Just Paul
Nitro Member
First off, If I ever said a bad thing about a driver that had a late light, at a really bad time, I am sorry. 
Revenge was had this past weekend.
Some of you guys know from here or on Facebook, last year I finally bought myself a car to take bracket racing. I took it out a couple times at the end of last year, and made some tweaks over the winter which ended up with the car picking up over a second from when I got it last year.
So far, I have had a decent year, I've had my ups and downs, but just could not get past the semi finals. Couple close losses (.007 and .017 recently) and I also gave some away. Case in point, 2 weeks ago I ran dead on/5 and had a -.013 red light in the 3rd round.
Fast forward to this past weekends race. I was hitting the tree pretty good, and the car was running close to the dial. In fact, heading into my semi final I had not yet made a full run to the finish line as I had been covering my opponents and been able to lift. For my semi final, I was just telling myself to cut a good light and run my own race. Just so happened, I had my best light of the day, and my opponent had his worst. I caught him about 1200 feet and had time to let up before the stripe. I was in my first final.
We got called up, and sat in the staging lanes for a bit. We decided on the lanes we wanted, exchanged good lucks and got in our cars. Well they decided to run off some other classes, and the gambler race, so we both got out of our cars up there, it was around 90 degrees. Sitting up there with nothing to do but think, that's what I did. How cool would it be to win?? How cool would it be to get my picture taken in the winner circle?? Man I hope I don't red light with the pressure on....
We got back in our cars, fired up and pulled around. Normal burnouts, pull up to the beams, and again I tell myself, she's got over a second head start, don't red light. As I lit the pre-stage and set my foot on the gas, I felt my foot was on the transmission/driveshaft tunnel. I moved my foot over a bit, and we staged about the same time. As I was rolling in, I again said, don't red light.
I heard her go, and shortly after my lights came down, and I was off clean and green!! Right away, I thought, wow! That sure felt like a great reaction time!!! About 300 feet I was thinking I had made some good progress. Half track, she was still a good way out, and I thought, man this is going to be close when I get there.
As I came up to 1000 feet I soon realized I was not going to get around her. I decided to keep in it, and maybe she would break out if I was close. I went through the stripe about a car legenth behind, and searched for my win light on the wall..... No such luck. As I was coasting down the end, I was thinking I must have slowed down, and ran off my dial. I was to the outside of her, so I let her make the turn first. The guy working the last turn off stopped her, and they chatted for a bit, and she drove off. He came over to me, said good job, runner up isn't so bad, and then he laid into me about loosing to a girl. I felt a little like Greg Anderson for a second there.
We had a couple laughs, said our goodbyes and I drove away down the return road very curious to see why I had lost so bad. I pull up, get the ticket, and see her light was .025. I look over at mine...... .257 $%&@
CRAP!!! LOL I could do nothing but laugh and drive away. I ran closer to the dial, but the damage was done. I have no idea why I thought I had a decent light. Chalk it up to me being pretty new to driving still, and my mind being overcome with being in my first final and worried about red-lighting. While driving home, I had a lot of time to reflect on that final pass, and what happened leading up to it. Basicly, it just came down to me not following my routine that had been working for me that day.
So.. Yeah, I suck, that was terrible, and again, I apologize to anyone I had a negative thought/comment about before that had a bad light.
Revenge was had this past weekend. Some of you guys know from here or on Facebook, last year I finally bought myself a car to take bracket racing. I took it out a couple times at the end of last year, and made some tweaks over the winter which ended up with the car picking up over a second from when I got it last year.
So far, I have had a decent year, I've had my ups and downs, but just could not get past the semi finals. Couple close losses (.007 and .017 recently) and I also gave some away. Case in point, 2 weeks ago I ran dead on/5 and had a -.013 red light in the 3rd round.
Fast forward to this past weekends race. I was hitting the tree pretty good, and the car was running close to the dial. In fact, heading into my semi final I had not yet made a full run to the finish line as I had been covering my opponents and been able to lift. For my semi final, I was just telling myself to cut a good light and run my own race. Just so happened, I had my best light of the day, and my opponent had his worst. I caught him about 1200 feet and had time to let up before the stripe. I was in my first final.
We got called up, and sat in the staging lanes for a bit. We decided on the lanes we wanted, exchanged good lucks and got in our cars. Well they decided to run off some other classes, and the gambler race, so we both got out of our cars up there, it was around 90 degrees. Sitting up there with nothing to do but think, that's what I did. How cool would it be to win?? How cool would it be to get my picture taken in the winner circle?? Man I hope I don't red light with the pressure on....
We got back in our cars, fired up and pulled around. Normal burnouts, pull up to the beams, and again I tell myself, she's got over a second head start, don't red light. As I lit the pre-stage and set my foot on the gas, I felt my foot was on the transmission/driveshaft tunnel. I moved my foot over a bit, and we staged about the same time. As I was rolling in, I again said, don't red light.
I heard her go, and shortly after my lights came down, and I was off clean and green!! Right away, I thought, wow! That sure felt like a great reaction time!!! About 300 feet I was thinking I had made some good progress. Half track, she was still a good way out, and I thought, man this is going to be close when I get there.
As I came up to 1000 feet I soon realized I was not going to get around her. I decided to keep in it, and maybe she would break out if I was close. I went through the stripe about a car legenth behind, and searched for my win light on the wall..... No such luck. As I was coasting down the end, I was thinking I must have slowed down, and ran off my dial. I was to the outside of her, so I let her make the turn first. The guy working the last turn off stopped her, and they chatted for a bit, and she drove off. He came over to me, said good job, runner up isn't so bad, and then he laid into me about loosing to a girl. I felt a little like Greg Anderson for a second there.
We had a couple laughs, said our goodbyes and I drove away down the return road very curious to see why I had lost so bad. I pull up, get the ticket, and see her light was .025. I look over at mine...... .257 $%&@
CRAP!!! LOL I could do nothing but laugh and drive away. I ran closer to the dial, but the damage was done. I have no idea why I thought I had a decent light. Chalk it up to me being pretty new to driving still, and my mind being overcome with being in my first final and worried about red-lighting. While driving home, I had a lot of time to reflect on that final pass, and what happened leading up to it. Basicly, it just came down to me not following my routine that had been working for me that day.
So.. Yeah, I suck, that was terrible, and again, I apologize to anyone I had a negative thought/comment about before that had a bad light.
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