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  1. #1
    FEP Super Member mmb617's Avatar
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    Default Race report 5-3-13, pizza, pizza - again!

    Finally we're getting some nice racing weather. It was 65* and sunny when we arrived at 5:00, so why the low turnout? This year so far the track has been much less busy than previous years. I can't figure out why. Who can think of a better way to spend a Friday evening than at the race track?

    Before time trials even started all the buzz was about how bad the traction had been the previous week. I didn't notice it's being particularly bad then, but will agree it was real bad this week.

    First pass off the trailer is almost never a good one for me. Seems like I as well as the car need warmed up before really getting going. I had a horrible light then spun so bad I had to back off then get back in it. Notice the little wiggle coming out of the hole. Not pretty but here it is:

    http://youtu.be/4u1IN0T29Mo

    I thought it might be a good idea to lower my launch rpm in light of the poor traction so I pulled the 3900 pill and stuck in a 3700. I lined up with Dennis on the second time shot and neither of us could get hooked. I had a 2.077 and he had a 1.833, way off what we usually have. In the pits everybody was having the same problem. Looked like some more radical adjustments were needed, so I dropped the two step to 3500 and dropped a pound from the tires to 14#.

    Next time shot was kind of funny in that we had some big 'old truck entered in our class and I lined up with him. I hooked up pretty good on this run and thought I had the hook situation in control. We laughed at the announcer's comment about the truck's lack of speed.

    http://youtu.be/bRPWnL97RXo

    Any thought that I had figured out the traction issue went out the window on the next run as even though I'd lowered the launch again, to 3300, I spun like crazy.

    Last time shot coming up and I had no idea what to dial as my times were all over the place. The car hooked semi decent on this shot but I had another problem. I couldn't see the tree. There is a certain time of day when the sun is just going down behind the mountain and it shines right in your face at the starting line, and it was that time. I couldn't even see the staging lights and rolled forward all the way to deep stage unintentionally. Since it was just a time shot I didn't let it bother me too much, I was more concerned with whether I'd hook.

    Now I needed to set a dial and here's what my time slips read:
    12.18, 12.58, 11.94, 12.52, 12.02. How can you pull a dial in out of that mess? Lately my strategy has been to dial hard and run it out, so I went out on a limb and dialed my fastest time shot - 11.94.

    There was only me, Dennis, Chris and the truck and when I got to the lanes Dennis was in the left lane so I pulled beside him and Chis lined up with the truck behind us.

    Dennis decided to change his dial in the lanes from 10.63 to 10.75 because he was afraid he wouldn't hook. I elected to keep mine at 11.94 and let the chips fall where they may.

    I had a little over a second head start and the car hooked pretty good. I noticed pretty early that I didn't see Dennis's lights coming up behind me like they should have been but sometimes I have trouble seeing a car in the left lane so I just kept the pedal down. Finally at the 1000' mark when I still couldn't see his car I realized he must have broke at the line, and if I ran under I'd lose to a car that never even left the starting line, so I nailed the brakes.

    Dennis had indeed broken a drive shaft right at the start. Fortunately no other damage was done to his car. Might have been worse if it had happened at speed, but he said the car never even moved, just made a big boom.

    After they got Dennis pushed out of the way I watched Chris run against the truck. Truck guy was dialed at 18.80 and Chris was at 10.80. I swear the truck was at half track before Chris launched, but sure enough Chris ran him down. I can't imagine sitting at the tree for 8 seconds after the other guy leaves, that's got to be tough.

    So for the third week in a row it was me and Chris in the final. I left my dial at 11.94, he put his at 10.88. Although I didn't know it at the time, it was over at the tree. I put a good .021 light on him and he napped with a .166. If I knew I had that kind of margin at the tree I would have known I didn't have to keep it close up top, but I didn't know that so when I saw I was going to get the stripe by what I thought was too much I braked and almost let it get away. I crossed first by .0042, a matter of inches. I did have a bit of safety margin though as be broke out and I wasn't even close to breaking out.

    From the BSD website:


    Last edited by mmb617; 07-06-2017 at 09:34 AM.
    408/T5/3.73's

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  2. #2
    FEP Power Member gmatt's Avatar
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    Holy smokes, 2 in a row. Tired of pizza yet? j/k You work hard and deserve to win, congrats!

  3. #3
    FEP Member brianj's Avatar
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    Love the fact that you have videos this year.
    1983 Mustang G.T. No-option stripper- I like strippers.
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  4. #4
    FEP Super Member SVT Rob's Avatar
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    Awesome, congrats!!! I love reading these reports every week.

  5. #5
    FEP Super Member PaceFever79's Avatar
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    Congratulations! enjoyed the coverage!

  6. #6
    FEP Super Member mmb617's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gmatt View Post
    Holy smokes, 2 in a row. Tired of pizza yet? j/k You work hard and deserve to win, congrats!
    I've never won more than 4 times in an entire year and in fact went the whole 2011 season without a single win. Now I have 2 in the first 3 weeks, so I'm hoping that bodes well for this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by brianj View Post
    Love the fact that you have videos this year.
    I've passed this comment on to my videographer as she always worries the videos she takes aren't good enough.

