September 1, 2007

I arrived in Bradenton just after midnight and parked in the Cracker Barrel parking lot so I would be there for breakfast at 6:00am, then get to the track around 7:15 or so.

Today there are two races in one day. A $2500 to win quarter mile race that begins at noon and a $5000 to win race that begins at 6:00pm. It's going to be a long day and I'm supposed to meet Mike Scott from Right Trailers at 7:30am as we have lots of promotional things to do as well.

I had a lot of confidence today because the car is consistent. I'm not yet but I'm getting there. In my time run I ran a 9.329 with very similar incremental times as last night at Sunshine. The only thing was I killed the tree with an .064 red light. Holy cow!!! Where did that come from? I guess I'm just getting more acclimated to the tree.

For the first round I put a bunch in the delay box to slow my reaction time down and dialed a 9.32. I ran a dead on 9.320 but still red lit by .022. I just can't believe I'm knocking the tree down like this. Well, I paid the $35 and buy back into the second round. For the second round I decided to dial a 9.31 and I added a bunch more delay to the box to slow down the reaction time. This time it works and I get a beautiful .010 light and the run feels good. As I hit the finish line I'm looking around everywhere to try and find this 7.90 dragster I'm running and I can't find him so I tap the brake near the stripe and he blows right by me at 176 mph to take an .0086 margin of victory. I was ready to scream because I gave that one away. Ahhhhhh !!!!

In the first round of the second race I had a major brain fart at the starting line (I don't even want to discuss it) and still lucked into a win. How? I haven't a clue, but a win is a win is a win. I'll take it!! In the second round I bulbed away another one by .018 and ran .02 over while the guy I was running ran .02 under. Ahhhhhh !!!!!!

Ok.... what have I learned from this? I think it's that as a driver, I'm still adjusting to finding my point to stage and getting used to the tree again as it seems my reactions times just keep getting quicker and quicker. I think soon I'll reach a point where they level out and I'll find that driver consistency that I need.

I guess there's always next weekend......