Drag Racing Adventures of a girl and her '69 Camaro
Drag Racing Adventures of a girl
and her '69 Camaro
October 9, 2005 -
ET Finals Friday -Sunday
Big Red quacks her way into the lanes
Wow, let's see if I can recount all this mess... First let me say, so
many people where so kind to ask me if we got problems solved, did I get a good
pass, etc... Thanks so much, I appreciate those who care..I really do...
Friday started with hopes of all things better than
Thursday right...wrong...We put the new plugs in and indeed, spark plugs can
solve odd conking out problems...hey I thought it was crazy but the motor
was fine for the rest of the weekend. problem solved..old one
resurfaces...I have had three races this year that my tranbrake cord has wrapped
around or yanked out completely. no zip ties or tape or anything was
keeping it from getting stuck in the groove or the key, etcc.. so first pass
Friday, I go to do burnout and no line lock. I look, see my accessories
switch is on, think that is it. Didn't even think the trans brake was
fried too..Go to stage, no transbrake, catch it but ended up foot braking too
late, no rpm up, no shift light, .wasted pass. Dan reconnects the ripped
wires, replaced grounded fuse and we hang my transbrake button so I need to just
hang on to it, no more long cord. 10 hours later, time for pass number 2,
full of hope and promise. I am nervous over the idea of holding button, do
kinda crumby burnout (struggling with that with big tires but we'll get to that
later) Do my own staging, not watching other lane at all, come up on
converter and turns out other guy is pokey puppy...I'm on the converter a good
10 seconds, I spin so hard, never see a shift light come on full pass.
The rest of Friday night is bad news. Let's just say Dan was very
frustrated with me, I assumed I have killed the converter. I was ready to
pack up and admit fully I did not belong at the finals. I can tell you, we
definitely should have spent more time testing, we are still gathering data on
the changes and I had to just keep thinking I used the ET finals as 4 days of
test n tune but believe me, I don't believe that is where you come with a car
you are still figuring out...I believe in the finals being the baddest of the
bad ass racers battling, not someone who has barely made 10 passes on a
practically new car. I know it and was very embarrassed to be such a
problem all weekend. So back to our tale, Dan tries to find a converter, no
luck, we decide to check a few things and the tranny fluid was super low,
probably drained out slowly out at Speedworld's top end (wink) Dan messes
with it, seems like it's ok. I am ready to quit racing. (yeah it was one
of those kinda nights, the ones were you doubt you have any talent for this
sport.)
Saturday comes around, good night sleep, I feel like if I
have a car that works, I know I can race. I am ready to give it another
shot. Dan adjusts the rear shocks to soften them up, but no help. First time run
comes, It spins super bad again (1.80 60ft..yikes) My 11.50
car has yet to run in the 11's at all. Time for First round, I am total
duck soup....really, I feel bad for the guy who red lit to me because I dialed a
12.00 and came no where near it as I spun again. BUT I feel somewhat
better knowing that I, at least, gained my beloved TF one point. I didn't
totally make a fool of myself for accepting a slot on the team.
Sunday comes, I was just so glad to still be racing on
Sunday 2nd round. I actually felt pretty good, I didn't think I was going to red
light but I did -.007 red. I thought I hung it out and was late, guess
NOT, but it did hook up a bit better, that didn't help. I felt sorta bummed but
I felt good about my lights all weekend and I know I can finish line race with
the best of them. (If given the chance)
I never ran 11 seconds all weekend. There is no question Big
Red is wounded and the overwhelming consensus is that the converter is slipping
We believe it has been even at the last team race causing me not to spin
the tires but the trouble is the converter slipping. My wise young
brother in law called it at the TF race, said the converter was toast then. We
have another, it's just on a certain lady named Lily at the moment. We
plan to get her changed for the next race in Nov. I am getting better at
the bigger burnout, I spent so many years trying to take them easy to
preserve my tires I am just not aggressive enough. I took some wise
advice from Jody Davis, spun them harder than I ever have, I just need to drive
her out of it a little further. She is just so much more of a handful and
I am a slow to change habits style person. I mean, my feet still want to
foot brake, old habits die hard for me! By the way, one habit that wasn't
hard to change...I love holding the transbrake button, it's like using my
practice tree- I let go and drop it, no worries, I actually adjusted to that
right away...Hey!
