Racer Reports
|
|
|
Racer Reports |
 |
Tuesday, June 03, 2008 9:13 AM A good day in total, but no victory.......Close though again....... Man was it hot at the track Saturday. At one point the weather station said it was 99 degrees at 3:00 in the afternoon. Anyway, we made 5 time runs ranging from a 6.07 to a 6.10. When it came time for the dash for cash, we were indecisive as to what we wanted to put on the car. I wanted a 6.07 but was out voted and we put a 6.08 Well...................she ran a 6.080 with a .005 reaction time and we won the dash for cash for the second time this year!!!!!! With that, we also earned a first round by run if needed, and it was so it was so off to the second round!! ! ! ! Second round we had to race a car that beat us in the very first race of the year, and when he got back to the pit's , he made a jester that he put both hands around his neck like he was being choked referring to us.. Anyway, we flat spanked him but good. We put a .007 reaction time on him, and with a 6.07 dial in, we ran a solid 6.076 to put him on the trailer!!!! Mess with us huh???? I don't think so. Anyway off the third round. Down to 12 cars already and we got to race a door car. Left the dial in at 6.07. The other guy red lighted and it's a good thing he did, because the car fell way off to a 6.11. The car was way out of the groove all the way down the race track so we felt the was reason for the slow ET. Forth round: 5 cars left standing. Us and 4 dragsters. I hate those dragsters. Anyway, everyone picked the right lane which we had been running all night so we had to flip a coin for lane choice. We won that also!! Now we had to put a dial in on the car where we could run it hard all the way through because those dragsters come up on you so fast, you don't have any room to pedal the car. We felt that the 6.11 was a fluke run so we left the 6.07 on the car. We had the better reaction time, our .007 to his .017 but the car would only run a 6.12. We got beat by .0094 thousands of a second. The good news is that we won $100 bucks for the dash for cash, we also moved back into a first place tie in the point standings so it was a very good night. We race again this coming Saturday at Orangeburg. So we hope you all can come out!!! See ya @ the races!!! Michael |
|
|
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:52 AM Let me start with it was " The Good, The Bad, and The > Ugly This was my first attempt to tow the enclosed trailer to the track using my Suburban and man, that was a bad idea. First off, I had no idea that the trailer with the racer inside, golf cart, all the supplies needed to race was sooooooooo heavy. The old girl had a hard time just moving the trailer from the start but she did manage to get up to speed. But then the fun began. We didn't have enough preload on the equalizer hitch and the front end of the Suburban was hunting all over the road and had me in a lather just fighting her to keep her straight. Finally, in Holly Hill we made a link adjustment to the trailer hitch and we were off to the races!!! Still I was way under powered for all of that weight but we made it there in great shape. Off the trailer the racer ran perfect. 6.03, a 6.04, 6.04 and the last time run was the dash for cash. We knew it would run another 6.04 so that's what we put on the window. She ran a 6.030,oh well. Well get them next time on the dash. First round we had a 6.02 on the window and with a .017 reaction time and a 6.032 lap, we were into the second round. Second round, we had to race one of those long cars, a dragster but we dialed up to a 6.03 and with a .011 reaction time and a 6.034 on the scoreboard, we were into round number 3. Third round was run about 2 1/2 hours after the second round because of a terrible Pro Mod crash at the finish line. It was driver error all the way. He drove the car way to far after it was out of shape, crossed the center line and still did not lift, the car then got sideways and slammed the outside wall a ton at over 180 mph. He continued sliding down the wall grinding off the complete body made of carbon fiber and ended up almost in the sand trap because he never deployed his chutes. He was fine, but the track was a mess. He took out three photo cells, left a ton of small razor sharp pieces of carbon fiber all over the place, thus the lengthy time delay. Anyway, third round, we dialed down to a 6.02 had a .007 reaction time and ran a 6.022. That's a .009 thousands package, and got spanked! ! ! ! ! ! The other guy dialed in at a 4.55, had a .001 reaction time and ran a 4.550, a 001 thousands package! ! ! ! ! ! ! !. The only way to beat that it to run a perfect lap, which is almost NEVER done. So with ours heads lowered and our butts red from being kicked so hard we loaded up and headed home. Coming down route 176 just this side of Holly Hill, we saw a truck stopped on the side of the road with their flashers blinking. Didn't think much of it and out of the blue about 300 feet before the truck, I saw a women standing in my lane waving hers arms like crazy. Just then of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A huge deer in my lane laying right where my drivers side tire was traveling.. There was absolutely no way of stopping so I just cranked on the steering wheel to try to straddle the poor animal. I gave it one of those eye closing " Oh No " screams and held my breath. I felt that the Suburban cleared the animal and then I felt the big bang under the trailer....... And it was big. I managed to get her stopped way past where the truck that had her flashers going to survey the damage. Upon quick observation we found that a 1/4 thick piece of angle iron on the very back of the trailer was bent out about 3 inches. At that point, we just wanted to get back to the shop and head for the house. On Sunday I went by the shop to see if there was anymore damage. The rear axle is bent back about 4 inches, when I jerked the wheel to straddle the deer, it broke both equalizer mounts on the trailer tongue. Man what a night. That's the reason for the God, Bad and the Ugly. Our next race in in two weeks at the Burg and I know we will be better than this performance!!!!! Hope to see you there!!! Michael |
