Most everyone knows by now I write a weekend recap on the
things that happened over the weekend with our race team. It isn't a race
report, or a review of the actual race. It is just an overview of how my
weekend went.
The first race of the year for the Plastic Fantastic Nitro
Funny car turned into a great weekend at the home track. The race was held at
Gateway in
Madison,
IL and provided a home to a group of Nitro
burning funnies for 3-days with all kinds of different weather conditions.
Luckily the most common weather was sunny and hot. The track was well prepped
and all of the cars worked on making big horsepower to take advantage of it.
For those who don't want to read the whole weekend report
here is the bare bones info:
We ran a 7.237 @ 140.99 {planned shut off at the 1/8th
mile.} Then we ran a new team record in the 1st round, it went 6.183 @ 225.48
MPH. Next we ran a 6.81 @ 154.55 this was also a planned 900-ft shut off. In
the final we broke the reverser, and were unable to race Jake for the event
championship. We ended up qualified #4.
Laura got sick on Thursday afternoon and couldn't make the
trip at the last minute. She said, “I wish you weren't going, so you could take
care of me.” I gave her a hug and said, “I wish you weren't sick, see you
Sunday night/Monday morning.” I didn't know a sick girl could hit that hard,
not only just the one time, but it is kind of hard to escape from an
“irritated” gal with a -20 race suit in one hand and a suitcase in the other! I
just assumed the physical exercise was probably good for her. Heck maybe it
will even speed her recovery.
Friday morning we all met at the track and set up the pit
area. After checking over the car it was time for a fire up. It sure felt great
to be back behind the steering wheel again. When we fired up in the pits and
switched it over to Nitro, the changes we made over the winter woke it up for
sure. After the heat was in the engine, Danny whacked the throttle and it
almost jumped off the pro-jacks it hit so hard. After the engine shut down, we
all grinned at each other. Danny said, “I told you it would rattle your bones
now didn't I.”
Danny's game plan was to run the Friday night session and
make an 1/8 mile check out pass. I could tell in the burnout the car was
“Peppy” it jumped up on the tires and rolled smoke to about the 330 cone. When
I rolled to a stop, the cockpit was full of tire smoke. I put it back into 1st
gear, moved the Lenco into reverse, then stepped off the clutch and backed
behind the starting line. Time to put it back into forward, roll ahead to load
the rear end gears, grab a handful of brake and stomp the throttle pedal. Holy
Crap, good thing I was strapped in as the car exploded in that dry hop. One
more dry hop, and then Danny guided me into the pre-stage beam. I put the fuel
system on the high side, and eased into the stage beam.
At the flash of Yellow
I nailed the throttle and was driven back into the seat. About 40-feet later I
heard the motor pull down and I stepped off the pedal. As soon as the stars
went away from when my helmet hit the dash from the sudden deceleration, I was
thinking boy did we miss the tune up or what. It has never hurt itself so early
in a run before, but is sure wasn't going anywhere very fast. I moved to the
edge of the track in-case we were leaking any oil or anything and coasted as
far as the car would. This is a real long track, and the track guys were used
to helping the cars off the track at the big end. They hooked up, and towed me
on around the turn out. When our guys came down, and lifted the body I got out
and was trying to decide what we had to fix when someone said, the chutes are
up on the rear deck, let’s go. I said, “What are the chutes doing on the deck,
I didn't pull the chutes.” One of the crew said, “Didn't anyone tell you? The
chutes came out right at the hit of the throttle when you launched.” Well that
explains the motor tugging down and the car really slowing after I lifted. It
turns out our new chute cables we just a bit too short.
Back in the pits we modified the mounting of the cables to
get necessary length to keep them from coming out accidentally. We serviced the
car and put it back in the trailer for the night.
Saturday Morning it was raining when I woke up. We messed
around and finally went to the track a little before noon with a planned 3:00
PM run time. We serviced the car, warmed it up, and waited on the call to the
lanes. Since we had not gotten our check out pass in last night, we still stuck
with the plan to run it to the 1/8th and shut if off clean. The car left good,
was on a good pass and I clicked it off as planned. Of course since I hadn't
made a run since last October it felt like it was a great run from my seat. It
turned out to be a 4.35 ET at the 1/8th.
Back in the pits, we pulled it down and looked everything
over. The plugs looked like they hadn't even been run. Well we know how to cure
that don't we... tune it up. We made few changes to the engine, and also the
clutch. Serviced the rest of the car and were ready for 1st round.
