August 4, 2007

We finally got to race last night as all the bad weather had cleared out of the area. We kept our schedule to go to Sunshine in St. Petersburg.

It was hot! It was humid and the track temperature was up over 120° at 5:00pm. The track was also slick and it wasn't hooking up that well.

I ran a 5.83 ET on my first pass with the new motor. Needless to say, I was disappointed in how slow the car was but I think I know why. The throttle by-pass has to go. My second pass was a 5.808 ET as the track had cooled off a little, down to 114°. Even though it was slow, I was consistent and I hit the tree hard so I had a -0.015 red light reaction time. Hey, I can always put more delay in the delay box.

First round rolled around about 8:00pm and the track was cooling off even more so I decided to dial the car to run a 5.78 ET and I rolled another .025 delay into the delay box hoping for a .015 reaction time. I was pretty pumped and felt confident I could give just about anyone a run for their money.

However, no one told me that the track runs a Cross Talk system in eliminations. I was the faster car in Round one with a 5.78 dial and my opponent had a 6.13 dial. When I left the line I left on his first yellow bulb because that's how the system works. Needless to say I got a -.375 red light and my night was over. If that had been my top bulb I would have had a .015 reaction time and I ran a 5.788 on my 5.78 dial (Dead On).

Live and learn I guess. Now I just have to make a decision if I'm going to use the cross talk function in my delay box or fix a way to put an "N" on my dial in board to opt out of the cross talk. Seeing that I use heavy frame distance only glass for racing which aren't bifocals, setting the delay box is difficult so I think opting out is the way for me to go.

Having a new sponsor is pretty cool because I have a purpose to go introduce myself to other racers and the interaction is really great. Drag racing is very much a social sport as well as being super competitive.

Rick Townsley (above) used to work with us at GE and goes racing with us quite often. Rick helps out with the car and is responsible for most of these photos. He does a great job with them. As you can see, he also has that "Hollywood" smile.