I had a good day of racing, Sun 9/20, at Maryland International Raceway, Budds Creek Maryland. This was part of the "Raiders ET Challenge" 8-race mini-series which runs 1/8th mile; and also counted for MIR track points.

I put new tires on for this big event, as the old ones had 232 passes on them. Well that worked great. I made 9 passes and the sixty foot time only varied 1.245-1.249 except for the last pass as the air cooled and oil temp went up (round robin) it went 1.240. That is a new best for me.

The car was running 5.85 and change every run until the 6th round as the air cooled down a bunch. I had dialed down to 5.84 against my opponents 5.50. I cut a 0.030 RT vs his 0.036 (footbrake). He crossed first by 0.0001 seconds, but ran under his dial-in more than I did (5.833 vs 5.487), so I got the win light.

In those 6 rounds, the only round I took the stripe was in 5th when the other guy got way out of shape and got out of the throttle. I was getting used to giving up the stripe and winning as everyone was breaking out and my car kept running 5.85

In the semi finals there were 3 cars left. And I got the bye-run!
In the finals (8th round), I ran 5.830 on a 5.83 dial-in and lost!
The other guy ran 6.112 on a 6.11 dial-in and his light was 0.005 better than mine, so he crossed first by 0.003
We split the money $1100/$900 so I was happy with that. Entry was $89 for 2 races (Sat & Sun), so that worked out to $44.50 per race, and I won $50 in round money on Sat too.

I estimate my car would have run 9.26 in the 1/4 that day. This E85 is working great and saving me some money on fuel too.

Contrats! a very good day of racing, and your car is deadly consistent so now you don't have anything to point the finger out when you don't win...lol Looks like you need to update your signature as well, those are some great numbers!

Wade,
I have been saying all season, the car is better then the driver (me), and it has saved me a bunch of times.

Great job Jim!!!

Very cool, If E85 was more readily available up here, my car would be converted already.

$900 for runner-up, not too shabby!

Congrats Jim.
coin in the pocket is always nice.

Dave

WAY TO GO JIM!!! So How are you doing in the points? #1, I believe. Don

jim, that's great!! i believe we share the same philosphy,"throwing money at a problem" isn't the way to go.

Good job Jim.... dont ya just love those types of weekends

Nice job! Your Dart sure can repeat round after round. Congrats!

Congrats on the runner up. Anyday you can come home with the car as it was when you left with money is a GREAT day racing in my book.

I am super jealous of your consistency... Got any tips you want to share?

The track updated the website with the points standings as of Sep 20:

_ TOTAL REG # PARTICIPANT
1) 600__ 511_ JIM HANRAHAN
2) 530__ 3___ MICHAEL JACKSON
3) 502__ 2590 STEVEN KLOCK JR
4) 500__ 1753 FRANK THOMPSON
5) 490__ 7X81 ROBERT ROBERTSON
6) 482__ 1243 LISA BOLTON
7) 481__ 422_ FRANCIS REYNOLDS JR
8) 461__ ZX45 JOHNNY BURCH
9) 460__ 1919 DAVE HILL
10)460__ 9X61 GEORGE WINDSOR

Two more races to go. And they are another Raiders ET Challenge on Sat/Sun Oct 10-11. Then I am heading down to Rockingham, NC for the bracket team finals.

jim, i sure hope you can hold on to #1.

Thanks Greg,

One of my other sayings is,
"I am the owner, sponsor, driver, crew chief, mechanic, and wash boy... all in one" LOL

And although I give the car setup a lot of credit, the driver has a job to do to make the car consistant. That includes things like managing water temp, engine oil temp, trans temp, tire pressures, burn out technique, holding staging rpm (footbrake), shifting on time (non-electronics class), etc.

And of course you have to put the right dial-in on the car, account for weather changes, add/delete fuel (weight) to fine tune ET, etc.