Postby greenracing » Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:58 pm
Race Report - National Hot Rod Reunion - Bowling Green, KY
This was a fun weekend even though it ended with us splashing through the puddles to load the car.
Friday morning we arrived to clear skies and temperatures around 90. After they found a place in the middle of the pits to stuff my rig we setup camp, went through tech, and got ready for the first of what was supposed to be 2 time trials for the day. We got the call to staging and went up only to sit through several oils downs. Having 3 kids sitting in a golf cart in staging for a couple of hours in the 90 degree sun isn't the most pleasant experience - but they were troopers for the most part. My first time run wasn't very exciting from the performance standpoint - but it may have been exciting to watch. I had tire shake at the hit, then the car decided to do a little dance. I ended up pedaling it 3 or 4 times before running it through for a 9.41.
After all of the oil downs, and the fact that they shut the track down at 5 for reunion events, we didn't get a second time trial on Friday.
I went on a research mission to pick some brains about tire shake. After talking to several crews, we decided that my ladder bars may be too high. Once we knew we weren't making a second run Friday, the car went up on stands and the ladder bars were changed.
Saturday's schedule had a time trial in the morning, then the first round of eliminations in the afternoon. Things were moving very smoothly - we got the call and went through staging and got back to the trailer in time for lunch! I needed more than lunch after the morning's time run. For some reason I got lost on the starting line and ended up leaving in high gear. My first thought was 'dang that ladder bar change made the launch awfully stable', then about the time I should shift I looked at the tach and saw it grunting along at 6000 - then I realized why it launched so soft. I groaned my direct drive run down through for a 9.42 @ 140 (and everyone thought I was trying to be consistent...)
I got to meet Wheelzman mid-day Saturday. He and his boss (at least that's what the shirt said) showed up with matching draglist.com shirts - very cool.
First round of eliminations lined me up against the famed King Kong Anglia for what could prove to be the match up of 2 guys known for not going straight. He was running on a 9.60 index and I was on a 9.10, so he had a .500 head start on me. I slept at the tree - big time - with a .400+ light (this was a .400 pro-tree, but remember that 0 is perfect - so this was like an .800+ light). Apparently something happened to King Kong right off the line, because after all of that, I never saw him. Boy did the ladder bar change work! The car launched and went straight - it was the nicest run the car has had. Somewhere around 8-900 feet I let off - even though I really wanted to see what it would do, I really didn't want to break out and lose the first round. I coasted through with a 9.28 @ 117. Happy times!
As I was waiting for the tow back - the sky was getting darker and darker. We made it back to the trailer just as the rain let loose - end of the day for Saturday.
Sunday morning came as cloudy and misty. They had the track dry and started with the fuel eliminations at 11:00. Then they finished the gassers that didn't get to run on Saturday and went on with the first round rotation - fitting the fuel cars in between the classes.
We got the call to staging for round 2. The gassers got pulled to the head of staging - everyone was strapped in and warming up. Then the rain came - big time. That was the end of the weekend.