As for the weekend on the whole, I tried to stay calm and cool over all
the shite Big Red was tossing at me.. I was so glad to be at a finals again!
I was so happy for my bud Ryan Smith winning the ROC, I hope he knows his
victory meant a lot to his friends too! Thanks for letting us be in the
photos! I had some good words in to some folks I know upstairs for him.
The finals were some of the most amazing memories I had in recent years with my
family, we always had a ball from painting signs, jangling pepsi cans or my mom
sewing FIREBIRD letters on shirts. I was very emotional to be back in
those stands knowing how much fun the whole team spirit thing was for my parents
and I. So I just ran down there and tried to get the gang cheering...
The "Give me an F" cheer was aimed right up at Butch for wearing that F with
pride... So if I was loud, obnoxious or nutty...it was divine
intervention...
October 6,
2005-ET Finals Thursday
Big Red doesn't wanna go
The first day of the 2005 division 7 ET Finals. The coolest things
about the finals for me has always been the camaraderie, the lanes being full of
totally cool cars from other tracks, seeing some bracket racing big boys (Dreher,
Kirkman, Killian, Cole, Calvert, etc..) It's so fun to do the ROC in the
stands, the themes, the riding in backs of trucks to shout "Go, Go, Go Team
Firebird..) I'm sure most of you know my parents always made the ET finals
very special also... SO with that all said, I have been so pleased to have
made the team this years in a trial filled year of working out the bugs of my
big changes! However, apparently by car isn't pleased to be there
whatsoever...
Well, you wouldn't believe a car has it's own personality but ever since I
have owned her, she always makes any easy project difficult...I swear! I
made comment to my pals in the morning that I have not driven Big Red down the
track at Speedworld since my hood came up in 1997!!!! I did try to
return there and got rained on, then of course Dan drove her down the track in
the spring of this year...but I have not...and after day one of the ET
finals...I still have not! You may think I'm nutty (which is probably true) but
it feels like some weird fate... Actually I suppose the true
tale is that we have been chasing our tails trying to figure out what the
problem has been for the last two races. Last night Dan and Travis worked
on her for 5 hours trying to find something. They changed the cap. rotator, plug
wires, pulled the value covers, ran the valves, messed with the carb..found
nothing... Unfortunately Dan also filled some water in the radiator and
didn't tighten the cap tight enough...First pass, wait in huge line hour and a
half, do burn out, pulling into staging beams and....starter points for me to
get off of the starting line, leaking....ugh...yep, just a loose radiator cap.
Now things are just crazy in the lanes and they decide to call our next pass by
class. A few more hours pass, finally call us, head to the lanes, car
seems ok nut sorta starting funny to me. 5 cars before I am about to run, I fire
up to move up, she fires then conks out, fire again, conks out again,
now...battery dies despite charging prior... Thanks to Jason Oteri and
Rick Lagno for pushing me out of the way in the Firebird lane. There I am
again, dead on the return road with announcer Rick suggesting I come up and
announce...yeah...I think I might...I hate getting this kind of attention for my
car, wish it could be the kind that says "Hey there she goes for another round"
Thanks to Mark Beavin and Jimmy Thomas for getting me back to the pits...Dan is
bringing his quad tomorrow which hopefully means we won't need it. Kirk Mitchell
says I have bad luck at the finals...At Firebird and Palmdale, I got serious
points for the team, in fact the Firebird finals I was the last non-e car in the
gambler back when. It was one of my best weekends of
racing ever... So I don't think it's the finals and I hope Kirk is wrong!
