What we were hoping to be a leisurely weekend at Rockingham turned out to be a weekend from H*ll. I will tell a little of what took place behind the scenes just for informational purposes. No excuses, we didn't get the job done at the level we expect of ourselves, but it wasn't for lack of effort.
First off we were there just to make exhibition runs, not qualify, not run eliminations or any thing like that. Our first inkling of what was going to take place was when we started Richard's 55 on gas and it went from running to backfiring out the blower. Luckily, we hadn't gone to nitro yet. Turned out his 3 run old off set mag drive was eating itself up inside and changing the timing. Then Rhonda got stuck in traffic and arrived at the track just 45 minutes prior to the first run.
First run, John vs Rhonda, both do burnouts and Rhonda's blower case splits and slings out the oil from the front gear area. The track was still ok to run on, so she moves forward, stops, hits the throttle for a dry hop and the slider gear in the reverser splits and the car bounces a little backwards. We shut her down and John proceeds to run a 5.96 at 216, shutting off earlier than we had planned.
Ray and Richard are next. One of the flathead bolts that holds the candlestick in Ray's clutch can came out on the burnout with a few sparks. Then when he did a dry hop, fuel splashed from the overflow and the track official shut him off thinking it was a fuel line leak. Richard staged and at about half track it started driving through the clutch and he shut if off to a 7.38.
Back to our pits where Glen has the steaks, baked potatoes, salad and french bread ready. We bench race with a double pit full of friends while we eat until about one am.
Fix everything in the morning and we are ready to go again. First up is Ray and Rhonda. Strong burnouts, but no dryhops for either. Both thier launchs were too agresive, 60 foot times were Ray .960 and Rhonda .972. Ray had to let off to adjust his head position and ran a 7.005. Rhonda's car made a move to the guardrail, she pedaled it but it spun, and she shut down. Aaron has told us a few times that this is exhibition, do not keep pedalling and end up in the wall and stop the show.
Next, John and Richard. I started Richard's car and he was doing his burnout when I looked over and Sasquatch was not running. I went over and the starter had died, and the spare was in a tow vehicle that had just left. Ben grabbed Richards (which didn't fit) and the two of us just held it there and got the car started. I put the body down and look around and the starting line crew is telling Richard to stage, I run up there but they won't let me back him up and he makes a single at 6.17 and 225. Spook the starter tells John to shut it off. I inform Spook that Richard is off the track and ask if we can run. He calls the top end and it is clear and says OK. I go to the car and someone else is telling John to shut it off. I inform him that Spook says we can run, he finally looks around and sees that is true and says Ok also. John runs a 5.95 at 252.
Saturday night was roasted pig, BBQ chickens, slaw and corn on the cob. We ate and visited with many friends again, listened to the music from Gilbertson's pit, and finally hit the sack at 2 am. So many people came by to eat that we consumed the whole 150 lb pig and 25 chickens.
The weekend ended on a high note when Bruce Litton won the top fuel championship with Richard as his crewchief.
