Race report continued::
Saturday morning came quickly after a long night of working on the dragbike wheel. I had to make a few stops to find grade 8 bolts and a few drill bits. A google search showed several hardware stores in the little town but most didn’t open until 9 and that’s when the first round of eliminations began. We got lucky and spied a Piggly Wiggly grocery store that had an Ace Hardware store inside( gotta love a small town). Once again luck was on my side and they had every piece and part I needed to attempt extraction of the remaining 4 bolts. We arrived at the track around 7am and started to unload the Honda and the small tire Kawasaki dragbike that I planned to race in pro ET. I fired the Honda up since it was first out. It idled okay so I felt it was ready. I started up the old Kaw and it also ran fine. I pulled into the lanes for first round eliminations in street ET on the Honda. The lanes filled up quickly with over 80 bikes. I had no clue to as to what I should dial the bike due to the cooler temps that morning. The bike is a little on the lean side so I dialed to a conservative 10.65. If the bike went quicker, that wasn’t a problem because all bikes return for 2nd round anyway- its basically an automatic buyback round. I rolled the bike in the water box and did my usual burnout to get the tire hot. I went into the beams and turned my top bulb on, wait for my opponent to light his top bulb and then I brought the rpms up and slowly pushed the bike forward to light my 2nd bulb. I was the slower bike so my side of the tree came down and I was off on a green light start. The bike did its customary 10”-12” wheelie off the line so I felt good about the launch. I hit all my shifts points as the light came on. Down track I looked back but didn’t see my opponent close by. Instinct told me to lift but I remembered this was actually just a time run so I stayed in the throttle. As I suspected, my win light didn’t come. I figured I ran quicker than the 10.65 I had predicted. Got the time slip and it showed a 10.46 ET @ 123mph, hmmm the air was a lot better than I thought. I came back to get the pro ET bike. I haven’t raced this bike in the ¼ mile with the current top end so I had no clue as to what it would run. I mainly run the bike in the 5.60 index class- 1/8th mile and it will run mid 5.50’s with no problem. Typically that 1/8th ET equates to an 8.90 pass but I decided to be on the soft side and dial a 9.15. I equipped the bike delay box for this race but had no historical data on what numbers to put in the box. I took a wild guess hoping it would give me a good light. My opponent was on a quicker bike so I didn’t have to enter his ET into the box. We pushed into the beams and when the top amber came on I let the 2 step button go to activate the timers on the delay box. The box released and I was off on a green light start. The bike was pulling well all the way down track and when I looked over my shoulder for my opponent he wasn’t close. I decided to take the bike all the way through to determine what ET it was going to run- just like the pass on the Honda, my win light didn’t come on saying I likely broke out. The time slip showed an 8.96ET @ 142mph. My reaction time was a .040. Good data now to move into the next round. Back up on the Honda for 2nd round I bumped my ET up a tad to a 10.50. Again I drew a quicker opponent and once again I had a green light start with a good launch. Down track I looked to see the position of my opponent but he wasn’t close. As I approached the finish line I rolled out of the throttle to take the win. I jumped off the Honda onto the Kaw for 2nd round in pro ET. I lowered my dial in to 8.96. I drew a racer with a 9.02 dial in so I put both number in the delay box. We both staged up, the first bulb lights so I release the two step button waiting for a slight delay and bike launches. I look over at the tree and the dreaded red eye is looking at me. Dang. Bike ran an 8.94 @143mph. Got back to the pits and decided to concentrate on the wheel repair since it would be a little while longer before we went back up for the next round of street ET. I was able to get all of the broken bolts out but had to chase the threads to be on the safe side. Wilbur came to my rescue with the loan of a nice kit. I cleaned up the threads and was ready to reassemble the wheel. By this time they called us up for the 3rd round of street ET. I left my dial in at 10.50. I had a quicker opponent again. We staged up and the tree dropped first on my side. I left with green light and a good launch. At the stripe, my win light came on advancing me to the 4th round.