Came home, got new plugs in hopes of an easy solution. Stopped at
inlaws, embarrassed to tell them as I never feel like I live up to racing
expectations. I was very touched as my mom in law gives me a four leaf
clover jade necklace for good luck...sniff...I feel better for tomorrow
already...
August
20,2005
Unlucky fortune
Dan got a fortune cookie that said you have to lose to win the day before the
race and proclaimed that I go the wrong cookie...that it was meant for me.
Another 3 months went by with out going down the track for
me. I have been a million times more patient than I was when the car was being
tubbed. Dan has been working 7 days a week, Team Firebird races never end early
so there has been no chance of getting done early enough for him to get up at 4
am. Even this weekend Dan had to work Sunday morning, only not til 6 am. So
after a case of the jitters Saturday morning, we finally get loaded up and to
the track with "Big Red" in her new enclosed trailer. So I feel fine in the car
once I drive it up to tech. I don't know why I get nervous, it's like riding a
bike or what ever the cliché is. I am the most comfortable I can be when I am
sitting in that car, no matter how many changes it has had since I bought her.
So time for a time run, I do a good burnout, my fellow racer takes ten hours to
stage for some reason. I surprise myself and red light. I guessed it was from
the long staging and didn't worry about it until I made pass number two and red
light again. This is the last thing I need, I never want to go back to red
lighting. I know I have not have seat time but I was not red lighting up until
now with the new set up. I was looking forward to the Run the Money to get the
red out of my system. No one ever announced we were not having one so once the
2nd runs were over and they called Pro I was a tad bit off guard that they were
calling the class. I threw a guessing dial on the car, headed up and ended up at
the end of the line. I need to figure out a way to not be in the back all the
time. I need to be completely ready for the call sooner for now on. I was
surrounded in the rear by the usual suspects-Marconi, Downing, Kerbel and Kadar.
The rear of the line is where the bad boys hang out, I certainly don't belong
back there, I need to get towards the middle next race! I was directly behind an
orange Camaro. He comes back to me to tell me he is broke and for me to go
around him. I wait for Marconi to move up and finally back up a little, turn my
wheel and head around the Camaro. Just as I am moving forward, the car stops
dead in 1st gear. I had no idea what happened. I mess with the shifter, fearing
I did something to tranny. I get he car to move in 2nd gear. I move up in line
and realize again the car won't move in 1st gear. I realize my tranny brake line
is hanging off the steering column, I had accidentally pulled it out when I made
the turn to pull around the car. I have had issues with it wrapping around the
steering column since we added it. I thought about foot braking but don't want
to hurt anything by leaving in 2nd. I turn around and head back to the pits
dejected. Dan said the cord was grounding out making it seem like the tranbrake
was working in 1st gear. Ugh...2 passes and my night is over, no first round, no
time to fix it in time for the open class. Now I have to wait, wait for another
chance...but my wait will be a bit less patient. It only takes two passes after
3 months, I need to be in my car, I thrive on it. I just need that release, I
don't know how else to describe it.
May 28, 2005
The check was in the mail!
Sometimes we all just need a good
boost of confidence when challenged. I can not explain how happy I was at
the Team Firebird race to simply know I still remembered how to compete.
It seems a little shallow to be thrilled to win a few rounds but for the length
of time it has been since I have raced and even prior to that have little
success at it.. Sometime we just need a little boost. I went the season
before the transformation red lighting because of the changes I could not adjust
to. I was fearful of not adjusting to the new changes also. I
honestly planned on this entire year being test mode. I am still in that
thinking as I am by no means completely comfortable with the changes. I
just needed to bracket race and remind myself when to leave, when to dump, where
the finish line was.. all those things that get hazy when not racing for a
while.
There was close to a full moon that night and boy was it obvioius.
