06/11/11

                                   Our Weekly Exploits

   Rain kept us from the Bad 8 last weekend.  Back to track dodging showers for the first Friday night race of the season.  Still
having issues with reaction time even with practice and decreasing the delay.  Had the best run of the evening for first round.
Didn't plan it that way and also didn't dial for it.  Had a large decrease in the 60ft which translated to much quicker at top end.
Was ahead of the other dragster at 1/8 mile but not a lot.  He kept right beside me, never lost sight of him.  After the 1000ft,
left up on the throttle a little and finally before the speed cone, pedaled it several times to tighten up.  Still had 4-5ft advantage
crossing the finish line, but that was still too much - needed to drop back to half that.  Broke out by .014 of a seconds.  

   Had another difficult weekend in eliminations.  Didn't help that I went up against the two quickest cars on the track.  Round one
was a tough loss.  Just needed a better reaction time by .003 to have made the win light come on.  My opponent said he almost
gave it back, but based on the data on the time sheet and my hearing the finish line battle, he had the dragster running all out and
barely made it past me.  Final tally was ahead by less than 6 inches with a 0.0027 margin of victory at 180+mph.

   Off last week due to rain on Sunday morning.  Moved Bad 8 #2 to this weekend.  Made Bad 8 again, but only because people were
broken and unable to run for first round.  Number 8 qualifier again.  Any hopes to repeat as Bad 8 winner went away in round one.
So close even after adding more delay to the box.  Was running from the left lane which doesn't work well for this car.  Went
hard to the right as soon as the brake released.  Adjusted 4-link some and bought back in.  Did not have lane choice and went
back into the left lane.  Opponent moved when going on the 2-step and was red.  4-link changes worked a little.  For 2nd round,
had a .022 package - best for the year. It helped knowing he was red, but he was also still ahead of me crossing the finish line.
3rd round I had issues with transbrake.  It didn't hold when I hit the button and the car moved, but not out of the lights.  I basically
had to go to the bottom bulb and footbrake.  I anticipated the green too much and coupled with being too far into the lights, I
was way too early.     

   Ran over at MIR this weekend to check out some of the changes we made.  MIR has a good launch pad which usually means very
good times.  And that we had.  Fastest and quickest run this year and quickest that the altered has been.  No points involved.

   For double points, should have done better then first round.  Had a wild turn of events today.  Made a small change to the setup
over the week and it helped.  Shock settings messed up the second time run where it spin the tires and bounced around the track.
The first round had to go with what the weather station predicted but it couldn't predict the hook or that it would go straight.  I
knew it was going to be a breakout run and let out of the gas way early.  No matter, it was at least a tenth of a second faster than
predicted and that's not something I could kill with almost 40mph advantage in over-taking speed.  Well it least it wasn't a red
light.  Next Sunday is an off week for US13.  Looking for racing elsewhere. 

   We made it to the Winner's Circle again, even if it was mainly for bragging rights.  Won the Bad 8 Open Wheel Super ET race
within a race.  The top 8 fastest/quickest open wheel (dragsters) are paired against each other and run separately at the front of
all the Super ET class cars.  So, we won the title of "Baddest of the Bad" for the first Bad 8 race of the season.  Lost 4th round
against the winner of the door car's Bad 8 winner.  Took 0.010 delay out of the box and went -0.008 red - too early.  If I would
have left it alone, probably would have had a 0.002 green light and won another round.  Tough call when I was late leaving all day.

   Starting to get back into the swing of things.  Still working the 4-link suspension to find a sweet spot that works with all the low
torque the new cam is making.  Also have to stop all the red lights.  Need to be competitive but not at the expense of losing.  All
three red lights were when the bottom staging light winked but wouldn't stay lit, so will have to work on that part.

   First time down the track this year.  Need more work on the 4-Link rear suspension to get it launching correctly.

