Last Thursday, I decided to take advantage of a cooler evening and with the help of my good buddy, Joe, loaded the INS Dragster for weekend racing. As it turned out, it was a good move. It was hotter on Friday, so I decided to wait until the evening to head to the track. I got there around 7 p.m. Thinking I would get a jump start on Saturday, I unloaded the golf cart and generator and spent some time setting up the weather station. There were a few racers already there, but certainly not as many as I had expected. Sunday was the Quick 16 race, so I figured a lot of the fast cars must be coming in Saturday night or early Sunday.
The forecast was for a very hot Saturday and even worse on Sunday with significant humidity. That kind of forecast usually hurts the car count. It’s hot on an 85 degree day sitting in the staging lanes strapped in with a suit, gloves and helmet on. While Saturday was as hot as predicted, there was a wonderful breeze which kept things at a tolerable level.
Our first time run was slower than the previous weekend of racing, mainly because of the weather. The INS Dragster ran a 7.70 @ 172.78 mph which I had expected. In the next time run, the INS Dragster ran a 7.67 @ 173.43 mph. Just as I crossed the finish line, I looked at the oil pressure and it went to 0! I immediately hit the shut-off switch and did manage to coast off the track and make the turn down return road. I had to wait for at least 30 to 45 minutes to get towed back as Joe was called to the staging lanes for his next time run. Afterwards, we returned to our pit stall hoping to find a bad/loose wire, bad ground…anything!
After an hour of investigation, I concluded there was no conclusion. I could not be sure of anything! This is one of the problems with high-tech electronics. When it works correctly, it’s great. When it doesn’t perform correctly, well, what can I say? It was obvious with no oil pressure reading, on the gauge or otherwise, we were not going to take the chance. Joe was kind enough to scour the pits and find a manual read-out oil pressure gauge. However, we had no fittings or line to hook it up. With that said, I knew I was done for the weekend and might as well start loading things up.
It took quite awhile to get everything stowed in the trailer for the ride home. The good news is that the Quick 16 on Sunday was rained out. That is luck! Now if I can just get a little more luck and figure out my oil pressure problem, the INS Dragster will be back and ready to go soon. Here’s to staying cool!
