Nitro Madness at the Slingshot Nationals

By "Rapid Randy" Baker

We took the Nitro Madness AA/Fuel Altered to the Slingshot Nationals at Cordova, Illinois last weekend.

What a blast! It started off with us getting there on Friday afternoon to get our pit spot all set up. Once that was done, I walked over and got to meet Jack "The Sheriff" Harris. His car is really nicely done, and it hauls. I heard he set a new track mph record this weekend.

I got to hang out with Rocky Ausec. We spent quite a bit of time chatting with a guy named Dan Brown who came over with him. That was a good time. There was plenty of time between the rounds, which was great for us racers.

Saturday morning it was hot and humid -- typical Midwest weather. I adjusted the barrel valve while the guys got the car serviced and ready for the first time run. The corrected air was around 3,500 feet for the 11:00 a.m. session.

As we are usually match racing and doing long, half-track burnouts, I did a short burnout as a courtesy to the guy in the other lane. I pre-stage, he comes right on in, and I launch with the car around 2,300 rpm on the trans brake. He pulls a .02 light, which makes my .08 look like I took a nap! Lucky for me, our car makes up for it with a 1.08 60-foot time. I go on to run a 6.92 @ 194 mph.

This makes us #1 qualifier and the track is checking to see if it is a track record for A-Fuel. We stayed low for the round. This is the best pass to date with the Hemi. In the heat, it was a great run for us.

Second qualifying session was at about 2:00 p.m. I take the right lane this time. I am racing my second favorite car at the track. It is a little Rootbeer/Purple colored coupe with an injected small block that runs like Jack the Bear! Great guys who run it. He does burnouts at 10,000 rpm or more. You really need to see how cool this coupe of his is. Anyway, it’s reading 4,000-foot air, so I take some fuel away. The track temp is 136 degrees. My buddy and I both get carried away and we both do longer burnouts. Mistake on my part, as the tire temp went to 160 degrees when I staged. At the hit, I feel the tires come loose, and they just stay spinning down the whole track. At every gear change, the tires just continue to spin. The car stays reasonably straight, but we only run 7.08 @ 195 mph. My buddy in the other lane and I both cut identical .056 lights. Our car slowed to a 1.14 60-foot time with the tire spin. I hope somebody got a shot of us together. It was fun to run against him.

Now the good news for him, bad news for us! The Heckler Altered driven by Kevin Newburgh comes out and runs a 6.41! So much for our track record! I got to meet the team through one of the small boys who was there with them. He comes to my pit and asks me, "Where did you qualify?" I say we were #1, and now am #2. He looks at me and grins, "Yeah, we bumped ya!" I grab him and wrestle around with him a bit, tell him to make sure his dad redlights against me we when meet in the finals! He laughs and says, "He won’t!" Great people, the whole group of them. I thought we had a big team until I went to his pits later! There had to be 20 people there.

So first round, I cut a .02 light, and we run a 7.01 @ 196.44. Nice pass, right down the track. The car is being pretty consistent and responding to our tuning changes for the air. The plugs are telling me the engine is still asleep waiting for us to tell it we are serious about this racing thing. Right now, it is not working hard at all. It sure is easy on parts like this, though.

Second round, I am .09 on the tree, 1.09 to 60 feet, and we run 6.99 @ 195 mph. I might have to start bracket racing this thing! Fun times… we are now night racing, and having a blast. We made it to the finals! Our team is really pumped. Team owner Scott is grinning. We get the car serviced and ready for the finals. The air is getting better, around 2,800 feet now. I leave the fuel alone, but we change the timing a little bit.

A storm is coming in with big winds blowing stuff around the pits. Laura catches our small EZ-Up as it heads towards the trailer. I am packing the chutes and I hear the "Girl Scream." I look over and see Laura grabbing the tent! Of course, all I can do is watch as number one, I am laughing at the sight of her holding on and maybe flying to the other side of the pits with her new kite, and number two, I have a half packed chute in my hands. The guys go help her stop it and put it away. I finish the chute, ducking the "Thanks for helping me... NOT!" glares from Laura.

It is almost midnight and we are ready for the finals. I talk to Kevin and we decide to do our usual long burnouts! I remind his boy to throw 20-grams on the clutch for this round. That gives everybody a good laugh and helps set the mood for the final. Everybody on both are teams is acting like we knew one another for 100 years. Again, what a nice group they were.

The stands are packed; we fire up and do side by side nearly eighth-mile burnouts. I can’t hear it, but everybody tells me the crowd was going wild; the announcer was really hyping it also. While I am backing up from the burnout, the engine sounds a little different. With my earplugs, head sock, and helmet on, I really can’t tell why, but it does sound different. I figure it is either really gonna run, or it will hate our timing change.

I leave on Kevin with a .06 light, but he is right behind me with a .09. Both cars are loose and moving around. He gets past me around half-track. I feel my car loose and moving, and I can see him moving around in his lane. (Note: It's kind of a bad sign when you are racing heads up if you can see the other guy's car ahead of you!) We cross the finish line with him still leading.

On the big end, we are having a blast, talking about how close it was and what a good race we just had. He said he could see me out the corner of his eyes the whole way. I thanked the fire guys for hanging out all day in the heat to protect us. Then my team comes up and gives me the news: I just made the fastest pass of my life and the fastest pass in our teams’ history -- 6.781 @ 203.95! I couldn’t believe it. All the firemen come over when they saw what a big deal that was to us and shook my hand. Kevin came back over again and congratulated me! It was a great final round, and the best racing day of my life so far!

I want to thank Cordova Raceway Park and Jim Post for hosting this event. It was a very well prepped track, and blast to race with everybody.

Thanks for taking time to let me re-live my weekend. I am still grinning about it.

Rapid