Bru Racing

[Eric David Bru]

Update:

http://www.koehlerinjection.com/phpBB2/ ... =1632#1632

Well, I guess it's time to post an update...

I took Friday off from work and went down to our shop and worked on our trailer. I completely rewired the 12v side of the system (batteries, charger, charging system, etc) so that I could winch the Hot Rod in and out of the trailer. I also continued the organization process so that when at the track everything would have a place and all would be in its place.

I made a plug-in that would hook to the trailer and to the pole/house/campsite so I wouldn't have to run the noisy generator the whole time...

Friday night after working on our trailer I headed down to Eddyville for the 2007 World Fuel Altered Nationals at Eddyville Raceway Park. I didn't get down to the track until 8:30 or so but I was plenty early for the 9:00 PM 1st Qualifying session. One of the first (the 1st?) pairs out was the Nanook vs the Rat Trap. These are old school cars that are running some major percentage of nitro. There was a cloud of nitro hanging over the Nanook!! It almost choked me out of my between the lanes/with the starters position!

Unfortunately the Nanook had problems in the shutdown area and tagged the wall in the shutdown. I went down with the track crew and helped push the car to the return road and clean the track. 2 more cars hit the wall during Friday night qualifying and I went down to the top end each time with the track crew to help out as needed.

Friday night I helped Rapid out with his car after his pass:

THE 2007 WORLD FUEL ALTERED NATIONALS...In our pits it was KB, Laura, and I left to service the car and load up for the night. Lucky for me Mike Cavilieri, Eric Bru, Greg Green, came around to see if I needed a hand. We checked the engine, leaked it and determined it wasn’t hurt. Mike asked how long it had been since I replaced the burst panel. He was sure that was the problem. It was just weakened and gave up on that pass. Into the box it went. We were in continuous cell communication checking on Pappy, but no news yet.

...I went to the track early to work on the car knowing we would be a man short. I was pleasantly surprised to see Eric waiting on me with an offer of any help I needed. Greg came up shortly there after, and I had a full crew again. Since we were busy with the car we conned the Boston Boys into doing some legwork to give out some of the special awards for us...
I hope you enjoyed my “What I did Last Weekend Story”

Rapid

On Sunday I became an "as-needed/part-time? crew member for Scott and Rapid. The first order of business was for Kelly and I to put in a new burst panel. Then Rapid and I talked about the tuneup for the second round of qualifying. Scott, Rapid and I discussed strategy and it was decided to pull the car up to staging and see if anyone bumped us out of our #2 (#3) position. No one did so we didn't run and towed back to the pits.

A BIG tip of the hat goes out to our own Eric from here on the board. He stepped in and helped me the rest of the weekend after we lost Pappy. He is a good friend and really has a great head on his shoulders. His help was really appreciated. To tell you how highly I think of him, I let him make a couple of fuel changes on my car without me. NOBODY gets to do that!!! That is how much confidence I have in him.

Rapid

Here is a pict of me on the line (wearing Rapid's extra shirt(!) while the Rat Trap does a burnout:



During eliminations it was decided that I would not replace Pappy and that I would oversee the starting line process and alert Scott to any issues.

Here are a few picts from the event:

[Mr. Jean]

Thanks for the update and cool pics.

[Eric David Bru]

I figured I had better get around and post an update...

Friday afternoon Dan and I headed over to Cordova to meet up with Nitro John and then the rest of the crew was to show up on Saturday morning.

We arrived at the track and found our pit area, parked the truck and trailer and then started seeing who all was there. Nitro John and I helped Rob Bruce and the Zombie car Friday night. Man that car is a bad-ass Hot Rod!!





Also Friday night I met up with Shane and Eric Boyungs who were photographing and videoing the event.

...EDB hopefully I will get to see your car soon..I swear Eric was helping on like 4 diff cars friday night..lol..

Here are some pics the wife and I took...

World Series

1800-Entertainment

Video clips to come later.....

Great picts Shane and good to see ya.

Saturday morning we got the Hot Rod out of the trailer and set up the pit area. Nitro John and I pulled the engine apart for a bit of maintenance on #6. We took our time and didn't get in a hurry, the ESPN camera guy was taping us and we might end up on TV or something?

By late morning we had the car fueled and ready to fire off. By this time the rest of our crew had shown up and we proceeded with a quick warmup and clutch seating to make sure all was well. During the warmup Dan decided that the clutch was a tad loose so Nitro John and I tighted the base up for the first round. Now all we had to do was wait until showtime.

I hung out with Dale & Radar and Kevin Brewer for a bit and also visited Scott & Rapid's Nitro Madness pits. I also spent some time with the Houghs and the Nanook. After spending the World Fuel Altered Nationals and the World Series with these folks I 'almost' feel like family. All are super people.



Finally it was time for our pre race warmup. We did a quick warmup to build heat in the engine and then shut down and got the car back onto the ground for the 1st round.



