Saturday night at the hotel the parking lot was a big mess, and by the time I squeezed my truck and trailer into the lot, and then got boxed in by some other cars, I had no idea how long it was going to take me to get out. As a result, we changed plans this morning, and left a little later than we had originally wanted, just to make sure that we could actually leave the hotel lot. We got into Gateway around 8:15 AM, and parked the truck and trailer behind the big circle track there. Apparently Drag Week registration was at the circle track, to avoid conflicts with the drag race that was running on the quarter mile track. After 45 minutes or so we had the car unloaded, the trailer unloaded from the back of the truck, and the trailer stuffed with all the things we needed for the day, and went into the circle track to get in line for registration. Here's a picture of my car at the end of the line just after we pulled in:
As it turned out, I had pulled up right behind Jack Miller and his son, along with their helper Eugene, and directly behind a Missouri racer running a 68 Mustang notchback. With Kevin's Shelby in front of those guys, it almost looked like an all Ford event:
Jack had brought his 68 Mustang with the twin Vortech superchargers this year, along with his son's Cougar. Jack had decided to run Modified Power Adder, and so had his car fitted with small tires to fit into the class. He's been testing the car over the last few weeks and says he's had it as fast as 8.50, which is the limit he can run with his roll cage. The Cougar has a 900 HP engine in it, and should also run a very respectable time. Pics below of Jack's Mustang and the Cougar:
All the room on the track made it look like it was going to be a much nicer setup than last year's registration, but it soon became clear that the sun was going to be an issue, because there was just no shade to be found. As the line slowly moved around the track, we looked for shade behind trailers and the pit wall, and made a lot of runs to the concession stand for water and other refreshments. As usual the line moved very slowly, and there were probably a good 200 cars in front of us because of our late arrival. About every 20 minutes we would move up 150 feet or so, and I was really happy that the car started easily and didn't give me any trouble; I had been in line at Drag Week plenty of times where something had gone wrong, and I'd had to push the car. Unfortunately this good starting luck was not to last.
By about 2:30 in the afternoon Steve and I were on the home stretch of the line, with maybe 15 cars in front of us. When the next gap opened up in front of me, I went to start the car, and the starter made a weird noise. Steve looked back at me from outside the car. I tried it again and no problem this time. It started fine the next time too, but the time after that it started making a wailing sound as soon as the engine started; I immediately shut it off. What now? I had some friends hanging around talking about the car, and they all pitched in to push me ahead and close up the gap in the line. I thought about this situation for a little bit, and decided that I would try to start the car with the starter one more time, once the line went forward again. When I did, this time there was no doubt, with a high-pitched ringing coming from the engine after it started. I killed it right away, and knew that I had fried another starter.
Now, I had already replaced the RobbMc starter in the car about a week and a half ago. The replacement starter was another RobbMc unit that had failed a few years ago, and I'd sent it back to be repaired, and kept it in a box under my workbench until I needed it last week. As far as I knew this starter was in perfect working order, but it had failed on this engine in probably less than 100 starts. I cannot account for this failure; the starters appear to be quality units, but this one just didn't last. The starter that had failed a week and a half ago had already been back to RobbMc; he had fixed it very quickly and shipped it back to me via overnight service, at my request, so I had it with me as a spare. But the idea that the starter I'd just installed had failed, and the one I was going to have to put in had just failed a week and a half ago, made me very nervous about the starter situation.
With the help of some friends we pushed the car (
) up through the registration line, and finally got it through registration. Then we pushed it another 300 or 400 feet through the pits until we found a spot where we could park it for the starter repair. Steve and I had not brought the new starter with us, and the truck was a long way away, but one of the guys had a car nearby and volunteered to take Steve to the truck to get the replacement starter and the floor jack. The test and tune was not scheduled to start until 7:00 PM, so we had some time to make the repair. After Steve returned with the stuff I got underneath the car and after an hour or so of screwing around, got the starter installed. The car started just fine again with the new starter. I decided that I would have to give Summit a call on Monday morning and try to get a Powermaster starter overnighted to my hotel so that I would have a backup on Tuesday, in case I had more starter trouble.
We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to stay out of the sun, and chatting with some old Drag Week friends including Scott Clark, Jeff McConnell, Doc McEntire, Vince Rasch, Houston, James, Bubba (can't recall all the last names), etc. Around 5:00 the track announcer came on and said that we could make our way over to the drag strip half of the track, because the other race was wrapping up. Steve and I rode over there, and got the car ready to race by adding the parachute, removing the air cleaners, etc. By 6:00 or so they were calling us into the staging lanes, so I changed into my racing gear and lined up.
