John was in the first pair for the second round, matched against Jason Pipkin's V-8 powered Mazda RX-7. Jason cut an other worldly .016 tree that welded John and the Valiant to the starting line. The Mazda had bus lengths by the eighth mile, and John just cut him loose at 1100ft, braking to a safe 11.325-100 on his 11.12. Jason had won the first round by backing into his opponent and taking the stripe by a scant .0015, so I guess that left him a little gun shy of the brake pedal in round two, as he screamed across the stripe to a full tenth breakout, 11.39 on an 11.49 dial handing John the win!
Ugh, that was me. How embarrassing. In my defense though, I was having to scrub 7 tenths to run my required 11.49, as it went 10.78 in the final round of qualifying. I had no idea how to handle something like that, and ultimately that's what I get for not thoroughly testing the new combo before the start of Drag Week. It's first 1/4 mile pass was at Tulsa Raceway Park on Saturday night. I managed to squeak by the first round by drawing my competitor in close (a little too close) but I was chasing so I knew where he was the whole time. In the race against John I was supposedly the slower car so I didn't know where he was at any point of the race. I let off early and coasted but didn't scrub enough time. Lesson learned.
Huge congrats to John for pulling it off though. I was in the stands cheering him on like everyone else. Very cool.
Also, loving the read Billy. I was pitted across the way from you guys at Great Bend and walked over to say hi, but everyone looked wore out and busy so I dropped it. Now I know why. Rough week for you guys.
