Draglist Nationals 2013

The Draglist Super Crew shares friendship and racing every year in a different town and at a different race track! Here are stories and plans for Draglist Nats past, present, and future!
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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby draglist » Sat Aug 31, 2013 12:47 am

Great shots! bp
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pro70z28
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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby pro70z28 » Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:31 pm

Thanks BP.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/pro70z2 ... sort=2&o=0

I did some experimenting today. I found an image resizer built into Photoshop, so I thought I'd give it a try. I think you should be able to click on the link above & then click on slideshow. Let me know if it works, if it does I'll load the other WS photos I have.

Reader's Digest version of the weekend.
Wednesday Jeff & I stripped the trailer & set it up to be a caah hauler again. Got it loaded & stashed in the shop so we could hook up in the morning. I had a few small sign jobs to knock out first, so it was a little before noon before we got on the road. We headed straight to the track & got our pit spot & then headed to the hotel to get settled in. We were set to run 2 time runs Friday, 1 time run Saturday & then eliminations in no box. Then we headed to Antique Archaeology where they film American Pickers, just a few blocks from the hotel. We were amazed, in the short time we were there we saw 2 greyhound busses pull up to drop off tourists. They are fixin' up the joint, putting up another building & doing some landscaping. I've got pics that I'll try to load later, now that I have this batch processing thing under control. Around 4:45 we headed to the Buffalo Bill Museum. It closes at 5:30, so we took a quick tour (pretty neat) & closed the place up. Then we met up with Bill & headed to the Crane & Pelican cafe for dinner. The place was converted from an 1861 Pilot House & had some cool architecture.

Friday morning we headed to the track & wiped the heavy dew off the car, Jeff installed 1 of the 2 No2 bottles & fired up the plate heater. Gaining pressure was slow going, but by the time he got to the line the gauge was right where it should be. Jeff's best pass to date was 13.18 at 66. His main objective was to break into the 12's. First pass he ran a 13.03, knocked off a 10th, not bad but not the 12 he was hoping for. I noticed he got out about 150 or so & then you could see the nitrous kick in. We talked about it and decided he must be inadvertently not pullin' the pedal all the way to the floor. The slightest bit off full throttle & the No2 switch wouldn't engage.
So on the next pass we said just put your foot through the floor, he did & clicked off a 12.56. Oddly enough the same MPH which was 110 or 111 plus change. Wooo Hoo, now we're gettin' somewhere. That was it for Friday. I spent the rest of the day & evening watching the action on the track. Jeff & Cheryl went back to the hotel to get some sleep. Jeff only got a couple hours the night before because he was as nervous as a cat. Getting that 12 under his belt took the (self imposed) pressure off.
Saturday morning came quick as I didn't get to bed until 3am (went out for breakfast with BP & Bret) & the gates opened at 7am for an 8am time run. Oh, I forgot to mention Friday after the time runs we took the first bottle to Winner's Circle to get it topped off. "justin case" Jeff went rounds on Saturday. Turns out he only used 3lbs in the 2 runs, so he had more than enough.
Saturday Jeff decided to ramp in the nitrous a little faster. He was half way through low before it was getting a full charge & the caah wouldn't wake up until it was out a ways.
He changed it to ramp to 100% within 200RPM, that should help you would think, right? Well, he ran a 12.68 & still about the same MPH.
I kicked myself, it was his crew guy that messed up. I checked the CO2 valve to make sure it was open & inadvertently turned the regulator valve. DUH. Jeff shifted it a few times to get the high side back down, but it apparently wasn't quite far enough. It shifted from low to 3rd., still too much line pressure.
We had one run left & that was first round eliminations. We knew we had very little chance of going rounds because our times are still all over the place. So, our plan was to treat it like a time run & just see what it would do. After a little consulting with Dennis Holis we thought we'd try to get the nitrous to kick in sooner. Jeff had the nitrous set to activate at 3,300 RPM since it has a 3,200 stall. However, a little test braking in the pits showed the converter was locking up around 2,900 or 3,000. Since Jeff was leaving at idle to flash the converter to get a better launch he set the No2 to activate at 2,500. That should give us a much better launch. When that 150 shot kicks in it's a different caah. He's been going slow on the tune up, can't say that I blame him.
We get in the lanes for the last time, everything is set for what we hope will be a 12.40 something. Light turns green & Jeff is off. Clicks the timers @ 16.something? Turns out we both forgot to turn the nitrous valve on. Not only that but looking at a goPro clip of the run I think the shifter skipped 2nd again. boo hoo.
Again, we watched the rest of the event, got some great pics., then at the end of the day we went out for breakfast again, so we were beat by Sunday morning. We thought about staying Sunday for one last pass to test our latest tune (with valve open), but decided to go to Rt66 at the end of Sept. Jeff's got the time off, so hopefully he'll better his 12.56 in the fall air. I think next year Jeff will run the Nitrous off the trans brake rather than the throttle to get a better hit off the line. A good shot off the line should give him some better times. One of Jeff's Co-Workers has a car that runs 12.40's, so he'd really like to beat his time. That guy is running an LS motor though so we'll see what the little LT1 has in it.
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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pro70z28
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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby pro70z28 » Mon Sep 02, 2013 11:31 am

Here's my photos from the World Series last weekend. Click on the picture, then click on slideshow. Hope you have some free time to burn. :wink:

Image
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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pro70z28
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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby pro70z28 » Mon Sep 02, 2013 11:44 am

...........and if you still have some free time, here's some shots of the off track festivities. click & play again.....

Image
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby draglist » Sat Sep 07, 2013 9:37 am

Wow. The 'away' shots are amazing! I still need to look at the on-track shots! We had so much fun out there. Gary captured perfectly the surrounding area and what we say day to day. What a great family are the Spears. Enjoyed every second with them. bp
Bill Pratt
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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby draglist » Mon Sep 09, 2013 4:46 pm

I got halfway through the Racing shots on Saturday... I have to go back and see the rest. They are very cool. I love this pic of Bret and me about to do the daily recap in front of th the tower (well, BRET did the recap and I piped up with a few quips). bp
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kepner-bp-cordova13-garyspear.jpg
Bret Kepner and Bill Pratt at 60th World Series of Drag Racing
kepner-bp-cordova13-garyspear.jpg (98.52KiB)Viewed 11125 times
Bill Pratt
Draglist.com - Crowdsourced drag racing history.
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pro70z28
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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby pro70z28 » Mon Sep 09, 2013 5:13 pm

Thanks BP. I took that with the P&S camera I think. Glad you like 'em.
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby Wheelzman » Mon Sep 09, 2013 6:40 pm

Who's the guy with Bret??????????????????????????????? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby draglist » Tue Sep 10, 2013 12:03 am

Some waif. He kept saying he was half frozen to death from sitting in the 60 degree press room. Moments before this, he had a huge sweatshirt on... You can see it in all of Gary's shots. The guy was standing over by the press room on the other side of the track, bundled up... :D bp
Bill Pratt
Draglist.com - Crowdsourced drag racing history.
Headlines and Results: http://www.draglist.com/
Drag Lists: http://www.draglist.com/draglist/draglist.php

Zappy

Re: Draglist Nationals 2013

Postby Zappy » Tue Sep 10, 2013 5:23 pm

I saw Mr. Kepner in a "STEAKE & SHAKE" in Indy Late Sun. night. I was gonna say a quick hello but wasn't sure he would remember me, so I didn't want to bother him.


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