I had been thinking about this first pass for quite a while. Last year, at the one track I was able to race at before Drag Week, we had experimented with the four link bar locations without much success. That track was notorious for poor traction (Rock Falls Raceway, aka Slippery Rock), but we felt we had made some progress on the settings. However, the car seemed to want to go left on the launch, rather than going straight. Prior to Drag Week last year I had made another adjustment on the bars, but on the first pass of the Drag Week test and tune last year I had broken the connecting rod, so I didn't really have a good idea of what the change had done.
I had not changed the bars from last year, so this was still a new four link setting for me. I had, however, increased the size of the wheels from 10" wide to 12" wide, to try to get more of the 11" tread width on the track. I had been worried about what the added traction and the change in the four link would do together; the nightmare scenario was the car would pull a big wheelie and go left, and I would have to let off and damage the front end of the car. I was thinking about this in the staging lanes, and decided that rather than using the transmission brake, I would foot brake the car for this first pass and see how it reacted.
Pretty soon the cars started running down the track, and the line ahead of me started moving. Each time I had to start the car I cringed, thinking of another potential starter issue, but it seemed to be behaving fine. By 7:00 PM I was up next in the burnout box. After the car in front of me went down the track, I did a fairly long burnout with a 1-2 shift, and pulled up to the starting line. I got the car staged and foot braked with my left foot while holding the engine speed at 2500 RPM. The yellows flashed (pro trees only this year at Drag Week), and I released the brake and mashed the throttle. The front end of the car came up, but not too high; in fact a video of the launch that I saw later showed that the car didn't even pull the front wheels. But immediately I was relieved to see that on the launch, the car went dead straight! Two seconds into the run and I was really pleased with that. The shift light flashed and I hit second, and the car was still straight as an arrow down the track. I went through the traps at about 7400 RPM, and it felt like a pretty good run.
After the shut down at Gateway you have to go almost all the way back to the starting line to get your time slip, which seemed like a long way, but when I got to the timing shack Steve was already there, had the time slip and was waving me into the pits. The car had run a 9.21 at 146, which was a really good start for this car. Also the 60 foot time was 1.375, which is slow for this car by about a tenth, but given the foot brake start and the lack of suspension tuning, I was pretty happy with that. My worst fears about the car going left were not realized, and I certainly had a baseline to start working the chassis issues with this week. Steve and I went up to the concession stands and got something to drink; Steve celebrated with a beer, while I had a soft drink because I was thinking I might want to go out again. Then we went up to the stands to watch some of the racing.
After a while Alan Casida came up in his big green Galaxie; we had already run into Alan several times during the day. It was very interesting to watch the crowd's reaction to Alan's car. I think most of the people around us figured it would be a 13 or 14 second car, but Alan tore off a 12.34; Steve and I were impressed, and the other folks around us were very surprised. Alan's car looks great going down the track. I took a picture of it with my cellphone camera, and I'll try to get it posted tomorrow.
After a while longer Kevin (thatdarncat) came up in his 67 Shelby. He only has the factory rollbar in the car, so he is limited to running 11.50. Kevin ran an 11.598 at 104, and with that MPH we knew he was letting off at the end of the track. A little later Kevin ran again, and ran a duplicate 11.598 time! Kevin is a very accomplished bracket racer, and if he makes it into the fast 32 cars in Street Eliminator, he will be tough to beat in the bracket race.
Finally Joel came up in his 67 Hemi GTX. He had been worried about the car running a high 14 or even a 15 and being embarrased by it, but he ran a 13.80. As a convertible with no roll bar, the fastest Joel can go is 13.50, so he was very happy with his time.
A few cars later the track stopped for some starting line maintenance, and Steve and I decided to go back down to the car. I had decided not to run again that evening; I would save my experimenting for the first day of Drag Week. Back at the car I was talking to Rick Johnston from Gear Vendors, who is the chief sponsor of the event, when Steve returned to the car with a full beer. It was his second in a fairly short time period. When several of us commented on this, Steve suggested that we just refer to him as the "Drunk Monkey". Naturally, that is exactly what we did, repeatedly, for the next few hours, as we packed up the truck and trailer, went out to dinner at a local restaurant, and then went back to the hotel. I'm still laughing about it
Today is Steve's 60th birthday, and after all day in the sun today he looked pretty worn out. We will see how the Drunk Monkey handles the rest of the week.
Tomorrow morning we lock up the truck and trailer, and start Drag Week racing for real. I'm looking forward to trying to improve on my time; hoping to get the car into the 8s sometime this week. Also crossing my fingers that my starter lasts, at least until the backup arrives. I'll post another report after the racing and road trip tomorrow night.
