Drag Racing Stories
Omlin First in the Fours at Spokane
By Pete Omlin with David Hapgood
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| Photo by Larry McFarland |
Gary Omlin is one of drag racing's best kept secrets: a part time racer who celebrated his 30th year in top fuel in 2005. Several days before he competed at this year's Spokane event I spoke with him and he told me the team was aiming for a 4 second pass.
A four at Spokane? Now that would really be something! Racers no less than John Force, Cruz, Grubnic, Hoover, Densham, Toliver, Bonin and Ron Capps have navigated SRP's tricky surface during the four second era... none managed to dip below the 'fives' (for the record, Bonin came closest with a 5.010). You see, Spokane has always had an all-asphalt starting line pad and, furthermore, all 1320 feet of track pose a serious tuning/driving challenge. Over in Europe, all-asphalt starting lines have been yielding 4's for some time (only Hockenheim has a concrete pad) but to the best of my knowledge it had never been done in North America, until now. Read on to see how it finally happened as Gary Omlin's son, Pete, takes us onboard for the team's finest weekend to date.
A special thanks to Herman Marchetti, Larry McFarland, Charlie Reyes, Kyle Altenburg of www.sobdvd.com and Phil Cottingham of www.dragsterworld.com for their contributions to this article. We couldn't have done it without you! Above all, a big thanks to Pete Omlin for sharing this great story with draglist readers.
Top Fuel Journal 2006
8-2-06
Sitting at LAX, about to board the plane to Spokane, WA. This is always my favorite time of year, because any time I get to see my dad race it's a great thing. The race also happens to fall on his birthday, so one more reason to look forward to it. Last year's World Finals was a blast, but it left us with unfinished business. Dad was the #1 qualifier, and easily the quickest and fastest car at the track. Unfortunately, due to a staging error and broken blower belt, we went out in the first round. This year we expect to win. I'm excited to see the improvements that team owner, Dean Alexander, has made on the car. There's also sort of an unspoken goal, of becoming the first four second car on Spokane's all-asphalt track ( it doesn't have a concrete launch pad).
Spokane: Dad meets me at the airport, picks me up in his new toy, a 1998 corvette. It's the fastest car I've been in, but to him, it's just for cruising, and I guess it's nothing compared to a 7,000 HP dragster.
8-3-06
One day before the race: my brother Ty and I take dad out for an early birthday (it's on the 7th). We're all hoping for a great weekend as his best birthday gift of all. Dad's starting to feel excited about getting to the track, and getting back in the car, after a year off.
8-4-06
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| Photo by Charlie Reyes |
I arrive at the track at 1p.m. Dad has been there since 10 am, and I figure they will make a short checkout pass in the afternoon. Instead it turns into a bit of a frustrating day, and a few factors lead to skipping the checkout pass, and waiting 'til the first round of qualifying at 9:30 pm. The new injector looks great and for the first time, the car will be running a billet block: I'm anxious to see if these improvements help our performance.
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| Photo by Larry McFarland |
10:00 pm: We're the last pair of TF cars in the qualifying session, up against Ron Smith. Mitch King and Steve Chrisman just ran a GREAT side by side, with Chrisman recording a 5.430 at 220.66 to King's 5.474 at 219.62. Craig Smith is up right before us, and he goes all the way to the #1 spot with a 5.355 at 252.82 mph. A conservative tune-up is planned for our car tonight, so we'll see how it turns out. Not sure what to expect for the 1st run.
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| Photo by Larry McFarland |
Dad and Ron both have nice burnouts, stage and launch. No tire smoke -- I know at half track, it will be a good lap. The car rockets to the finish line, and the crowd is so loud, I can't hear the announcer. Finally, the repeat, and I never tire of these words: "New #1 qualifier, Gary Omlin!" Dad had just run a 5.218 at 275.87 mph. I lose my voice yelling with excitement. This is a great first run, and we're all excited to build and improve on it tomorrow night. We expect everyone to be quicker and faster now that they have a feel for the track conditions. I'm sure that competitors like Ron Smith, The Greek, and Mitch King will improve significantly tomorrow, but this is not at all bad for right off the trailer.
8-5-06
12 p.m. Arrive at the track, touch base with Dad, make sure he's had enough to eat, and is well hydrated. My sister Erin arrives later with more provisions, courtesy of her mother Pennie, No track hot dogs for Dad. Funny how we take on the role of "parent" in this situation, but in a situation like this, we want him well taken care of before he races.