|
|
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 5:39 AM Great day at Orangeburg this past Saturday. Had a little rain come through around 2:00, but other than a Pro Modified burning almost to the ground, it was a great day. Off the trailer she cranked our a 6.002 @115.45 but it still had the pop in her at the top of low gear. We are now really scratching our heads. Anyway, then we ran three more time runs and the racer settled in at a 6.02 for two lap in a row . We decided to change the shift chip from 7000 to 6800 RPM's just to see if that helped the popping problem and low and behold, no more popping.......Can't answer why, but the racer was happy and so were we!!! After a couple more minor rain problems and the Pro Modified running, I think we started eliminations around 4:30....only 2.5 hours late. First round (43 cars) we had to race a faster car and we dialed her in @ a 6.01. We ran a 6.037 but won the round when the other guy broke out by a ton. Second round ( no buy backs this race because of the weather, so the field was in half after the first round! ) and we got paired up with a dragster. Dialed her down to a 6.01 so we could driver her all the way through the stripe and not look back. We drilled him on the tree with a .015 reaction time to his dead late .093 and won that lap too!! Third round we had to race a real slow car. He was dialed in at a 7.64 so it was going to be a catch me if you can race. Got him on the tree also, his .054 to our .003 told the tail. Caught him and starting padding the gas and we ran a 6.05 to get the win. Forth round, as we were coming up to the staging lanes we saw a small fire at the head of staging and the closer we got the fire just kept getting bigger and bigger. After about 15 seconds we saw then finally put out the fire but the car was destroyed. It was a Pro Modified car and I guess a fuel line was broken or came off because the car was running when it started burning. The driver got some real bad burns on his face so they transported him to a area hospital, so now we had to wait until a replacement ambulance could come to the track. They said 30 minutes, but it turned into hour and 45 minutes........... It is now 11.42 Saturday night we are down to 4 cars!!!! We won lane choice with our .003 reaction time ( our opponent had a .005 light) so we were set. The guy we had to race was dialed in at a 7.98 so we had to set at the line for a good bit. I could tell this guy had a horrible reaction time because the light was dead green before he started to move and I was right. He had a .279 reaction time. That's a full 2 tenths of a second advantage for us!!! But as the story unfolds, we cut a .0003 (That's to the forth digit which is 10 thousands, not a typo ) RED LIGHT.........could not believe this. I have never seen a timing system take a reaction time out to the forth digit. Oh well, we were done for the night. We did great though, won $ 200.00 dollars for our third place finish, and best of all we are now the track championship points LEADER!!!! We have 10 more races to go so we are nor counting our chickens just yet. Our next race is May the 19th and then it's three weeks in a row I think. I'll keep you posted!! Michael |
|
|
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 9:59 AM Attached is a small video taken Saturday at Orangeburg for our first points race. The car ran fantastic. As you can see from the video, it ran a 6.01 off the trailer and then it ran a 6.03, 6.03, 6.03, 6.03 in time runs. In the dash for cash we dialed in at a 6.03 and the car ran, you guessed it a 6.031 to win the dash!!! $170.00 bucks for that along with the first round by run.!!! 47 cars entered in Top ET and we got down to 5 cars, and in the fifth round, 1 round away for big money when we broke out .008 thousands of a second................But it was a great first day of racing. Our next race is April the 5th @ Orangeburg and we have great expectations for that race. I'll write more later, Michael |
|
|
Monday, March 10, 2008 6:30 AM Well it was a wash this past Saturday for racing. The track called off the event on Friday in anticipation of the high winds and some rain so we will be heading up there this coming Saturday for our first points race of the season. We got the car all ready to go with the new ignition parts replaced and worked on the trailer all day on Saturday. We'll give a you a report next week!! See ya at the races, Michael |
|
|
