I was hoping going into this deal that I wouldn't be saying "2 out of 3 aint bad"... but that pretty much sums up my score there.
Just got home after leaving the house Wednesday morning at 6am (5 out there). Arrived and still waited 2 hours to get in to an already packed pit area. Got unloaded in row 2 (on the good pavement I might add.. came in handy with the rain) next to some real cool people from the LA area which I later learned were somewhat "infamous" with a wheel stand in there Malibu at Pomona and a near wreck at Fontana where the car was going from lane to lane barely missing the wall, up on two wheels a couple of time. Great folks to be around. I also met up with moparts members Biginchmopar and WedgeFED as they were down with a group from the Carson City NV area. Was great meeting and talking with them.
the car... I've really not had any probs with Famoso, BUT... I haven't been there when the DA is 100-800 and dead cold. First pass Thursday we launched hard and hooked ok (1.30 60) but well before the shift point was met with a bad lean miss. Now I thought I was on top of things as the last track I'd run at was Vegas, so I'd pulled the 84's and put 94's in.... not enough. Jetted up to 98's. Second run let go of the trans brake and..... well you know the feeling when things are not as planned. 1.349 60. spun, but ran a 9.51. Ok... we'll see what Friday will bring. Friday didn't bring a thing except an early morning text stating that due to the numerous rain delays that "hot rod" class was bumped from the schedule. For one I commend them on at least stepping up and making the call early. Nothing worse than hanging out by your trailer having everything ready for nothing. The only thing worse is knowing that you are going into first round sat am with two krap runs.
Saturday....well this is easy. Rain... that's what happened, on/off all day. I'd say the track crew prepped the track at least 4-5 times just to get kicked where it hurts. So again, nothing for us. Now we're going into round 1 sunday, with krap data from Thursday.... great!
Sunday.... woke up to partly cloudy skies. Got the to the track and it was COLD!! 39-42 degrees as we drove out there. Some sun came out and they had the track prepped so away we went to the staging lanes. Think it might have been around 48-50 when we made the first pass. I'm sure the track was cold, but NOTHING went right on the pass. I was being chased by an high 8 sec car which is odd in this class, but I cut a crap light to his .013, spun the tires and the nose dropped like a rock, and was met with more lean misfire.... the trifecta of death. I knew the DA was considerably lower as the ambient temp, but I was hoping the high humidity was on my side.... wrong.
While I have crafted some hot/dry weather techniques for my car, the cold track, no DA, humidity thing was definitely new to me. Perhaps there are some air bleed adjustments that can be done because with my stuff I'm at the end of my rope. Braswell 4825 running power valves and 98 jets and it's still too lean??? who would have thought.
Overall.... it's always a gamble entering this race. It actually fills up so it's not like you can wait until a few days before, check the forecast, and decide. This time around.... I lost. It's too bad... kind of cool watching close to 40 funny cars battling for a 32 car field. Lots of down to earth real racers and it's a blast to be around. We seem to attend about every other or third year. We'll have to see how we feel about things next November when my opportunity to "buy it now!" pops up.
Jay
