Columbus Ohio, Divisional Event

Got to the track early on Thursday, and had our choice of a couple nice pit spots.

We took one on the corner with a clear look of the Staging lanes.

It got hot early. But then it got even hotter...

We considered running in the Test 'N Tune. But it was really hot, and we were concered that that the track may not be prepped well enough for us to hook up, and run a meaning time.

We saw a friend in another Dodge Challenger Drag Pak who tested, ran a very nice time, and apparently went home. I missed being able to say hello and shake hands. God Bless my friend. I hope all is well.

We went back to the room knowing that all we needed to do on Friday was to fuel up the car. The car had been fully charged prior to the trip. And it felt good to get out of the heat.

We also met another Drag pak owner #53, Jeff Hull of West Virgina. He and wife are sweet people. And we enjoyed meeting and spending time with them. Unfortunately, Jeff was disqualified on his runs. I don't know whether it was fuel DQ, or whatever, but also left on Friday. I look forward to talking to them again soon.

All together, there quite a few Drag Paks; Us in a 5.7 Hemi, and I thought I saw Merryweather's 5.7 but he never ran, and there was Jeff Hull, Larry Smith, Dennis Breeden running 6.1 hemis, and irving Johns running a 6.4 Hemi. Irv, by the way, ended up #1 Qualifier in his 6.4. If it can;t be us, at least it was another Drag Pak.

Our first run, the logs showed that the car sensed the temperature at 95 degrees. And there is no way to second guess that, except it could be possible that it was even hotter than that.

We ran a 10.27 while everything we had said we should have been very close to Norwalk times, and we were .30 slow.

We chose not to run the second qualifying round that came in the heat of the day. There was a makeup run later, and we were hoping for a cool down. No such luck. We ran another 10.27 and were settled in at around the #8 qualifier.

We went back to our hotel room, and cooled off with popsicles, and lemonade.  On the way back to the room, about 25 minutes away, it rained some serious amounts of rain. By the time we got back to the hotel, the rain had ended. Then came dinner, and

Saturday

The day started off cooler, and we were hopeful that the car would get back to form in the cooler temps..

But, just as we were called to the staging lanes, the sun came out from behind the clouds and haze, and the temperatures began to skyrocket all over again.

Oh well, that is racing. We all run in the same air, with the possible exception of the blown mustangs which make their own air..

OK, last qualifying run. Everyone was looking pretty good as they hooked pretty well, and were improving their times.

We did a nice burnout. Then we staged, and took off. We didn't have a monster launch, but it was respectable, and we lifted the front end a bit.

The first thing I noticed, was an 11.08 time... WHAT???? 10.0 would be nice. But 11.08, What went wrong???? Then I heard the announcer comment on a problem. And I could see that the car had rolled to a stop just past the finish line.  I heard from another racer, that word was that we had hit the wall. But that was not the case. Something in the motor broke. We didn't spew fluids, but the car just shut down.

At this point, we have no idea what went wrong, but something definitely broke. The car is now back in the shop, and we will know within a day or so, what actually broke.

We have broken our share of motors. This is number four. But this motor had over 150 runs, and a lot of #1 qualifiers, a couple of class wins, and a stock elimininator win. So it has been a good motor. And we can't be too upset about it finally giving up the ghost.

When and where we race next is an open question. It will all depend on the motor, and what has to be done. some of the work on this motor took a fair bit of time, and if we have to start over, it will be both expensive and time consuming. Sponsor, Sponsor, who has a Sponsor? Not us. Yet!

Until Next Time... Race Safely, and God Bless!

David