Well it seems it was that time of year again. Spring was in the air, people were thinking warm thoughts and looking forward to a vacation to sunny warm Las Vegas to attend the west coasts biggest Mopar show. Then they got here Cold, windy, raining, cold, and windy, well unless you were Canadien then all was great and the weather felt beautiful and warm

So we decided to bring both cars out to the MATS. My son and i debated bringing out the small tire car up until the last minute. We finally, or rather I finally caved and we brought it along.

Up on my soap box for a minute here and a little off topic but I feel the need to share here. I must say for those of you who attended and towed a vehicle I waited in the lines THREE times. I must also say that some folks really need to learn some patience and manners. When I had to come to the aid of a track worker because some drunk idiot(this was 1 PM mind you)was going to "kick his a**" we have a problem. So just a public service announcement. Try to learn some patience next time. I know it took some time to get it, I know it may not have been what you thought was ideal but they were doing the best they could considering the inconsiderate, folks who refused to follow along and make it an orderly procession. I salute the Painters and the staff for doing the best possible job they could. Also to the track crew who while maybe the track was not the best all the time were busting thier humps to clean up all the oil all over the track. I am beginning to think ANY car that goes down a drag strip needs a diaper. Sure would have sped things up. If i can get one on a 68 Barracuda with a 99 Hemi so can everyone else....

Now to get back to the fun part. We brought the big tire car entered in the Q16 class. The little tire car was entered in time only. No real place for it to race and we figured it would not have an easy time getting down track so seemed like the best fit. We did try and ask if we could run it behind Q16 or the Hemi cars or at least something with slicks but were shot down. So we ended up runnig with street cars and slant 6 guys.

We decided not to participate in Thursdays test hits. Rather I decided to help Tom with his new engine in the dragster. Not that I was much help but got him through a couple of passes to get the nerves worked out at least, I think.

I also had a customer of mine participating in the True Street Challenge. He had a Beautiful 69 Hemi Charger, blue and white. Georgeous car and a super guy. We also had our usual folks seeking info, help or parts. This to me is the funnest part of this show. The comradery in chasing a similar goal. Whether it is a street car or a 7 second car we are all after the saem result. have fun and make some laps. Hopefully win a round or four and make it home safe.

Wel to cut to the chase. The big tire car did it's usuall repeating thing in qualifying. 8.41-8.42 on every pass. All was well, until Suday..Anything that could go wrong did on Sunday. I could not do anything right in the car. Had it not been for lady luck, and Darren giving me the advice I really needed at the right time I would not have made the finals. Frankly I should not have made it out of first round as I had a horrific showing there due to a car issue. Getting to run Tom in the final was the icing on the cake race wise for me. Nothing beats getting to run a truly good guy for the title of Q16 champ, which I did not win, but if i was going to loose Tom is who I wouldwant to win.

The small tire car. Well it was an adventure for sure. Lots of people were asking lots of questions about the car. From what kind of hemi is that to is it fast. Well we tried to answer all the questions and then we tried to show if it was fast. Our first pass on Friday proved to be the best attempt to showing folks if it was fast or not. The car works AWESOME and we knew it would likely get off the line ok as the starting line was great. We decided since the track would likely be an issue that we woudl make some minor changes. We pulled another 3 degrees of timing out and lowered the high side chip to 9900, just in case as to not hurt anything.

Well the car did not want to do a burnout but I muddled through best I could. Staged the car against some poor lady in her street car. Let go of the button and took off. 1.294 60(best we have been)and then about the 200' mark it began to skate around, I short shifted(not alot)into second. I decided to ride it out as it was not horrible YET..About the top of second gear it made a hard move toward the center of the track I grabbed third and the move continued. Let off the throttle at 6.4 seconds(racepak)and coasted on through to a 8.54(I think)at 130 IIRC. After I got back to the pits I heard from a few of the guys that I was, well crazy. Well maybe with different words, more colorful shall we say. I was very happy. It did better than we had thought given the track and some changes we made.

Ouor next pass Friday resulted in about a 65' pass. Left hard, 1.290 60', new best then proceeded to scare the camera man on the wall. I was still happy, Did not hurt anything and we set another new best 60'.

On Saturday we gave it one last shot. Late in the day, almost the end of the day really, just before the rain came. We had not started the car all day. We had it ready to go just never started it. It was cold, overcast and was likely not going to go well. We had the oil preheated and car ready just in case. We decided to drag the car up to the scales to weigh it, as we have a PSCA race in two weeks and want to make sure the track scales match ours, which they do. SO with my son prodding my I finally gave in and decided to just make a pass, or try and then weigh it. So in the lanes we finally started the car and ran it for a few minutes, we had prelubed it before heading up and the oil was warm. Just wanted ot make sure all was well before we pulled up. We seem to draw a small crowd when we did that. Anyway burnout was another cluster but was ok. Staged the car let go of the buttom and were rewarded with a 1.26 60' time. Another new best! The proceded to start skating around about 100' out and tried like heck to take out the 330'cone, so just limped it out off the track. I was very happy with the the results to say the least.

I apologze if I did not get to talk to everyone who came buy. I tried to spend time with everyone but we seemed to have people coming and going everyday. I want to thank the AH guys for feeding us on Friday night, thanks to spyfish for the cigars and just his great personality and his crew great bunch of guys. I would like to say thanks to Tom for just being a great guy! Even if he beat me in the final. Also my son and wife for letting me do this stuff. Also say thanks to all who came buy to wish us well and congratulate us, THANK YOU ALL!

So to sum it up. I was runner up in Q16, set a new best 60' time in the little tire car, and the best part my customer(Holly Graves)competing in the true street challenge ended up winning the event!! He will be on the cover of the magazine and they did a full feature spread on his beautiful 69 hemi Charger..I could not have been happier!!!

Cant wait til next year!