WEEKEND RECAP

There is so much to say about the last 5 days that its hard to put it all down. We woke up thursday morning and got the hot rod out of the box. We were very anxious to make some test hits because up to this point we still havent been fast. We hustled around to staging and was the third car in line to head down a green track. I burned in and rolled to the beams. I was completely shell shocked when I let go of the button and the car actually headed forward. I was on a lick and I knew it. At the 400 ft mark the left front tire was still dangling. I smoked the clocks with a 4.57 straight off the trailer. The new motor started showing some signs of life.... We tested all day thursday and most of the day friday not able to best the off the trailer pass. First round of qualifying was friday night and It was time to get to work. I decided to detune the car significantly to get her down the track, which is where she went. We ran a 4.66.. Which put us ninth out of a 61 car field. We still had two rounds of qualifying left and This was the fastest field of small tire cars I had ever seen. Saturday when our turn came up I decided to squeeze on the new motor a little. At the sixty foot I knew we were moving and the time slip showed it. 4.59 at 169.94 mph. That moved us to fifth with one round left before the field was set.....The redneck in me wouldnt let me not step on the car a little more So I squeezed a little more on the tune up. The ole orange heap was back in rare form screaming down the track netting a 4.54 at 172 mph. That put us third out of 61 cars. We were pretty happy with this And I still felt as though we had more left. Sunday morning the sun was out. A gorgeous day for drag racing. First round of eliminations I eased the reins back a little, wanting to go down the track. She did exactly what I told her and took the round win with a 4.59 at 169.99. It seems at this point that I had found my stride and the car was responding to what I was telling her. Second round The density altitude was about 400 feet worse than the first so I decided to leave the first round tune up alone and let the air detune the motor for me. After sitting in staging for two hours the air had gotten better. I should have gotten the computer and detuned the car but the track looked good so I made the call to leave the car alone and let it eat. WRONG. When I turned her loose, all she ate was the back tires slap off. It smoked at the hit of the throttle and I couldnt get it to recover. The weekend was over. I was pretty bummed out at first but then I realized that things could have been far worse. At this point the new engine had been running for two weeks and we had made some decent licks. I feel that we have a solid powerplant. I just need some time to figure out how to make it work. I put 52 passes on the motor in two weeks, So she is coming apart now for new rings, bearings, and rods. Then its back to the track to test. See yall soon.