HOT HOT HOT!!! Budds Creek wrap up

We had a reasonably successful trip to the IHRA Presidents' Club Nationals in Budds Creek this weekend. Butch arrived with the transport on Thursday, and had everything set up when we rolled in at 4AM on Friday morning after driving all night from Piedmont.

We were on a great pass on Friday night's qualifying session when we dropped a few cylinders just past half track, and I got pushed around so bad that I had to click it off. We went 5.29 at only 220, which ended up being our only qualifying run of the weekend as we skipped Saturday afternoon's session and Saturday night got rained out. Luckily it was good enough for the 7th spot.

I had someone ask me how it feels when you drop a cylinder and get pushed around the track, and best I can describe it is the like the feeling you get when you get passed on the highway by a big truck, and your car gets pushed over. Only in a funny car it's about 10x as intense. I had the wheel full left and I was still moving to my right toward the wall at 250+ so I had to shut off and coast through the lights.

Speaking of Saturday, we sat out the first afternoon qualifying session when the cars in front of us all couldn't make it down the track. The track temp was 147 degrees, which is about as hot as I've ever seen it. When tracks get that hot, all the oil and grease trapped in the track surface rises up and makes the track very slick. Air temp was 90, no clouds in the sky and just wicked hot. We run more pressure in the tires to get more contact area on the ground when the track is hot, and I can't remember ever setting them higher than we had in preparation for that round.

On Sunday we faced Matt Hagen in round one. Matt's in his first year of nitro funny car and is doing fairly well. They beat us in Milan when we lost our blower belt, so we felt like we owed him. We both lauched clean, but he started having traction issues a couple hundred feet out, and I was on a clean run until about 800 feet. At that point I heard the motor start to rev and the back of the car lifted up as we started spinning the tires. I had no idea Matt was having issues, so I pedaled the car by taking my foot out of the throttle for a split second and then rolling back into it gently. If you stomp on it when you pedal you risk a backfire, or worse, so I pedaled it gently and we went 5.40 which was good enough for the win.

In round two, we faced Mr Consistency, Dale Creasy, Jr. I swear we must be 0-10 against him, and he NEVER has a bad run when we're in the other lane. Of course, he ran a great 5.11 on a 140 degree track, and we only went 5.30, but made a clean pass. We just had it set up soft for the poor track conditions, and also drove through the clutch a little at half track. And of course, that 5.30 was faster than either car in the OTHER semi-final, just like at Rockingham, so again the breaks eluded us. We can catch a break here or there, but not string together a couple in a row. It's like the gods of drag racing are telling us that we aren't getting ANYTHING given to us, we have to EARN it.

I've talked about this before, but last year our problem was smoking the tires at the hit of the throttle. Hats off to Richard Hartman and the crew, because this now makes 16 passes this year and we've yet to smoke the tires. Now it's time to start throwing some more power at it and finding the fine line between a strong launch and a tire smoking disaster.

One of the best parts about racing is meeting the fans. This race we met David and Theresa Moore, and their 12 year old daughter Lacey. They are from Williamston, SC, which is the town right next to Piedmont where we live. They are such big drag racing fans they made the 8 hour drive up to Maryland to spend the weekend at the track. It's neat to meet families that are as knowledgeable of drag racing as the Moore's, and great to see them raising the "next generation" of fans. As all us racers know, if it wasn't for the fans, we wouldn't be able to race.

Next race is over the July 4th weekend in Edmonton, Canada. I hate to say this, but unless something changes (like we find some sponsor help) we may have to skip this race. It would cost us over $6500 in diesel fuel for the transport, and about $5000 in airfare to get the crew to the race. Since we usually drive, and since most races are alot closer, that's about $10,000 more than we usually spend to go racing. So if you know any companies that could use the marketing exposure and promotional opportunity a race sponsorship could bring, and have products/customers in Edmonton, Canada, let us know!!