Mishicot WI Weekend

Mishicot Weekend

Well with the weather we’ve been having this week it’s a wonder we had any pulls at all this weekend. It’s been raining all week off and on and we been getting these gully washers down south by Milwaukee and Madison.

So Friday Night where in Mishicot WI and as I get to my parking spot and open the door of the truck the humidity hit me in the face like a right hook. It’s 82 dreg. but the humidity is like 92 %. I only had to change out my back tires from the mod tires to the DOT’s but I was dripping with sweat down to my belt buckle by the time I was done.
So into my 70 air-conditioned dreg. camper to cool down a little and change out of my 1st of three shirts of the night.

The track crew where tying to working the water out of the track, but with the humidity being so high they had there work cut out for them. The clay there was just a big sponge soaking it up. Well Frank tried to make his sled the lightest it could be by removing all the weights out of the transfer box, but as he backed the sled up to get into positions for the first class he sunk in the clay about 4 inches. So the track guys tried to pack it tighter but the humidity just wasn’t letting it happen. So another 30 minutes of wobble wheeling it and they played the National Anthem and we started the best we could with the 5500-Pound Trucks.

So OK we make it thru the Stock diesel class the 7000 Hot Farm class And the Open Stock Trucks, The track is getting better but the sled is still pulling heavy down the track seeing how the sled it’s self is making 2 inch deep ruts with the tires as they headed down the track. So Super Stock Trucks finally come up and I’m sitting 6th in the line up with 14 trucks there tonight, So I’m thinking I’ll be able to do good by watching how the other trucks pull to help determine which gear to use tonight. Well after the first three trucks Frank said he had to reset the sled seeing he missed his set-up and the trucks where running 340 feet and onto the road on this 300-foot track.

So with his reset the Next truck My buddy Dean in Burn n Desire Hooked to the sled and had to make a right turn when he hit the road to keep from hitting one of the track working Tractors there. So Frank reset the sled again. And now ShaZam’s the first truck of the class. Well I got hook to the sled and got all set to take off when I got the green flag, Well when I started to leave the line the sled did feel like a ton of weight back there so I didn’t play to long with getting the tires set and gave ShaZam a mitt full of throttle and the Motor zinged up to 7500 and then started to head back down to 7000 as I went down the track, ShaZam stopped at the 260 Foot mark and with that I turned the pull down to come back at the end of the class hoping for a better run after the track got chewed up some more from the other trucks in the class. After I made my way off the track I headed over to the trailer to change Gears seeing I missed my 8000 Rpm window and 32.5 mph Wheel speed target. I then headed back to staging to wait my turn again.

I got back in time to watch Donny Skinkis take his turn with Frank and the Gray Ghost Sled and Donny smoked his clutch almost all the way down the track, but did manage a pull of 280.99 feet putting his American Outlaw Chevy into 1st place. Tonight this track was hooking the trucks right off the line, so I had to rethink my strategy on gearing and went back and put the first gear I ran back in the truck cuz I knew I’d just blow the tires off the Truck coming off line with the gear I had in the box now but I needed the tires to hook and go not spin on the line. So as the trucks hooked to the sled and made there way down the track I kept hearing from the drivers how this track is just sucking the horsepower right out of their motors. Everyone was geared to high and not pulling the rpm’s they thought they would. So now do I change gears again back down and risk blowing the tires off the truck or stand pat and just ride it out with the gear I had in the truck. Well I stood pat and left the gear in the truck, but now at this time of writing this story I think I should have dropped back down. Not because of the turn out I ended up with. It just would have been easier to manage the wheel speed easier with the lower gear. Well I finally made it back to the line as last puller of the class As I got all set I made my final gauge checks and set the tach to record, Slammed ShaZam into 3rd gear and laid in to the hand throttle and about 2 feet out I hammered it down and we were off and running, The tack was reading 7800 and I felt I had a good run going and the Frank hit me with the last stage that puts all the weight of the sled onto the pan and we came to a stop at 272.89 feet 12 feet better then my first run, but still 8 feet behind Donny and I finished 6th over all for the night in Super Stock. So back to the trailer to change over to Mod Tires for the last class of the night.

