This years trip was a little different from year's past. This year instead of the usual caravan from Austin, my journey began back in Sioux City, Iowa, my old stomping grounds. My buddy's Joe and Kevin had recently put the finishing touches on Kevin's coupe. These two fools spent the last year or better thrashing on that car 4 nights (or more) a week. Everything you see done to that car (including paint) was done in Joe's small 2 car garage. Joe has had a few builds under his belt, but this was Kevin's first. They started with a stock coupe that Kevin found in some shed somewhere. They yanked the body, sold the stock chassis and fenders, and began cutting and welding from there. Not an uncommon story, really. The car had been on the road a week or so prior to the drags, enough time to get in a few shake down miles, or so you'd think. Unfortunately, there were a few clutch dwelling gremilns to be dealt with. After a few wrestling matches of their own, the pair turned to an old friend and veteran builder, Gary Monroe, who on the night before we left, fabricated and converted the clutch pedal/linkage from the troublesome hydraulic setup to fully mechanical. At 8pm Thursday night, the boys got a call. (Don't quote me, but I believe it went something like this...) "Come get this piece of shit. It's fixed. Oh, and your brakes suck!" With that being said, 6:30am Friday morning, we hit the road. Joe, Aiden, and I in the Comet wagon, with my bike in tow, and Kevin in his coupe, comfortably optimistic with 30 shake down miles on the car and hitting 4th gear for the first time southbound on I29 to Joplin. The bottom line is that we had no major issues on the trip to or from the drags. Both cars did great, despite the lack miles on a fresh build. I'm sure there are several other similar stories like this to be told throughout the HAMB, but I just wanted to let y'all know how proud I am of Joe and Kevin. Takes some balls in my opinion to commit to a 500 mile shake down run. I can't say I wasn't nervous. Job well done, boys. Thanks for the lift. I had a great time.
GOOD STUFF!!! That story is just one example why the HAMB DRags have become my favorite event of the year!
Great crossing paths with you guys. Glad the trip and wekend was such a success on the fresh ride. Nuttin' like gassin' up and goin'..............congrats. Dig the Comet wagon AND that gorgeous Sporty.
Great pic and write up, Dave... it was great seeing you again and getting to hang with Joe, Aiden, and Kevin. Where's the video of the bike at speed?
Hi Dave, Sorry we missed this one! It would have been fun to line up the triumph with your sparkly scoot....and probably lose, but would have been a blast!...as well as getting to hang out some more over some cool refreshments. Great pics too! ------------
I'm glad ya'll made it home. That beautiful coupe was mad at its front tires when we passed by. See ya next year.
Real nice coupe... "Takes some balls in my opinion to commit to a 500 mile shake down run" Uh, we do that nearly every year for the drags... r