Sean D, shondoo
Nitro Member
Hey Gang,
Sorry so late with this report. Trying to get this dinosaur of a computer sped up a little bit, and it's been kind of a "drag". LMAO!!!
Well, if any of you were fortunate enough to attend the Indy Goodguys this year, you know how this will start off............................RAIN! We arrived Saturday morning with the Black Reign altered to steady rain, and as soon as we pulled through the main gate at ORP, we knew we could be in for some trouble. Right after we crossed the railroad tracks, there was standing water on both sides that came right up to the road. It ended up raining so bad Saturday that they called the action for the day around 11:00am. Now when's the last time you were at a race where they were smart enough to call it that early?! Most of the time, you're forced to hang around and waste the entire day before they call it. My gratitude goes to the staff at Indy this past weekend for getting it right.
When we arrived Sunday morning, we were greeted with plenty of sunshine and dry pit areas (for the most part) and were ready to get to it. Every car in the Pro Comp 1 class, except us, made 2 qualifying shots on Friday, but because we weren't there, and there were only 7 cars, we got plugged into the #8 spot for eliminations. So, Crew Chief Kerry Grams got to work getting the tune-up changed back to the 7.00 combination.
In the first round we were paired with A/ND competitor, Duane Morgan, who qualified fourth with a 7.30 @ 179Mph. I knew if everything was right, we would have no problem running close to the number, but I was pretty nervous, nonetheless, because I didn't get a chance at hitting the tree since we didn't get a qualifying run. I decided to put my hopes in the fact that Duane would still run somewhere close to 7.30 and Kerry would give me the 6.99 that I asked for, and I would back off the tree a bit for the first round. I ended up with a .033 and started looking for Duane around 900-feet. He was close behind, but I was fortunate enough to be able to back into him for the win with a 7.21.
That made a semi-final matchup with the guy we beat in the final here last year, and reigning Pro-Comp 1 champ, Richard Edwards. Richard always runs close to the number with his '48 Fiat, but struggled in qualifying, running only a 7.19. He repeated another teen in the first round, but we knew he was probably holding some. I decided to go for the throat on the starting line and ask Kerry for another 6.99. As we were staging, I watched Richard out of the corner of my eye and noticed that his car rolled quite a bit after the bottom bulb came on, which in hind-sight, should've told me something. Knowing that I backed off quite a bit in the first round and still ended up with an .033 light, I went in as shallow as I could. I saw the light very well, but ended up -.015 red. To make matters worse, when I got a chance at seeing the ticket, Richard not only ran another teen, he was also red at -.010! Then, to really rub salt in the wound, Kerry gave me a 6.989................one-thousandth from what I always like to have!!! LMAO!!! At the end of the day, it was, and still is hard to swallow. I really let the team and all of our sponsors down with a bad decision. When I backed off to a .033 light in the first round, I should've known that if I got after it that I would go red. Not to mention watching Richard go in so deep right before me in the semis. But I also would've never guessed Richard wasn't going to run the number, either.
At Joliet and Indy last year, we had really good lights at both places with several double-oh's and teens and no reds. This year, I red-lit at Joliet with a -.017, and Indy with a -.015. I had some decent lights in our win at St. Louis, but we had never run that track before with this set-up, and as many of you know, different tracks have different roll-out characteristics. So when I throw out St. Louis and compare apples to apples, it appears we have something a little different somewhere. We have a couple of different ideas to counter the problem for the next race, so we'll just have to see. If I can get the starting line back under control like last year, and Kerry keeps giving me those 6.989's , we should be a handful for Richard and the rest of the Pro-Comp 1 gang this year.
See ya' next time!
Sean D
Sorry so late with this report. Trying to get this dinosaur of a computer sped up a little bit, and it's been kind of a "drag". LMAO!!!
Well, if any of you were fortunate enough to attend the Indy Goodguys this year, you know how this will start off............................RAIN! We arrived Saturday morning with the Black Reign altered to steady rain, and as soon as we pulled through the main gate at ORP, we knew we could be in for some trouble. Right after we crossed the railroad tracks, there was standing water on both sides that came right up to the road. It ended up raining so bad Saturday that they called the action for the day around 11:00am. Now when's the last time you were at a race where they were smart enough to call it that early?! Most of the time, you're forced to hang around and waste the entire day before they call it. My gratitude goes to the staff at Indy this past weekend for getting it right.
When we arrived Sunday morning, we were greeted with plenty of sunshine and dry pit areas (for the most part) and were ready to get to it. Every car in the Pro Comp 1 class, except us, made 2 qualifying shots on Friday, but because we weren't there, and there were only 7 cars, we got plugged into the #8 spot for eliminations. So, Crew Chief Kerry Grams got to work getting the tune-up changed back to the 7.00 combination.
In the first round we were paired with A/ND competitor, Duane Morgan, who qualified fourth with a 7.30 @ 179Mph. I knew if everything was right, we would have no problem running close to the number, but I was pretty nervous, nonetheless, because I didn't get a chance at hitting the tree since we didn't get a qualifying run. I decided to put my hopes in the fact that Duane would still run somewhere close to 7.30 and Kerry would give me the 6.99 that I asked for, and I would back off the tree a bit for the first round. I ended up with a .033 and started looking for Duane around 900-feet. He was close behind, but I was fortunate enough to be able to back into him for the win with a 7.21.
That made a semi-final matchup with the guy we beat in the final here last year, and reigning Pro-Comp 1 champ, Richard Edwards. Richard always runs close to the number with his '48 Fiat, but struggled in qualifying, running only a 7.19. He repeated another teen in the first round, but we knew he was probably holding some. I decided to go for the throat on the starting line and ask Kerry for another 6.99. As we were staging, I watched Richard out of the corner of my eye and noticed that his car rolled quite a bit after the bottom bulb came on, which in hind-sight, should've told me something. Knowing that I backed off quite a bit in the first round and still ended up with an .033 light, I went in as shallow as I could. I saw the light very well, but ended up -.015 red. To make matters worse, when I got a chance at seeing the ticket, Richard not only ran another teen, he was also red at -.010! Then, to really rub salt in the wound, Kerry gave me a 6.989................one-thousandth from what I always like to have!!! LMAO!!! At the end of the day, it was, and still is hard to swallow. I really let the team and all of our sponsors down with a bad decision. When I backed off to a .033 light in the first round, I should've known that if I got after it that I would go red. Not to mention watching Richard go in so deep right before me in the semis. But I also would've never guessed Richard wasn't going to run the number, either.
At Joliet and Indy last year, we had really good lights at both places with several double-oh's and teens and no reds. This year, I red-lit at Joliet with a -.017, and Indy with a -.015. I had some decent lights in our win at St. Louis, but we had never run that track before with this set-up, and as many of you know, different tracks have different roll-out characteristics. So when I throw out St. Louis and compare apples to apples, it appears we have something a little different somewhere. We have a couple of different ideas to counter the problem for the next race, so we'll just have to see. If I can get the starting line back under control like last year, and Kerry keeps giving me those 6.989's , we should be a handful for Richard and the rest of the Pro-Comp 1 gang this year.
See ya' next time!
Sean D
