Whats Been Happening

 

Well lets see now. Where to begin. Lets try 2006. After a rather devastating engine failure in 2005, brought on by not paying attention to what is going on with the engine I put it all back together again. For some reason I just can't understand (**** the money ****) my heart just wasn't into it anymore. Long about July of 2006 I took the car to Spokane Raceway Park and made a shake down run on the new engine. Found some metal in the filter and said the hell with it and took it home. Only made a half track run and spun the tires most of that.

After taking it home and letting it set for a while I tracked the problem down to new valve springs rubbing slightly on the mag valve covers. Unfortunately what little of the fun light that had sparked to life had died. I remember one time asking Dan MaGlone why he was quitting and he told me "When I first started racing the funny car I would sit in the car and look to the finish line and try to guess how quick I was gonna go. When I decided to stop racing I was looking at the other end of the track trying to figure out how much the run was gonna cost me." I remember that well and it was somewhat fitting to how I felt.

Long about this time work reared its ugly head in the flavor of 6 and 7 days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day for over 2 1/2 years. Didn't leave much time to race or even think about it. The strange thing is I didn't really miss it at the time or so I thought. During this time I bought a really nice 40 foot gooseneck trailer. So far it hasn't left the property but it will soon enough. It was a sad day when Scott Kalitta died during a race. Belated as it is my sincerest sympathys go out to his family. What is almost as sad is the way NHRA handled the backlash. Many different options were open to them and the worst in my opinion was to shorten the track to 1000 feet. A simple solution would have been to take fuel pump volume away from the car. It would have slowed them down but to a safer and more manageable level. But then that is only my opinion and that of quite a few people I know.

Ok now back to reality or fantasy depending on how you look at it. I started to get an itch, if you know what I mean. One that I just couldn't scratch. I needed to get back to racing. It was funny how it just snuck up on me. I would talk to people and bench race like in the past and it just seemed right. I tried Sanity on for 3 years and it just didn't fit. I'm back and I wanna race!

So far we (me and the crew) went through the car from front to back. New valves in the heads along with springs, keeper and retainers. The bottom end is all new . Everything is recerted and the clutch is pretty much all new since a wallet thinning trip to Crower but it looked pretty. We rolled it and started it . Wow that felt good. It surprised me how loud it was.

Took 2010 to get use to driving again and having some fun licensing. We went to Yakima for the first pass and Spokane for the next two. Wow its amazing how much you forget when not running for a while. New clutch and new ignition meant we needed to get a handle of the tune up again. We set it fat and kept pulling fuel away and checking things out. The last pass was a 6.89 at 209 with the blower slowed down and still to fat to barely show on the plugs.

So far this year (2011) we made one show in Yakima. Had a great time. Finally got the toterhome I've been building out on road. Under new pictures is some of the photos of it during construction. Its not finished but it was close enough for the weekend. Having a new awning (new to us) for the trailer makes things nice for when it RAINS!!!!! It only rained on Friday night and Saturday and Sunday were good. Track was to slick and tires to old to really do much except spin the tires alot. Sunday was a good day in that I got to race a nostalgia nitro funny car. Actually hooked for a second or two and then discovered that my left tire was smaller then the right tire. For those of you who don't know what that does watch the new video I've put up. Say hello to mister Wall. I didn't hit it but I did scare the heck out of it.

Ok so we have another year gone (2011) and the next one looking to be better then the past. Lets see now, what new news is there to gossip about. Well seams Spokane County Raceway has a new manager. Craig Smith, former AHRA top fuel Champion and round winner at NHRA events. Seems Craig has taken a leave of his senses. Just kidding but I'm sure there will be times when he asks himself what the heck am I doing here. Looks like were gonna be racing a few times in Spokane. It will be nice to run there again. A few races in Spokane and a few in Yakima. and maybe a few weekend test runs will be plenty for the summer. Good luck this year to Craig and Derek.

Well 2012 didn't go the way I had thought it would. Planned 4 races didn't make any of them. First race was on Memorial weekend so the entire crew took off. Scratch 1. Decided to have some chassis work done at Hadmans and it took longer then figured so I missed the next to races. Scratch 2 and 3. Took the car to Spokane to do some testing and had a lean out condition during the run, banged the burst and body panel. Couldn't figure out what happen so sent the entire fuel system back to be checked. Seems the only thing that it could have been was the fuel shutoff doing exactly that what its meant to do, it shutoff during the run. Fuel system flow took longer then expected so missed the last race. Scratch 4. So much for racing in 2012.

2013 seems to going together better I hope. The entire crew is ready to go. Got some testing to do, 3 races to run at and some fun to have. The car is all certified and ready to run. Have fuel, oil and ambition. Hmmm, could be a good year.

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