On a Roll

I could definitely get used to this. We tested the Orange car at Carolina Dragway thursday night. It's first time out on slicks in awhile. After two unsuccesful hits at it, i was getting discouraged. The engine is beyond its due rebuild time (120 passes) and it will be monday before i can get it out and give the old girl a much deserved overhaul. It's amazing how different a radial tire tune up, and a slick tune up is. I changed everything on the car from fuel and timing maps, to weight, to shock settings. Finally it payed off. Shaking loose a modest 5.081 @143.1 MPH Which was good, except for the mile per hour. Where was it and why? I decided to make one more pass and load the car for bear. Wheelstandapalooza. The car came down pretty hard and punched a hole in the oil filter. Not happy with the results from thursday, Friday night me and Brian headed to the new track in Bowman, Sc. After two passes we got the hot rod to run a 5.12. But the MPH was only 141. I was looking over the engine and there was our problem. A crack in the supercharger charge pipe. I was happy as a pig in slop. We welded up the pipe and left for Darlington, Sc saturday morning. First round qualifying, 5.18. Problem. Broken rocker arm. Again. We thrashed and fixed the motor. Thanks to everyone that helped us. I don't even know who all brought me tools and parts but thanks again. Second round qualifying we blew off a 5.06. That was good enough to give us the number two Qualifying spot. Which was good because it earned us the first round bye. We used that as a test pass and loaded the super swamper tune up in. Of course it stood up and i had to pedal, still bumping the clocks with a 5.09. Man i wish the front end wouldve stayed down. That thing was on a pass. Second round my opponent broke. It was getting late by this time. Like 1:30 am late. Me being a night owl was loving it. In the Semi's we squeeked by with a 5.19 getting the win. I absolutely couldnt believe it. Were we really going to our third final round in a row? Bad news was, our opponent was the current PTRA record holder Jason Richards. And on his last pass he went a 5.02. Holy smokes how was i gonna get around that. I went big nasty with the tune up and did a monster burnout. Brian put me dead in the groove and radio'd to me to get his ass on the tree. We staged and bam we were off. I was actually winning for about 30 feet. Then the tires shook. But thank goodness his did too. It was a pedal fest. He was still there. I burped the thottle once and it shook again. He was still there. I blipped again and nailed it. The old girl bit. We won the race with a 5.19. Not the most impressive e.t but we will take the win. I cant thank everyone that helped us enough. For example, Just to show you how good the people we race with are, The thread repair kit that fixed my engine in qualifying, came from Jason. The guy that i ran in the finals. The Orange car will be down for a few weeks for some much needed TLC. That will give me time to concentrate on my NHRA deal. Time is ticking away to find a sponsor for 2009. We leave for Gainesville, Fla this coming weekend. I'll be attempting to finish getting my NHRA top alcohol licsense. Boy am i excited about matting the throttle on the blown alky dragster again. Hopefully we'll get some video this time. I'll keep you guys and gals updated on how its going.