Oconto WI Pull

Oconto WI Pull

OK One of the few pulls where my Wife comes with me, And as we pull into the parking lot at 3:59 p.m. she asked, And what time does the pull start I said 7:00 p.m. Gee where the first ones here, That's so we get the el-premo parking spot. Which use to be on the black top next to the pavilion, But this year they put these very decorative Boulders all over the place And I now can't park there cuz my trailer sticks out to far. So I Turn around and park next to the fence facing out along the road. Not the best spot but better then back in the sticks.

So now on Tuesday it was 92 Deg. Today it's 56 Deg. and the wind makes it feel like 40 deg. Copperfest has always been hot, cold or rainy for the last 10 years that I remember and it's cold here tonight.

Drivers meeting was held at 7:15 and they play the nation anthem and got the show on the road by 7:30 which is good timing for a pull. Classes to night where 5500, 6000, Stock Diesel, Super Stock 4x4, 7000 farm, Open Stock, Misfits, 10500 Tractors, Mod Diesel, And Mod 4x4 to finish the night.

So as the first few classes pulled I could see this track which the put 18" of new clay on last year and then got rained out that year, had sat pretty much untouched until Thursday night when the farm tractors pulled here. It had rained most of the day but the track soaked up most of it. there was a few whoppy doo's in it that I thought they'd try to fix but I remember them being there in the last track too, so I guess we'll just have to learn to live with them there.

OK I was the 2nd puller in the Super Stock class. So after getting scaled up I jump in line behind Mean Streak to take my turn pulling the Yellow Luedtke Sled down the 350' track. Mean Streak had a pull of 311.50 and he kept his pull. I will say I'm getting use to this reverser and clutch set up pretty fast. I can almost get on the track and backed up to the sled as fast as I did when I had the C6 in ShaZam before. So all hooked up I got the Green flag to go so I hit the tach recorded switch and pushed in on the clutch peddle till I could feel the truck start to move then I gave ShaZam some throttle and came out of the hole at 4500 then let the tires get caught up and then feed more throttle to ShaZam and the engine R's went up to 8000 at mid track and then Pat hit me with the last stage and once again I blew the tires out from under ShaZam and came to a stop at the 305.68' mark. I will say the track speed was close to last weeks but I have to learn to lean off the throttle at the end of the track and try to get the tires to stay hooked to the track. So back to the trailer to change tires and I walk back to the track to watch the other seven trucks take there turns with the Yellow sled. I got back to the track just in time to watch Bruce make his run with Bad to the Bone, once again he blew the tires off his truck and finished with a 303.38' pull. Next up was Ben Holtger with his all Black 76 Ford, Ben seemed to be having a few early season bugs in his truck, and was having a hard time getting it backed up to the sled, But once he got all hooked up it was the Black Ford we all remembered from last year. Ben came screaming down the track but when the last stage hit it stopped him in his tracks at the 293.47' mark. Next up was Mike Kauss and Mike put his truck on a diet over the winter and it shed 250 pounds. Not a big deal if you had the 250 pound to put in the weight box with ya, But he was short and had to make weight with what was sitting around the scales. Well it looked like Mike had a good run going when he blew by where I was standing by the fence, but once again the last stage got him to blow his tires out from under the truck and he stopped at 298.62' mark. Ok next up is Jack Peters driving his Wife's Anger Beaver. Jack made a good pull for an Open Stock Truck and was stopped at 275.09' mark. Next Truck was Jeff Koller, he just put a new Big Block together this season and he's still working the bugs out of it. He came out of the hole good and made a good mid track run but she ran out of power on the big end and was stopped at the 282.24' mark. ok the last truck in the class was Derek Peetz and his all White 76 Ford Derek also put together a new Big Block but he's got it going on with this new motor. He put a pull down of 303.77' just edging Bruce out of 4th place by .39'. So with the class over I headed over to change tires and get ready for Mod.