They had us set up to run 1st round after dark which is
one of my favorite times to race. I was running Jake in the 1st round and I
knew he always comes ready to play. One of the nice things about running Jake
is we match race together also, so we both know the others routine and burnout
sequence. We did our burnouts, and backed up together, I did a dry hop, he did
one, I did another and we both pre-staged. When I put it on the high side I
could see the Nitro fogging out the side windows of the car. A flash of yellow
and I was slammed back into the seat. When I released the brake handle, instead
of going to the steering wheel like normal, I put my hand on the shift lever
and just steered with my left hand. With my right hand on the shift lever I
waited for the engine tone to tell me when to pull the lever into high.
I knew
by the 330 cone it was on a good one. The car was driving like a dream right
down the center of the track. Right about ½ track, I pulled high gear and could
hear the motor pull back, then ramp right on up and the car was hauling the
mail. I was heading for the finish line just as I got there and lifted I felt a
little quiver and was treated to a smoke show. I could see oil on the firewall
windows, and the safety crew was rolling as I went past them. As I made the
turn out and rolled to a stop the safety guys lifted the body to make sure I
was OK and nothing was on fire.
When the guys came down to get me they were on cloud nine.
The car had just run a new team record 6.18 @ 225 MPH! I knew it felt pretty
good, but you never know until the time slip confirms it. Danny had a big grin,
told me it was also a new ET record for him as well. He has run faster MPH in
the past when he drove, but never this quick.
After getting back to the pits, which were filled with
friends, fans, and other racers congratulating us on the run. The coolest part
was ALL the fellow funny car guys came over as well. It was a great feeling to
have them take the time to do that.
It was time to take the engine apart and see what we were
faced with. The heads were fine, but the pistons were not so happy with us. We
got the short block together and headed to the motel.
Sunday early we finished buttoning it up, backed the
tune-up off a little and went to the line at 1:00PM sharp. The track crew kept
the program rolling along and everything went just as they planned it. Since we
were low for the 1st round our team got a bye run in the semi finals.
Everything was fine until I was ready to back up from the burnout. The engine
was running about 3200 rpm, instead of its normal 2700. I tried holding it with
the brake and working the clutch but then the clutch starting chattering from
getting too hot. With the caster settings in our car you can't back up too fast
or the front wheels shake real bad, so I was stuck. I knew I couldn't stop and
blip the throttle as it would kill the reverser. I thought maybe the high idle
was caused by a piece of rubber or something small holding the throttle blades
open.
My last choice was I “thought” maybe if I held in the clutch with the car
rolling I could try to rev it and get the idle to come down. No luck, the
second it saw some rpm the reverser broke. I managed to get the car back into
1st and Seth, crew guy, was right there waiting on me to tell him what I
needed. He and the track guys shoved me back so I could stage. This was a
planned 800-900 run and step off so we could evaluate where we were on the
tune-up. It was important to make this run to be ready for the final. The car
responded as we thought, it had the same 60-foot of 1.03 and was a bit slower
to the 1/8th, it was a 4-teen. I shut it off and coasted thru to a 6.80
something. When I looked the engine over on the top end, I saw the throttle
cable had come out of the bracket, allowing the engine to idle so high, causing
the problems in reverse.
Back in the pits, everything else looked good and so we
hopped it up a little and were set to take on Jake in the finals. We decided
rather than to change out the trans in the time allowed, we would do a short
burnout and push it back to the line. We went to the line, let Jake fire first
and start his burnout. I did a short one, only to discover that the engine was idling
too high again. I knew the cable wasn't out again, so with it in 1st and the
clutch in, I blipped the throttle, maybe a little gain but not enough. The guys
were all ready to push it back, but just couldn't overcome the tug on the
clutch with the high idle. I waited as long as I dared without holding Jake up,
waved everyone off, and headed down the track to get out of the way.
I have no way to describe the feeling of knowing we had a
great final round lined up to run, and then to not be able to make a race of
it. Looking it all over, I believe that on the run before without the cable to
support things, it probably put the butterfly shaft or butterflies in a bit of
a bind causing the high idle.
All in all we had a great weekend. We got to run fast, entertain
a lot of friends and fans, and play with Danny's hot rod. Roland Leong spent a
lot of time talking Nitro cars and was in our pits quite a lot over the course
of the weekend. It was good to talk to Larry Reyes again. John Troxel and gang
put on another great race I was proud to be a small part of. I found plenty of
time to harass Jerry Newman, and explain to him how “race car computers lie”
and to always believe us drivers instead of the computer data. Nitro Mike
Cavalieri was there and has Paul Romine's car running some good numbers. So, a
sunny weekend at the race track still makes me say, “Life is Good.”
A cool quote from DRO: “Miller's motor is the loudest
Nostalgia Nitro motor I have ever heard. It sounds like a Jack Hammer. Miller
swears they are just burning 87 percent in the tank and have moderate
compression but it sure sounds like they are burning 98 percent Nitro.”
Here are a couple of links to photos and reports on the
weekend racing.
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