Race report 6-14-13, we got pizza!
Due mostly to the crappy weather we haven't been to the track as often as I'd like so far this year, in fact this was only our 6th trip. But I will say I'm having a great year so far, notching my 3rd win last night. And even more importantly, the car has been very reliable with no major breakage. I did have to swap out the transmission once, but us T5 racers consider that just part of the program.
I still haven't got a video camera that can take night videos so all I can show is the time trials, but we are looking into upgrading our video capabilities soon.
Usually I have a lousy first time shot, but not this week. Right off the trailer the car hooked and ran great. I was lined up with a 10 second car and I treed him, then out 60'd him as well. Once he got going he blew by me though. I posted an 11.98 on this run, right were I've been running lately:
http://youtu.be/LdQG5iwXaEI?t=12s
Second time trial brought back some memories of my long lost youth. I used to run a 14 second '72 Demon those 35 years ago and I was lined up with a '70 Duster that reminded me of it. This was an 11.95 run so it was within .03 of the first one.
http://youtu.be/EXMh8vSzcn4
Dennis and I were in the pits doing a little bench racing when Beaver Bob, the track owner came over and asked us if we'd do him a favor. He said some of his high school classmates were in town and he promised them a ride down the track in a race car. There were four of them so he asked if I'd take one and Dennis take one, we'd line up, make a pass, then come back and switch out passengers and do it again. That way all four got a ride.
Here are 3 of the 4 classmates. I took June on the first pass and Cheryl on the second.
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As we were walking to our cars I asked Dennis if he thought Bob meant for us to take them on a full speed pass, as obviously we would be breaking a lot of safety rules. He said since we weren't told any different, that's what he intended to do.
After Bob helped June into the car and we were driving over to the staging lanes I could tell she was pretty nervous, but game for the ride. I told her I'd made 100's of passes and never had any problems, that everything would be fine.
I wish I had a picture of the look on her face when we launched! I hooked real good with a 1.6 sixty and she was thrown back in the seat hard, but she was laughing at the end. I think she really enjoyed it.
Cheryl was even more nervous, I think she was wandering what she'd gotten herself into. June had already warned her to keep her head against the headrest at the start, and that alarmed her a bit. She told me she wasn't really a roller coaster type person and I told her I sure hoped it wouldn't be a roller coaster type ride. Even though she was scared a bit, she too was smiling at the end.
The whole thing was a lot of fun for Dennis and I and we definitely scored some brownie points with the track owner which can never hurt. I was actually honored that he trusted me enough to haul his friends down track like that.
Here's the second of our ride along passes. Since Dennis's car is faster than mine he gave me a bit of head start to keep it close at the end. And we found out that Bob did indeed intend for us to run "all out", as he thanked us both afterwards instead of throwing us out.
http://youtu.be/wOUGEvPVKTI?t=25s
Back to the racing. We had one more time shot. I lined up with the same 10 second car I'd run in the first one, with the same result. I treed him again but he powered by in short order. I ran an 11.95 again.
http://youtu.be/p_kvHFFmk3c?t=40s
I was quite happy with the consistency I was getting with my three official time shots being 11.98, 11.95, 11.95 and even my ride along passes falling right where they should at 12.05 and 12.07, which accounting for the extra weight of a passenger is on the mark.
I knew the air was getting better and wanted to stay with my strategy of dial hard, run it out, so I put 11.93 on the window.
First round and I get the class big dog, Chris. Oh well might as well start at the top, right? I had what I thought was a real good light, a .018, but he had an even better .013. But while I hooked and ran great, he spun on launch and couldn't come close to catching me. When I looked for him at the 1000' he was way back so I braked early and picked up the easy win.
In the finals I got another tough customer in Dennis. He was having a transmission problem though and had dialed up a second to compensate. Instead of 10.6, he had dialed 11.6, so I'd still be going first and he'd have to chase me down. I felt I could get the win if I didn't beat myself by running out. The air was definitely a lot better with less humidity and lower temperatures so I dialed down a bit more to 11.91. This one was over early as Dennis took a major nap at the tree, then had more transmission problems. I was so far ahead I was out of the gas by the 1000'.
]http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f79/mmb617/finalswithcaption-2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
This year so far has been my best ever. That’s because the car is finally running consistent times, something I attribute solely to having enough tire under the car to hook even in not so good track conditions. I see what my buddy Bob Myers means when he says bracket guys always want to over tire the car. I’ve run multiple passes all within a couple hundredths of 11.95 over the past few weeks, where before the tire switch I was lucky to stay within a couple tenths of the same time from pass to pass. Bracket racing is all about killing the tree and running consistently, and now I’m finally getting the second part covered.
This year has opened my eyes about something else as well. We racers all want to keep making our cars faster, but sometimes that’s just not smart. Using my good friend Dennis as an example, here’s what I’m talking about. He had a low 11 second car and was very competitive with it, winning the class championship a couple years ago. This past winter he upgraded his motor and now runs mid 10’s. The problem is he’s having a lot of breakage on drive train parts. I think he’s found the limit of his toploader transmission’s capability, and has broken some other stuff as well. I could not afford to keep repairing damage every week, so I think I need to be content with where I’m at and not get caught up in that “must go faster” mindset. As the crew chief keeps telling me “You’re a bracket racer, you don’t have to be fast to win”. She also reminds me that we don’t have a 10 second budget, as we are literally racing on a shoestring. While it’s always a thrill to go faster than you’ve ever gone before, it’s real nice to have the car run without a hitch, pick up some wins, and come home with nothing broken!
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Originally Posted by Yeeha racing
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