March Meet.... Ma nature kicked our azz

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

Well I guess you could look at it like this at least your tranny didn't go out I think as Racers we've all had. Trips like that.. that's crazy good air.. we will be headed up there in 2 weeks
. Hopefully conditions are better

Jay, sorry you got rained out! I was looking for you, but never did find your pit. I saw you make 1 pass, it looked good from the bleachers. This was my first March Meet, and I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of the cars. Especially the nitro cars! Between the funnys, the dragsters and fuel altereds, there must have been 70 nitro burners there. I didn't know there were than many left in the country. I made a couple score in the swap meet. I left sat night after it started raining again and drove to Pomona for the big swap meet, that was fun.

yeah I was in contact with Jeff a couple of times Joel on your being there... the car stayed in the box most of the weekend out of the rain so looking for the "white trailer" would have been useless

Our past two experiences there we were blessed with great weather (12-16) so I guess we were due for one of these.

Shiloh hopefully the air stays good, but more so... I'm sure that deal will have more time to let some sun on the track and warm it up some.

Jay,
Sorry I didn't get to talk to you much Sunday, we had one heck of a time with the cold weather as well. We rubbed the wall with the tire on our only Sunday run at 2:00pm. Oh well next year.

Getting home at 1:00am sucked.

This is why I agree with Norwalk 100% running big races 1/8 mile

It was about 100' out (rubbing the wall)

I don't like 1/8 mile, I like going fast and quick.

Love ya, John, but the March Meet also features fuel cars and the biggies in Nostalgia racing. It's reliant on spectators. 1/8 mile nostalgia races won't draw flies.

We've discussed this before, and I guess that if it's a bracket race where everything is geared toward the competitors without regard to anything else it can work OK. Personally, though, I'd rather drill my own teeth than run 8th mile.

believe the last sheet I looked at had 38 funny cars trying to get into a 32 car field. It is a blast to watch. Lots of cool folks at that race. Even with the rain delays it made time to walk around and take it all in.

There were people from pretty much all over the globe in attendance.

I hear you Steve but the bracket cars are fill in cars and the first to get bumped from the schedule. The crowd isn’t there to see them. Get used to it guys, it’s coming

I know the hard core bracket guys like it.....for what reason I don't really know. I know the arguments for and against. I think some are valid, others are not. But, to each his own.

But, it really doesn't have a place at an NHRA Heritage Series event. There were 30K folks there, and I can guarantee you they would not have half that for an 8th mile event. But, they run a dial your own class, but, they are not the regular brackets as you guys know it. They all are Nostalgia classes, with cars built for that type of racing. It's different.

Personally, not interested the least in running 8th mile. One of the reason is that the old school Mopar Super Stock cars like my nostalgia car makes all of it's et in 2nd and high gear. It has big mph for the et it runs....most of the old school Mopar wedge & Hemis do. That has served me well over the years. I am not about to change the combination to cater toward the 8th. Not even remotely interested.

Personally, the day the only option is 8th mile racing, is the day everything here is parked and we go hang out at car shows with the rest of the geezers. Just doesn't interest me at all. And, I'm not alone. The hardcore bracket guys like it, and I get that, but, there are a lot that do not and will quit. Guarantee it.