Dan had to work so we got to the track later than I prefer. As we were
driving into Firebird, the brakes went out on the RV. First stroke of bad,
then he couldn't get the generator to work on the RV. I was about the last
person to get my tech card signed and felt rushed to make the first pass since
Pro is the first class called. It appeared nobody wanted to make the first
pass as it was still so hot outside. For having a minor "disturbance"
prior, My first pass went well. I did everything I was supposed to and
even had a decent reaction time. I have been on my practice tree daily and
it is finally a good investment as it never really helped before when still
footbraking. That calm I talked about, it is still there...it was tested
but I think I am truly a different racer than before. I feel like I am
getting all 'zen-like' or something but things are different. While it
didn't seem like it at the time, time off may have been the best thing to happen
to my racing and my attitude about it. SO second time run, near the back
of the line and the car won't start. I was not surprised as we were unable
to charge it due to the generator being out. I have an alternator but it
always needs a charge a time or two a night. Chuck S loaned me his cell, I
call Dan at the pits (gotta love cell phones) and Dan takes the RV battery
out to bring up to me. Being so needy of time runs, I didn't want to miss
the "Run for the Money." Let's just say I made my second pass a little
later. This time I pushed the pedal down, came up on the converter then
got confused, foot slips and I had to mash the pedal again. Still managed
a decent reaction time. I came up for the run for the money and had a
friendly fellow racer ask me what kind of games I was playing on the starting
line. I was both flabbergasted and laughing as I enjoy that my screw ups
are perceived as games. All I had to say was that I was learning my
transbrake and he understood. On the third pass, I ran Lagno and I
just flat out went to soon, my first red light with the brake. It was just
me going too soon but I felt it, it was good to have one to feel the difference.
Rick was trying to give me a chance to run the right lane as I still had not
made a pass in the right lane, in fact I never did all night. The lane
director didn't make it clear I could choose but thanks to Rick for trying to
give me the opportunity.
First round comes and I didn't even have the pit in my stomach I
usually do, I was planning to just hop in the test n tune line after that pass.
I was not playing any games or sleeping dog or lame duck. I just figured I
was no more ready to compete than before. I did feel more comfortable, no
question that is coming now, but to even think I could compete was ludicrous.
I ended up paired with Chris Holbrook, no doubt, a great pal. I hate racing my
buddies, even though I tend to be more competitive. I just left, got to
chase, caught him, eyed where he was, took a little stripe and my win light came
on. (double break out) Chris says he saw me celebrating in my car. I was
screaming but it wasn't just cause I won... I was screaming "I remember how to
race" (ok, the zen calm was gone for the moment) It felt so good to just
leave, catch and remember when to park. (No offense to Chris, please.. I
apologize again for beating you! You owe me one.) I was very nervous as to
how the car would react to finish line racing as it has that different sway to
shutting down and braking. But it felt fine. I got back to the trailer and
Dan was asleep. I told him I was still in but he was out cold...
Second round I go up and was paired with Stan Kennedy. He's one of
the big boys in my assessment, he has raced for many years, I have seen him win
a lot, and he is a very consistently a top 5 points finisher at whatever track
he is racing. I said to him I hadn't thought we had raced since I was
still running 15's. I remember I beat him the day I was in my very first
final. We get paired and now the long wait comes. An hour long oil
down is making me so tired then they run Super Pro before us. Stan and I's
dials were very close so the tree was gonna be close coming down. I
honestly never noticed his tree, I left and had him covered pretty early.
I got off the gas but not too much as to lose too much E.T. Win light
again, unbelievable!.... Lonnie kept telling me to have confidence but I
was just not caring what happened- and it worked.
Third round I am paired with another tough hombre, Geoffrey Kerbel.
I was waiting for him and kind wondering where the rest of the Pro class was.
