Nitro Madness AA/FA

[Barb]

I wanna hear some GREAT results .. have fun like usual

[bandit]

I can't wait to hear the results!!

[Lippy]

Good luck Randy, be safe bud!! Remember More Nitro will calm it down!

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Hey Gang,

Lots to report. We won both rounds,,,,but it wasn't pretty!!!!!!

Big, big crowd, and tons of fun. There were a bunch of Nitro Madness fans there!!!

[draglist]

Great deal... looking forward to the report, Randy. bp

[Lippy]

Randy who?

[draglist]

Cordova tale on draglist and dragblog. Thanks. bp

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Cool BP,,,,you spoil us rotten!!! Keep it up!!!!

[Lippy]

Thanks Bp!! We appreciate all you do!! Draglist forever!!!!

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Eddyville’s 4th of July Race

Last Saturday the Nitro Madness team went to Eddyville, Iowa to match race the Metal Mafia out of Kansas City, Mo. It was a battle of the Purple Fuel Altereds from the Midwest. We have had a number of bookings with this team in the past. Sean Belt and his team always come ready to race and are superb with the fans. We hadn’t been there 10-minutes when Sean and his team came up and started busting my chops about being a “Novelist” now because of the “What I did last weekend” stories. I told them they had better treat me right, because no matter what happened on the track, I would publish “MY VERSION” for the world to read! We left the verbal jousting match with me telling them I wouldn’t forget the little people that I knew back when!

The race featured Fuel Altereds, Pro-Stocks, A-fuel VS Blown Alky dragsters, Nitro funnycars, and jets. The track was packed with people all day long. The weather was typical Midwest in the summer. It was 95-degrees and tons of humidity.

Scott turned his back when we were mixing the Nitro for the event. Note to all Nitro car owners; don’t let the “driver” mix the Nitro when you are not around! However, what I pulled off was NOTHING compared to what Sean and his group did since last season. Scott and Sean talk all the time, so we knew he had a new engine. Sean did fail to mention they were now running the whole can and most of the label in his heap! Our team was ready to fire our car when Sean and his boys fired theirs. We were 200 feet away and I could see the flames coming out of his headers. When he first started his, the flames burnt a hole in the awning! I was just shaking my head and pointing to his car. Pappy {crewguy} looked, turned back to me with his eyes wide, and said, “well, that is a new development.”

Eddyville always does a nice job of introducing the Pro-drivers to the fans. We all went up to the starting line prior to the event. The announcer talked about us, and then each driver had Frisbees to throw, along with some tee shirts to slingshot into the crowd. I have had to put up with the “It’s a good thing you can drive, cause you can’t throw a Frisbee worth a darn” for the past year from Laura and the team. Ever since last years event it seems they thought,,,,well I guess its true, I sucked at it. Now, it didn’t bother me enough to practice in the off-season, but the razzing was on my mind. That is probably why the first Frisbee,,,didn’t go so well. In fact it didn’t make it over the fence into the crowd. If they would have a 60’ timer between the starting line and the fence I could tell you how far it was. Since they don’t, I will just guess it was around 1000 feet. Hey, it’s my story! It was more like 30-feet. I do claim bonus points as it least it hit the fence this year. It was the pressure I am telling you, or the sun was in my eyes, or the wind caught it wrong, or the fence got in the way. Just pick one, it doesn’t matter. I still sucked this year. It should be noted that the other Frisbees I threw made it over the fence and into the crowd. If you remember, last year Randy Meyer launched his tee shirts almost into the next county! He was on the same program this year. I think he still holds the tee shirt distance award for all of Iowa, maybe even in the Continental USA. My first tee, was great, top of the bleachers area. 2nd tee, was more in line with my Frisbee throwing, it fell out of the slingshot and rolled to the edge of the track. I guess us Altered guys will do anything to hit the guardrail. I redeemed myself with the rest of the shirts. In a baseball analogy, I hit them all into the outfield.

