Sean D, shondoo
Nitro Member
Well Gang, it was another fun-filled weekend for the Black Reign group at Kansas City International Raceway this past weekend, highlighted by a great running race car, perfect weather, and a party Saturday night thrown by some crazy guy with a blond mohawk! 
Who was that guy???
After a 10-hour haul on I-70, we arrived at KCIR about two hours before the first qualifying session. This is the first race we've ever been able to get there on Friday and capitalize on all three qualifying sessions, so we were pretty excited to finally be on par with the rest of the competition. We pulled in to an absolutely packed house (which stayed that way throughout most of the weekend) and got unloaded for qualifying session #1.
The first pass was in the right lane and was a little rough around 800 feet. The car started bouncing very hard and moving to the right, so I decided to whack the throttle and try to bring it back in, but when I did, the throttle hung open. This has happened on the last four passes the car has been down the track, and having never been to KCIR, I decided to abort the pass. We still ended up with the number 1 qualifying spot after that session with a 7.08, but that was only because the air was pretty good and everyone else was running under the 7.00 index in the 6.90's. The better news was that we found the culprit causing the throttle hanging issues. We had made several changes in the passes before, each time thinking we had the problem whipped, but on this particular pass, the linkage stayed where it was getting hung-up and we were able to finally fix the problem, which was a big relief to this particular driver.
Qualifying session number 2 on Saturday afternoon was where the team hit our stride. Our Crew Chief, Kerry Grams, put the Black Reign altered firmly into the number 1 spot with a near dead-on the dog 7.004 @ 197 Mph! This turned out to be huge at the end of the weekend, because the NPCA grants a 10 point bonus to drivers hitting the index. Entering the weekend, we were 23 points down of 2-time reigning Pro Comp 1 champ, Richard Edwards with only one race to go, so that would prove to be big. On the third and final qualifying session Saturday night, Kerry nearly hit it again back in the rough right lane with a nice 7.01, so we headed into final eliminations on Sunday with a pretty good handle on things.
Due to some attrition, the 8-car qualified field was whittled down to 5, so with that odd number of cars, we had the bonus of a bye in the first round. We were on the same side of the ladder as the points leader, so when he ran in front of us, we were all eyes. If Richard put a tight number of the board, we were going to leg it out to try to get lane choice. But if he backed off and left the window open, I was going to blip the throttle near the lights to try to get as close to the index as I could. Well, Richard threw down a nice 7.02, so Kerry told me to let it eat. The car shook pretty hard on the starting line and never really had a hold of the track on the entire bottom end. We still ended up with a decent 7.03, but lost lane choice to Edwards for the pivotal semi-final match-up.
Richard ended up giving us the left lane anyway after running his 7.02 in the right lane. He had been having some trouble on the starting line all weekend, so I expected him to take a bigger bite of the stage beam. He ended up knocking the top bulb out and immediately bringing the rpm's up. I decided to back off this time, because the last time he did this was the semi's at the Indy GoodGuys, where we both redlit, but mine was worse. It turned out to be a good choice, because Richard went red again, but I got away clean. It was a further blessing because our car didn't shift into high gear!
That set-up a final round match-up with local racer Adam Leigh with his Final Call 23-T. Adam had a nice weekend up to that point, qualifying #2 with a 7.02 and had his best reaction time of the entire year en route to the final. Adam had the benefit of being the hometown boy, but I have the benefit of a great Crew Chief, so we were ready. At the green, we got away first .018 to .072, but this time the car shifted like it was supposed to, so I knew we were in for a good one. I looked over at half-track and Adam was right beside me, but around 800 feet, the Black Reign horsepower started making it's move and put about a car length between us heading into the lights. I blipped the throttle a few times to bring him in, and took him across by .021 and our win light came on. It was awesome!
When it was all said and done, it was another great weekend for our team. Yeah, we won, which was great, but we also got to hook up with a bunch of my 'Mater buddies again, which was even better. Greg Green (whose BBQ is freakin' awesome, by the way!)hung out with us on several occasions and even joined us in the winner's circle pictures. He was wearing a Nitro Madness t-shirt on Sunday, so I had to give him one of our Black Reign crew shirts for the pictures, sorry Belt! And speaking of Belt, he had the aforementioned party on Saturday night in the Nitro Madness pits after the nitro cars. DJ, beverages, the whole deal. It was awesome, Sean B! Also got to hook up once again with the Rapid one. Rapid, the things you do behind the wheel of that funny car are absolutely crazy! You're a wild man, my friend! Also bumped into Eric Bru on Friday, which was nice. Sorry Eric, I went to your pits what seemed like a dozen times, but never seemed to catch you there.