    She mentioned once again that it's a shame our cheap camera doesn't take night videos as the eliminations are at night. I do believe she's telling me to buy a better camera!
    408/T5/3.73's

    We're not fast racers, we're more what's known as half fast racers.

  7. #7

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    Another good report! Your videographer may just quite if you won't give her the equipment she deserves! Tell her she can have a new camera if you can have a new transmission....
    1982 Dominator GT
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  8. #8
    FEP Super Member IDMooseMan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mmb617 View Post
    I've never won more than 4 times in an entire year and in fact went the whole 2011 season without a single win. Now I have 2 in the first 3 weeks, so I'm hoping that bodes well for this season.
    Keep doing what you're doing. It seems to be working.

    Quote Originally Posted by mmb617 View Post
    I've passed this comment on to my videographer as she always worries the videos she takes aren't good enough.
    The videos look fine to me.

    Quote Originally Posted by mmb617 View Post
    She mentioned once again that it's a shame our cheap camera doesn't take night videos as the eliminations are at night. I do believe she's telling me to buy a better camera!
    Maybe she IS hinting, but have you checked the camera setup menu. Some cheap cameras have a "Night Mode" function that helps a bit with low light situations.

    I love reading these reports.
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  9. #9
    FEP Super Member mmb617's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bull-vette View Post
    Another good report! Your videographer may just quit if you won't give her the equipment she deserves! Tell her she can have a new camera if you can have a new transmission....
    Funny story there about the new transmission. She was pretty set on me not spending $2k on an A5 or G-Force at first. Then when I went to buy an output shaft to replace my trashed one and found out they are no longer available new, she changed her mind. I got the green light as she said it's no use to keep putting money in the T5's when now you can't even get parts.

    Now I'm the one who doesn't want to part with the $2k, as I feel I can fix a lot of T5 carnage for that price. And thanks to my support group here on FEP I've bought not one, but three good used output shafts, so I should be set for quite a while on them.

    Quote Originally Posted by IDMooseMan View Post

    The videos look fine to me.

    Maybe she IS hinting, but have you checked the camera setup menu. Some cheap cameras have a "Night Mode" function that helps a bit with low light situations.
    I couldn't find anything that allowed for the low light situation so I referred it to our son as he's much more up to speed on electronics. He said it just doesn't have that capability. It's strange because she stands right up at the fence and the track is nice and bright, but the videos always turn out too dark to see much.

    I have the online users manual for the camera, it's 98 pages. I'll have to go through it more as perhaps there is something I'm missing.

    I don't want my fans to have to suffer through low quality videos!
    408/T5/3.73's

    We're not fast racers, we're more what's known as half fast racers.

  10. #10
    Venomous Moderator Hissing Cobra's Avatar
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    Cool video's Mike! I'm sure the Pizza was good too! After watching those, I now want to go to New England Dragway and race again myself. I'll have to wait until later this summer to do that though.

    Oh, I hate it when my times are all over the place like that too. It makes picking the dial in very difficult. You did fine with that!
    Pete Slaney

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    11.49 @ 121.86

    306/T-5/4.30's (Old Motor)
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    12.38 @ 111.38

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by mmb617 View Post
    Funny story there about the new transmission. She was pretty set on me not spending $2k on an A5 or G-Force at first. Then when I went to buy an output shaft to replace my trashed one and found out they are no longer available new, she changed her mind. I got the green light as she said it's no use to keep putting money in the T5's when now you can't even get parts.

    Now I'm the one who doesn't want to part with the $2k, as I feel I can fix a lot of T5 carnage for that price. And thanks to my support group here on FEP I've bought not one, but three good used output shafts, so I should be set for quite a while on them.



    I couldn't find anything that allowed for the low light situation so I referred it to our son as he's much more up to speed on electronics. He said it just doesn't have that capability. It's strange because she stands right up at the fence and the track is nice and bright, but the videos always turn out too dark to see much.

    I have the online users manual for the camera, it's 98 pages. I'll have to go through it more as perhaps there is something I'm missing.

    I don't want my fans to have to suffer through low quality videos!
    Well, I'm glad FEP came through for you. I'm also glad you are taking your fans into consideration when it comes to the videos! Next thing you know, you will have the paparazzi waiting for you after each race!

    Thinking outside the box here... it might be cool to switch places with your videographer, and let her run it down the track once. That would give her the thrill of racing and get you behind the lens so you can see what it feels like from that perspective. Just a thought...
    1982 Dominator GT
    *1st Dominator ever sold and
    autographed by Jackie Stewart *
    1993 Corvette
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  12. #12
    FEP Super Member mmb617's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bull-vette View Post

    Thinking outside the box here... it might be cool to switch places with your videographer, and let her run it down the track once. That would give her the thrill of racing and get you behind the lens so you can see what it feels like from that perspective. Just a thought...
    That would be interesting indeed as she can't drive a stick and has no desire to learn! I tried to teach her a couple times and she said it's just too much work, she wants to just put it in D and go.
    408/T5/3.73's

    We're not fast racers, we're more what's known as half fast racers.

  13. #13

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    I was there this night. I remember the announcer busting on the truck. Lol

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