OK Mod .
OK in Mod class I was the 3rd puller out of 5 trucks, The only real Mod truck in the class today was Billy Buck Kirschner, Both Bruce and Craig are still trying to get there Mod motors put together. So Bruce was First with Bad to the Bone and as he was leaving the line he Broke a rear axle and with the added power going into the drive train it also took out the front ring and pinion. So next up was Mean Streak and he was sitting on the scale and went to fire his truck up and the starter decide to shit the bed on him so we pushed him off the scale and out of the way so I could scale up and get ready to pull. As I brought ShaZam on to the track I could hear the announcer wasn't sure what was going on, But Jodi help him out with the move up in the class schedule, So I get all hooked up to the sled and Now it's getting to be like second nature to me. I set the tach Pushed on the clutch and brought the r's up to 4500 and started to leave the line, When all of a sudden I lost 1000 rpm's so I gave ShaZam some more throttle and she came back to 4500 but was working harder to stay there, so I put the hammer down and I watched the tach move up slowly to 5 then 6 and then 7500 then the last stage hit and ShaZam Actually bogged down a little to 6500 and came to a stop at the 329.76' mark, As I backed up I could hear a little chirp in the motor, And as I pulled off the track it started to clack louder then normal so I shut it down and got towed back to the trailer after the pull was over.
Well as it was Billy Buck was on the scale and his truck came up short on weight so they empty out 200 # from my weight box to get his truck to scale and he fired it up and headed on to the track. Billy don't get out to play often anymore, but he was going to make sure he had fun tonight. So as he got the chain tight I brought his Motor up to 6500 the side stepped the clutch and he was hooked to the track at the 70 foot mark and was on a ride like he never had before. Fastest run of the day at 28.50 Mph. and he pulled the sled to the 345.34' mark. So ok Mean Streak got fired up so he made his way onto the track and hooked up to the sled, As he was leaving the line he broke the tire free right away but at the 50 foot mark the tires grabbed the track hard and ended up busting his front tie rod end off and put him out of bounds at the 75 foot mark. Only good thing that came out of this was the only place on the whole track where there wasn't one of those 3000 pound cement block is where the truck ended up going out of bounds. Yes he got really close to the fence and he had people running to get out of the way, But the truck only had minor damage from the sled pushing him out of bounds. So the last truck in the class was Derek Peetz and he left the line like he was on fire had a great mid track run and was on his way to putting me down a peg when he got scared and lifted out of the gas for just a second right when the last stage came down and he stopped at the 312.17' mark.

So ShaZam had a good night 3rd in Super 2nd in Mod but I had to tow her onto the trailer so there would be investigation work in the morning to see what all I hurt in the motor.

Saturday Morning 8 a.m. got ShaZam off the trailer and into the shop. Pulled the Oburg filter apart and there wasn't much on the screen but some very fine particles. So next pulled the valve covers and started to do Valve lash checks everything on the passenger side check out good. Moved over to the driver side and there it was number 5 intake rocker had a ton more lash then it should of had. So pulled the intake and pulled out the lifters and the bearing had gone south on the roller wheel. Bummer I must have not let them soak long enough in the bowl of oil before I installed them earlier this year in the off season. Now decision time I have the old lifters from last season sitting on the shelf, they all looked good when I pulled them out, I was going to send them in to be rebuilt but just haven't got to it yet. So should I drop one of those in and button her back up. Nope can't do it. Ordered a new set and they'll be here next week and I'll replace them all. in the mean time I'll get a bore scope so I can see if I boggered up the cam at all, if need be I'll replace it also seeing the bottom of the lifter was ground up a little. The fine pieces I found in the Oburg filter.

So this means I'll miss next weeks pull on Friday but I should have everything back up and running by the following week.

So ShaZam is out of commission until June 25th pulls in Maribel WI and Pound WI.


Well keep you all posted on my finding's.

Dan

Good read thanks again.................

I always like reading your pull nite posts. Makes me feel like i'm there. Good luck this season

Cool reading. Good luck this season.That's the only drawback of the roller set ups , I've lost a few over the years too. Almost always gets the cam too. Sounds like you had a good night other than that though

Good story! You should be a writer for Modern Truck Puller magazine.