Thankful....

Oh, where to start......

I am thankful for:

Life!

Having a loving, encouraging mother.

For a loving son, Christopher.

For three beautiful GrandChildren.

For laughter and smiles, and kind words.

For the Sun and the Moon , and clouds, and the air....

That when I got cancer, God saw to it, that it was a cancer that paid me, (Mesothelioma) allowing me to give to others, making their lives better.

And although I am now broke, I am still thankful that I could do what I have done! I wouldn't take any of it back.

And I am expecially thankful that I had more than a year of dedicated time with Christopher as we built Drag Pak #24.

That even when we disagreed vehemently, we both alwys knew that the other loved him dearly.

That the plans and dreams we shared about the car, into which we put so much of both of us, have finally begun to be realized.

That I now am finally edging towards closure on his loss. And while some people would say, get over it, they just don't get the need to finish things... It is my way of keeping him closer to me, for this time. And part of my grieving process.

The freedoms that we had in this country, and hope to regain sooner, rather than later.

And most of all, that God has Graced me with Salvation, and Eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

David

Doesn't anyone trust anyone any more?

After doing pretty good, and winning a little bit, on our cross country tour, I returned home looking forward to receiving a few checks as reward for our efforts......

To be fair, a couple of checks have come in... Nothing much, but a few folks did as they said, and the checks came in. Comp Cams, and Mopar are among those who sent the checks before I even got back.

But in as many cases, rather than a check, I got a request for a receipt to prove my purchase, or a questionnaire to fill out before any money flows my way.

It would be easy to say that I understand... And just go quietly into the night...

But not so fast Batman!

I am a bit tired and pretty cranky today, so I will pitch a bit of attitude.

For internal engine parts; I won't say which ones, but they are things that go into the block, they don't know if I bought them or not? Wait a minute! I bought them directly from the company! And if their record keeping isn't sufficient, they expect mine to be??? You got to be kidding. I couldn't find my backside with two hands around here after being away for nearly two months. And for other parts, they wouldn't let me buy direct, I bought through an authorized sales agent. And they don't seem to have figured that out yet, although we had at least four phone calls over it, and they even ended up drop shipping to me.

And then, there are those parts bought as part of the service performed. For example, I had the head work done by a very reputable shop, and the parts were all lumped into the total price. Now I must go back to them, and ask for a breakdown of costs specifically delineating the "parts".

And then there are those who haven't done anything. No check, no "atta boy", no questionnaire or advertising release. Nothing!

Maybe I have to wait until the end of another month. Or maybe, as I have been told, I will have to call some of them, and ask "What's up?"

Racing is hard enough if you lose. And we have had our share of losses, and other disappointment, like broken parts, etc.

But when you win, it should be all peaches and cream. A rainbow should show, and the sun shine brightly. And you ought to get paid in a timely basis, for winning.

Oh, an exception: When we won class at Noble Oklahoma, they immediately gave us a check!

So I guess it isn't the whole world conspiring against us. It is just some lazy vendors who need to get their act together, and put their money where mouth is.

And for you building cars with any expectation of winning and getting paid. Be sure to save every scrap of paper and receipt, you are going to need them. And insist that any vendors who do work, specifically include the parts receipts, or some facsimile on the bill.

So, why isn't life easy anymore?

It never really was!

And it won't be. So I guess I just gotta get over it.

And why don't people trust people anymore?

Because people aren't trustworthy!

And although I would like to think that I am a very special case, and that they should know who I am, know that I am trustworthy, and just trust me.

Well, it appears that just ain't happening either...

Now, where are those stacks of piles of papers, that I need to start sorting through for receipts?

David

More ramblings and odd thoughts....

I recently spent a bit of time rereading the blogs that Chris had created and found myself loving him more and missing him even more than I thought possible. It has been a quiet and sad weekend, but Monday will bring a new week and a whole new chance get busy enough to be less sad.

Another thought, less personal and probably of wider interest, is that it has just occurred to me why the Dodge Challenger Drag Paks are badged R/T when R/Ts don't even come with 6.1 engine, but the SRT does. And the RT is not the top of the line car in the line, the SRT is. So why isn't the Drag Pak badged SRT?

