Race report 7-25-14. Maybe I should just take up bowling.

[mmb617]

I need to find something else to do on Friday nights because I sure suck at this bracket racing thing. Dave tried really hard to give me the win, but I refused to accept it. And I can't even blame the car as it ran great all night with absolutely none of the shifting problems I've had lately. The high quality MM clutch cable has taken care of that problem. The fault lies entirely with the driver.

Dave didn't take a nap at the tree he got a whole nights sleep. I had more than two tenths advantage, my .042 to his .244. I had a good launch and no problems going down track. When I looked for him in the mirror I was stunned by how far back he was, as I didn't know at the time that he'd cut such a bad light. I braked hard, but it wasn't enough as I broke out with a 11.99 on my 12.02 dial. I crossed the line first by more than three tenths, and there's just no excuse for that. In the video note how far past the stripe we are before he finally passes me. I had a huge lead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKai...ZnnRj0-7ArVgRw

In retrospect I see two big things I did wrong that contributed to this horrible performance by me.

The first was that I wasn't at all expecting to be so far ahead, so I wasn't ready to scrub a lot of et. Dave was having a very good night. He was double entered in Top and Stick and I'd just seen him run dead on his dial twice. I just assumed he would be close and when he wasn't it was a case of I looked for him too late and didn't have the brake pedal covered like I should have. I still thought I'd braked pretty early, but the second thing I did wrong caught me.

I was dialed too soft. Way too soft it turned out. Going by my 1000' time if I hadn't braked at all I'd have run 11.92 on my 12.02 dial and that's holding too much. I didn't intend to be holding, but I didn't think things through. We ran 5 time trials and mine were all between 12.02 and 12.09 which is slower than I'd expect for the weather conditions. It was warm, around 83* when we started but real low humidity and no wind, My 60' times were in the mid 1.6's on those runs which is also about normal. I think the reason the times were a bit off is because I was still feeling out whether the transmission problem had been fixed and probably spent a little extra time shifting.

I decided to dial 11.99 for the first round of eliminations. That seemed to be a hard dial as it was faster than any of my time trials. I got matched up with a noob in a Corvette dialed at 13.20. We staged and since I was spotting him over a second I didn't get up on the two step right away. He lit the red eye by rolling the lights and the tree fired. I was not expecting that and had a poor launch, and although I ran it out only posted a 12.18 et. I should have totally disregarded this run, but instead I got worried I wouldn't cover my 11.99, so I changed to 12.02 for the next round.

By the time the next round started the sun had gone down and the air was noticeably cooler. I needed to dial down, but didn't. Another thing I need to keep in mind is that I always run faster in eliminations than I do in time trials. Part of that is the cooler air but I believe part of it is also the adrenaline rush giving me faster shifts.

I was pretty upset with myself for screwing up so bad right after the race, but I'm over it now. We'll try again next week. I'm going to make a little sign for my dash saying "dial hard dip****" as a reminder of what works best for me.

[Mike Croke]

Bracket racing with a clutch is tricky stuff. I've dreadful at it as I'm never consistent enough on the tree or the pass regardless of what the other guy is doing. Complicate the process by braking at the end and I'd have a better chance at winning the lottery.

Car sounds great!

[martin0660]

We have all done it Mike. Missing the dial is easy, at least you was holding .... Taking 2 or more tents on the stripe is a bad day.

[mmb617]

I was looking at the pictures from Friday night on the BSD website and was surprised to find this one:





That's my game face. Pretty intimidating, no?


I thought it was funny as I have this pic taken in 2010.




Same game face. Us old folks get set in our ways.


Beaver Bob the track owner has recently taken a new wife and she took the track pics this week. Even with my ugly mug included the pics are really good IMO. I wonder if Todd, the official track photographer since I've been coming to the Beav, is now out of a job? I kind of think that could be the case as Sue mentioned that Donna (the new wife) had a very professional looking setup with an elevated platform to shoot from. And judging by the quality of the pics she's no rookie at photography. Guess I know who to suck up to now to get more facetime on the website!

[Ray Dog]

Mike lets face it. Your a drag racer, you see a light, you want to to cut an 0.00 light.
I find myself trying to cut a better light than the guy next to me at every traffic light.
And if you took up bowling and you bowled a 299 you'd be thinking of that last pin you missed.

So keep the faith.

Ray.

[mmb617]

No sweat Ray, I'll be back at it next week. I get a bit upset with myself when I make a stupid mistake, but it passes pretty quickly.

I certainly don't ever want to be a sore loser, and always want to keep in mind that racing is something I do for fun. Losing a round means nothing. And yet if I were willing to just accept a subpar performance from myself without trying to analyze what I'd done wrong and what I could do to fix it next time, that would diminish the fun of it.

I don't feel I have to win, but I do feel the need to give my best effort. There's been lots of times when I lost but felt I'd made a solid pass with no big mistakes, my opponent just had an even better pass. Those don't bother me at all. I just don't like it when I beat myself.

[Ray Dog]

I totally agree on not willing to settle for sub par.
In family, play, or work I strive to do the best, and I am all ways looking for a never ending improvement.
And at times we can be our worst critics. But then again we know our selves better than any one.

[IDMooseMan]

Car sounds much better during the shifting. Your game-face scares the h3ll out of me. You'll get him next week.

[martin0660]

Boy Mike, I feel down right "casual" next to you





I need a new routine Those are a few I have with my mirrored visor up, lots of times it's down so I could be making another face At the home track I cant race without the visor ... In the late afternoon the sunset is in your eyes coming out of the lanes ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JJPkTkQX-M

Then even at night with the lights on you drive into those lights coming out of the lanes ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZNx00qd2lI

I put my helmet on with the visor down, then when I'm pulling in the beams lift it if low light.

[PaceFever79]

That game face pic is priceless!

The more we try to be cool the more we realize..... lol

[mmb617]

Geez Bob, good thing we can't see the lower part of your face in that first pic 'cause I think you might be yawning. "Ho hum, another day at the office."

This time of year the sun is really bad for us about when we run the last time trial. It's going down behind the mountain directly in line with the tree. Sometimes it's very hard to see the tree even though they have the shade up behind it. Fortunately by the time eliminations start the sun is completely down, and the lighting on the track itself is pretty decent.

[martin0660]

I've learned to calm myself down

We are generally lucky with the sun as far as "on track". The issue is if you don't take care coming out of the lanes going into sunset you will be blind when you get on the track. I will have my tinted / reflective visor down in the lanes then flip it up. Same with when the lights are on. PRP is lit VERY well, but when the installed the lights they planned to move the starting line back 300' so they installed those light stands there that blind you coming out of the lanes as well. It's just my routine, helmet on, visor down as I get ready, then when I pull into the water open the visor.

With running with the NMRA and NMCA we run int oall kinds of different lighting issues so I keep the visor on, can close it, but more typically tilt it to act as a sun shade, or open it up.

[MackZilla]

You could try turning. That's a refreshing change.

[1147]

We do turn. On to the return road!! Sounded silly in my head and should have left it there. But Mike just stay at it. I to have lost every way possible this year and I let it get me down but I got one turning 8 next month and he will be hitting the track in his dragster so I want him to enjoy this sport so time for dad to change his attitude.