Weekend recap:
Arrived at the track Friday morning to typical late July hot and humid weather. DW decided to accompany me for this trip which was a pleasant change. No test-n-tune for me on Friday since the (borrowed) 32' RV sucked up most of my disposable income for the next six weeks covering 2200 miles round trip using over 300 gallons of fuel. Spent a good part of the afternoon bench racing with POPS and one of his buddies (Mike) who was there racing Pro ET. Listening to POPS and Mike go at it I could tell they had busting each others chops for quite a few years.
Saturday:
(some of this I moved here from Bill's big block thread)
My sister brought my Dad over to watch me race on Saturday. Part of the reason for making this trip was because I have family near there. It was good to see them and I got to go racing too!
Round one win! FWIW when my opponent broke out. Of course no points for round one since everyone comes back to round two. A win is a win, I’ll take it! Round two on the other hand netted me my 2nd ever holeshot win! Opponent ran .1 off dial to my .12 off dial but I had him by .029 off the line for the holeshot win! Going to round three!
POPS brought "The Turtle" so I got to see him race. He red-lighted both rounds, but by a lesser margin in round two, so he was improving! He spent a lot of his time serving as the official "starter" for about a dozen of the Pro ET bikes. He knew a bunch of the local racers that were there.
Pretty good turnout, with Pro ET having a big field. Only four top fuelers. I only wish it were cooler!
Round three breakout. Done for the day... dammit! I had been running 13.2’s all day, so I dial 13.20 for round three and I pull off a 13.174. I’ll take it, at least I called my dial within .03 which is a narrowing margin of “guesstimation” for me.
Sunday:
Round one win! I broke out by .015, but my opponent red lit. A win is a win! Round two however saw the tables turned on me. I somehow managed to line up next to my round one opponent. I ran a 13.11 on a 13.10 dial and still got beat! I was .010 off my dial to my opponent's .012 but giving him .07 off the line (my .1 RT to his .03 RT) was too much to overcome handing me a holeshot loss.
Overall a very good weekend, proving that I can pick my dial pretty close and that some more practice off the line should get me closer to an actual event win, hopefully in the near future! A number of the regulars were there: POPS, Dusty Brazel, Barry Pryor, Vance Houdyshell, Manny Corrasquillo, the last two also hailing from Central Florida.
After leaving the track Sunday we stopped and visited with my Dad that afternoon, heading South Sunday evening. I drove all day yesterday to get back home a little after 11:00 last night.
Back at work today!
(hard at it as you can tell...)
