed stepping over the car at great length. He never did it Saturday.
Q3 came around about 3PM. Car ran great, 7.72 i think. The shift light was sending morse code as it spun thru low gear. I think i have a little too much timing in it, as it was pretty aggressive early. Didn't think about it until after the race of course, so we tried some bar changes, but it never got much better.
The track started hot lapping us in qualifying, so we sat out session 3 & 4, as there was no need to keep putting passes on hardware.
E1 came up about 545PM. I had a Bye as i was #1 qualifier when all was said & done! My first ever #1 spot. I was pumped. We took the pass, and ran a 7.70 / 180. Car ran well, however, i think #1 was washing the rings, as i was getting a little oil puff while staging the car.
easy fix, it cleaned up when i stepped down on the pedal.
E2 was an hour or so later, and i had drawn Mark Hall in his altered. Lucky for me, he turned on the red light. I had a .073rt, he was -.017. He put up a .69 to my .70. Great race but i got the light! Goin to the finals!!! We were pumped. Austin's first final workin on a big car. I took him aside and made sure he had his marbles lined up. Here is where i used Rapid's line...If you prepare every round like the final round, when you are in the final round, you are prepared (paraphrasing a little). I had Kevin Sarginson in the final. He had ran a .66 in round one, to match my qualifying time, so we knew it was going to be a helluva race. Kevin & I are good friends as some of you guys know, so we had a large amount of xxxx talkin going on.
We pulled up for the finals and it turned out we were the last pair to fire, so we were the last two cars to go down the track for the Fox Hunt this year.
Side by side burnouts, and we backed up. I racked my motor, he did the same...was cool! LOTS of people were in the stands still, so they were going to get a show! I left ahead of kev by .017. .061 to his .078. My best light of the weekend! We were spindle to spindle all the way down track and i took the stripe by .057. I couldn't believe it when the win light came on in my lane! This is my first ever race win, and to do it against such a formidable competitor, and friend was super cool. As i've been told, the starting line/crowd went nuts. I know i did. Arm restraints SUCK when you are trying to clap your hands!!!! LOL (just kidding dad, i'd never let go of the wheel with both hands....) My old crew guy, Jason was working the fire truck this race, so he was the first one to meet me down track. VERY COOL! He was a little happy for us too! We towed up for winners circle pictures and had a blast putting people in the car for pictures.
I'll be blasting pictures up once i get them organized.
I want to say thank you to Austin, he worked his butt off this weekend. Justin was so much help and it was great to race with good friends. This was easily the best weekend i've ever spent with my car. It is still sinking in that I WON THE FOX HUNT!!!