He came late as it turns out and they had run the rest of Pro without making
sure they had all the pairs in line. We agree on lanes and then I was following
him up in the staging lanes but another racer snuck in front of me and stopped,
I was trapped and had to crept around him to get past. The lanes were a
mess to be honest, that was a little discombobulating. I didn't care that
he came later, I was just confused where the class was. It didn't throw me
off though, as I came up with a .019 light. Geoffrey and I's dials
were close also. The end of my night came at 60 ft as I spun the tires and
knew there was no catching him. My 60 ft had gone from 1.59 vs Stan to a
1.69 vs Geoffrey. I am even glad I can even recognize the feel of the tire spin,
it is all part with being comfortable with the car. It was more than
I ever expected to begin with so I was tickled. If I had won, I would have
had to race Ryan on the ladder which would have been a blast. We'll save
that for another time! Ryan of course went on to win the race and I told
him I was probably the happiest person outside of the winners that night.
One of my favorite parts of the night was when I talked to both Stan and
Geoffrey after our races, they both made similar comment about how they were
surprised when I got up on the converter, how the car sounded like a race car
now. Now that was fun!
I had to wake Dan up to swap back the batteries and tell him
it was now like 3 am... The next day completed my happy weekend as we
picked up Big Red's new garage....We bought an enclosed trailer from Bob Frost,
another fella I never got to beat, damn Mopars-wink!
May 7, 2005
You dropped the tree on
me, baby...You dropped the tree to fast
Sorry, I am just getting around to my
report from last weekend's spin in the red car. I was entered in the
gambler at the Coors Monster Truck jet jam (or something like that) I am a
sucker for these "dog and pony" shows at Firebird. My parents and Dan
always knocked 'um, rightfully so because something usually goes wrong at them
or the track is a rink. Still I am a ham and want to race my car in front
of people in the stands so I keep going to them. I still remember the one
with the dust storm and them trying to run us at 3am..anyway that was long ago,
before Dan, although Dan was racing it too. So anyway, here I am entered
into a race without really having made a full on pass in the car. I just
figured I would go with the flow and be the biggest Mallard known to man in the
first round. I was grinning to myself as Kirk Mitchell was applauding me
that I was racing, thinking to myself, "yeah, not really racing here, just using
any opportunity to go down the track. " As my own luck would have it, the
tree was dropped or something so we couldn't really race as only the .400 Pro
tree was working after a few hours of work. Dan even had time to adjust
the values while they worked on the tree or wires or something. Some folks
were upset not to race but I couldn't believe my good fortune. I got 4
passes I needed without having to hand someone a win light. I did feel bad
for talking Lonnie into coming as he is so on his game, four time runs are
hardly needed, he should have been somewhere with money and a trophy involved.
At least we had good steaks for the night! So on to my passes! I
must comment that I continue to be so calm, calmer than I ever was before.
It isn't something I can explain yet. I did my burnout on pass number one
and it was completely right, big, smokey in the cockpit, I knew I hadn't forgot
how! The shift light was back working and all went pretty well. The
car is not at all set up to leave off a Pro tree, the car didn't fully have time
to come up on the converter before the yellow flashed. I seemed to get all
the steps down and felt decent about the pass even though the 60 foot mark
sucked, spinning the tires on the launch. I went back to the pits feeling
good and comfortable, asking Dan to commend me on doing everything right.
Never get too cocky after only one good pass as when I went up for the second
one, I managed to screw up royally. I guess I didn't do a good enough
burnout then I instinctively moved my feet into the foot brake position.
When I realized what I did, the tree was activated and I am rushing to hit the
transbrake, moving my feet out of the way and generally missing the entire
starting line procedures. Bill Cline was long gone by the time I set the
brake and then left off it. I came plowing by him but knew I had wasted a
run. Unfortunately we never get praise but always get sh*t when we screw
up. If you are a husband, dad and or significant other....don't rail on
your spouse too hard after they screw up, they already feel bad and already know
they screwed up-OK? Pass number three was against Lonnie so there was no
chance I was gonna screw that up. I was still having trouble with the
converter not fully coming up. We should have put a chip in but, oh well,
I don't plan on racing off a Pro tree anytime soon again. Pass four was my
best one, and the best it has run with the big tires, an 11.63. The 60
foot still wasn't too hot nor as good as it 60 footed at Speedworld, so we know
it has more in it. Dan thinks it was taking an extra hop so he is going to
adjust. I would love another chance to test as I am still not really
leaving the way I need to off the tree. Getting the leave down is my next
step to concur. Not sure if I will get a chance before next team race.