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| Photo by Pete Omlin |
7p.m. Start the car, everything looks and sounds good. We're all excited for the 2nd qualifying session. Last night Dean said that we ran a somewhat conservative tune-up. "There's a bit more we can do to it, including putting a bit more magneto into it. We should improve."
10 p.m. Time to run again. The stands are packed: the new regime at SRP has done a good job at marketing the event, and it's nice to see a big crowd. I set my camcorder on a tripod, and walk away so I can watch with my own eyes from the front row, halfway down the spectator side. Dad is up in the 3rd pairing against Chris Karamesines: the ageless 76 year old vs. the 59 years young, Gary Omlin. This should be good. Chris ran well last night, and he's always crafty. Nice burnouts by both drivers. Both cars stage; the Greek redlights. Dad waits for the green and still ends up catching him. I try to keep time in my head, and the car seems quicker than last night, but I am unprepared for what comes next. The announcer sounds pretty excited when he exclaims that we've all just witnessed the first ever 4 second pass at Spokane Raceway Park. 4.986 at 284.67mph!
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| Karamesines (far lane) redlights by a longshot and momentarily shuts off. Photo by Kyle Altenburg. |
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| As you can see in this shot our car (near lane) is moving around a bit. Photo by Kyle Altenburg |
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| Photo by Kyle Altenburg |
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| Photo by Kyle Altenburg. |
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| Burned out lightbulbs in the scoreboard distort the actual numbers recorded: 4.98 at 284 mph. Photo by Charlie Reyes. |
The crowd goes nuts for five minutes! I lose my voice (again) from yelling so much. I watch the next pair, then sprint back to the pits. A minute later the tow rig shows up, pulling dad. There is a huge crowd of people clapping, cheering, and yelling. I sit back and let him enjoy his moment, give plenty of autographs, hugs and handshakes. The smile on his face is priceless. Numerous congratulations are received, smiles all around. Get a great picture of dad and Dean together.
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| Gary Omlin and Dean Alexander after the run. Photo by Pete Omlin. |
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| A crowd was waiting in the pits for our car to return. Photo by Pete Omlin. |
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| Watching a replay of the run. Photo by Pete Omlin. |
The crew's going to take the car apart tonight, and we'll be back at 10 a.m. tomorrow. It's funny, my brother said that when they got to the end of the track, dad had no idea he'd gone that fast, said he felt slower than yesterday because the car shook in 3 spots (and the computer confirmed it). "When you're going that fast," he said, "you (usually) steer it nice and easy, small adjustments, no jerking of the wheel." Apparently the car was a real handful on that pass.
After a routine teardown dad says there's some damage to the crank, but hopefully Dean and the crew can get everything fixed tonight, and back at it tomorrow. Now we don't need to break any records, we just need to beat everyone, and win every round.
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| Photo by Pete Omlin. |
8-6-06
Race day! Arrive at the track at 10 a.m. After firing the car, everything's in order. The plan is to run 5.30s all afternoon: the track and air are much hotter than last night, so a more conservative strategy is in order.
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| Photo by Pete Omlin. |
1pm: ready to go. The 1st three pairs smoke the tires, and don't put together great runs. We're up next against Arley Langlo. Nice burn-out. Green light, dad’s out quick, no substantial tire smoke. Langlo is out of it early, runs an 8.89 at 97.14 mph. Dad stays on it, shuts off early, but still runs a 5.300 at 241.86. Just as we'd hoped.
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| Photo by Charlie Reyes. |
Hopefully we can run 5.30s all day, and let the others struggle to match us. Next round will pair us against Mitch King, who just ran a 5.881 at 198.38mph. But if they can figure out their traction and clutch issues they'll be tough: they won this event last year.
After a close inspection of our car, the crew discovers that we've hurt the crank again. As mentioned, it was hurt on the 4.98, but the guys polished it last night and had hoped we could get through today with it. It's not looking like that's the case. After much discussion between dad and Dean, it is decided that while it was o.k. for the first round it wouldn't be safe to chance it on another pass.
"The crank was used," explains Dean. "It came from a reliable source, but it wasn't new. And that's just one of the pitfalls of racing on a budget."
He makes a wise decision not to risk hurting his new billet block, or worse yet, the driver. So Mitch King will get a solo pass into the finals. The well-resourced teams can hurt something major, and still thrash to be ready in time for the next round. If you're an independent team on a budget, in the same situation, your weekend is over.
