1960 Chevy Belair Outlaw
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Mike-Casella
- Posts: 2204
- Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:53 am
- Location: Middleboro, MA
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Mike-Casella
- Posts: 2204
- Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:53 am
- Location: Middleboro, MA
This was my first time back in the drivers seat since August of last year, and it sure was great! We by-passed our regular schedule of Nostalgia dates only, to attend the Funny Cars Under The Stars show at New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire. The car was ready, I was ready, but unfortunately no crew. What's a racer to do? The only thing I could do was to instruct my two video girls to fill in. My wife Margie stepped up to the plate and set the video camera down for the day. After bringing her up to the starting line and explaining what to do, she was confident that she could handle the task at hand. As I was getting things ready with the car, warming the engine and all the other misc stuff that goes on before a race, I had an old friend and fellow Modified racer, Desi stop by to check things out. Seeing as how he was not racing that day, he offered his help. To take some of the confusion away from Margie, I accepted Desi's offer.
This being a rather large show with plenty of spectators, it was the perfect time to get my sponsors names in front of as many people as possible. Just put on a show for the crowd, and have some fun in the process. I kept the same tune-up that was in the car on our last outing, which should give me a good low 8 second pass with some decent MPH. One other little change I made before heading to the staging lanes, was to hike the wheelie bars up as far as they could go. I figured it would give me two things, one being to see if by getting the front end to get a little higher than the normal three or four inches, it just might toss a little more weight onto the rear tires for some better bite. The other thing it might do is look real cool, and after all, isn't that what this hobby is all about, to look cool?
After a medium size burnout, I was brought back to the line for our first go at the tree. Margie's job was to open the pass. door, turn on the nitrous bottle, and watch the race. I was lined up, set the tranny brake, and stuffed the pedal to the floor. At the first glimpse of yellow I let her rip! Good Lord, all I could see was HOOD! She settled down on all 4 tires and headed for the finish line. At the stripe she was breaking up a little and I knew instantly why. Back in the pits, when I flowed the fuel regulators, the Density Altitude was roughly 600'. When I got back to the pits after this pass, I went right for the weather station to check what I suspected. EEEK! The DA had gone up to almost 2000'. Bingo, too much fuel pressure in the second stage.
The time slip on that pass nearly knocked me out. Not so much the ET, but the reaction time! .003? HOLY CRAP!! I'm normally in the .150 range, so I chalked it up to a bad red light. The numbers on the slip read, 8.138 at 165.38. Not too bad.
The first pass was at 11:45, and because there were only 4 cars in our class, we were given the option of sitting out a round to help fill the show. We sat until 5:00 when we were called up for the first round of eliminations in front of a fairly large crowd. This time the burnout lasted a little longer, and I was once again brought back to the line. Nitrous on, purge, both stage lights on, and I'm ready! What I didn't see was Desi running up behind me to turn on the data recorder that he had forgot to do. At the instant I let go of the brake, he was hitting the button. Back to the race. On the launch the front end reached for the sky and once again, all I saw was yellow hood and sky! After it settled down, WOOHOO she came up again to give me yet another look at the beautiful sky! Back to earth once again, and she tried to do it one more time but the weight of the car was on my side and I settled in for a ride to the finish line. I stopped the clocks at 8.137 this time but the MPH went a little higher recording a 174.73. My reaction time was back to normal at .136. My opponent blew his tires off at the launch, so I was basically on my own.
When Desi and Margie came to fetch me at the end of the track, Desi told me what happened back at the starting line, and he was told I was disqualified because of what he did. Truth be told, I wasn't upset at him, mistakes happen, and I was out there on that track to put on a show and have a good time. Nothing broke, no one was hurt, and we all had a BLAST!!
That's what I did this weekend, and I'd do it again if my son will let me.
Mike
This being a rather large show with plenty of spectators, it was the perfect time to get my sponsors names in front of as many people as possible. Just put on a show for the crowd, and have some fun in the process. I kept the same tune-up that was in the car on our last outing, which should give me a good low 8 second pass with some decent MPH. One other little change I made before heading to the staging lanes, was to hike the wheelie bars up as far as they could go. I figured it would give me two things, one being to see if by getting the front end to get a little higher than the normal three or four inches, it just might toss a little more weight onto the rear tires for some better bite. The other thing it might do is look real cool, and after all, isn't that what this hobby is all about, to look cool?
After a medium size burnout, I was brought back to the line for our first go at the tree. Margie's job was to open the pass. door, turn on the nitrous bottle, and watch the race. I was lined up, set the tranny brake, and stuffed the pedal to the floor. At the first glimpse of yellow I let her rip! Good Lord, all I could see was HOOD! She settled down on all 4 tires and headed for the finish line. At the stripe she was breaking up a little and I knew instantly why. Back in the pits, when I flowed the fuel regulators, the Density Altitude was roughly 600'. When I got back to the pits after this pass, I went right for the weather station to check what I suspected. EEEK! The DA had gone up to almost 2000'. Bingo, too much fuel pressure in the second stage.
The time slip on that pass nearly knocked me out. Not so much the ET, but the reaction time! .003? HOLY CRAP!! I'm normally in the .150 range, so I chalked it up to a bad red light. The numbers on the slip read, 8.138 at 165.38. Not too bad.
The first pass was at 11:45, and because there were only 4 cars in our class, we were given the option of sitting out a round to help fill the show. We sat until 5:00 when we were called up for the first round of eliminations in front of a fairly large crowd. This time the burnout lasted a little longer, and I was once again brought back to the line. Nitrous on, purge, both stage lights on, and I'm ready! What I didn't see was Desi running up behind me to turn on the data recorder that he had forgot to do. At the instant I let go of the brake, he was hitting the button. Back to the race. On the launch the front end reached for the sky and once again, all I saw was yellow hood and sky! After it settled down, WOOHOO she came up again to give me yet another look at the beautiful sky! Back to earth once again, and she tried to do it one more time but the weight of the car was on my side and I settled in for a ride to the finish line. I stopped the clocks at 8.137 this time but the MPH went a little higher recording a 174.73. My reaction time was back to normal at .136. My opponent blew his tires off at the launch, so I was basically on my own.
When Desi and Margie came to fetch me at the end of the track, Desi told me what happened back at the starting line, and he was told I was disqualified because of what he did. Truth be told, I wasn't upset at him, mistakes happen, and I was out there on that track to put on a show and have a good time. Nothing broke, no one was hurt, and we all had a BLAST!!
That's what I did this weekend, and I'd do it again if my son will let me.
Mike
Thanks for the report.
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Zappy
-
WildcatOne
- Posts: 6732
- Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Houston, Texas
- Contact:
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Mike-Casella
- Posts: 2204
- Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:53 am
- Location: Middleboro, MA
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