I have been put on hold by an eye problem. The eye doctor got a big kick
out me asking if I could drag race. He told me not to go 150mph and I said
ok, how about 120 mph?
April 24, 2005
Vindicated in the rain
I have got to trust my own instincts sometimes when it comes to that car because
as much as it has changed, I was right about some feelings I had but did not
voice them to my crew chief. Last Sunday, as I was shutting down, I did
not like the brakes at all, thinking to myself that it will be harder to park on
someone, etc with how poorly the brakes felt like they worked. I was kinda
bumming that the brakes didn't work as well with the big tires. I have
always been very sensitive to how well my brakes work and have had many issues
in the past with them. All the pieces fit after Dan and Travis were
working on it Saturday afternoon prior to the Sat Nite Drags. As they were
looking into why my shift light wasn't working, something came up about a
proportioning value, not being turn fully, leaving me less than 50% of my front
brakes. This was causing me to have a hard time holding the burnouts and
the problems I did not report shutting down! I was right! There was
a reason I couldn't hold those burnouts! They found the shift light
problem also. Travis backed the car out of our driveway to put it on the
trailer and proceeded to do a long, smoky burnout in our cul de sac to check
those brakes. We all laughed very hard as I was praying the cops were not
called by neighbors. He also drove it around the block which included
going down Extension with it, he said people nearly tripped out their door ways
to figure out what was going by. There is a huge patch of rubber on the
street in front of the driveway. He got out and said "I got your new tire
wore in now".... So on to Firebird, I was quite confident that
things would be very comfortable and I could work on leaving off the transbrake.
After we teched, Dan was checking the idle and fiddling with the carburetor.
As we were getting ready, I noticed the transbrake button wasn't clicking and
then saw the gages were out. Dan found a bad fuse in the accessories but
as he put in another, it blew. He fussed with the electrically issue for
about an hour and found that the tranbrake cord had grounded out the painless
wiring switch box. By the time it was fixed and we were ready to run, a
huge gust started and we watched helplessly as dusted blew all over the track.
Lonnie came back from his first round of ADRA, said his car had gone sideways
from hitting dust patches, and we knew we had to just load it up and try again
next week. The rain just added to our heartbreak. Dan said he knew
it was a bad luck night as he found a dead lady bug in the RV. Thanks to
everyone who I hit up for fuses. Mine are in my console that we removed
from the car. We did get some yummy In n Out with Lonnie and Kirk MItchell
but I still was sad to not run again. I did get pictures though from the TF
race!!! Byron was wise to print some and bring them, I was itching to see
some and they are gorgeous shots. Here is one!
Photo by www.Carpix4u.com
April 22, 2005
Everyone is up in arms about the
track conditions at Sunday's race. I read 4 pages of rants, raves and
bickering on dragraceresults yesterday. Sometimes that is why I steer
clear of that site, it sucks people in. I know the track was not stellar
but I wasn't one to comment or know for sure as I was not doing the world's
greatest burn outs. It would not be fair for me to blame everything on the
track. I knew in the afternoon when I finally got to make my 3rd pass that
the track had gotten super hot and you can hear the tires tweak loudly in my
video of that run. Doing the test n tune route had it's disadvantages.