First round, Sean has told us to fire first, as they don’t need to run too long to build any heat. I rolled thru the water just ahead of him, and did a burnout the full 1/8 mile. I rolled to a stop right at the finish line. The car was moving around pretty good in the burnout. That usually is a sign the track is a bit slick. I was worried about Sean with his new Nitro deal, so I backed up pretty fast to keep from holding him up. I was giving the crowd a few waves along the way. The fans at this track are used to that, and a ton of them waved back. That is pretty cool to see them cheering us on. I caught up to Sean on the way back to the line and slowed so we could back-up together. It you think sitting in the stands watching Nitro flames out the headers is cool, you should see them out the corner of your eyes from the car beside you. It is a very cool!

The crew checked both cars over, and it was time to get it on. Sean went in to the pre-stage, I was right behind him, I rolled on in fully staged and he popped in right on my tail. We both left and it went downhill for each of us from there. Sean got a bath of Nitro from somewhere on his car, just before it shook his brains out and he had to lift. Our car went about 30-feet and knocked the tires off into tire smoke. Remember me mentioning the car being loose during the burnout? It was hot and humid and the track temp was way up there. All of these things make it difficult for the track prep crew to keep the hook factor up for the high horsepower cars. I pedaled it a number of times. We ran a 4.91 @ 168 MPH.

The 2nd round we switched lanes. For this run we expected the track to be a bit better since the sun was down. We pulled another ½ degree of timing out. I fattened the barrel valve 5% and richened the fuel system around 20-thousandths on the main pill. This made it very rich, but we thought it would go down thru there this time. It was the same deal as before. We fired first. I waited to hear Sean’s car running, my guys cleared the area, so I pulled it into high gear. I rolled thru water, and eased into the throttle. It just started to roll some smoke from the tires and the track grabbed the tires. I lifted, making the shortest burnout in our teams history I think. I had not gotten the rpm’s up enough with the engine as soft as it was. Sean came by me doing his burnout, so the thought of backing into the water again for a higher rpm burnout was out. I had to hope for the best. Since it was a short burnout, there was some fuel slosh out of the tank vent. Pappy checked it to make sure that was it, and gave me the thumbs up, you are good to go sign. Sean was pre-staged, I moved into the pre-staged beam also. He moved on into the stage beam, I came in a second later. The tree came on, both cars launched, and about 20-feet later I felt ours come loose. I gave it a quick pedal, and then stood back into it. It stayed stuck the rest of the run right down the grove. We ran a 4.43 @ a tick under 174 mph. We usually run in the 4-teens when we run that much mph. Sean was on a good run with big flames coming out, but he got more fuel sprayed on him and wisely lifted. They are in the process of finding out what is causing this. When he gets that little glitch solved that Big Block Chevy is going haul the mail.

Here are a few random things from the weekend.

After our run we were waiting to get back to the trailer and got to listen to the announcer describing the other pro-car runs. Randy Meyer in his A-fuel car sounded like it was thundering. I heard him pedal it once and then get back into it. When he pedaled, Richard Putz from Earlville, Iowa with his Blown Alky dragster pulled away to run a 3-something. It was flying for him.

During driver introductions I was surprised to see my friend Tom Motry standing there. You remember he owns the Drastic Plastic AA/FA. He was there driving for the Creasy family’s Nitro Funnycar. They were racing against Jack Wyatt and his Nitro funnycar. It is pretty much agreed that all the fuel altered guys are a little bit wild and crazy. Tom certainly lives up to that image. On his 2nd run the car eats the clutch, driving the linkage into the oil pan, and everything then catches fire. Tom got the car stopped safely. I was talking to him back in the pits. When I asked him if he was ok, he said, “Oh yeah, I am fine. There was quite a bit of metal sparks and pieces flying around in the cockpit, and with the fire I was getting pretty warm. But, no big deal. I got it stopped, and the fire was getting smaller, so I didn’t have to set off the fire bottles. That saved the team $800.00 bucks or so.” Spoken like a true fuel altered driver!

The crowd was fantastic. The entire pro-pits had a crowd of people checking out the cars all day. There were a ton of children who got to sit in our car, most got their pictures taken by a family member or two. When I went up for the driver’s introductions, I heard a little guy yelling louder than anyone. He was calling my name so he could wave to me. It was a young man whose shirt I had signed earlier. It makes you feel to go see all the people enjoying our love of speed and drag racing.

I sure hope you enjoyed the latest version of “What I did last weekend.”

“Rapid”