As Schroeder completed the burnout, Brian Lohnes was explaining the crash that ended the Vette's DW16 bid on day one, and my mind flashed back to last year's story.
I hadn't wrote about the incident until February 12th 2017, when I posted the iconic picture of Monte surveying the damage with crossed arms, while Schroeder's cousin and co-pilot John Ens leaned against the wall behind the car:
Originally Posted By MoparBilly
Five sets after Boone ran Jamie Hochbaum pulled his Modified Power Adder silver 2010 Challenger into the left lane water box for his second attempt at Drag Week. Last year he failed to make it past day two with a best of 12.05-152, if you are wondering why I haven't mentioned it before...well, it has a turbo LS under the hood. The right lane was occupied by Dave Schroeder and his Canada based, nitrous huffing, big inch 66 Corvette tuned by Monte Smith. If you remember my story from last year, Monte and the Schroeder/Ens team used Friday afternoon and Saturday to make huge strides with the car. They were hoping to capitalize on those gains at 2016 Drag Week.
While the Challenger sat on the line and spooled, the Vette left good, with a respectable 1.14 60', and was running 165 at the 1/8. Jamie finally let the Challenger go as the Vette went past the thousand foot mark. The board lit up with 6.85-199.5 but the chute never blossomed. Jamie had the Challenger humming at the 1/8 mile mark as the back of the Vette started bouncing on the big slicks, and Dave was obviously in serious trouble. The rear of the Vette hopped towards the centerline, shoving the front end towards the left wall and forcing the car to make contact at a hard angle, catapulting him into the right lane, where the car came to rest. Jamie cleared the traps with a fine 8.31-167, dropped the laundry, then had to navigate around the wounded car sitting cross ways in his lane. Luckily the time differences between the beginning of each run gave Jamie plenty of time to make the needed adjustments and navigate the shut down area.
Monte responded to my post less than twenty-four hours later with the following on February 13th:
Originally Posted By Monte_Smith
The boys from Canada picked up the Vette this past Saturday. It was hurt pretty bad.
Flashing back to last year, when Billy mentioned we were struggling with the car.......well that's an understatement. This was likely an old Super Gas car or something. While it worked great with the 648, the 867 has been a struggle. The car is just unhappy. I was in Canada testing with them last summer and finally told them "it just won't work". So I hauled the car down here and dropped it at Chris Terry Race Cars for some much needed updates. Full double frame rail from 4-link to motor plate down tube bars and plenty more bracing. The first pass at Drag Week was the FIRST pass on the new chassis. I had it set really soft to just go A-B and it went 6.85, which was a best for the car by a lot. On the crash, Dave threw the chutes, but they had put new cables on and left too much wire hanging out of the sheath and it never turned them loose. Car has carbon brakes and he was on them hard. Once they got hot and grabbed one time.......it was over.
Looking at it now, it's a good thing we added the double frame rails to the car, or it would have been junk after the crash. Back on the jig at Chris Terry's, the car was perfect from firewall back. It just needed a new front clip. The body was the biggest concern, as that is a real Corvette, plus wheel wells and rear of body were modded pretty heavy. Richard Earle at Suncoast made us a rear tail for the car, so we just hacked the whole rear off to nearly the wheelwells and grafted a new tail on. That was much easier than trying to repair the crashed up stuff. Also whoever built the car originally had done some not so nice things in the rear and we fixed all that. We also installed new carbon tubs and replaced all the rear tin with carbon. New heavier 4 link bars, new heim ends and Santhuff struts this time.
They still have plenty of work to do, as they are building the front cradle to mount radiator and mounting the nose themselves. So as usual, will likely show at Drag Week AGAIN having no chance to sort the car first
Then, less than a month later, Monte was gone, and I, like so many other racers across the United States was left wishing for one more bench racing session at the track or one more exchange on Moparts...I still miss him.
I had a knot in my throat already just listening to Lohnes and Freiburger talking about Monte and the Vette as Schroeder purged the nitrous and turned on the stage bulbs. The Vette left as hard and as clean as I've ever seen and Lohnes' voice rose perceptively as he proclaimed "Shcroeder's going in the sixes" just by translating the early numbers on his computer screen. "He is four twenty-eight to the eighth mile, here it comes kids...six fifty-seven seven, two hundred seventeen!" The emotion and excitement in Lohnes' voice was carried perfectly over the PA as it rose in volume and pitch to a crescendo when he belted out the MPH numbers. The fact that he has quickly became the most sought after announcer in motorsports is easy to understand when you listen to him work the mic on Drag Week.
I let out a loud yell and a fist pump when the numbers hit the board, but knowing I couldn't control my emotions, I growled at Boone that I was going to the bathroom and walked off before he and Rachael could see me wiping my eyes.
"If only Monte could see that", Freiburger added as Lohnes was attempting to set up the next pair. "Yeah, well, somewhere I can guarantee you, somewhere Monte is smiling...with red shoes on!" Lohnes retorted, before gathering himself for a second and moving on. I had made it to the empty bathroom during that exchange, and allowed myself to sob and let all the emotions of the moment escape me. I felt like an idiot for letting a single pass down the drag strip turn me into a tub of blubbering goo, but I was reminded of the Jim Valvano qoute about laughing, thinking, and having your emotions move you to tears. "It's been a heck of a day already, Jimmy V!" I thought to myself, "I think you and Monte would both approve." I walked out of the bathroom and headed back to our pit, and when I looked at Boone and Rachael still standing in front of the Valiant, I thought to myself again, "There is no where else on this planet I'd rather be right now, than right here".
"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks"
4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