Back at the trailer I proceeded to work on the wheel again installing new grade 8 bolts and washers with Loctite. I noticed a significant amount of clouds and darkness around us. We loaded up all the bikes just in time. It started to drizzle some and then settled into a steady down pour. Eventually, they “called” the race for the night ending any chance to do the last qualifying session for the sportsman classes and dashing the ET racers opportunity to go to the 4th round of eliminations. With the high bike counts, I concluded they would probably not continue the ET classes on Sunday but simply payout the remaining racers. Due to the shut down, I was able to finish the wheel and installed it back on the bike. Eliminations for top gas would start by noon Sunday so I was glad the bike was ready for battle once again. We left the track around 9pm and headed for the hotel to rest.
Morning showed up and the Lord saw fit to open my eyes once again. Off to the track we went arriving by 8:00am or so. We only had to unload a few of the bikes initially since I was only running street ET in the morning. They called us up for 1st round street ET about 9am. Bikes were slow getting into the lanes for some reason so they started running what was there. I bumped my dial in up to a 10.65 because the temps were much lower than the day before and I knew the thinner are would slow me down. Once again I lined up with a faster bike so I left first. The launch was good and the bike ran well down track. I was way out front of the other racer but I didn’t slow down because I needed to know the exact ET the bike would run under current conditions. It was a autobuyback round anyway so a win or a lose didn’t matter. Of course the win light showed up in the other lane. I knew I probably broke out and the ticket read 10.62@120mph. The air definitely hurt the bikes performance due to the lean conditions of the carbs. It doesn’t really matter to extract every ounce of power from a bike by making on the fly adjustments if you’re only bracket racing. You just change your dial in to match the parameters.
Back at the trailer I checked my nitrous bottle in the no bar KZ. Darn, it weighed very close to empty. This explains why the bike was such a slug on the last pass. I felt I had enough in the bottle but I was wrong. I had to find someone to fill a few bottles for me on the midway and then put a fresh one in the bike. I checked the bottle in the top gas bike and it was still full so I didn’t change it out this time. They called 2nd round street ET back to the lanes. I lowered my ET to a 10.60 this time since the temps had gone up a bit. Yeap, I got a faster opponent once again. Both bikes staged and I launched the bike. I didn’t leave the line quite as hard as I had done in previous rounds and knew the ET would be off. All I could do at that point was watch the shift light and stay on top of hitting the button on time. I looked back and my opponent was closing fast. I could see the stripe to far in the distance to believe I could get there before he did so I turned and hoped he would pass me and breakout. Nope….. no win light on my side. Oh well. My weekend in street ET and chances for advancing into the top ten for the season just vanished.
Next out was super eliminator so I pulled the bike out of the trailer to air up the shifter and heat the nitrous bottle. For some unknown reason, the event seemed to drag on endlessly. They had delay after delay without feasible explanation. The exception was an accident in the 9.50 index class. It was later in the afternoon before they called super eliminator to the lanes for pairing. I drew a 2012 Busa whose record was an 8.92. My record was an 8.69 so it was lowered to a 8.64 dial in. We run on a staggered pro tree so I had to give chase on the first flash of the tree on my side. My opponent left first and then my tree flashed. I gave chase knowing I was late on the tree. The bike didn’t feel as peppy when the nitrous started to kick in. I never caught up to the other bike and lost that round. I could only run an 8.86 so know I need to figure out if I have a problem somewhere with the bike. Its past time to freshen it up so that’ll be my task over the winter months. I rushed back to the pits to get my top gas bike only to find we were delayed once again. I got the bottle pressure up and waited for the call. By the time we got in the lanes, the sun was setting and I was tired. I got paired with a young fella on a GS based dragbike. We both did our burnouts and rolled up to the tree. I lite the first bulb and he followed. I slowly rolled onto my throttle as I pushed in to turn on the last bulb and he did the same. Bam, the tree came down and I knew I was late once again. The bike seemed to shake the tire some but I was making forward progress. He was out front of me a but I was realing him in fast. The problem is we were running out of track fast. Well, he crossed the line just ahead of me and took the win. He ran an 8.23 to my 8.13. The index is 8.20 so I broke out trying to catch him. Thus my weekend ended.
I want to thank Wilbur (tools and advice) and Mark for helping me with my wheel repair. It was good seeing Mike, Larry, Keith, Bill, Donnie and Dennis. I had hoped we could park all the SOHC’s in one place for a photo shoot for the forum but I was so freaking busy I never communicated my thoughts to the fellas. Maybe next time.