Tough decision, and it hurt, knowing that we'd been significantly, and consistently better than every other car (our slowest run of the weekend was quicker than anyone else's best pass). At the same time, withdrawing from competition was absolutely the right thing to do. With a spare crank we probably could have run 5.20s and 5.30s for the next 2 rounds, and no one would have come close. I'm sure that the remaining drivers breathed a sigh of relief, when they found out we were pulling the plug. In the final round, Craig Smith ran a 5.45 to beat Mitch King. My guess is that our car would have easily beaten him, but that's racing, it happens. At least we can look back on that monster pass from Saturday night, and realize that we were a part of history in the making. We have the satisfaction of knowing we were the first in the fours at Spokane and that's something that Dean and my dad can remember for the rest of their lives. Next year we'll be back to give it another try.
I had a chance to interview my Dad after the race. The following gives a bit more in depth angle on their weekend….
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| Photo by Charlie Reyes. |
Describe the feeling of getting back into the car for the first time in a year. Were you excited?
Oh yeah, it was really exciting, I was looking forward to it. You do this once a year and you don't get too excited until the month before the race...and then you start doing things in your head to refresh your memory so that you're prepared as possible, but yeah, it's still pretty exciting, especially the first run.
How did it feel Friday night, strapping in after a year's lay-off?
For myself, the way I prepare, I get pretty quiet, go into myself, because I'm going over everything, and that's always worked for me. I do a nose to tail check over the car, mentally and physically, before I get in, and I prepare myself, go over a lot of experiences from the past, so that my mind has at least replayed that tape, so that whatever happens out there I'm as ready for it as I can be.
It must have been a great feeling, running 5.20 at 275, the #1 qualifier right off the trailer, after a year off.
That was really cool. And that run was very easy, nice and straight. It was like the best way ever to start a weekend.
Friday night, did I hear you mention that a valve broke? You said that it was lucky, because if it had been just a hair worse, it could have been very bad. Explain.
We didn't break a valve, we broke a keeper, and that's what holds the valve retainer, the spring retainer on, and yeah, we cracked one, I should say, and if it would've broken all the way, it would have allowed the valve to fall into the chamber, and then all kinds of bad things can happen, from causing damage to pistons, the cylinder and the head to causing an explosion, but it didn't break so we were lucky.
After Friday did you feel like a 4 second pass was possible on Saturday night?
You know it just didn't seem possible on that track. To take over two tenths of a second off when you just qualified #1 is a pretty good jump. Did I think we could improve on the night before? Certainly. Did I think we would run a four second run? No way (laughs).
Could you tell the 4 second pass was a good run before it was over?
No. The car shook a lot the first 200 feet, and I just stayed with it, it smoothed out and ran on down the track. Somewhere past half track, though, after the clutch went 1 to 1, the car started moving around, which means that the tires were spinning, not enough to make smoke, but black tracking, so it moved around quite a bit, and the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and that one wasn't straight from my perspective.
I'm sure you'd like to run more 4 second passes, on a better track, and actually enjoy them, right?
Well, I really got a kick out of that. I'd like to run more passes, no matter where they are. I'd just like to get an opportunity to race more. The four second pass was very satisfying because it required my skill, but because the car was moving around on both ends of the track, I'm thinking this isn't exactly perfect, but it was very satisfying, and then to find out that the number was that impressive, it was even more so. But yeah, it wasn't a piece of cake kind of run, that's for sure.
What do you think that pass would have been on a good track?
Possibly a 4.70 at well over 300, if it would've been as straight as the night before.
Describe what happened in the first round on Sunday.
We hurt the crank a little bit Saturday night, cleaned it up and put it back in. Nothing had happened to it on Friday night, so we cleaned it up, put a new bearing in it and hurt it significantly Sunday morning. So it blackened the bearing real bad, and it hurt it even worse than the night before, and we decided not to run again.
Did it bother you that you had such a great car but couldn't continue?
Oh yeah, as a driver, and a racer, you always want to go again, and you have a package that's working really well, and a good chance at going all the way, but you have to make good decisions, and sometimes a good decision is to not do it, and in this case I think it was a good decision.
You must be anxious to get back out there?
I'm very excited about getting back into the car again.
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| Photo by Charlie Reyes. |
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