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.