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Tom Bradford and the Balbayis Asset Consulting/Hal's Speedshop team have found a level of consistency that has eluded many teams so far this weekend at Indy, but that consistency has caused them to drop to twelfth in the qualifying order. It also cost them in the first round of the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle. Eventual winner Andrew Hines drove around Bradford at about 660 feet and took the stripe by about 12 feet.
Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle round 1/Qualifying round 2
(W) Andrew Hines left lane .037 7.049 at 188.78 mph
Tom Bradford right lane .011 7.120 at 186.41 mph
now 12th
"I tatooed him on the tree," Bradford correctly noted. "I got into high gear and just barely cocked my head over and he was right there, just ahead of me. But something's not right. That .12 isn't where it should be. I don't think we're tuning the motor right. I think ultimately when we find it, it's not gonna be anything big. It's something we're overlooking and everybody else has found, 'cause everybody improved today but us. We basically stayed where we were at, after a motor swap. Now we're gonna throw the proverbial kitchen sink at it."
Qualifying round 3
12th Tom Bradford left lane 7.106 at 186.48 mph
Tom's Q3 7.10 was the fourth quickest pass of the round, but he and the team were profoundly unhappy. "It's not too bad in the scheme of things," noted clutchman Jim Schneider.
"We've never changed so many things between rounds as we did before this last pass," said crew chief Rob Schopf. "Gear, timing, fuel, clutch. We still believe there's a problem in the engine, but at this time we don't know what we can do. We ran the same back half numbers that round as Ryan Schnitz (who ran a 7.07), and the best lap of the round was a 7.06 by the champ (Andrew Hines)."
"We're not happy with number 12 qualifier," said Bradford. "We're just gonna try and see if we can test a few things."
"Am I worried about being twelfth now? Maybe," said Schopf. "Would I like to be in fifth or fourth? Hell yeah. But just being in the field, you can win."
TELEVISION:
Sunday, Sept. 3, ESPN2 HD will televise NHRA 2Day, a 30-minute magazine
show at 11:30 a.m. (ET).
Sunday, Sept. 3, ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of qualifying coverage
at noon (ET).
Sunday, Sept. 3, ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of qualifying coverage
at 11 p.m. (ET).
Monday, Sept. 4, ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of eliminations
coverage at noon (ET).
Monday, Sept. 4, ESPN2 HD will televise three hours of eliminations
coverage at 4 p.m. (ET).
Tom thanked sponsors Balbayis Asset Consulting, Hal's Speedshop, Hal's H-D/Buell, Vanson Leathers, Stitch-it-Embroidery, CRD Inc., T-N-S Machining, S&S Cycle, Buell Motor Co., Mustang Shelly's Roadhouse, Red Line Oil, MicroBlue Racing, Autolite, Simpson, Wiseco, Rinehart Racing, EBC Brakes, and The Carburetor Shop for their support of the Hal's/Thunder Eagle team.
Find out more about Hal's at http://www.halspa.com
Find out more about the NHRA at http://www.nhra.com
Contact Tom Bradford at (262) 814-7282, [email protected]
Bradford Unhappy with Consistency
Tom Bradford and the Balbayis Asset Consulting/Hal's Speedshop team have found a level of consistency that has eluded many teams so far this weekend at Indy, but that consistency has caused them to drop to twelfth in the qualifying order. It also cost them in the first round of the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle. Eventual winner Andrew Hines drove around Bradford at about 660 feet and took the stripe by about 12 feet.
Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle round 1/Qualifying round 2
(W) Andrew Hines left lane .037 7.049 at 188.78 mph
Tom Bradford right lane .011 7.120 at 186.41 mph
now 12th
"I tatooed him on the tree," Bradford correctly noted. "I got into high gear and just barely cocked my head over and he was right there, just ahead of me. But something's not right. That .12 isn't where it should be. I don't think we're tuning the motor right. I think ultimately when we find it, it's not gonna be anything big. It's something we're overlooking and everybody else has found, 'cause everybody improved today but us. We basically stayed where we were at, after a motor swap. Now we're gonna throw the proverbial kitchen sink at it."
Qualifying round 3
12th Tom Bradford left lane 7.106 at 186.48 mph
Tom's Q3 7.10 was the fourth quickest pass of the round, but he and the team were profoundly unhappy. "It's not too bad in the scheme of things," noted clutchman Jim Schneider.
"We've never changed so many things between rounds as we did before this last pass," said crew chief Rob Schopf. "Gear, timing, fuel, clutch. We still believe there's a problem in the engine, but at this time we don't know what we can do. We ran the same back half numbers that round as Ryan Schnitz (who ran a 7.07), and the best lap of the round was a 7.06 by the champ (Andrew Hines)."
"We're not happy with number 12 qualifier," said Bradford. "We're just gonna try and see if we can test a few things."
"Am I worried about being twelfth now? Maybe," said Schopf. "Would I like to be in fifth or fourth? Hell yeah. But just being in the field, you can win."
TELEVISION:
Sunday, Sept. 3, ESPN2 HD will televise NHRA 2Day, a 30-minute magazine
show at 11:30 a.m. (ET).
Sunday, Sept. 3, ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of qualifying coverage
at noon (ET).
Sunday, Sept. 3, ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of qualifying coverage
at 11 p.m. (ET).
Monday, Sept. 4, ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of eliminations
coverage at noon (ET).
Monday, Sept. 4, ESPN2 HD will televise three hours of eliminations
coverage at 4 p.m. (ET).
Tom thanked sponsors Balbayis Asset Consulting, Hal's Speedshop, Hal's H-D/Buell, Vanson Leathers, Stitch-it-Embroidery, CRD Inc., T-N-S Machining, S&S Cycle, Buell Motor Co., Mustang Shelly's Roadhouse, Red Line Oil, MicroBlue Racing, Autolite, Simpson, Wiseco, Rinehart Racing, EBC Brakes, and The Carburetor Shop for their support of the Hal's/Thunder Eagle team.
Find out more about Hal's at http://www.halspa.com
Find out more about the NHRA at http://www.nhra.com
Contact Tom Bradford at (262) 814-7282, [email protected]