We entered the race 23 points down, but with the number 1 qualifying effort, the index bonus and ultimately the win, we left KCIR with a 29 point lead heading into the final race in Bowling Green in two weeks. Wish us luck!
Later,
Sean D
Who was that guy???After a 10-hour haul on I-70, we arrived at KCIR about two hours before the first qualifying session. This is the first race we've ever been able to get there on Friday and capitalize on all three qualifying sessions, so we were pretty excited to finally be on par with the rest of the competition. We pulled in to an absolutely packed house (which stayed that way throughout most of the weekend) and got unloaded for qualifying session #1.
The first pass was in the right lane and was a little rough around 800 feet. The car started bouncing very hard and moving to the right, so I decided to whack the throttle and try to bring it back in, but when I did, the throttle hung open. This has happened on the last four passes the car has been down the track, and having never been to KCIR, I decided to abort the pass. We still ended up with the number 1 qualifying spot after that session with a 7.08, but that was only because the air was pretty good and everyone else was running under the 7.00 index in the 6.90's. The better news was that we found the culprit causing the throttle hanging issues. We had made several changes in the passes before, each time thinking we had the problem whipped, but on this particular pass, the linkage stayed where it was getting hung-up and we were able to finally fix the problem, which was a big relief to this particular driver.
Qualifying session number 2 on Saturday afternoon was where the team hit our stride. Our Crew Chief, Kerry Grams, put the Black Reign altered firmly into the number 1 spot with a near dead-on the dog 7.004 @ 197 Mph! This turned out to be huge at the end of the weekend, because the NPCA grants a 10 point bonus to drivers hitting the index. Entering the weekend, we were 23 points down of 2-time reigning Pro Comp 1 champ, Richard Edwards with only one race to go, so that would prove to be big. On the third and final qualifying session Saturday night, Kerry nearly hit it again back in the rough right lane with a nice 7.01, so we headed into final eliminations on Sunday with a pretty good handle on things.
Due to some attrition, the 8-car qualified field was whittled down to 5, so with that odd number of cars, we had the bonus of a bye in the first round. We were on the same side of the ladder as the points leader, so when he ran in front of us, we were all eyes. If Richard put a tight number of the board, we were going to leg it out to try to get lane choice. But if he backed off and left the window open, I was going to blip the throttle near the lights to try to get as close to the index as I could. Well, Richard threw down a nice 7.02, so Kerry told me to let it eat. The car shook pretty hard on the starting line and never really had a hold of the track on the entire bottom end. We still ended up with a decent 7.03, but lost lane choice to Edwards for the pivotal semi-final match-up.
Richard ended up giving us the left lane anyway after running his 7.02 in the right lane. He had been having some trouble on the starting line all weekend, so I expected him to take a bigger bite of the stage beam. He ended up knocking the top bulb out and immediately bringing the rpm's up. I decided to back off this time, because the last time he did this was the semi's at the Indy GoodGuys, where we both redlit, but mine was worse. It turned out to be a good choice, because Richard went red again, but I got away clean. It was a further blessing because our car didn't shift into high gear!
That set-up a final round match-up with local racer Adam Leigh with his Final Call 23-T. Adam had a nice weekend up to that point, qualifying #2 with a 7.02 and had his best reaction time of the entire year en route to the final. Adam had the benefit of being the hometown boy, but I have the benefit of a great Crew Chief, so we were ready. At the green, we got away first .018 to .072, but this time the car shifted like it was supposed to, so I knew we were in for a good one. I looked over at half-track and Adam was right beside me, but around 800 feet, the Black Reign horsepower started making it's move and put about a car length between us heading into the lights. I blipped the throttle a few times to bring him in, and took him across by .021 and our win light came on. It was awesome!
When it was all said and done, it was another great weekend for our team. Yeah, we won, which was great, but we also got to hook up with a bunch of my 'Mater buddies again, which was even better. Greg Green (whose BBQ is freakin' awesome, by the way!)hung out with us on several occasions and even joined us in the winner's circle pictures. He was wearing a Nitro Madness t-shirt on Sunday, so I had to give him one of our Black Reign crew shirts for the pictures, sorry Belt! And speaking of Belt, he had the aforementioned party on Saturday night in the Nitro Madness pits after the nitro cars. DJ, beverages, the whole deal. It was awesome, Sean B! Also got to hook up once again with the Rapid one. Rapid, the things you do behind the wheel of that funny car are absolutely crazy! You're a wild man, my friend! Also bumped into Eric Bru on Friday, which was nice. Sorry Eric, I went to your pits what seemed like a dozen times, but never seemed to catch you there.
We entered the race 23 points down, but with the number 1 qualifying effort, the index bonus and ultimately the win, we left KCIR with a 29 point lead heading into the final race in Bowling Green in two weeks. Wish us luck!
Later,
Sean D
