RACE REPORT
Las Vegas Bugorama 10.18.14
We hooked up the trailer at 7:30am Thursday morning to head to Vegas. We decided to take the Hwy 44 route over the mountains and into reno. Thank god for the addition of an exhaust brake. After the mountains is was pretty smooth sailing. The only thing that concerned us was that it’s a two lane road most of the way, so you don’t want a blow out or you could be in the other lane with a semi head on. Not much to report on the drive, other than trucks with long trailers do NOT need to go around an around-about. We got to the hotel at 8:30pm and we figured we used about 104gallons of diesel to get there. We slept most of Friday, Saturday was going to be a big day for us.
We wanted to be at the track at 6am Saturday morning. We got to the truck and trailer at 5:45. It took us half an hour to get that big trailer out of the parking lot. You ever heard of a 64 point turn? Thank god for Ron Pratt, I would have never gotten it out of there. Finally off to the track, we got there at 6:30 and was greeted with open arms by the BRS staff. They were so glad we made it. We pulled in and tried to decide where to pit, let’s just say there was plenty of room. We saw Doug Harvey so we decided to pit next to him. We were the only two cars running in the class with Doug having the points lead by 4 points. So it was going to come down to one race winner take all.
We unloaded the car and got it ready to start. Start up went fine. We switched to nitro to let everyone know we were there. People started to come over to figure out what the noise was and that strange oder in the air. Nothing like Nitro in the morning. Everything seemed good so we waited till we got the call and pulled up. To say my nerves were getting to me would be an understatement. I tried to calm myself by going through the motions in the car which seemed to work. I got up there and took the right lane. Start at the line went good, burn out was great, now I was in the zone. The tree came down and I cut an .004 green light. Yeah that is going to be hard to beat. No tire shake as I took off. Theres the light shift, no problems its still pulling., theres the finish line, chute out. We ran 7.52 at 172mph. 4 gallons of fuel later... I got a push from the track staff and down the return road I go. Got out rolled up the chute and waited to get picked up. Back to the pits we go.
The car got maintained with the oil changed. Refueled and the blow down. Half way through the maintenance we got called up. Are you kidding me? I need at least an hour to get everything taken car of and cooled down, but I didn’t want to miss second round of qualifying because we wanted to see if the car would be consistent. We added a little more fuel at idle as the temps on the exhaust were a little high. In doing this, we stepped on our foot here. We started the car at the line and the idle was way to high. Burn out was not a problem but backing up was. By the time I got it backed up, my brakes were done. The last couple of feet to the staging beams I had to use the trans brake and just keep bumping it to get in the beams. The run was terrible. We put out pipes, red lit, it just wasn’t good. We turned a 8.41 at 153mph. This time, I made it off the track. Back to the pits we go.
Everyone was frustrated at that run. We did the maintenance and this time started it on nitro in the pits to get our tune up back. Again as we were half way through the maintenance the call was given to come back up. I really need to talk to the staff about this, I cannot turn this car around in 30min.
Ok here it is for all the marbles, the final, whoever wins this round gets the championship. I had lane choice so took the right lane. Doug dialed in a 7.75 to our 7.60. We decided on that number as the air had warmed up which would slow the car down. I did the burn out and it was good. Got the car backed up and into the beams, told myself to run my own race and not let Doug’s car leaving first distract me. The tree came down and off I went. I did not see Doug at all. Sheesh did I red light or was he just slow off the line? There is the shift light, bang 2nd gear. Still no sign of doug... Do I lift? Last time I lifted, Andrew Esserini took the strip. At about 1000 feet I felt a hole drop. I thought “there is no way I am going to run the 7.60 number”, I stayed in it. There is the line, still no sign of Doug. I won. I was in the right lane so waited for Doug to turn first. There he is. By this time I got stuck on the track so the track staff had to push me off again. I waited to get picked up thinking “oh boy we won”. I got the time slip and was amazed I didn’t win... I didn’t red light, I went too fast.. giving the win to Doug. We ran 7.57 (can’t remember the mph on this one). Back to the pits we went, I was shocked to say the least.
Oh well, if you have to lose, going too fast is the way to do it. That’s drag racing folks! I went over to Doug and congratulated him on the championship. I have to say, it was a long trip but worth it even without the championship. It all about the sportsmanship.
We have plans to return to Vegas... once I have a talk with the staff about that damn turn around time.