Top Qualifier at Maple Grove

Well, we have finally done it. We got our car running like we thought it should run.

I would have updated before this, but my wireless Internet system wouldn't charge. Sorry..

We were top qualifier and had top speed at Maple Grove.

But it wasn't without the kind of drama, that we have experienced in the past.

As the car was moving up in the staging lane, and we were next to go into the water pit, the car started acting strange. It choked and coughed and stopped. Keith Start it again, and it stopped. And again it started and immediately stopped. We pushed it over to the side, out of the way of the others running. Keith got out of the car and we removed the hood, (about 14 dzus fasteners later, man are they a pain in the butt, the hood was off) and we were in panic mode. Would this be like so many other times, when we had a chance to do something good, and "something bad" happened? My heart sank, as I helped push the car out of the way as I had done so many times before.

Previously we had been running a certain fuel. But on the advice of our tuner, we changed to a higher octane fuel. Fortunately, when we checked our fuel with NHRA before the run, just to be sure, our concerns were realized as the fuel did not check properly. So that morning we had gone back to the pits, drained the tank, dried it as well as possible, and put in new fuel. But apparently somehwere in that process we had knocked something loose in the line, it got through two 100 micron filers and was clogging the fuel regulator. The fuel pump was off but the gauge on the regulator showed pressure.

With the large screwdriver (used for the hood fasteners) wielded like a club. Keith calmly smacked the regulator a couple of times, and the gauge went to "0". He jumped back into the car, started it, and it ran as before sounding, Whew, Sweet! I then calmly walked over to the NHRA guy putting the cars into the run lanes, and said "We are good to go now, where do you want us?" He pointed to the left lane. Keith pulled up into the left lane, another car was ushered into the right lane and all was good. The race was on!

The car burned out very nicely. And Keith moved it up to the staging lights. He bumped the first light, and the other car bumped his, the other car set the lower staging light, and Keith began to rev and bumped up into the second light. As soon as he hit the staging light, the tree started, one, two three yellows, and Keith was off. The front wheels lifted like I had never seen a Drag Pak lift, and off he went. He red lighted, but since this was a qualifying run, that didn't matter.

And he ran 9.85 run. at Nearly 135 mph. Chris had run our previous best time of 10.58 with a completely different motor at Norwalk.

WOW! We had a good feeling as we knew we had the horsepower to run fast, but this a very special feeling. Finally seeing the car run respectably, and problem free (at least during the run) was truly priceless! And the car really did exceed our expectations.

And also, this run meant was that we won our Class! And it wasn't in F/SA where we first ran early in the the year. Nor was it in E/SA where we ran, when others blew up the index and got horsepower for our combo. It wasn't in D/SA where we ran in Indianapolis and Columbus, and could have won a Class trophy if another Challenger Drag Pak had not also registered in D, when he could have just as easily won class in C. And by beating us so badly, when he could have just nosed past us, he got more horsepower added.

This same Challenger Drag Pak wanted to run in C/SA at Maple Grove, and although he was tested and could have won B/SA, he didn't want to move to B. He wanted to stay in C. So we skipped C/SA, and moved up two more classes to B/SA, where we won Class, and got our second Wally.

Frankly, part of me wanted to go ahead and run in C/SA anyway, as he done to us in Columbus. I took their registering in a class where we were already registered, as personal, and with no regard for the Drag Pak Program. But now, we din't think he could push us around again, and that we would be competitive and maybe get some payback. We certainly aren't afraid of his car now. But rather than take personal revenge, I decided that for the good of the Drag Pak program, we would take B/SA. By taking B/SA, I allowed for the possibility, which became a reality, where Dodge Challenger Drag Pak cars took the Class wins in A/SA, B/SA, and C/SA. Hooray Mopar!

We would not run again until the next morning, so we left the track early, did some shopping, including buying a small portable radio, since tracks broadcasts the announcements over the radio, and most of the time, there is too much noise in the pits to hear what is broadcast over the track speakers, the radio will be very helpful, and relieve a lot of strained listening and stress.

We got to the track early, checked the battery level, and fuel level. We charged the battery a bit, and added some fuel, and then waited for the call to the lanes. Pretty soon, the call came. But we still had a few things to check, and we were cleaning the car which had gotten a bit dirty. When we were finally ready, we went to the staging lanes and waited for our opponent. He was late getting there, as most folks don't like running early, and we certainly understand that. You want the track to be dry, and the first few runs get a track that is bit damper than later on.

People were all saying that the track was between 2 and 6 hundredths slower today. And our own weather equipment showed at least 2 slower. So we dialed 9.88.

Anyway, we got in line with the car we had been matched against, and we waited to be brought up to run.

Finally we were up. We again got the left lane where we had run so well the previous day. And because of yesterday's red light, Keith was ready to wait a bit longer on the last yellow before launching. Staging light one on, staging light two waiting, bump, bum, Keith brought it forward till lit. The other guy was a K/SA which means he would go first while we waited for the tree on our side to come down. One yellow, two yellow three yellows, wait an fraction and then HIT IT!

Darn! Red light again. This time, there was less delay even than yesterday, and although we waited longer this time, we hit the red again. This car is tight and responsive now. It actually laid down the best 60 foot time that I have even seen for a Drag Pak. And since Keith saw the red, he knew we were out, so he went ahead and ran it all out to give us more information about the car. The can ran 8.80, which was even faster than yesterday. Well, so much for slower air, etc. .. We have a real monster on our hands.

What was dissapointing is that based on our oponents reation time, we would have won in a walk, under index, if we hadn't red lighted. But as previously said, we still don't really know the car yet.

We are looking at all of our settings and logs, and see a couple of things that should be useful in the future.

Believe it or not, we actually know that we have more performance to extract from this car with only minor changes.

I can't tell you how nice it is, to finally be in a position to simply get better. As opposed to being in a situation where we spend all of out time changing things to fix problems.

Prior to this race, after putting the motor back into the car, we only made one small chassis/suspension change. Forty minutes of work, and then we put the car into the trailer and headed east towards reading. We did stop at National Trailways, (which was right along the way) where they had a bracket race, we paid $15 to get the car in. We changed out our fuel, from a lower octane fuel to a higher octane fuel, and went out to the track. The starting line was awful, but we weren't so much worried about starting out as seeing what we had on top end, so we ran down the track once, hit the lower 10's, put the car back in to the trailer and continued East towards Reading.

All of our hard work, some obvious and public, and some secret squirrel things, not so obvious, and not at all public, were finally vindicated at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading Pa.

David