Lost in first round of Stock Eliminator, and more news ....

We lost in the first round of Stock Eliminator to a very good car/driver combination, in a double breakout.

We dialed 9.89, and ran 9.88. He dialed 11.23 and ran 11.228, so although we both ran under our number, he was closer to his number than we were to ours. If we had run above our number, and he had run under, we would have won, because only he would have broken out, or gone too fast.

And that is racing in Stock Eliminator, some of these driver/car combinations have been together for years, and hit their numbers, or come awfully close as this one did, time after time. We are still getting a handle on our car, and every time we think we have it figured out, it runs a bit faster than we thought it would. And this is racing too!

Another interesting thing happened this past weekend too. There is a certain 5.7 Hemi Drag Pak (not ours...) who is known for doing stupid things, because his driver is a kid who doesn't understand racing, and doesn't have any investment in the car or the class, and is just out showing off.

In Columbus last year, when we were not running very well (before we found our coil pack problem) we ran him in the class finals. And in that race, he blew past us like we were standing still. In fact he passed us at about 800 feet out of 1320, and could have then just kept ahead of us, and won the race. But because he is an idiot, he ran the car all out through the traps, went too fast and got a horsepower hit.

When we get assigned more horsepower, that means that we have to add more weight to compensate for the additional horsepower. But this lug nut, has gotten more horsepower hits for the 5.7 than everyone else combined.

In Indianapolis, a month ago, and in a couple of previous races, his car was driven by a professional driver who knows that if he gets more horsepower, it affects HIS CAR TOO!  So he drives to win, not to try to embarrass anyone and/or just show off. Unfortunately for him, In Indianapolis, he had engine trouble like we did. And he doesn't do his own engine work, as we do, so we got our engine back together, and competed in Indianapolis, and he was unable to. Frankly, I was rooting for him to be in a race with us, as I think we owe him one. And I like our chances against him heads up any day of the week. But as it turned out in Indianapolis, we had problem upon problem,  and he didn't get his engine back together in time, so that is that. Not this time.

Well, his car showed up in Columbus again this past weekend, and he had the same joke of a driver as last year, who promptly went out and ran too fast, again getting horse power for the 5.7 combination. This time, it is 14 horsepower, and we are in a class where we have to carry nearly 8 pounds per horsepower, so that would mean that we need to add about 100 pounds, actually 8*14 = 112 pounds.... And frankly, that would pretty much force us out of A/SA, forcing us to run in AA/SA against supercharged Mustangs.

Now we can be competitive against most naturally aspirate (not supercharged..) cars. But just how is that fair?

So it really would take someone who doesn't care if the ever car runs competitively to do something like that. Or he is simply flat out ignorant of racing the NHRA.  Because it isn't just my car that is affected, it is his car too! Man, talk about a  death wish. That just isn't smart.

However, in the end, there is also good news.

If you go too fast and get horsepower for your combination, you get torn down(they ask you take your engine apart to show that everything matches teh specifications and tolerances) to see if you are legal or not. It happened to us in Chicago, (And in case you are thinking that we are the pot calling the kettle black because we have also gone too fast and gotten a couple of horsepower hits, when we did it, it was done during races, or in situations when we didn't have any idea that the car would go that fast. And if you total all of our horsepower hits which I think were 3, they all don't add up to his single last one.)

But my point is that we went too fast, got torn down, and we were legal by large margins.

So, they tore him down. And guess what? He was illegal! His piston dome height was too high. If protocol holds true, he will get a six month suspension, and frankly he really does deserve it. Not because he built an illegal engine, since I don't know whether he even knows which end of a connecting rod goes on a crack,  but because he wasn't smart enough to drive sensibly enough to win without getting torn down. But it is normal that if you get caught cheating, as he was, you get a six month suspension from racing. And the result of him being declared illegal is that the horse additional power is not in effect.

OK, my rant is over... He is a moron, who got caught while doing something stupid. There is justice, and I will let it go at that.

Our next race will be the Nationals at Las Vegas, and I just looked at the current entry list, and saw something that I find interesting.. Can you see it?

25	A/SA	Kevin Helms	Schriever LA	10 Challenger	Dodg 392	SOUTHLAND DODGE, M/T, VP
71	A/SA	Rusty Hall	Chandler AZ	67 Shelby	Ford 428	HALL BROS RACING
383	A/SA	Larry Hill	Hickory KY	71 Plymouth	Plym 440	AARP CUDA
575	A/SA	Les Norton	South Jordan UT	10 Dodge	Dodg 392	NORTON RACING
1044	A/SA	John Shaul	Fultonham NY	64 Fury	Plym 426	MR. 426 RACING
213A	A/SA	Anthony Bertozzi	Ashland VA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	NITROPLATE
3610	A/SA	Leonard Mattingly Jr	Coxs Creek KY	00 Firebird	Pont 346	LEONARD MATTINGLY
5035	A/SA	Keith Lynch	Greenville OH	10 Dodge	Dodg 345	NEW HEMI RACING
6413	A/SA	Jon Percy	Pocatello ID	64 Plymouth	MOPR 426	BLACKFOOT RACING
6633	A/SA	Joe Sorensen	Woodburn OR	69 Camaro	Chev 427	JIM SIGEL B.A.M, II.
703D	A/SA	Kyle Rizzoli	San Luis Obispo CA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	BRIDGEWATER EQUIPMENT
7063	A/SA	Brian Sanderson	South Jordan UT	63 Plymouth	Chry 426	SANDERSON RACING
7446	A/SA	Chuck Rayburn	Castro Valley CA	64 Belvedere	Plym 426	CHUCK RAYBURN RACING
7911	A/SA	Clark Holroyd	Chino CA	69 Nova	Chev 396	FIRE ESCAPE RACING
T700	A/SA	Paul Cannan	Devore Heights CA	69 Camaro	Chev 427	BRIDGEWATER EQUIPMENT

My car has the smallest engine of any of the cars running currently registered in A/SA. And in some cases it smaller by nearly 80 cubic inches. So, considering that each cubic inch equates to more horsepower, it would seem that we are significantly over matched in Las Vegas.

But I guess that how things look on paper isn't really all that important. You still have to go out and run the races. So we all will just have to wait and see.

See you in Las Vegas.


God Bless, and Race Safely!

David