LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL (KINDA)

Thanks to some special favors and massive amounts of begging, We got the head welded up. Parts in, and the motor put back together. I spun her over at 5 pm friday afternoon and she purred like a kitten.Off we went to the ORSCA Wolrld Finals at Carolina Dragway. Friday night testing was rained out due to gale force winds and torrential downpours of biblical nature. Saturday we came out the box with a safe tune up. or so i thought. The track was slick, cold, and choppy. It had rained like 5 inches in three days. The track prep crew were really working to get a handle on the racing surface. It was working really well for slick tired cars. But was giving us radial tire guys a fit. I smoked the tires all three rounds qualifying. Ended up qualified 5th with a 5.52. That normally wouldnt even make the field but everyone else was spinning too. I was really frustrated. Down right pissed off even. I am used to adversity but its scary going into eliminations and u havent even made it off the starting line yet. Saturday was still fun though. It was like being a celebrity for a day. Horsepower Tv had cameras on me all day and we did tons of interviews. They mounted a camera in my car and a mic in my helmet. Im sure alot of that stuff will need to be censored after the tire smokeapalooza festival. I signed autographs and sold out of tshirts in like two hours. I really like it when the kids come up and ask questions. Its really cool to see the fire in their eyes that i had when i was little. Anyway all the hoopla was over for the day, and i was sleepless like always before eliminations. I worked on the laptop most of the night. Cooking up a new tune up. By sunrise i was fired up and raring to go. The sun came out and i realized that no matter what happened today i was still having fun. what better way to spend a weekend than racing. I love this stuff. I rallied the boys for a little pep talk before first round. I told them not to worry . I had frankenstiened a tune up that was gaurenteed to move the hot rod off the line. Man everyone in the world was their cheering us on.I launched her first round and there she went. It was like she was teasing me all day saturday. We took the win with a 5.13. Boy i was feeling jiggy then. My chest was all bowed out. We were back in the saddle. Second round I dodged the bullet. I pepped the old girl up a little. But not enough. I went a 5.04 to his 5.03. But guess what, he red lighted. now i was really pumped. dancing around like a circus monkey. Off we went to the semi's. But the sun was down and the track was cold and The guy i had to run in the Semi's (Terry Elam) had just went a 4.85. Holy freakin smokes thats fast. So not rain nor wind nor snow was going to stop me from loading in the badonkeydonk tune up in it. We staged and launched like two scud missiles out of a cannon. He had me by a car at the sixty when he shook the tires. then i shook the tires. It was a pedal fest. Boy i love me a good pedal fest. I wacked the throttle two quick times to clean the motor and then eased into it and damn if it didnt stick. i won with a 5.11. I was on top of the world now. We were off to our sixth straight final in a row. Boom yow. I was matched up against my buddy Dustin Bradford of the G Body Posse. We burned in and i was feeling good. Staged and launched and then boom. A hiroshima sized mushroom cloud went off again in my motor. He cruised by me taking the win. Congrats to those boys. They deserve it. We dropped another exhaust valve. This time it broke everything. But i always do go out with a bang. We clinched the ORSCA EZ STREET WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. Boy it feels good to say that. Thats right. Introducing Steve Jackson And KillinTime racing. Your 2008 Orsca World Champs. I might get some shirts made. Alright ill quit bragging. Boy it has been a hell of a year. Sunday when we left the track we decided to take the rest of the winter off and get ready for next year. That lasted till about 8 am monday morning when johnson informed me that he had the motor out and was putting the spare motor in. Dayum we love this stuff. So last night, 23 hours after the catastropy we busted his motor off. We are gonna try to test sometime this week and see if it will run what my motor did. Wish us luck and we'll see everyone in Jackson this Saturday for Grudgefest.

THE SKINNY

Alright we are deep in the stinky stuff. I took the motor apart last night and its worse than what i thought. The bootleg overpriced REV (RACING ENGINE VALVE) titanium valves caused the problem. The exhaust valve broke in half under the locks. (this is the second time this has happened. ) which caused the supercharger to compressor surge whick broke the front drive off of the blower. Then things got fun as the lifter broke because the pushrod bent. The intake lifter stuck. Then the valve hit the piston and broke the entire rocker stand boss completely out of the head. Wheww that was a mouth full. So it's tuesday. I took the head this morning to the machine shop to see if it can be fixed. And fixed in a hurry. I should know by this afternoon. If it cant im not sure exactly what to do but i will figure something out.

World Finals Coming

Well Crap. Thats about all i can say after yesterday. First test pass out the box i ran it to the 330. broke a lifter which tore up the block, bent pushrods, valves, broke the rocker arm stand completely out of the head etc. etc. etc. And our ORSCA world finals are this weekend. This is very stinky to say the least. I mean the orange car has really been running as of late. I am leading the points in EZ street but its not sewn up. So as usual we are going to have to throw something together. I dont know what yet. or how. But ill be in the shop tonight taking the motor apart so ill let you no when i get it all apart.