But while wearing my SRT hat for the first time in a while, (it is a black baseball style hat that has a shiny silver emblem across the top front that says SRT) the meaning of it came to me. SRT is and has always meant Street/Road/Track. And guess what that means? It goes to cars that can run on the street. RT means Road/Track. And since the Drag Paks can not be driven on the street, no VIN number and I had to sign an agreement that said I would not try to license it for the street, you can forget the SRT, the Drag Pak is clearly RT only.

Not exactly a life altering observation, and probably not even a question for most, but it was a curiosity for me every time I looked at the front a Drag Pak Challenger and saw the RT badging. So now I have an acceptable answer and can puzzle over other issues.

Another question that some may have asked... Why do so many on Classracer.com hate Dodge Drag Pak cars? Simple. It is jealousy. If they could have gotten one they would have, and then they would be lovers and not haters.

Not much today, but stop back tomorrow, I may have other thoughts that are even more worth reading. I am working on a new hood attaching scheme that will be easier to operate and far more secure than the dozen Dsuz fasteners of the past.

David

Finally home from the Westward Journey

It has a been a while since my last blog, but traveling a round trip of more than 5000 miles and participating in five different events (Two NHRA Nationals and three NHRA Divisional events) has been pretty hectic and frankly, I have chosen to sleep rather than post.

But I am now home, and after a several hour nap this afternoon will catch things up here.

We start the adventure at Maple Grove Raceway, in Reading PA. This was our first race with the new engine and with our electronics working properly. I may have blogged about this event previously, so I won't belabor it here. We were top qualifier with a 9.85 in C/SA. We got a horsepower hit, but frankly we had no idea the car was going to be that fast. We broke out in the eliminations, thinking we would run slower due to the air, time of day, etc, having dialed a 9.88 we ran a 9.80 flat.. Ooops. Once again, we had no idea what this car/motor combination was capable of doing.

We stopped home for a few days, about long enough to do the laundry, and set off on the west coast portion of the trip.

Our first stop was Noble Oklahoma where it rained a lot. We ran our qualifier run, and then got pushed out to Monday, and were once again Top Qualifier. On Monday, we finish things up by winning Stock Eliminator.

On to the Las Vegas Nationals. We ran in Super Stock JA (SS/JA) since they were not running class for stock and we thought a record might be available. We qualified 12th out of 117 cars. But we were eliminated in the first round by a car much faster who we couldn't see coming and got around us. It was close, but not a win. So back to Stock.

The next week was the Las Vegas Divisional race, and we were back in Stock. We ran in B/SA and were once again Top Qualifier (If you are keeping count, we have been top qualifier in the last three races where we ran in Stock.) at 1.422 under (Las Vegas is an elevated track so we didn't get horsepower for this run). We went four rounds deep in eliminations, and were only a couple of races away form winning it all. But it is a combination of a good car, good driver and good luck, and although we had the first two, we ran out of the third.

Then on to Pomona for the World Nationals where we again ran Stock (B/SA) and once again were Top Qualifier at 1.241 under our index of 11.25. If we had run 1.25 under the index, we would have gotten additional horsepower for our combination, but once again we avoided the dreaded instant horsepower penalty. We ran good, and Keith was having a real good time putting on some great reaction times, moving us up through the eliminations. We ran good in round 1 and 2. Then,in the third round, we ran against one of the blown mustangs. It too had a world champion driver, four timer Jeff Taylor, and we knew it was a fast car. We got the start first as we dialed under the mustangs dial. Keith cut a .0016 light and won on a double break out, meaning that we both ran fast than our dial, but we ran closer to ours than he did to his. So we won. Fourth round was a bye, so on to the first round. Our next race was another close one, but we won on another double breakout where we were .020 under our dial, and the other car was .050 under. Our next run was the semi finals against Dallas Glenn. We knew Dallas was good on the tree, and we just hoped we would get to the line first. Both cars were in the staging lanes under the tower and ready to run on Sunday, when the race was called for the day due to curfew, and moved to Monday. Had we run Sunday night, I think the result would have been different, but on Monday, Dallas had a very nice .004 light, and Keith hit an -.002 RED. We knew we needed a good light, and Keith was pretty close to .000, unfortunately on the red side of it, but it was good race, and we probably would have lost even if Keith had smoked the tree.

