Weekend update,

Sorry for the delay in getting this update posted.

The weekend was sweet and sour. The bad news is we only got two hits at the track and hurt our engine pretty bad on the second hit.

We are still searching for the correct combination of launch RPM, tire pressure, wheelie bar height, and torque converter to get a good launch with all the new horsepower we have with this new engine. The first run on Saturday morning was tough. With a low launch rpm we weren’t as close to the converter as we wanted to be, about three feet out from the line the engine and converter came on yanking the front wheels up hard, as a result hitting the wheelie bar hard. This sent the car into really good tire shake, eventually breaking the tires loose as the car skated over toward the wall. I pedalled it a little, settled the car, and drove it out the back door. Hit the chute lever, and it wasn’t there. Thought I might have missed it so tried again, no, it definitely isn’t there. Hard on the brakes, the car went into some serious bouncing. Neil, who was in the other lane tells me it was a good 18 inches, two feet in the air at times, bouncing from tire to tire. Have I told you how much fun these cars are to drive? I kept it off the walls, had one moment where I thought I might crash, but in the end I got it stopped. Neil said he could smell the brakes while he was still doing a hundred miles an hour behind me. Tire shake is a pretty violent thing, I guess when it shook early in the run it knocked the bolt out of the parachute lever. Back to the pits.

Rain interrupted the rest of the day, but we got another hit in the evening. We stepped up the launch RPM and added some more tire pressure. The car yarded the front tires right off the start line, shook into spin again and slid toward the centrline, same again, pedaled settled the car and hit it again. Had a parachute this time, but the car vibrated really bad in the shutdown and I knew something was seriously wrong.

We broke a tie bar between the roller lifters, the lifter turned in the bore so when the cam came around it broke the wheel off the bottom of the lifter, the wheel went down between the connecting rods and did some serious damage, not sure just how bad yet but there is a hole in the side of the block. When we get it further apart we will see just how bad it is. Nice thing with an aluminum block is that it can be welded up. We will be back.

Ok, that’s enough of the doom and gloom.

Uniforms! Tom and Debbie from CV Transport supplied us with some fantastic new crew shirts. The artwork is incredibly clear, and they look great next to the car. We were all strutting about very proud this weekend. Thank you Tom and Debbie.