Eddyville, The Final Chapter

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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Mike-Casella
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Eddyville, The Final Chapter

Postby Mike-Casella » Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:50 am

This is the final part in my 3 part story.

Race Day is finally here!! Getting my nitrous bottle warm was not a problem in the intense heat of Eddyville. When I took the bottle out of the car it was at 85 degrees. Seeing as how we had some time before blast-off, I decided to just set the bottle beside the trailer and let the sun do it's thing. After 15 minutes, the temp on the bottle read 107 degrees!! Yikes!! That is equal to roughly 1200 psi inside. I had to keep putting it inside the trailer to cool it down, then back in the sun again. When it was time to head to the staging lanes, it was more than ready. The outside air temperatures were very high, in fact the thermometer in the motor home read it was 113 degrees outside.

I managed to cool down enough in front of the air conditioner to put my firesuit on, and now I was ready. We were able to borrow Rapid's pick-up to tow the car to the lanes, besides, there really wasn't enough room for the motor home up there. Sitting in the staging lanes before a race is when things really get warm, but luckily we didn't have to wait long to do our thing. One of the biggest problems is trying to put on a pair of really snug gloves with your hands all soaking wet with sweat. With all that finally done I got the "fire up" wave, and moved to the water box for the burnout. WOOHOO!! Back up to the line, and I'm as ready as I'll ever be for the first qualifying run of the day.

Tranny brake set, engine RPM up, the tree is on it way down, and I'm ready for take-off. YAAHOO!! I'm off!!! At roughly the 100' mark there is a transition point where the concrete stops, the hot top takes over, and there is a small drop-off. The tires jumped over it and the engine came up a little, I thought for a second that the tranny had slipped, nope, just a bump, and I hit second gear. This was the first time in my racing career that I had to lift at the 1/8th mile mark when there wasn't a problem. The shut-down area at Eddyville is rather unique, you have three choices for turn offs, one that is real close to the lights, one a little further down, and the last one that drops you onto the banked curve of a circle track. If you don't pull the chutes soon enough, and you don't have enough braking power, they have Styrofoam wall to guide you around the corner. This was not the case with my run, I had plenty of time to make it around the corner and stop. The clocks read 5.70 @ 125.91, not earth shattering, but it sure was fun doing it. I got rescued by my son and towed back to the pits for a between rounds checkup on the car, and a quick phone call to Gator to let him in on our progress and maybe a tuning tip. His tip? Don't touch a thing! Have fun!

It was decided that we would wait till the air cooled down a bit before making out next pass. It was also decided that we would have a match race between our car and the Injected Nitro Dragster of the Lippoldt brothers. I was cool with that, win or lose, I was having a blast.

At 8:45pm we were called to the lanes for what was to be the final round of eliminations. We were ready!! After a photo shoot with the entire group of DragList attendees, and a friendly discussion on the lane choice, it was time to go. As I rolled into the water box, I felt like the eyes of the world were upon me, and I could have sworn I saw ESPN, ABC, and CBS cameras aimed at me. I had to bring myself back to reality, and not be stupid with my burnout. HAHAHA Right!! 350' later I came to a stop and the car filled up with tire smoke!! My son finally caught up to me and I had to have him open the door to let the smoke clear and I could breathe some fresh air. Back to the starting line we go for the big match race.

I had mentioned to Lippy before we got in our cars, that I would wait for him to start his burnout and I would follow him. When I was ready to go, he was having oil pressure problems, like there wasn't any! By the time I was halfway back from my burnout, he was just firing his car up, and after getting the "go" sign he did his burnout. I got the "move up" sign from my son, and purged the nitrous down from 1100 to 1000 psi.

Moving into the beams seemed to take a life time, but eventually we had our pre-stage and stage lights lit. We were supposed to have a .400 pro tree, but something happened and we ended up with a .500 full tree. Lippy was all set for the pro tree and as soon as the first yellow came on, he was gone! For some reason I waited for the green light, but not before his rear tires were at the beam, and I blasted off. I was stuffed back into the seat hard on the launch and knew this was going to be a good run. The shift light came on, I slammed second gear and held on for the ride. The track has an orange cone between the lanes to mark the end of the run, but it could have been a building and I never would have seen it, I was too focused on the lights to even see it. I could have sworn I saw those little tires in front of me when we passed the finish line, but that wasn't the case. I was also a tad late pulling the chutes but managed to slow down enough to make the turn at the end. WOOHOO!! The clocks stopped at 5.53 @ 128.53 for our lane, and 5.64 @ 124.86 for Lippy.

The race had ended, and we all jumped out of our cars to watch Rapid Randy Baker make his pass in the Nitro Madness AA/FA. This was the first time I have ever watched a race from the finish line, and watching a race car slowing down from a 4.13 @170+ mph pass was incredible! We made our way back to the pits for some celebrating and just general chit chat with the best group of people I have ever met. The rest of the evening was spent just enjoying each others company, and having a great time.

The trip home was relatively uneventful despite getting lost before we even left Eddyville!! Somehow we got off track and ended up taking a tour of the farm lands of Iowa down dirt roads that went on for miles! Thanks to Dot Dot we were able to make our way back to normal hot top and concrete roadways and finally got back on track.

That's what we did in the heat of Eddyville, Iowa and when it's time for the 2nd Annual Draglist Nationals you can bet the Casella Racing Team will be there. I wouldn't miss it for anything!

Mike Casella
Margie Casella
Mike Casella
and the caah too.

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Gator
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Postby Gator » Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:55 am

Well done Mike,Lippy&Leon!
Rapid laid one down huh? 8)
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Iowa Al
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Mike's Story

Postby Iowa Al » Thu Jul 20, 2006 3:30 pm

Well done Mike.
Great read.
IA Al

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jim sanders
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Postby jim sanders » Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:17 pm

8) great read Mike !!
GOOD TO GO !!
Uncle Curt Wasson album
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WildcatOne
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Postby WildcatOne » Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:33 pm

Great write, Mike! Shoot, reading it, I felt like I was there with you. Uh...wait a minute...I WAS there with you, wasn't I...Thanks for a great post! WC1
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pro70z28
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Postby pro70z28 » Sat Jul 22, 2006 10:19 pm

Yes WC, you were.............. I only know that cuz' eye wuz' 2. :lol:
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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WildcatOne
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Postby WildcatOne » Sun Jul 23, 2006 11:55 am

ProZ, was that you? I met this guy named Gary... 8)
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Novel-T
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Postby Novel-T » Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:20 pm

OOHHH!!He was Pro70z :lol:

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Mike-Casella
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Postby Mike-Casella » Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:22 pm

I'm pretty sure it was the other guy that was standing to his West. :D

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pro70z28
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Postby pro70z28 » Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:01 pm

That was a Southern gentleman standing north of me.
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.


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