Match Race in Bristol

Well, we're back from our match race against Bob Gilbertson in Bristol on Friday night. I gotta say, I was very, very impressed with the crowd they had up there. To be honest, I was a little worried that since the NHRA was just there a couple weeks ago, turnout would be low. Wrong. We were supposed to make our first run at 7PM, but due to the huge turnout and long lines waiting to get in, we didn't make our first run until after 8PM. And the fans were great. I must have signed over 1,000 T-shirts. All I can figure is that there is a big unfulfilled demand out there for Top Fuel drag racing.

Anyway, we took advantage of the match race opportunity to test a new cam, and all I'll say is I think we'll go back to the one we'd been running. First pass we were running well, but pushed out an intake gasket at half track and had to shut down. The second pass we ran a 5.30, but I shut down at 1000'. The car just felt sluggish past half track and I didn't want to push it and have another "roman candle" (as the announcer in Milan put it). But I'm glad we had a chance to get some data on this alternate cam in case we need to run it in a pinch later this year.

Aside from the technical stuff, Bob and I put on a great show for the fans. We did long burnouts before our runs, past the 330' markers. The track is beautiful, the facility is great, the track management is first class, and the fans were awesome.

Next up is the IHRA Presidents' Cup Nationals in Budds Creek, MD the weekend of June 13-15. With the NHRA going through a nitromethane shortage, and outlawing Monday test sessions, the rumor is that some of those teams may come out to Budds Creek and use the IHRA event as a test session. Should make it fun!