We waited for a bit in the staging lanes and finally it was our turn. We fired the car off and Dan and Radar both made some good long burnouts. Josh and Joanie backed Dan into a sticky part of the track while Nick and I cleaned the tires off as he pulled back up to the beams. Joanie opened the enrichment circuit and Nitro John opened the idle bleeds and then Dan staged the car. When the tree came down Dan and Radar left and soon Dan got off into the sandy area on the left edge of the groove. As Dan's tires went up in smoke Radar trucked on through the lights at a 5 something (I honestly don't recall )

We headed down the top end of the track and rolled the chutes and I jumped in the car for the tow back to the pits. When we got back we got the car into the air and as the rest of the crew was checking things out I pulled a fuel sample and then checked the plugs. Nothing was hurt so we serviced the car, refueled it and then waited for the second round.

On the second round we burnt a piston and the car put some oil out onto Dan so he clicked it off and coasted on through. We went down and picked him and brought the car back to the pits. The crew got it up in the air and dropped the oil out of it, checked the plugs, oil filter etc while I did a post-race fuel check and then drained and cleaned the fuel system.

We went ahead and loaded everything up and headed back for Iowa at about 2:00 - 2:30 Sunday AM and I didn't get home until 5:00 AM Sunday.

Monday Dan and Jeff pulled the car apart and worked on it and I will be heading over Tuesday night after work to help them finish up and get the trailer stocked and the car loaded.

Our next event is September 1 & 2 - Labor Day at Union Grove www.greatlakesdragaway.com/index.php?page=timemachine

If you can make it stop by and say "Hi!!"

I hope you liked my update.

EDB

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Great update Eric,,,why don't you copy and paste the update in here instead of linking to it? It is your section here after all.

Rapid

[Mike-Casella]

I was going to ask the very same question over at my place.

[Eric David Bru]

Fixed!

[Mr. Jean]

Thanks again.

[Greg Green]

Great update Eric. You need to bring that down to KC in Oct. I'll even supply the BBQ here..lol

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Cool,,I like this better

[Eric David Bru]

Well, I guess I had better write up an update!!

Saturday morning at 4:00 AM I headed over to Dan & Joanie's so we could get on the road for the Time Machine Nationals at Union Grove. This was to be my first time in WI and my first time at this track. We hit the road and were soon in IL, the land of 55 MPH for trucks... Not only does the speed limit make it hard to make good time, it is also dangerous as you have a bunch of people in mini-vans or other cars passing you and driving at speeds they really shouldn't be driving. "The best defense is a good offense..." Let the trucks run, IL!!

We finally got to the track at around noon (??), we unloaded the car and setup the pit area. We proceeded with pulling the clutch and transmission out of the car as we needed to change the fingers in the clutch. Josh pulled the clutch out and installed the new fingers while the rest of the crew did their thing. Dan and I discussed the tuneup and decided on a 94% batch of fuel and I proceeded to mix it up. I fueled the car and we did a warm up on Saturday afternoon. All was good, except that we were trying an unproven clutch tuneup... We fully expected to blow the tires off on the starting line. When we ran the track had tremendous bite off the line and for the first 100' or so and then started going away. The Hot Rod started spinning and Dan and Radar had to pedal it on through the 1/4 mile.

We brought the car back to the pits and serviced it, no broken parts meant that we were on the right path with the tune up!!

We decided to leave the % the same and try to get the new clutch dialed in for the second pass. Unfortunately, the track and the dew had other ideas and the track was very slick for the second pass. The N/TF cars were acting like AA/FAs on the track... Once they got off the pad there was no traction. Luckily, no one was hurt and we didn't hurt any parts.

We brought the Hot Rod back to the pits and I drained/serviced the fuel system and checked the plugs. We did have a couple of plugs that were burnt more than others so I pulled the nozzles for those cylinders and cleaned the jets. The crew did their thing and pretty soon we had the car loaded into the trailer and were headed to the hotel.

Sunday morning, we headed back to the track and unloaded the car and setup the pit area. We decided to pull the engine completely apart to check and see if there was anything broken/damaged. The only thing we found hurt was an adjusting bolt on the rocker arm was going bad and a push-rod. We put new pieces in and put everything back together.

We went ahead and did a warmup and all was good.

We were now ready for our first round on Sunday.



We were running against Dale & Kat Suhr's Orange Crate with Radar Lechtenburg driving. We are always trying to beat these guys as they are so tough!!

On the first round Sunday we made a good pass, but the track was still a bit slick...

Since we didn't change the tuneup and only made sure the nozzles were clean/clear and adjusted the clutch we didn't hurt any parts. All was good for our second pass on Sunday.

I richened 2 cylinders and put together a 95% and 45* tuneup. Josh put a more aggressive clutch tuneup in it and we were good to go.







Once again we paired up with the Orange Crate:





and we were ready for our second round.

On the second round Sunday night the track was again slick and Dan won a pedal fest against Radar. He also ran a 3rd fastest career MPH at 232 MPH.

No parts were broken and the car responded exactly as we expected/asked it to. All was good!! We beat Radar & Dale 3 out of 4!!!

I cannot wait for the next outing.

EDB

PS. Thanks to my friends Eric and Shane Boyungs at www.1800-entertainment.com for the pics and videos. I REALLY appreciate their work!!!