So we come home with a third place at the World Nationals. Top qualifier at four Stock events in a row, a Class win at Maple Grove, and Stock Eliminator win at Noble Oklahoma. Not too bad for a car that only a couple of months ago, couldn't run the index at Denver!

Now we are finally home again, and Drag Racing is currently on the back burner.

David

Vegas still, and still in the hunt....

We got little sleep last night as we agonized about what to do....... Our broken hood needs to be repaired or replaced.... And it needs to be done today.

Part of my lack of sleep was a lingering upset over the design of the hood attaching system, which we ultimately found has plastic rivets holding the four brackets on the front... to the plastic nose piece... Come on... the leading edge of the hood where it is most critical, anchored into plastic with plastic anchors?????? My 13 year old grandson could have engineered it better.

It was one of the front fastener's that left first, then the harmonics of the front of the hood flapping, popped a number of the other fasteners, and then ultimately enough wind got under it to rip off several more fasteners until none were holding the hood on, and it went flying as it ripped off the last fastener and bracket.

But it was morning finally, and we took off. With a stop at West Coast Rod Shop in Vegas, where the sign says they open at 9:00 am, We pulled up a little after 8:00 am, and when they saw us pull in, they unlocked the door. Talk about Service!! So we picked up new Dsuz fasteners, and a bunch of other stuff. Cost $100 so far....

Then it was across the street to the paint/finish shop where we got monster Epoxy to try to repair the hood. Another $80 and we need more stuff.

So off to Lowes, didn't have have the pop rivets we needed, or the heavy duty caulking gun to do the adhesive, so down the road to Home Depot... And another $100 and we are on our way back to the track.

At the track at around 10.00 am. Several other racers came around to offer encouragement, and help... Jim Marshall who had blown his engine previously, jumped right in and with his experience in fiberglass repair, was invaluable.

We worked for eight hours.... And it was done... Sort of...
The hood went back on the car and we spent the next hours getting all of the fasteners aligned and actually securing the hood. Done !!!! Finally!!!!! My back is killing me, But we got it done in time for our next and final qualifying...

Thank goodness we didn't have to run until late in the day.

One of the Mustangs who had previously moved us out of first place qualifying, ran before us. He didn't run as good as previously. So we were pretty safe, but the other Mustang had waited to be last, and I expected him to pour it on...

We ran our run, and ran our best time yet here, 10.10 Sop we now are qualified at 1.41 under our index (this is an altitude track so we wont get HP for that... ) and we waited for the mustang..... I stayed at the starting line to see what he would do,

After several minutes and four or six more cars, it started to rain, and the wind really kicked up....Racing stopped for a few minutes....

Then they announced that Stock qualifying was complete! That meant that the last few cars,. the ones who wanted to go last after they saw what everyone else did, would not get a third qualifying run...

That meant that we did it again., Three NHRA Divisional races, and three time, we were top qualifier!!

That was all yesterday, and I was too tired to report it all.

Today, we ran our first elimination run, and won. It was a heads-up run against another car in B/SA. We barely beat him. But we won. Our second run was a bye because we were Number One Qualifier! So we ran alone, and now await our next round. We have a few tough opponents possible ahead if we manage to keep winning. We are short of fuel, and have about enough for 5-6 more runs... We are asking around but nobody seems to have it, and the VP Fuel guy who handles the District races here. left early today. And I had expected that like the National events the VP Fuel would be available till the end of the races... So much for expectations.. We may, or may not have the fuel to finish... But we will see what happens...

We are waiting for the next round of eliminations....more later..

David

Vegas again, and it gets very interesting...

Here we are at the Las Vegas Divisonal race. Stock, (our class) was not sheduled first as usual. In fact, we finally got our first run in today (Friday) somewhere around 5 pm ish, and we ran pretty good. We were top qualifier for the first round, with two Mustangs right behind us. Then we waited and waited for our second run.

