Gillett WI pull

Gillett WI

Ah Gillett WI what a Night.
It was Hotter then hell the humidy was like 95% you pretty much sweated just standing there.
So I was 1st puller in both classes tonight, And I had to talked to Jimmy when I first got there, And Jimmy told me about the changes he had made to the sled since I pulled last with him, And seeing how it was only a 260' track up tight against the Texas weight wall, he said he'd have to run with weight in the box and the box was going to be in the fastest gear he had so it was going to come on us fast tonight.

So with this in mind I had my 24.692 final gear in the box and decide seeing how I was first puller I'd get some testing in tonight.

So the pull started pretty much on time at 7 p.m. there were 4 classes before Super Stock tonight, With only 4 or 5 trucks in each class, the big class was 6000 stock with 10 trucks in the class. I was by the scale when the guys where weight up and they where throwing weights out of the trucks like I never seen before, So I started to check out the scale an found one of the ramps was jammed up against the scale and was causing it to misread the trucks weight. So I got a hold of the big tractor driver and we lifted the scale up and pulled the ramp back a little bit. the scale started to read better for the few trucks that was left in the class. yes I know we should have waited till the class was over but these stock guys know how to weight there trucks for each class. when they have to pull 200 to 300 pound out to make weight it's not right.

So finally it was Super Stocks turn. I go over the scale and it's still not reading right it reads 250# heavy so I told the scale guy to have the next truck get on the scale and if he weight 250 heavy then we'd let all the truck in this class go over the scale at 250 heavy. My truck don't change weight that much. I can see 20 or 30 pounds but not 250# , So the next truck was the same 250 heavy so we all went over heavy.

This year Gillett had taken down the old Band shell and widen the track to double what it use to be. At the drivers Meeting it was said we could use all of the track if we needed to. I had made a comment at the drivers meeting that I was going to drive in a big muitable S's down the track to get more distance ( Jokenly).

So I get hooked to the sled and find my Straight line down the track. and I start to bring the r's up and ShaZam started moving at 3500 Rpm's so I started to give it some more throttle but the engine didn't want to come up so I pushed hard on the clutch peddle and I felt the clutch start to slip and then ShaZam came to life 5, 6, 7, 75, 8000 and I was hooked to the track like I never been this season. That Texas weight wall was coming up fast and I was waiting for the last stage to hit and stop me but I chickened out at the last minute and I hit the brakes just as the last stage hit 258.45 on the 260' track. Jimmy gave me the thumbs down and he reset the sled knowing he needed more the 1.55 feet to keep the field in check. So with that I went and added fuel to ShaZam and waited for the last truck of the class to get back in line.

At this time I went and changed gears seeing I had trouble getting up to speed to my 25.606 final gear.
So up next was Ed McClain with the reset he was now the first puller and he pulled the sled to the 229.74
Next was Derek Peetz and he's still running his little motor so he brought the r's up to 7000 and side stepped the clutch and took off hell bent and as he hit the 100' mark I heard his motor bend to the track and he was hooked and hauling a$$ stopping at the 238.58' mark.
Next up was Steve Swanson he Pulled Jimmy 228.68' there was lots of stuff going on so I missed a few of these runs so bear with me.
Next up was Tom Scheffen and all I can say is he seem to tack off good but when I looked down the track I saw him up against the guard rail and out of bounds DQ'd .
Next up was Mean Streek with Jake Luther Driving tonight, Jake got hooked up and I have to admit this is one of the smoothes truck coming off the line I ever seen. Jake got up to speed and Jimmy stopped him at the 248.10' mark putting him in 1st place
Next up was Ben Holtger he finally got his truck back together and this was his maiden voyage with it this season. Jimmy stopped Ben at the 218.48' mark.

ShaZam was up again and this time when I hooked to the sled I tried to hold ShaZam back till I hit 4500 but once again it Started creeping off the line at 3500 with a big bounce, but once we got going it came up lot easier this time 5, 6, 7, 75, 80, 8500 and as I hit the big end of the track I went through some ruts and I felt like I caught some air as the tach hit 8800 and I came to a stop @ 238.32 putting me in 3rd place for the night.
So back to the trailer to change tires and get ready for Mod. Did I mention it was hotter then hell out to night. by the time I was done changing tires I was a walking sweat ball. I had what seemed like a river flowing down my back and you all know where the river leads to.

So with ShaZam being the first puller in Mod Jimmy Added 2 blocks of weight to the box and moved the box starting point up 12" so he was really going to be coming at me fast.

With all the changes to the sled done I fired up ShaZam and got hooked to the sled. this time I got the chain tight and pumped the clutch peddle and it didn't seem to be pushing against anything but we brought the r's up and we got moving with a bounce again and I gave ShaZam a mite full right out of the box and the tach headed for 8000 but stopped at 7300 so it tells me I could have been down one more gear. Wheel speed was 28.8 and track speed was 22.6 so we can say hooked tight. ShaZam pulled the sled 237.06 when Jimmy stopped me as I hit the hill that started to form where the pan was landing.
Here's how the rest of the class finished
Derek was up next he pulled 223.23
Craig Emmes was up next and Cold Ethyl had a really good night running good and pulled the sled 251.19' putting Craig in 1st place.
Next up was Ed McClain and Jimmy Stopped Ed at the 229.74' mark
Next was Steve Swanson and I thought I was in trouble when he got hooked to the track and was hauling a$$ but Jimmy stopped him at the 230.29' mark. With the last Truck coming up Craig's in 1st ShaZam's sitting in 2nd and Mean Streek was getting hooked to the sled. Once again he left the line without as much as a wiggle got hooked to the track at the 100' mark and laid down the best run of the night . stopping at the 253.32' mark. Knocking us down 1 more peg. So ShaZam took 3rd in both classes tonight. So I guess the track Gods aren’t mad at me anymore.

OK so next pull will be at Sugar Bush this Friday Night 6:30 p.m. See ya there .
Dan and ShaZam

Glad to hear the truck is coming around again Dan. Good luck with your next pull.