Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:05 pm
Your right Randy, you'll get her Mike!!, way to go!
Sunday Test Session 07/02/06
We arrived at the track Saturday, in time to catch the finals of Top Eliminator and Modified Eliminator. Two pretty tough classes with cars running right on their numbers round after round. The two dragsters in Top were running 7 teens. The reason I mentioned Top was that is the class I am going to run on Sunday. I was in Top just to do a couple of by-runs in hopes of getting the two sub 8 second passes I need.
The track opened at 7:30, and our newest crew member, Doug, was right there ready to lend a hand and jumped in with both feet. The weather looked great for a day of drag racing in the Northeast. There was a threat of rain in the forecast, but the skies were just as blue as could be. We got he car unloaded, and prepped for our first pass. As soon as they announced Top Eliminator to the staging lanes, something happened to the sky and it started to rain. After raining for roughly 20 minutes we decided to load the car back in the trailer and just call it a day.
After everything was loaded and we were about to start heading home, the rain stopped, and the sun came out. We waited for about 1 hour, and all the water dried up, and it looked like we just might be able to do this after all. We unloaded the car once again, and got things ready to go. Seeing as how Top was the last group to be called before it started raining, we were the first called after the re-start.
With the sun shining bright, and the rains gone, the humidity was absolutely unbearable sitting in the car with my firesuit on, just dripping sweat from every pore in my body. Those guys sitting there in their dragsters, out in the open air, and me stuck inside my tin can just swimming just made things worse.
Finally headed up to the starting line for my burnout. In the class I was in, they can not do burnouts past the starting line, so my burnout was shorter than usual, still a good one, but rather short. With my son/crew chief in front, and a track employee behind, I was brought back to the line for what I was hoping to be a stellar pass. Doug, our camera man for the day, was in position and ready to record the run.
Pre-stage........ Stage....... Ready - Set - GO!! The wheelie bars slammed to the ground, and at the same instant the tires grabbed the track and did their best to try and propel the big Chevy towards the finish line in record time. Things started to get a little out of shape, but I managed to keep it in the middle of the track for the entire 1320ft ride. The finish line came up quicker than any other pass I had made to date, so I figured this was the one I was waiting for. Thru the traps, pulled the chutes, and headed for the turn-off. When the rest of my crew arrived I was informed that I had stopped the clocks in 8.468 seconds and made it up to 163.14 mph. Cool. I was happy, as it was a new best ET and MPH for us and the Belair.
Back in the pits, we rushed thru downloading the run data, changed the plugs, re-fueled, charged the batteries, heated up the nitrous bottle, re-packed the chutes, and made a small change in the ignition box to give it a little more power. When we finished everything, we were called back to the staging lanes for another pass. Again the burnout was short but sweet, or should I say smokey. All of my passes to date were done in the right lane, this time I was moved to the left lane. When I was moved into the beams, problem number one happened. I couldn't see any lower than the pre-stage and stage bulbs!!! The hood scoop blocked everything below them, which was not good. I had to sit up and look around the scoop to see the lights coming down!! I lit the two top bulbs, mashed the go pedal and had to guess when it was time to leave. When I felt it was time, which I guessed wrong by .005 and lit the red bulb, I let go of the trans brake button and problem number two happened. Somehow the nut holding the speedometer pod in the dash had unscrewed itself and the pod came flying out at me and smashed into the steering wheel and then bounced off my shin bone. Ouch!! I took my eyes off the track for a split second to make sure the parts didn't go under the pedal, and when I looked back to where I should have been looking in the first place, I was headed for the wall!! YIKES! All that was running thru my mind was ABORT ABORT ABORT, and I did just that, saving the left side of the car from having it's paint removed by the retaining wall.
Back in the pits we checked everything out and decided we had done enough for one day, and besides, there's always next weekend.
Mike
