October 22, 2007

This weekend we headed to Reynolds, Georgia to compete in the NHRA Division 2 points race in Super Comp. It was the final points race of the year and we were looking forward to a weekend away. Seeing that we were going as a family and taking additional kids along, of course we got a late start Thursday night and arrived at the track around 3:00am Friday morning in the rain.

Friday turned out to be wet as the rain continued until early afternoon. We were finally able to get through tech about 3:00pm and the kids were bored to death because of the weather but we survived through it. Friday evening, Mid-State RV Sales threw a racer appreciation Bar-B-Q which was well attended and appreciated by everyone there. Sonny's Bar-B-Q catered the event and the pulled pork was excellent as well as the live music. It's really hard to argue with free food, especially great food.

As this was the last chance for most racers to earn points towards either a divisional or world championship, the place was packed to the gills with racers. There were at least 500 racers as the Super Gas field alone had 91 entries. The Super Comp field was filled with most of the really heavy hitters in the nation including Edmond Richardson, Gary Stinnet and Bob Fuller just to name a few.

On Saturday, the weather was great and we had ideal racing conditions of high 70°'s to low 80°'s with 25% relative humidity. Unfortunately, I was having serious fuel system delivery problems. On my first pass the fuel filter was clogged up and my main line fuel pressure dropped to under 10 lbs. Right after the 330 foot mark the car fell on it's nose as I ran the fuel bowls out of fuel. To remedy the situation I pulled the element out of the filter which visually looked clean and the pressure came right back up.

On the second pass the same thing happened and then I discovered that my fuel pressure gauge was defective as it showed 2 lbs of pressure with nothing connected to it. It's a good thing I had a spare gauge so I replaced it and had to reset the fuel pressure. While I was at it, I stripped the carb to make sure everything was clean. At this point because of the rain out Friday, I was out of time runs, had a new set up on the car and I was lost for a throttle stop setting, so, all I could do was serve up a WAG (wild ass guess).

Sunday was another Chamber of Commerce type of day. Beautiful racing weather as well as comfortable. For a Florida boy who is used to sweating like crazy in 80% humidity and temperatures in the mid nineties, it was great. I had some serious guessing to do, so, I threw some numbers in the box and crossed my fingers.

As it turned out, the car ran it's quickest 60 foot ever and ran flawlessly in the first round. I had to run a very experienced Skip Wall who is one of the owners of Lokar Products. He welded me to the tree and I ran an 8.98 on the 8.90 index because I threw way too much delay in the box for the throttle stop. Skip did a good job of not breaking out and took the race by .03. The only good thing about it was I figured out the problems and now the car is back to normal so dialing it in now should be a simple matter with a few runs.

The drive back home should have been uneventful but noooooo, not for me. Just south of Perry, Georgia a Greyhound bus driver pulled up beside me and pointed to me, then backwards. Yeah, I knew what that meant. By the way, thanks Greyhound! I blew a trailer tire. Actually not just blew it but shredded it. Take a look, what do you think? I'm just thankful that I had enough room on the side of I-75 not to get mowed over by a passing 18 wheeler. The rest of the trip went flawlessly and we did make it home by 11:00pm Sunday night.

Just another adventure in the wild wonderful story book world of a drag racer.

October 13, 2007

This was a non-racing weekend for me so there were several things that I needed to do for my sponsor. This weekend the Florida State Fairgrounds hosted the Street Rod Nationals which drew over 1600 entries. Is was an opportunity to go chat with some new potential trailer and motorhome customers so I spent most of the day just walking though the monstrous sea of the most beautiful street rods you have ever seen and chatting with their owners. I really don't impress easily but this 68 Camaro Pro Street machine was probably the most beautiful car I have ever seen in my life. It was so clean, you could have eaten off of it and it was probably capable of low 8 second passes. Explode this photo just to get an idea of the immaculate detail. I so wanted to take this car home with me, I was drooling like a baby.

Anyway, I spent the day drumming up business then went home, had dinner and headed to Sunshine as they were having a heads-up night with Pro Mods, 10.5" tire cars, 6.50 cars and the wild stock suspension class. This is a group of racers that run in different circles so even by racing at Sunshine so much on Friday nights, Right Trailers isn't exposed to them. It was the largest fan and car count turnout that I had ever witnessed at the track. They were 6 deep at the fence to watch low 4 second 1/8 mile passes. Right Trailers wound up putting up an extra $100 for the winner in the lower 3 classes which really pleased the racers and generated a little additional excitement. I wound up talking business to the racers until I was hoarse and finally got back home by 11:30pm, way before the final. It was definitely crash and burn time.

Sunday is going to be a full clean up and load up day. I need to wash the motorhome and trailer, wax the race car, fix the water heater in the motorhome and change the oil in the motorhome. All of this is to prepare for leaving with the whole familyThursday right after work for the Division 2 points race in Reynolds, GA. Now with a good Super Comp set up in the car, I'm anticipating being very, very competitive. I can't wait.

October 1, 2007

This weekend was great at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia. It didn't necessarily have the outcome that I desired but the path to the top is a very long, slow process that usually requires one step at a time. As a team, our main goal this year is to get a real good handle on the car, learn how to dial it in, go some rounds then make a hard charge next year. This weekend we made some huge leaps in this process.

Friday was hot in the afternoon hitting 99.3° on my weather station but the relative humidity was down around 15% with a density altitude over 3300 feet. Even though it was hot, there was so much oxygen in the air that the car picked up again running an 8.76 ET and a 1.224 60 foot time. Not bad for the combination in the stage it's in. I was also starting to get a good handle on the tree with 2 reaction times within .002 of each other.

Saturday's weather was very similar to Friday's and the car ran just as planned. Mike and Hugh Scott from Right Trailers flew up to join us for the day helping out with the car and visiting with other racers who were interested in a new trailer or motorhome. That's Hugh with me in the staging lanes.

I won my first round race when the other guy had a .237 light and I was able to slow to a 9.10 ET for the win. Good, bad or ugly, geez..winning is fun!!!


If you were wondering just how good the traction was in Atlanta, take a close look at my front tires in this photo. The car is hooking really hard and the launches are great. I feel pretty good about the way the car transfers the weight at the launch so the set up appears to be just right.

Sunday however was a totally different ball game. Very early Sunday morning I needed to turn the furnace of the motorhome on it got so cold. At 8:00am it was 47.1° and when you exhaled outside you could see your breath. Additionally the relative humidity increased to about 45% so cars were going to fly today. The Super Street cars picked up over .15 in their 9:00am first round so the track was really fast.
We ran our second round around noon and by that time the temperature was up around 71° and it was what they commonly refer to as a Chamber of Commerce day. It was the most beautiful drag racing weather I've seen in years. My day ended in the second round. Good 'ole Tom Joseph from South Carolina strapped a .008 light on me and I slipped up with a slight stumble at the tree to loose.
Afterward he was kind enough to steer me to Tony Morris with BLP to give me some good carb pointers so that it wouldn't happen again.

Probably the coolest thing about drag racing is the people. Just about everyone you meet has the same friendly, positive and helpful attitude. That's what makes this the greatest sport on earth. Going to a race like this is fun because you get a chance to rekindle old relationships and meet so many new people. We spent a lot of time with Super Street racer James Noel with his family and racer friends. They were a lot of fun and really made the weekend super enjoyable. I seriously think James must be the drag racing King of the grill as he served up feasts every night.