Day 3 - Great Lakes Dragaway!!

Got up at the buttcrack of dawn, and to be polite as possible to my parents neighbors, we pushed the car down into the middle of the street before starting it and driving away. Cruised the 30 minutes down to Racine, stopped at a Kwik Trip for breakfast sammies/Red Bull/water/ice, and saw tons of other racers stopping as well. Left the gas station around 6:45 and got to the track at 7, again just in time to get a pit spot on concrete! Unloaded the car, set the shocks, added a half quart of oil, lowered the tire pressure, and I noticed the valve covers were leaking slightly so I tightened the allen head bolts. Also figured I'd try running without the air cleaner today to see if it would pick up any.

My parents decided to come and they showed up in the pits around 8:15. By 8:30 it was hard for them to find a spot in the stands, and at 9 my class was called to the lanes- we got to run first today! I was absolutely shocked at how full the crowd was at 9am on a Wednesday for an amateur race with zero prize money.

First pass felt very good - I tried bringing it up against the converter harder, and t seemed to hook a little better by the seat of the pants, and it turned out to be true- it went 12.50 @ 107, but the 60' was almost 6 hundredths quicker than Monday at Cordova, or my other passes at Milan and Norwalk with it. The MPH was off- I'd put ethanol free fuel in it and thought it may have swung too rich based on the a/f meter, but I figured I'd try getting back in the lanes and see if putting the air cleaner back on it would help.

Reinstalled the air cleaner, and at the same time saw one of my cousins from the Chicago area walking up in the lanes. I wasn't expecting him to come and was super cool to race in front of more family! They ran through the lanes quickly. Same thing, brought it up against the converter a little more, and it went a new PB on motor of 12.40 @ 108. The MPH came back from reinstalling the air cleaner, and the 60' was great too. The caltracs are working and the gear change didn't hurt the car at all. And coming back on the return road was insane - by my 2nd pass, the stands were completely full and there were people camped all the way up to the top end of the track. Even the track workers by the scoreboards were smiling and giving thumbs up to everybody passing by. Just surreal!

After the great pass on motor, loaded the car up, turned in the timeslip, hung out with the parents for a bit and then hit the road around noon. Detoured up to Gus's drive in, in East Troy, for a proper 50's diner experience. There was also a kindergarten class outside, and one of the parents came over to apologize at one point because the kids were quite rowdy. When we started the car the kids started jumping and screaming.

Cruised to the 1st checkpoint at the Hog Cabin Saloon, then crossed into Iowa. Car is running great with no issues at this point, got to the hotel in Dubuque around dinnertime and slowly watched more racers trickle in. We walked across the street to Chick Fil A for a quick dinner, and went to bed early- we still had to hit up one last checkpoint before stopping at Tri State tomorrow.

*pic of the Fury on track at GLD purchased from Alan Smith/Mr. Fabulous Photography