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   OK, back for more money.  It's a shame this win didn't come while there were points to earn.  Lots of festivities at the
track for the DELMARVA Power Sports event - the end of the Eastern Shore's Bike Week.  The weather certainly has changed,
back to cooler temperatures.  This weekend was meant to be a tune up for the NHRA North East Division Bracket Finals in two
weeks.  The converter has been fixed. It still isn't where it was suppose to be, but it is better.  Lots of rounds here.  Had a
quick breeze in round one that pushed both of us down the track.  I say this based on the rest of the runs.  Nothing else went
that far under the computer's prediction.  By round two the wind had died.  Round three worked to our favor with .032
package.  Quarter Finals were the critical round.  Lucky for us, my opponent had just as much trouble with the lights and
issues with the track that enabled me to let off the gas well in advance of the finish line.  Looking at the incremental times,
we had the fastest time to 1000ft that we have ever had (7.024 seconds).  Given the conditions and fast run, we could have
run a 8.48 second pass, which would have given us a loss.  We had to worry about the humidity making the track slick after
dark and at some point humidity in the air displaces oxygen dropping horsepower.  I think the Quarter Finals were the best
atmospheric conditions and we were dropping performance from there.  The Semi-Final round was against a familiar
opponent, same person we beat for our other win this year.  In the finals in May, we both were in the high teens for
reaction times.  This time, I took time out of the box to ensure I got a jump at the lights.  As it turned out, I didn't need the
.011 light or .016 package to take the win.  The Finals were more of the same fun.  I should have done better at the
reaction time, but we were running the number.

   Well finally, we made it to the winner's circle.  It has been a year plus of racing, and we finally earned a win.  2005 was
purely "lets get our license" year, which took us till June.  2006 was our first full year for points and only a little success toward
the end of the year.  2007 will be a good year to remember as our first win.  It wasn't an exceptional day of performance, but
when we needed it, it was there.  We had a shot at the King of the Track crown as well, but I let the format of racing
different classes against one and other get to my head.  There was a lot of racing, so we'll stick to competition.  Round 1 was a
tough round, as always.  Dialing in was the critical element.  My competitor was tied for the points lead coming into the day. 
They almost always run the same time as us to the hundredth of a second.  In the lanes, they waited till last minute to put on
their dial.  When it was 2 hundreds slower than our, I made the call to add 1 hundred to our time.  I figured that if one of us
were going to break out, I would be closer to the real time.  As it turned out, I ran what we had put up as our original dial-in,
broke out by 8 thousands of a second, but he broke out by more (11 thousands).  It was a tough loss for him.  Round 2 was an
easy ride.  Over took the other car at 1000ft and got out of the gas at the speed cone.  Round 3 was another tough competitor,
always good at reaction time.  We had a good package and he red lit.  Quarter finals were a good break for us.  Lost traction
at the starting line because we didn't heat the tires well.  Getting into the late rounds would seem to be more nerve-wracking,
but they were not that bad.  The semi-final opponent is one of the two fast dragsters on the track - fastest when he uses NO2.
We raced him early last year and lost.  Big intimidation factor.  He wanted the right lane (which we had been running in all
day) and because he is a keen competitor, we had to change the delay box to get us a better reaction time.  We ended up
with a perfect light, not something we intended, but it was timely.  Got off to a great start and was settling in for the run
when the winners light came on my side scoreboard at the end of the track.  He had gone red behind me.  This was probably
the critical event for the day, because I could stay on the gas the whole way to the finish line without sweating the breakout.
I had already won.  Because there was a big change in the weather and different lanes, I was WAY under my dial-in.  This
showed me what I could expect for the final round.  The final round was another fun run.  A previous 10 year track champion
was our opponent.  We talked the customary smack before the run.  A perfect light is too close to a loss, I did the smart thing
and added time to the box for the final.  It went right down to the wire.  We both cut good lights, and were off to the finish
line.  Light was fading and I had a tinted visor on my helmet, so I only remember seeing him coming on between the speed
cone and ET cone.  I dropped off the throttle just as we got to the last cone.  Not sure if it made a difference or not, but the
margin of victory gave us what looks like a fairly good lead on paper (0.0119 of a second).  Translated to inches at 150MPH, it
was just over one-half an inch.  Not something you can judge by eyesight at 150 MPH.  It was a good day already, but we
weren't finished.  Because it was King of the Track Day, we were in a run-off between all of the class winners for a Wally and
a free pass to the bracket finals in Maple Grove this fall.  As it turned out, my concentration lapsed.  I had a clear advantage in
the format, even if I wasn't allowed to use a crosstalk tree.  I had the most consistent ride, the electronics and transbrake. 
We were running the PRO-BIKE winner for the day who had a 9 second bike.  I didn't see the top light clearly when it came on
and was VERY late in releasing the button.   I disappointed a good many Super ET drivers when I couldn't pull it off.  Guess we
are back into the mix next week.