I made two passes then had to wait through all of the Run for the Money and then
all of the first rounds, it was a very long wait and that is when the track
definitely went south. Ryan told me to make sure I got in the left lane as
the right was worse. (He won the race by the way, we all celebrated at In
n Out natch!) I am a bit bewildered why I was having such a hard time
spinning those big new tires in the water box. Dan's dad gave me heck
today about me doing wussy burn outs. Dan actually defended me and said I
hadn't raced in a year and a half and to my credit I almost had it by the third
pass. I just need to be "more aggressive", that is what they all keep
telling me. This was never a problem for me before, I am just taking all
the nuances of the big change in... I will not be detoured, I am going to give
the car and the track a shot again this Saturday night. I am confident I
will have more things figured out and things will be more comfortable. I
am patient for the outcome, it took a year and a half to complete, why should I
have to be perfect driving it in 3 passes?
April 18, 2005
It finally happened yesterday.... I was back behind the wheel
of my big red '69 Camaro after a year and a half. The wait was agony in some
ways, testing every bit of my patience as I felt something had been taken away
from me permanently. In the past few months my impatience honestly changed to a
calming simmer. I suspect that I started getting nervous instead and feared the
changes. I was insanely calm for this build up. There were a lots of racer
friends waiting to see me, cheering me on but I remained very sedate almost. I
already knew it would be fine after Dan ran it so maybe I just hopped in
figuring it would be the same "old heap" (John Force's affectionate term for his
race car) But it was not the same by any means. It may sound really odd to the
uninitiated but a great race car driver is very in tune with her car. I knew Big
Red backwards, knew when something was wrong, anything... I felt bolts break in
some intendances. When I drove the car to tech and everything sounded
different.. louder, clunkier. The motor, while not changed a bit, sounded
different in my new surroundings. One pal at the track kept referring to my new
car, it was funny, he kept correcting himself but it might as well be... So many
people said such nice things, how bad ass it looks, how intimidating it looks,
what a great job Travis and Dan did (which they certainly should hear a million
more times) One racer said I should race (I was just testing) because I would
win rounds just by the competitor looking at the car and panicking... The nicest
thing said to me was from Team Underdog racer Jim who said "Welcome home" with a
hug. I would never even live in Arizona if it was not for Firebird International
Raceway! I would have never met my husband if it was not for Firebird. It truly
is home for me! I certainly made plenty of mistakes in the 3 passes I made, The
most humorous being my forgetting to step on the gas when I set the transbrake.
I was so worried about trying to leave off the button I forgot the minor step
when you are supposed to mash the gas after you press the button and take your
foot off the brakes. Dan filmed me, albeit with shaky hands, Travis walked me
into the water box in effort to get me to do a few better burnouts (even that
process has changed) The team photographer who has worked with me on my website
was taking a zillion photos(he knows a sucker, oops, I mean good customer a mile
away) Travis kept giving a thumbs up while I was spinning the tires in the
burnout. After the second pass, he says politely to his silly sis in law, "when
I give you a thumbs up it means give it more gas" (Not good job ya dork) Dan is
already shopping to build a faster motor, I can't even handle the one I got
yet...
The track went away and we decided to call it a day
as the guys need to tweak on the motor and fix a little problem-no shift
light!!!! I am trying to figure out all these new sounds and motion and the
shift light isn't working! Nothing like throwing me off even more! I used the
tach by pass three but honestly I had too much else to think about let alone
that being missing. Oh and then there's the pass where my belts opened up by
accident....(shh) Still I swear I never even shook or got that feeling I get
when it's time to race a first round. I can't explain... but I guess I was back
home in Big Red even with all the changes.
January 4,
2005
Not only did that
happen yesterday but the other event I have anticipated almost as long is the
completion of my race car. Nov of 2003, I decided to back-half the car to make
it safer and more consistent. I have not been the most patient car owner,
sometimes feeling like it wasn't a priority to get done quickly. I admit I was a
bear to live with sometimes but I know sometimes Dan procrastinates. Anyway,
it's done and left Travis' garage yesterday in route to the alignment shop and
then home tomorrow. I may be in the car by Sunday depending on weather, and how
it handles for Dan and Travis. I can't believe I haven't been in the car for
over a year. I am nervous but know it will be old hat once I get back at it for
a bit. Me racing again, I was beginning to doubt it.
