Woodburn photos

Yes, that is some nasty tire shake.

Just starting to break the tires free in the next shot.

It is in fact a very tight driver’s compartment, I guess I am just short. Visibility is great though.

And of course we must thank NAPA Sumas for their support. They set me up with some new tires for my car the other day, fantastic service, very personal, and they took great care with the installation.

Bill Edwards Racing

It is a huge honor to have the opportunity to drive for Bill Edwards. I met Bill last year when we were working on Hugh Ridley’s Top Alcohol dragster together and immediately liked him.

Bill is walking drag racing history. He drove his first dragster in 1958, seven years before I was even born, and has been racing ever since, over fifty years.

His experience and wisdom is immense.

His budget is very small, using mostly second hand parts, and a chassis built in 1978 he is still able to run 5.50 et’s and qualify at the Seattle National event in 2009. He takes his time in preparing the car, and is a stickler for details. He watches all the small things that add up to get the car down the track. It is a huge pleasure for me to be able to work closely with him and learn.

Woodburn May 15

Yes, I have been quiet lately. I am very sorry about that. One day leads to another always busy, then before I know it another week or month has passed and I still haven’t updated my blog. So now it is time for me to get back at it.

This season is still a little unknown for me at this point. In mid April I finally got Dennis Hicks’ car into my shop to update the driver’s compartment, install a new clutch and trans, and sort out the trouble I was having with the steering all last season. Unfortunately once I got it here I discovered that my steering problem was a result of the chassis being out of alignment by about 3 and a half inches. Most of the trouble appeared to be in the rear axle housing. Add to that the engine being way out of alignment with the pinion. (no wonder the rear trans seal was always leaking).  The good news is that the shop that built the car in the first place said they would make it right, so Dennis took the car back up to them to have it made right. Because the work I had to do was all based on and around the rear axle and bellhousing there was nothing I could effectively do with the car until the alignment issues were resolved. At this point I am not sure of the status of the car. I am a big believer in checking the car immediately after the race event, or race season, not immediately before the race event or race season, that way there is plenty of time and resources to make any required repairs properly.

I was sad to not be able to make it to the opening event in Ashcroft this last weekend, but very happy to hear that it all went well for everyone. I was in Woodburn Oregon with Bill Edwards racing. I will be helping Bill and his son BJ, (Bill Junior) with their Top Alcohol Dragster operation this year, and be doing a bit of driving for them as their schedule allows. We are hoping to have the car in Ashcroft with me driving for the AHRA Reunion tour event in August.

I made one attempt at a half track pass in the car on Saturday. It wasn’t very pretty. In hindsight I should have made more adjustments in the driver’s compartment, I didn’t have the clutch control I should have had, which resulted in no burnout. Add to that a little more horsepower in the motor than Bill was expecting and the car went straight into wheelspin on the launch, then into some pretty violent tire shake. I poked second gear hoping it might settle down, but it didn’t.

On Sunday BJ took over the controls as planned. Unfortunately he didn’t fare much better, with bad tire shake breaking the tires free on the first run and breaking a fuel line on the second run. We are certainly hoping for much better results in Mission in two weeks.

I have a few photos from the weekend which I will post up in a couple days. One great shot of what bad tire shake looks like.

While I was in Woodburn I was able to catch up with Darin Bay, whom I met at the BC Classic and Custom car show earlier this year. He was there with his two jet dragsters and was doing double duty driving Twig Ziggler’s Nostalgia funny car as well. There is a Jet funny car owner in this area who is still talking about getting me to pilot his car, so I catch up with the jet cars whenever I can. They really do put on a fantastic show. I was able to watch one of Darin’s runs from the top end on Sunday, it is absolutely amazing how fast those things are accelerating from about 800 feet onwards. They are just starting to really get going when they have to be shut down. . . I wonder how fast they could go on a half mile run? . . .