I FINALLY made it out to my first official race. Once a month on the first Saturday of the month Milan Dragway holds a heads-up series and I decided to enter the "ALL-MOTOR" class ...about 2 years ago. I had so, many helpers but, the TOP3 were my wife Michelle, Randy Johnson, and Jerry Tormala!!! All thru the 2 days we were having fun and laughing thru our adventure and adversities. Friday the 5th was the first (but not necessary) day of the race allowing for testing and 1 qualify attempt for a 16 car field. There are over a dozen 7 second car that could show up any given day. Lately (after 'Cov') things are different and we've had a low car counts. This was a decent showing with 8-9 cars. (4 'broke' before elims!!!) Friday we struggled to get the car out and as ready as could be. With some minor weather and tech delays I was able to get 2 hits in and qualified #5 with an 8.9x @ 130 lifting because I had no chute and the car had a bad vibe out about 100+ mph since I had changed to 10.5x29.5 tires/tubes and the 4.10 gear. All was valuable to get situated in the program. Got home about mid-night and back up at 5 am with my mind racing (about racing) and what to fix, including balancing tools etc. After the long drive back and breakfast on the road !!!Harvest Moon Cafe!!! we hit the ground running and got all over the car like a couple of spider monkeys. The weather was great and helped us loose a few pounds of unnecessary weight! The rest of the day was just one event of luck after another and I'd think we were entertaining. The car has a big bog now at the hit footbraking so, if i don't get the changes done by next month, I'll tbrake it. But went 8.71 bog 1.28, and then 8.70 @ 155+ with a 1.32 near back-fired bog on 3rd qualifier. ON-TO elims ...Incidently, 2600 DA and I have 33* timing and I'm at 2850# (which is 35# over my limit) First round the stage guy comes over and tells me I have a bye into round 2!!! Sometime during the day I had the epiphany that I was being helped by many forces (seen and unseen) and I'd have a great string of luck into elims. I drove it a touch harder rpm-wise hitting 7800 at the shift and 78 in the traps and was rewarded with a 8.59@157+mph 1.26 60 and still minor bog. The second round I ran my 2 buddies with a solid 7 sec '69Z28 ...and I lost with a combination of bad reaction, bad driving and slower car but I was still on cloud nine. Got the chute working well too! The car is more than exceeding my expectations while needing tuning and the comradery was perfect. Come out and see us in August and say hello!!!

Proof...

Good to hear you are out racing !

You know what can get rid of that bog?? SPRAY it !!

Congrats , sounds like you had a good time no matter what

That's awesome! That car runs hard!

Hardcore!!

awesome job!! hangout with Doug and Scott for a weekend and that will be dialed in. gr you and your efforts are paying off!!!

I will try to get out there next month and say hello and introduce myself!!

Scot B.

Having fun is what it's all about. All the parts stayed in the car so thats good. We can fix the bog, but lets use the trans brake. It''l help your R/T. Scott will be testing at Milan Wednesday.
Doug

Why NOT using the trans brake?? or did i miss that in the story?? Its super hard to cut a decent lite on a pro tree footbraking, have to roll in deep

Thanks everyone!!! We were going over everything so much I had no time to get into the MSD to actually see what program it's using FOR SURE. That's the biggest reason I didn't try it. The rental I did with the bigger tires and 4.88 it didn't seem to affect it too much. I have a feeling I'll decide to use the tbrake and fix other things before next month.

Even though I expect you to say this, it still gets me to laugh.

Get that thing on the brake!! Only good things will come from there. Might take a little work to make it happy but the way to go. With that MPH there is some ET left on the table if the combo is right. 157 is enough to get you to the 8.40's pretty easily.

Glad you finally got out there and seen what it's all about racing the class. Watching is one thing participating is another and will only help you to go faster. Time to start digging into the data and see where it can be made better even with the test mule between the fenders up front.

EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH A LITTLE SPRAY

More gear love to see that data for sure. Like to see the fallback rpm and converter slip.

Gonna need to add some bars in that thing too

I'll get a DS sensor on it soon. I think it's all pretty close for stellar air once I tbrake it or even do some 50cc pumps. The guys said all else the same the weather was over a tenth slower than it'd be in decent conditions.

Silent mode!

Great that thing on the brake I recall no racepak on board not sure what logging you have.

I think you should put me in the seat.
Doug

Again a blanket THANK YOU to any who've replied or shared in the fun. There's another element(time consumer), I see now that's necessary to help inspire people to get back out there and that's communication/media. This was the consensus of a few others I talked to in staging. It seems to be working locally because we've had a good showing this month. BACK TO THE CAR...It's been pretty time consuming but when things show where there's a glimmer of hope, it makes up for a lot of the difficulties quickly. Al that converter you sold me cheap years ago is IMO about perfect. I still remember the conversation where my mind was pretty sure it was 'too high' but you said something like '...it might be pretty close'. Currently on this combo it falls back to about 7200 in 25-2600DA (in this state of tune so, it may have a tick more) I have the Holley data-logging dash. I just want to clone it for a spare.

OOOF, of all ways to inspire me, now I AM using the Tbrake!!! I wouldn't be alone and I have to admit that it might be neat to see the car go down the track but for now we'll have to use video lol.

Congrats Sean

Chute pic...