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 5:37 AM Went to Orangeburg this past Saturday for a day of testing. The new trailer towed ( new to us ) beautiful and it was a pleasure to be at the track with some shade and even A/C inside when it got a little warm in the afternoon. Off the trailer the racer just FLEW!! She went a 5.911 @ 116.21 ! ! ! That was a shocker. I guess the hard work on her over the winter months paid off!!! Second lap she slowed slightly to a 5.932 but she went the fastest MPH ever @ 116.75 !! Third pass, we raised the fuel pressure up a 1 1/2 pounds because it sounded like I heard a popping noise just before she shifted into high gear, but we blew the tires off at the hit and she only ran a 5.96 but the popping was even worse just at the shift. Came back to the pits and did some checking and found that # 2 cylinder was running extremely lean for some reason. Put 2 sizes bigger jets in the front of the carb and made another lap and that was a mistake. She would hardly even shift into high gear because of the popping . She only ran a 6.004 Came back to the pits and did some real digging this time to find out what was hurt. Took the valve cover off and checked the valves, good, removed the carb to see if it pushed the intake gasket out, good, changed ignition wire going to the cylinder, no better, changed the plug, no help .......................... Only thing we could come up with is
that it didn't have any compression in the cylinder, but of course no one had a
gauge to check her with so we put her back in the box and called it a day. Of
course I could hardly sleep Saturday night wondering what in the world was wrong
with the motor. Just starting out in a season, you don't want a busted motor. I
bought a brand new compression gauge first thing Sunday morning a did a check on
that #2 cylinder......210 lbs.........nothing wrong there. We finally found that
the distributor cap hard a hair line crack and she was cross firing to where
ever..............I felt a ton better knowing this now!!! Ordered new ignition
wires ($151.32 ) new cap and rotor ($46.89 ) and 4 new plugs and almost used up
2 C-notes.......man this is a expensive sport... we are going back up to
Orangeburg this Saturday for the last day of testing before the points season
starts the following week so wish us luck!!! See ya at the races!! |
|
|
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:03 AM Well this week we will be headed up to Orangeburg Dragway for our first test runs of the year. The track will be open from noon till 6 and you can make as many runs as you like. We have (new to us ) a new 24 foot enclosed trailer that we bought and have been rebuilding it for the last three weeks at a feverish pace. We have made enough adjustments to it, ( longer tongue, moved some cabinets, ect ) that it will hold the Racer and our golf cart. I'll send you some pictures of it soon. The car is ready to go. There are always more things that you would like to do to her, but the money factor always enters into the picture. After we WIN some races, we'll invest some more hard earned dollars into her. That's all for now. Hope to see ya at the races this year!!! Michael |
|
|
Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:30 AM Allot has been going on since we last talked. The motor has been apart and freshened up with new valve springs and locks, ( $285.) A new set of headers were installed ($1000 ) new front runner tires were mounted ($296 ) new slicks were installed ( $ 528 ) and so on. Man this sure is a expensive sport. Anyway, the racer is all back together and this Saturday we are towing her to Orangeburg Dragway for a drivers meeting and to get the car it's safety inspection sticker to be able to race at the track this year. We will be going up there on Feb 16th I believe, to test and tune and then the points racing starts in March , which I think the first date in the 22. I will get he full schedule this Saturday and pass it on to you. We will also be going up to Carolina Dragway for 5 races also this season. See ya at he races, Michael |
|
|
Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:59 PM l after my last report, we were due to take the Racer to the tracklast Saturday for a drivers meeting and tech inspection. After spending all day getting everything cleaned up, loaded and everything, at 5:30 we found out that it was all cancelled.........go figure. But here is a schedule that we will be racing this year with some more to be added later. March 1st Test & Tune March 8th Test & tune March 15th Points race April 5th Points race April 19th Points race May 17th Points race May 31 Points race June 7th Points race June14th Points race July 12 Points race July 19th Points race August 3rd Points race August 23rd Points race September 6th Points race All of these races will be @ Orangeburg Dragway. There will be more races added at a later date. Talk to you soon, |
|
|
Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:30 AM Allot has been going on since we last talked. The motor has been apart and freshened up with new valve springs and locks, ( $285.) A new set of headers were installed ($1000 ) new front runner tires were mounted ($296 ) new slicks were installed ( $ 528 ) and so on. Man this sure is a expensive sport. Anyway, the racer is all back together and this Saturday we are towing her to Orangeburg Dragway for a drivers meeting and to get the car it's safety inspection sticker to be able to race at the track this year. We will be going up there on Feb 16th I believe, to test and tune and then the points racing starts in March , which I think the first date in the 22. I will get he full schedule this Saturday and pass it on to you. We will also be going up to Carolina Dragway for 5 races also this season. See ya at he races, Michael |