Jeff ran the caah through tech & when the T&T caahs were called to the lanes Jeff pulled into the staging lanes. After a short wait he pulled into the water box and warmed the slicks a bit, then let go of the line lock and coasted up towards the lights. He was matched up against the texas based VW Nationally known as "George". Yes, you read that correctly, John Bockelman (A.K.A. Wild Cat One) was in the spectator lane, Jeff was in the tower lane. Zappy & I decided to have some fun, so he & I played the roll of spotter. We went to the beams, put our best foot forward & motioned the 2 street beasts to the line. Taped the hood & gave the drivers our final hand signals and backed away.
A few people in the stands (and there was a nice sized crowd) caught on to what we were doing and got a kick out of it. So, Zap & I have already decided to go all out next year and bring the DragList street beasts to the line with a full-on pro routine. lol.
Well, back to the run. Jeff left goota'. The stumbling problems of last year are all gone. He said he felt it pulling better than it has ever run, but unfortunately he missed third because of first lap jitters and turned in a 9.20 something. He really wanted to beat his time from 2 years ago of 8.8x and was feeling good about his chances based on the first part of the run.
They had 3 T&T laps scheduled, so we decided I would make the second lap & Jeff would finish off the night with the last lap in the goota' air.
So, I lined up against WC, this time I was in the spectator lane & WC took the tower lane. I did a burnout and inched up to the line. WC was in the beams first so, as soon as I lit the second bulb the tree dropped. I had the RPM's up and dropped the clutch. It was at that moment I realized a well prepped track, 9" slicks, and even a moderate amount of H.P. with a clutch in a fairly heavy caah is more than a 10 bolt posi can withstand.
I got off the go pedal (since it wasn't going anywhere Ann E. Weigh) and pushed in the clutch. Once the engine wound down I could hear the drive shaft spooling down. My razor sharp instincts told me this was probably a bad sign. (Don't ask me why, but it was at that moment I had a flashback of Rapid Randy, where did THAT come from?). Jeff was recording the run (his V-I-D-E-O below). He jumped the guard rail and helped the track guys & a couple DragListerz' push me back to the trailer.
Once loaded we had room to climb underneath & pull the rear end cover off. (Thanks Danny Miller for the catch pan) so we could catch the rear end lube, spider gear teeth and other assorted parts as they drained out of the housing.
Well, needless to say that ended the racing part of our weekend. It was a bummer, but Jeff & I both new the 10 bolt was the weak link. He had plans to upgrade it, just not right now.
Jeff & I discussed it & decided to go talk with Danny Miller about our options. Looks like tomorrow we'll be calling Danny for a Rear Gears ® 9" with an F-Body housing. Danny said he could have it shipped in 2 days. WOW, that is service. Thanks to Danny for taking a load off Jeff. He feels better knowing it will be back together soon. (And so do I since I was the one that Broke the deal). So, by this weekend Jeff may be back on the road with a bullet proof unit under the camaro. You know he's gonna' want to test it out at the DLN's V.
Breaking parts is never fun, but with the group we were hanging out with it really was just a blip in the day. Jeff has his first bag of drag racing souvenirs and is ready to do it again.
