.......(more on THAT< later)Friday, at noon, I take off towards Tim's to finish buttoning up those pesky dzus fasteners, so's we can go to the track for test and tune.....all seemed fine and good........until I got about 5 miles from Tim's
Clyde's water pump locked up and refused to turn anymore; the belts would turn but not the pulley
.......I made the decision to just idle along the side of the road and limp my way to Tim's(like I did in the "Trip to Gainesville")......WRONG answer! "Maybe" fifty yards later, the water pump freed up, but the bearings came apart and it started making all kinds of gawd awful noises.....I stopped....lifted the hood and the pulley and fan were wobblin' all over the place.....at That point...I knew I had to pull the plug on the internal cumbustion...(I didn't want to also have a screwed up radiator 
).....So......I sat there beside the road (like a dummy, I don't have a cell phone
) and waited for some good samaritan to stop and offer some help.....after about 30 minutes of sitting in the heat on a card table chair, with my feet propped up on the back bumper, an employee of the Decatur County Sheriff's Dept. stopped and asked if I needed any help. I told him I just needed to make a phone call, but didn't have a cell phone. He reached in his pocket and handed me his, and I called Tim. He said that it would be a while, because his wife Sharon, had gone to ALbany to get us a drum of C-16 fuel......I said, No problem...I'll wait (what other choice did I have??? ......15 or so minutes later, "Opie" (Tim's red headed flunkie/employee) came pulling up to tow me to the shop........As we were trying to get the chain fastened to Clyde's frame, there was a weed right there in my face, tickling my cheek......so I went to pull it out of my way......(the root system was considerably larger than I anticipated and the dust and dirt from it being yanked out of the ground just covered my face, neck and even down my shirt to my belly button 
) ......I coughed and spit dirt out of my mouth for a couple of minutes, feeling rather gritty, but we finally got going towards Tim's.Upon getting to Tim's, I have him call and order a new water pump to be delivered.......keep in mind, I need Clyde to hook to my trailer, to bring it around front to unload the car, to finish the dzus fasteners........we waited for nearly and hour for the new pump to be delivered, but had Clyde "pretty much" ready for the new part.......also keep in mind, that the track is going to open at 6 pm (time trials begin at 7) and it's an hour drive to the track....Ok...an hour and 15 minutes in Clyde
......we finally get the pump installed, all the belts tightened and I get back in the back and hook up Patch......pull around front, get backed up to the shop and unload Peggy..........Now....all three of us are running around like Keystone Cops, trying to hurry up and get gone........We got the dzus fasteners installed, the front end and hood mounted, and I went to crank up to load Peggy back inside Patch......and the starter is acting goofy.....So Tim asked me if I had wired a jumper between something and something on the starter and I said, Damifino???......So we take the hood Back off...and Tim goes in search of some wiring stuff........Meanwhile, I shuck out of my shirt and go to the well and take myself a quick squirt off and wipe down with the water hose....(dayyyyammm that is some COLD water )Tim gets the jumper wire on the starter and tells me to crank it....I do....but the starter stays engaged.....so I yanked the shut-off lever in the ceiling and killed the power......Tim cut the wire he had just installed, and told me to try it again.....Success!!.(???)....It fired right up and I jumped out and we put the hood back on and pulled forward into the trailer, tied everything down, closed the ramp door, double checked to make sure the hitch was fastened and told Tim....will see ya there.....(it's now 10 after 6
)Upon getting to the track, at 7: 30, (I DID have to stop and get some gas
)....I got Peggy unloaded without too much effort, as Tim was butt in the air workin' on His Nova...(last minute look-see type stuff......632 ci motor, stock "type" rear suspension, Drag Radial Street Tires....72 Nova ).......The skies to our north-west were NOT looking too sporty, and the announcer was saying that if we (all in attendance) wanted to make a run, we needed to tighten up due to the approaching weather.......Sooooo.....I headed towards the lanes...got out...put my jacket on, got back in as Tim was driving by me on down to make his pass.I got all my safety stuff on, hoping to pull up beside Tim for our run, but was blind sided by a Jr Dragster, that the track personnel allowed to run ahead of me.......So I had to sit there (not wanting to shut off for fear of not being able to crank back up ) steadily building temperature
.(now for the run report.....sorry, no pics, no video
)When given the signal to commence the tire heating ritual, I rolled through the water a bit, stopped, made sure I was in low gear, glanced at the gauges (all was good, cept for the temp....{190*}......and dropped the hammer on the loud pedal......I was "going" to self shift into high gear, but the rpms beat me to the punch (7000 chip for the shift)...and I let off the brake as I powered forward a number of feet. MAN!!!....It felt GREAT to be chewing on tire smoke of my OWN making!!!!!!...and boy howdy was there ever a BUNCH of smoke in there with me.......Oh yeah......I haven't siliconed the tubs yet
.......I ease forward, rap the loud pedal a time or two and then turn on the pre-stage bulb......take a deep breath and another glance at the gauges.....and inch into the final beam......Transbrake on, loud pedal to the floor against the 3600 chip, flash of yellow, release the button (.5620 light) and me and Peggy are off!!The ol' girl left pretty good (I have no outside confirmation of exactly HOW it left
) but shifted to high gear before I reached 60 ft....(1.326 60 ft)I was fully expecting to have to react to any goofy movements of the car, but was pleasantly UN-busy with the steering wheel as the ol' nag went straight down the middle of the groove..........At the top of this post, I said I could retire now, well...here's why......I have said for years, that IF I could just get a 5 second time slip, even if it was 5.99, I could retire happy......How's about a 5.9999 time slip at 116.26 mph??.....I really didn't "feel" like it was THAT good of a pass, but HEY...it WAS the first time down the track in over 5 years.............
In the shut down area.......the wires to my water pump (that were rubbing on the harmonic balancer
) wore through and shorted out, frying the relay in the process......then the upper radiator hose popped loose and doused everything under the hood with hot water, as well as a majority of the windshield...........I shut 'er down and coasted to a stop at the last turnoff and waited for someone to realize I was MIA..........it didn't take long for Opie to show up with Tim's 4 wheeler and we towed back to the pits...where I tried to access the situation, but Mother Nature decided that THEN was a good time to have a mini Noah moment....and it started raining HARD!!! .......So....back in the trailer Peggy went....and Slowly Clyde and I headed back towards Tim's......"My" take on things???......I'm pleased to have gotten a lap in the ol' girl (would have prefered MORE...but there is always another time)......I also would prefer to NOT have quite so much rpm through the traps (7800 1/8th mile)....guess I need to come off of those 4.88 gears...(Big Mark has said I can get his set of 4.10's )......I "think" those would be a better choice, especially if I plan on spraying this beast!!.....Thanks for reading my race report.
GREAT NEWS AND OHHH BABY WHAT A STORY !!!!!
