One thing about racing, there is no sleeping in on race day. It’s up at 5:30, grab some breakfast and head for the track. Today we are a little lucky because time runs do not start until 9 am. The first call for Super Pro (Box Cars, because we use electronics) came at 9:45. It’s time to head for the staging lanes. There were a few cars to say the least. The staging lanes were nowhere near large enough to hold all the Super Pro cars. I was informed there were approximately 245 cars entered in this class. The staging lanes were full and cars were lined up all the way back in the pits.
We made our first time run at 10:46 am with the INS dragster running a 7.783 ET @172.45 MPH which was an excellent run. The facility is so large its overwhelming looking down the track. Now to find our pit stall. Our second time run of the day comes at 3:40 pm. Yep, you guessed it, it takes that long between rounds to get all the cars down the track. 6 hours, Yikes!! It’s going to be a long weekend. This time the INS dragster runs a 7.82 ET @171.23 MPH which is a good run.
It is a little warmer now, the humidity has increased slightly, and the water grains (molecules of water in the atmosphere) have increased which will slow an alcohol (for fuel) race car down. I am definitely not a weather man which is why we have this high tech weather station in our trailer to give us this information. We have a pager that sends changes to us as we sit in the staging lanes waiting to run. At this type of event it would not be unusual to be away from the trailer for a good hour to hour and half, which in that amount of time the weather may change significantly. Why is all of this so important? In this type of racing (bracket racing) you must display on your car what ET you are going to run. If you run faster you lose.
Now it’s time to enter what they call a gamblers race where you throw $50.00 dollars in the pot and race. This type of racing is 100% pay back, so we will enter the INS dragster and see what we can do or not do. The first elimination round is at 8:19 pm and I must say I am in disbelief as I pull over the crest of the hill in the staging lanes, drive under the tower (which is where race control and the announcers reside, along with many fancy suites) and see all those lights and spectators. Wow!!
We had a great light .001 green, dialed a 7.82 and ran a 7.782. Here is a perfect example where we should have lost because I went too fast, but my opponent had a red light start meaning he left too soon. We win and on to the second round “later”. We get the call and are in the staging lanes for round two at 11:30 pm. Talk about an “old man” being up past his bed time!! We dialed a 7.77 on the INS dragster, had a bad reaction time (058), and lost. The car reacted very strange on the starting line, lifted the front end as high as I have ever seen it, and had a bad 60′ time of 1.25 (which is usually 1.16). End result, we ran a 7.912 and you will hardly ever win at this type of race with that large of a spread in numbers. It’s time to load up, find food, go to the motel, and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.