If our top qualifing position held up, this would be three consecutuve races where we ran "Stock" where we were also top qualifier. But before we become too overconfident, we still have to survive two more qualifying runs.

OK, second qualifying run is finally here. The three cars right behind us in qualifying came up before we did. The Orange truck who had qualified fourth ran good, but dint better his time a lot.
A lot of other folks then ran, and their times were all over the board, as many were between .006 and .010 faster than thier first run. Another group of cars ran about the same times as before, and a few did actually better their earlier times. There were a couple of cars who had not run the earlier qualifying run, and they put down some respectable numbers, but were all still behind us.

Then came the first of the two Mustangs, (this was the one directly behind us). He ran a 10.00 which moved him into the number one qualifying spot, moving us to number two. Then the second Mustang ran, and it ran a 9.99 taking over the number one spot, while dropping us still more into number three.

Then it was our turn. Our previous run was 10.3x I forget exactly what it was, and that really doesn't matter now, since before we even ran again, we had already been dropped from first, down into the number three spot.

We had a good start, and ran good all the way to the finish line where we posted a 10.18 which was good enough to move us back past the two mustangs and back into the number one qualifier spot.

But as we crossed the finish line, we had quite an interesting development. Our $1000 carbon fiber hood, held on by twelve to fourteen dzus fasteners, somehow broke loose and went went flying up about 18 feet into the air, flipped several times and came down in multiple pieces over the wall, away from the track.

I was filming from the starting line, and was already moving the camera since we had crossed the finish, but I did manage to catch albeit a bit blurry, the hood flying into the air. I didn't see it happen until I much later replayed the run.

The first I knew that anything had happened, I heard the track announcer say "we have a hood over the wall". I thought, and probably said out loud, "that can't be our hood, we have more than a dozen fasteners, and I had just checked them all right before we ran". But you never know.. So we buzzed down the return road to encounter Jim and Pam Marshall coming towards us, who said the hood came off your car!

What a sinking feeling. Something I never imagined could happen, had just happened. I was told that the hood was in two pieces, and the safety crew had the pieces on their truck. We met up with the truck, and sure enough, the hood was in two pieces. The main flat hood was one piece, and although it had some damage, it was basically complete,but broken behind the scoop location.. The other peice was the scoop itself. And although it showed that it had been poorly bonded to the hood, it was also reasonably undamaged.

I grabbed hold of the large flat piece, and hopped on our pit vehicle, and Jim Marshall grabbed the scoop and hopped on his pit vehicle, and we sped back to our pit area. Where the car had already arrived.

Several of many dzus fasteners, all of which always seemed like a bad idea to me, tore holes through the carbon fiber hood, and almost all of the brackets were badly bent, with one so badly bent, that it bent the metal on the edge of the fender. This one appeared to be the last fastener to let loose, and apparently it didn't want to let go. All of these brackets were made of a pretty light gauge of metal and had always concerned me, as even bumping them as you put the hood in place often bent them, making the challenging hood alignment an ever bigger problem.

Based on the poor construction of the hood, and the overall bad design of the entire attaching system, I think someone surely owes me a new hood!!

And I would also anticipate that although we were the first, we will not be the last Challenger Drag Pak to lose a hood. Regardless, we were extremely lucky on at least two fronts: First, Keith, the driver was unhurt, secondly, the car was mostly unhurt as the hood flew over car instead of possibly hitting the windshield, putting the driver and car in jeopardy, hitting the roof, etc..

Now, we have one more qualifying run tomorrow, and one run of eliminations. So, we need to get a functional hood in place on the car, before we run again. These hoods are not in stock at your local auto parts store, and who knows where we might ever find one. We could have ordered an extra hood when we ordered the car, but quite frankly, the idea of a hood coming loose and flying through the air to its own destruction, just never occurred to me. And since my local Chrysler/Dodge dealer had already ripped me for an extra $8000 over sticker price on this car, I was hardly in the mood to stock up on replacement parts to his profit.

And now, I certainly can't afford to buy one even if one were available, but I also don't think I should have to buy another one. So what can we do now? Could this be the end of our West coast adventure? What next?

Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of the "Hood-less Challenger"....

David