2020 racing season in a nutshell....

[BattlestarGalactic]

UGH!!!!   


It all boiled down to today, the last race of the season.  A rescheduled race from last spring.  The final hooray!

I was #1 in points, 6 points ahead of #2.  He was 5 pts ahead of #3.  He was 5 pts ahead of #4.  It was tight and it all came down to today.


The season started rough with engine issues from last fall.  Once the season started, things were "ok".  I did mash an oil pan and break the radiator one day.  Then I broke 1st gear the next week(both at NON points races).  BUT, I did win a race and then RU the next which put me in the points lead.  It wound down quickly with the top 3 staying in sequence through the last few races.

Today was a fight to the finish.  Pure WAR!!!  All 4 points leaders stayed through 2nd round.  Then they started dropping out.  I made it to the finals, along with #2 in points.    With near identical lights(.513 to his .528) I took .015 too much stripe and lost.   BUT, that only gave him 5 more points, which means I still held onto the CHAMPIONSHIP by one little point.  Wow!!!  One measly little point, at the final round of the final race.  That's what I call cutting it close!  It's 5 points a round, but you can earn single points for like best reaction time.  Thus I had an odd number of points.

It's been a few years since I won all the marbles, though I typically keep myself in the top 10.   Today was just all the sweeter, after finding a few bad spark plugs(ran like chit in time trials), then breaking the wheelie bars in 3rd round.  I had to do some quick chassis adjustments to keep things tamed down enough.  It worked well enough.

[cjshaker]

Congratulations, Larry!! That's an epic ending to any class!
So you lost by going too quick, after chassis adjustments from broken wheelie bars? Did you adjust your dial-in too low to compensate? With all 4 points leaders in the 2nd round, that had to make for some pressure.

Glad to see the new engine is working out and being consistent for you. Congrats again on a great year.

[wowens]

That is old school class racing and is what made NHRA a hit.
Congratulations,  a excellent adventure !!!!!

[BattlestarGalactic]

Congratulations, Larry!! That's an epic ending to any class!
So you lost by going too quick, after chassis adjustments from broken wheelie bars? Did you adjust your dial-in too low to compensate? With all 4 points leaders in the 2nd round, that had to make for some pressure.

Glad to see the new engine is working out and being consistent for you. Congrats again on a great year.

I hadn't change my dial most of the day.  I had 6.74 on it the first couple rounds, then put 6.73 on it for the last couple.  I had been dipping the brakes enough that I wanted to tighten it up by one.  I didn't think it would go that much faster, but it's all a crap shoot for the most part.  My new Computech predictor was near spot on for the most part, but I didn't use it the last couple rounds since they were pretty much round robin.   The last car was a flat black 63 split window car, so in the dark it is a bit hard to find!!!  I had tapped the brake, but just not enough.  Oh well.

Once the bars broke, I dialed the rear shocks down 4 clicks, tightened the front 4 clicks and put 1/2 pound of air in the slicks.  It ran the same 60ft the last couple rounds as it did the first 4 rounds.  Just didn't carry the front very far.  It was a shot in the dark, off the cuff decision that worked.  Lucky me.

[jayb]

Attaboy Larry!  One point for the win is still the win.  I'll bet the guy in second place is thinking about all the things he might have done just a bit differently over the course of the season to get a couple extra points, and kicking himself for not doing it. That's racing...

[turbohunter]

Congrats Larry.
Really great with all the changes for this year.

[AlanCasida]

Well done, Larry!

[Stangman]

Excellent Larry that was close. But I guess it seems nothing good ever comes easy.

[WConley]

Larry - Nice job adapting to the broken wheelie bar and squeezing out the win!  Life isn't always pretty.

[Bolted to Floor]

Congratulations Larry.

[bsprowl]

Wow! Congratulations! 

[KMcCullah]

Way to go Larry! Bracket racing is such a difficult thing to be good at. All kinds of things have to be done just right. Every time, every pass. And doing it with a 4 speed to boot! Hell I can't shift a C6 consistently. Haha ..... Anyhow congrats again Larry. Much admiration here.

[machoneman]

Hey, great news Larry! Congrats! 

[winr1]

Yay Larry !!




Ricky.

[e philpott]

Sweet Larry ! You basically won the Championship when you staged in the final and that's cool as heck !! Did you even know that going in to the final ?

[cjshaker]

Sweet Larry ! You basically won the Championship when you staged in the final and that's cool as heck !! Did you even know that going in to the final ?

If the 2nd place finisher had cut a 'best reaction' time, he would have gained that last point, and I know Larry doesn't count his chickens before they're hatched..lol

One thing is becoming clear though, he needs a back-up tranny. That wagon puts the stress to that G-Force!

[BattlestarGalactic]

Sweet Larry ! You basically won the Championship when you staged in the final and that's cool as heck !! Did you even know that going in to the final ?

Yes, I had the championship wrapped up when I won the semi finals.  There was no way he could get around me "if" he won the final, because he could not get more then 5 points and he needed +6 to get around me.

Sweet Larry ! You basically won the Championship when you staged in the final and that's cool as heck !! Did you even know that going in to the final ?

If the 2nd place finisher had cut a 'best reaction' time, he would have gained that last point, and I know Larry doesn't count his chickens before they're hatched..lol

One thing is becoming clear though, he needs a back-up tranny. That wagon puts the stress to that G-Force!

Best reaction time bonus point is ONLY in the first round of eliminations.  The person that got best reaction would have had a bye in the second round and I knew it wasn't him.

Actually I don't break the GF that much.  It will break first gear cluster every few years, and this was the year.  They offer an improved cluster gear, but it requires a different cluster shaft.  Unfortunately they don't offer that shaft in a torsion bar version.   I'm sure if I asked, they could make one, but this isn't my transmission(it's a sponsor deal), so I don't really want to spend the extra money on it.  I still have dreams of a Liberty equalizer(pro stock 5 spd), but that's a pretty big dream!

[Falcon67]

Pretty dad0gum good year!  My 2nd footbrake championship in 2008 was a 1 pointer.  And for the 2006 Summit Super Series win, it was a three way on points decided by best 10 average reaction times.  I was ahead of my wife by only .02 or so LOL.  The close ones are the good ones, good fight to the finish.  We usually end with a 2 day race and points both days so any of the leaders are marking down every run.  We (wife/I) manage the points for the track and we were downloading data and updating things in the trailer both days.  Ended up with two runoffs, one they did run off and the other they just flipped a coin I think.  Tracking the point data becomes nerve wracking when you get a lot of close finals.