Event Coverage My Bowling Green NHRR weekend

I figured that seeing as most of the BG coverage here is oriented towards the rods and customs it might be worth putting up some race car related pix.
After not qualifying at the race in 2010 (I only got my license the week prior in Indy at the GG event) I was a spectator last year. Earlier this year Art Dromgoole asked me to drive his Back Yard Guys top fuel car as Dave Pace who has been in the seat for the last few years has a full season ride in the Southwest Junior Fuel series. I drove down to Charlotte a couple of weeks prior to the race and made sure that I fit in the car with all my safety equipment on and that was all good.
My girlfriend and I left Indy around noon on Wednesday accompanied by my friend/ customer Scott Calmes who provided his 73 Mopar wagon as a tow car for the dragster. As you can see the wagon is seriously retro with contingency and event decals from the 70's on the rear windows and we upped the ante by tying a couple of my old slicks to the roof rack. The vintage CB and 8 track deck hanging from the dash add to the image.




Art and most of our crew were already there when we arrived at Beech Bend and the car was out of the trailer and on the stands. I mounted the new windshield that I had made to replace the original which had been cut down so the somewhat shorter than me Pace could see where he was going. I also added my license number to the car for the benefit of the tower staff. Incidentally even though I have lived in the US for 24 years I managed to convince the NHRA to give me an "overseas" division number event though I should have a #3 prefix number due to living in the North Central Division. I wanted the #8 prefix as my original license from the mid 60's in Australia was #89.





We also set the clutch pedal stop so that I could neutralize the centrifugal clutch when starting the car and shifting from forward to reverse.



The following morning I popped the chutes out of the packs but when I went to re pack the right side the pack tore adjacent to one of the seams. Randy helped me to get the packs off the car and I went looking for a replacement pack. Dale Suhr had just arrived with his NT/F car and was sure that he had spares somewhere in his semi but before he had a chance to look 7.0 Pro racer Mark Vaught loaned us a brand new one.







This shot shows the aluminum heads that were on the car until our second warm up on Thursday afternoon when we had some parts failures and dropped a bunch of intake (and one exhaust) valves with the car on the jacks.



As a result the crew had to put the iron heads on the car and we missed any chance of me making a test shot in the car on Thursday. The iron heads required the use of intake spacers and that meant that Randy had to make a trip into Bowling Green on Friday to source the longer bolts that we needed. As a result we missed the first qualifying session but were ready to go for the second at 3 pm.



For various reasons the time frame kept changing and we were finally told that we would run at 4:30 but the rain arrived before then. Due to the uncertain time frame I ended up spending a considerable amount of time partially suited up so that I would be ready when they called us. I wear full Carbon X underwear under the suit itself and it takes a while to get ready to make a run. The jacket and pants are SFI spec -20 and as such are five layers of Nomex so it was not really comfortable in the 90 degree heat and matching humidity.



When it became obvious that Fridy's action was over I went to the tower to find out what the situation was and was told that we had been seeded 4th in the field. When I commented that I had not been on the track in Art's car and that a test run would be a good idea NHRA divisional director Jay Hullinger told me that I would get one--in the first round of eliminations.

More coming

 

Great Great Pis's !!!!! Keep posting !!!!!

 

Damn..i was standing beside ya in the lanes when you were waiting to run..wish I'd known..

Rick

 

So you have me hooked Keith, as "lawman" stated above... So what's next ?

 

This is what I look like with the majority of the safety equipment in place and headed for the car.



The next step is the HANS device and then it is time to get in the car



Randy holds the brake handle so that I can step up on the tire to get over the windshield



The next step is to hook up the seven point belts and the arm restraints and then I put on two layers of gloves as the final move before we roll the car forward.



The crew roll the car up behind the water box, lining it up with the preferred area of the track.



At this point I am just waiting for the officials to give us the signal to fire the car.



Mike is ready with the prime bottle and Mike has the starter ready to go while Art takes a final look at things



There is no point in showing the burnout as it was so weak but here is a shot of Mike backing me up with Mike in the foreground. Yep, we had three Mikes on the crew, Big Mike, Jungle Mike and Mike Cervilli.



