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.
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