RAPID
Nitro Member
2008 DRO FUNNYCAR FALL INVITATIONAL AT KCIR
What a great weekend at the races. The weather was perfect; the place was packed with people. There were Nitro Funnycars, Top Fuelers, along with just about any style of race car to suit your taste. Troy Coker brought out his NPCA group and they put on a fantastic show as always. Big Daddy and Roland were there as well.
Sean Belt's business, Spanky's Hair Salon, sponsored a huge party with a live DJ on Saturday night. Greg Green our resident chef cooked up a bunch of BBQ for everyone to enjoy. Greg also brought out his Scout Troop to do the flag presentation for the event. We had them hang around our pit as we serviced the car; the look on the boy’s faces when we fired it off was so cool.
For those who hate to read a long post. 1st round on Friday night the car left decent, and made it to around 7-800 feet and got out of the groove. It was moving left and even with pedaling, it wouldn't come back to the groove. I coasted through for a 7-second time-slip. No way was I going to let the headers scrape the wall again. They guys just got them looking nice again. Jake was in the other lane and made a nice run which ended up being low for the evening. That put him into the finals on Saturday.
Saturday we adjusted the idle temps and were looking forward to a lot better ET. The car left better, but still wouldn't pull all the way to the end. I think it ran a 7.04 or something. That put us 3rd quickest for the night and not running in the final. We assumed our weekend was over at this point.
It turned out that Dusty, who was low, hurt his engine and couldn't make the turn-around. So that gave Doc Halladay and Jerry Newman a chance to race for the trophy. We knew they hurt their transmission, but their guys were getting it fixed. So it looked like Jake and Doc in the finals.
Back in our pit, we changed our mag and coil both as we were discussing making a pass after the final to see if we could fix our performance issues. The car just hasn't running as fast as it should be, but nothing seemed to wake it up. It was decided that we wouldn't make a pass after all, so the oil was drained, the car was on stands, and we didn't even pack the chutes. I saw Jake head out to the line and started looking for Doc's crew to do the same. About 5-minutes later we were told that Doc and Jerry had clutch damage as well and we were in the final instead.
We rounded up our guys, and got to work finishing the service work. Danny bought some Nitro from John Dunn as were almost out. Kenny, {John Dunn's crewchief} even came carrying it up and asked if he could be of any help. It really all came together rather quickly and up to the line we went. Of course, we hadn't started the car after changing the ignition system, so I just hoped it would start when we got there. Great, more pressure!
I could tell the minute we fired the car it was back on track. It had that sharp pop and crackle that had been missing lately. I put in into high and rolled into the water. When I whacked the throttle for the burnout it went crazy. It jumped up on the tires, but at the same time I could tell it had a problem as the engine was trying to shut off at the same time. Needless to say the burnout was lousy with the car jumping sideways and not even smoking the tires much. It seemed like every time I moved the throttle, it would let the engine cut out. At idle is acted OK.
Back behind the line on the dry hops it felt really good and violent, but I could still hear the engine cutting out. Jake and I both left together, with our car spinning the tires and getting really loose, all while cutting in and out. Jake was off on another great pass. I just eased into the throttle and listened to the engine acting like someone was hitting the kill switch, then turning it back on as fast as they could. I was thinking it must have a loose connection to act this way. But with all the ignition problems we have had this year it was hard to tell what was wrong exactly.
They had us tow back up the track for the awards presentation and it was pretty cool to hear the crowd yelling and waving at both teams. Jake won the race with 3-really nice runs and is a deserving champion. I was proud to be able to race against him this year. His car has been super consistent all year long.
We were looking things over before we put the car in the trailer and found some loose coil wires. Danny is going to start the car this week and confirm that was the problem. So the bad news, we lost in the finals but the great news is we have found the performance problem and I can't wait to get to Bowling Green in 2-weeks to try it out.
I hope you liked my “What I Did Last Weekend” story.
Rapid
What a great weekend at the races. The weather was perfect; the place was packed with people. There were Nitro Funnycars, Top Fuelers, along with just about any style of race car to suit your taste. Troy Coker brought out his NPCA group and they put on a fantastic show as always. Big Daddy and Roland were there as well.
Sean Belt's business, Spanky's Hair Salon, sponsored a huge party with a live DJ on Saturday night. Greg Green our resident chef cooked up a bunch of BBQ for everyone to enjoy. Greg also brought out his Scout Troop to do the flag presentation for the event. We had them hang around our pit as we serviced the car; the look on the boy’s faces when we fired it off was so cool.
For those who hate to read a long post. 1st round on Friday night the car left decent, and made it to around 7-800 feet and got out of the groove. It was moving left and even with pedaling, it wouldn't come back to the groove. I coasted through for a 7-second time-slip. No way was I going to let the headers scrape the wall again. They guys just got them looking nice again. Jake was in the other lane and made a nice run which ended up being low for the evening. That put him into the finals on Saturday.
Saturday we adjusted the idle temps and were looking forward to a lot better ET. The car left better, but still wouldn't pull all the way to the end. I think it ran a 7.04 or something. That put us 3rd quickest for the night and not running in the final. We assumed our weekend was over at this point.
It turned out that Dusty, who was low, hurt his engine and couldn't make the turn-around. So that gave Doc Halladay and Jerry Newman a chance to race for the trophy. We knew they hurt their transmission, but their guys were getting it fixed. So it looked like Jake and Doc in the finals.
Back in our pit, we changed our mag and coil both as we were discussing making a pass after the final to see if we could fix our performance issues. The car just hasn't running as fast as it should be, but nothing seemed to wake it up. It was decided that we wouldn't make a pass after all, so the oil was drained, the car was on stands, and we didn't even pack the chutes. I saw Jake head out to the line and started looking for Doc's crew to do the same. About 5-minutes later we were told that Doc and Jerry had clutch damage as well and we were in the final instead.
We rounded up our guys, and got to work finishing the service work. Danny bought some Nitro from John Dunn as were almost out. Kenny, {John Dunn's crewchief} even came carrying it up and asked if he could be of any help. It really all came together rather quickly and up to the line we went. Of course, we hadn't started the car after changing the ignition system, so I just hoped it would start when we got there. Great, more pressure!
I could tell the minute we fired the car it was back on track. It had that sharp pop and crackle that had been missing lately. I put in into high and rolled into the water. When I whacked the throttle for the burnout it went crazy. It jumped up on the tires, but at the same time I could tell it had a problem as the engine was trying to shut off at the same time. Needless to say the burnout was lousy with the car jumping sideways and not even smoking the tires much. It seemed like every time I moved the throttle, it would let the engine cut out. At idle is acted OK.
Back behind the line on the dry hops it felt really good and violent, but I could still hear the engine cutting out. Jake and I both left together, with our car spinning the tires and getting really loose, all while cutting in and out. Jake was off on another great pass. I just eased into the throttle and listened to the engine acting like someone was hitting the kill switch, then turning it back on as fast as they could. I was thinking it must have a loose connection to act this way. But with all the ignition problems we have had this year it was hard to tell what was wrong exactly.
They had us tow back up the track for the awards presentation and it was pretty cool to hear the crowd yelling and waving at both teams. Jake won the race with 3-really nice runs and is a deserving champion. I was proud to be able to race against him this year. His car has been super consistent all year long.
We were looking things over before we put the car in the trailer and found some loose coil wires. Danny is going to start the car this week and confirm that was the problem. So the bad news, we lost in the finals but the great news is we have found the performance problem and I can't wait to get to Bowling Green in 2-weeks to try it out.
I hope you liked my “What I Did Last Weekend” story.
Rapid