After I back the car up Frank and Art set the start line idle speed (around 3000 rpm with the clutch neutralized and then I am on my own



We were in the second pair on Saturday, racing "Radar" Roger Letchenberg in Dale and Kat Suhr's car. Although the car sounded OK when we fired it it was really weak on the burnout and barely smoked the tires. Radar left on me and was pulling away as Art's car did not light all of the cylinders on the right bank. I stayed in the throttle hoping that it would pick them up but it never did and I was getting ready to shut it off early as Rader headed off into the distance. I had a good view as his car started to move towards the centerline and when he disappeared behind a cloud of dust and smoke I lifted. Out of the cloud came one of the foam blocks that the timing reflectors are mounted on and at that point I thought that this was bad for Roger and good for me as hitting a block is a disqualification offense.

At this point I had just got the news that Radar had been DQ'ed and I was in the final



Randy was still smiling when we got back to the trailer.



With plenty of time before the final John fired up the grill and we had lunch after the guys serviced the car.



Then it was sit around and wait for the final so there was a bunch of socializing as various people stopped by to visit.



I went up and watched some of the sportsman action and also got a chance to sit down with Mike Boyd, the driver of the famed Winged Express.


Eventually (after more rain) we rolled out for the final round against Ernie McClain. As you can see from the photo the right bank did not light for the most part. I could see a little tickle of flame from #8 so I drove it for a while as Ernie ran away from me, hoping that it would light the other cylinders.


I did eventually see a bit more fire from the right side but I was so far behind Ernie and the car was so slow that I shut it off at about 900 feet and threw the chutes out. I was actually going faster at the 1/8 mile (158 and change) than at the finish line where I was down to about 140 and was worried that I would not be able to make it to the turnout.


Art called me today and found part of what the problem was so we will most likely test at Rockingham or Darlington in the near future once he gets some aluminum heads back on the car.

Roo

 

This was my girlfriend's first drag race and she did an awesome job with a camera that she had never used before. She also took a lot of pix with her phone along with some video and I will try to post that later in the week.

Roo

 

thanks for the pics

 

Roo, you have a keeper with the lady of your dreams, takes great pictures and enjoys drag racing ! Kind of funny Roo, Mike has a set of Pythons (arms) and you are wearing Python Boots.....

Great talking with you again.... Great Pic's....

 

Good on you Roo. You make us Indy guys proud!

 

Nice story. See you there next year, if not sooner! Gary

 

Roo:
G day
Hey question for you if you don't mind
With regards to the chutes. The anchor points, are seemingly pretty high with respect to the axle CL.
I am not by any means trying to be an ass. I am just curious as it has been my understanding to keep the mount just above the axle CL to help keep the chutes attachment point from having any lever motion advantage against the car.
Thank you for the post and tell your camera-lady bud she did excellent.
Best to you
Luke

 

Oh by the way Roo. Now you have to teach her to be your BUB..

 

Awesome weekend. I got the pleasure of seeing you make a couple passes in person.

 

Damn! Were you the guys driving a sleeve in the #4 hole Thursday afternoon? We were probably standing right beside you at some point.

 

Great post! The drags were the highlight for me!

 

That Mike Boyd is such a little guy

 

Cool post! Thanks for sharing the experience.

 

Thanks for the ride .....the life and times of a real digger................Littleman

 

Cool story. Thanks for posting.

 

Luke,
I usually mount the shroud lines a little lower on my cars but they seem to work OK where Rob Sterling put them on Art's car.

Roo

 

That was my guys, I just hung out and drove LOL.

Roo

 

His arms are bigger around than my legs. A really nice guy with balls the size of watermelons to drive the Wing.

Roo

 

Thanks for posting Roo,

It's nice to hear about the weekend from a drivers point-of-view.

I hope to get down and see you again soon when I'm checking on my deuce over at Jo's place.


.

 

Isn't that the truth. I got to talk to him a little bit there lastyear. He always impresses me.
Gasser Girl

 

once again i had a stinking blast at the reunion! drag racing, camping at the track with 2 of my boys and seeing old friends again! great fathers day weekend! here's a pic of one of my runs taking by bucky bramlett

 

oh and here a video one of the boys took...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxsNTMpyPyI&feature=plcp

 

DAMN. My brother(Reggie),, how big did that wall get before you let out of it,,, and pull another wheelie??? KOOOOLLLLLL video!

 

Great stuff Roo...Hope your next runs are better...

 

Great stuff. I really need to start making that race again. Many of my favorite people there.

I can't imagine what it is like to jump in a fuel car that you have never been in and go rounds. Especially if it was not your chassis to begin with.

 

My own frames are really close to the ones that Rob Sterling built so it was no big deal, especially as slow as I ran that weekend.

Roo