Well I did get the car to the point I could and did take it. Not sure now that it was a wise decision. I was up till 5AM this morning working on the car to get it there. I would have never made it without my good friend Jason's help.
The first pass I just eased it through to see how it drove. I was hitting the rev-limiter almost all the way down the track. I thought it had a 6200 pill in it and didn't think a whole lot of it.
Got back to the pit and pulled the pill out. It was a 7000. That should have been my first clue. But after talking to another racer and knowing that the pills sometimes don't work like they should. I went to plan B.
Yep, I took the pill out and decided to make another run. Now at this point I'm going to blame everything going forward on sleep deprivation. I have not done an all night thrash like that in probably 35 years. I have read and enjoyed Mopar BillyG's stories and really enjoyed them. But I can assure you I should only stick to reading these escapades and not try and live them out. I'm to OLD.
So I'm back in the staging lanes all strapped in waiting to make my second run. They have an oil down. So a some point while waiting for the clean up. I'm awakened by someone firing up a car behind me. Oh I guess I need to move up. I didn't think I had that long of nap. Go to fire the car. No crank. Well this is lovely. I look like a monkey with a football getting in and out of this thing. I'm out about the time Jason comes over. Told him it would crank. He ask if I put a fuse in for the jumper wire we had going to neutral safety relay. AH, nope I forgot some time between 3:30AM and now that I needed to do that. So we repositioned the jumper.
Now I'm in the burnout box. Nice burnout this time and I hear the new Phoenix tires chirp as it rolls out of the water. Have I mentioned that the hood scoop is hard to see around/threw? Oh and I feel like my azz is dragging the ground. Any way I stage the car and come up on the converter a little more than the first run. Light comes down and I leave. Seems better but still not what I was expecting.
Now is when third problem comes into full realization. Did I mention NO TACH. Oh yea we didn't that that installed last night. Wasn't going to need it cause we have a new fangled shift light. So I just stuck it in second gear for a while. And after a while longer put it in 3rd. By now I'm somewhere between 330 & 660.
At about 1000' I glance at the gauges and the oil pressure is at 40 and creeping down. This would have been the opportune time to have aborted this run. But I didn't it's only a few hundred feet to the finish like right. Well it would have been very useful knowledge to have known just how many RPM's that 416 was turning when it quite running.
Yes I ran it till it stopped. Coasted to the end caught a ride to my pit. Got to hear Dennis say he brought his chain just for this emergency. So we pull it back to my pit. Discuss my senility and decide to see if it will run. It fired up but the oil pressure is low and it sounds tight. I am hoping new bearings will fix it.
This is me and the car just after arrival at the track.