Now it has cooled off to 74 dreg. But the humidity is still 95 % so I think I lost like 5 pound in body weight during the tire change just from sweating my ass off. So back into the trailer to cool down and change into my 2nd new shirt for the night.

So I’m 2nd to last in Mod tonight, But as it turned out they had to re-set the sled once again when my buddy Bruce put Poker Face out onto the roadway as 3rd puller in the class. With the reset the first truck to hook pulled 256.45 so Frank knocked off 50 feet was it to much, he said it’s all he could do for us so lets get it going. So Dean was up next and he pulled the sled to 262.31 Craig With Cold Ethel was next and Craig had a great hook pulling the sled to 282.57 putting Craig into 1st place at that time by 20 feet.

ShaZam was up next and as I left the line the tach read 7000 and then started to headed down, I thought I had a good run going till the tach showed 4000 rpm’s and my tranny stopped turning the tires. When I popped the tranny into neutral I felt the tires unload and ShaZam bounced back 3 feet into the sled, first time it ever did that, But ShaZam gave me everything she had tonight. I finished the night out in 4th place. When Donny came back around this time he rode his clutch the whole track and never spun the tires but ended his night in 1st place with a pull of 292.15 When Poker Face got back to the line the sled had sunk into the clay more then the other times due to they had to pull the truck down the track backwards as he was still trying to cool the motor down from his first run. So as he got all hooked up he spun his tires sideways the first 3 feet then headed down the track to a 277.46 pull good enough for a 3rd place finish for the night.

Now in looking back at the nights events I think maybe Frank should have left the sled set the way it was and just have a pull off of the trucks that pulled more the 320 feet. Donny and Bruce where already out there and they had the advantage of changing gears for the end of the class where they might have only been 2 or 3 more trucks that would have made it that far. So a 5 truck pull off isn’t unheard of in a class.

So any ways back to the trailer to put ShaZam to bed for the night, Washed up once more and changed into my 3rd shirt of the day and then headed to the park where they had Food and Drinks and a Band playing in a tent. Good times where had by all and before you knew it they where calling last call at 2 a.m. Now this is the part I like the best. I walked to my trailer, which is still at 70 dregs. Sat down had a few more beers with the buddies and crawled in for a nap, seeing how Craig ‘s up at 6 a.m. no matter what time he gets to bed.

So OK up at 6:30 and Fran Metz shows up at 7:30 and takes us to Two Rivers for Breakfast.
Best dame Stuffed French Toast I ever had. Then it was back to the park to do Valve Lash, and Spring pressure checks on ShaZam Everything was good.

Now it had rained buckets from 4 a.m. till 6 a.m. but they had the track covered just not all of it and it was really a mess today when they pulled the traps off. The Farm tractors where suppose to start pulling at 10 a.m. but that didn’t happen till after noon and there where a lot of mad farmers walking around pissing an moaning.
So with everything done on ShaZam that I needed to do I figured I’d head back to the trailer for a mid day nap. Well I open the door and the trailer was full with napping people, Craig, his boy Alex and Dean where all enjoying the nice 70 Dregs. Temp of the camper. So I got everyone up and we had an afternoon session. At 2 p.m. I finally got to lay down a take a nap till my Phone rang the first time at 2:28 p.m. then it rang again 3:38 And then again at 4:04 So I guess everyone just didn’t want me to get a good nap in after all. But when I finally did roll out of bed I found Bruce had made his way into the trailer for a nap also. So this camper thing is really working out good for us all.

So the Farm Tractors finally got done pulling at 6 p.m. and the trucks where suppose to start at 6:30 p.m. so they worked the track over a bit with the wobble wheel and scraper and then finally brought a grader in to roll the top 3 inches off the track to level it out and get rid of the ruts. They finally played the National Anthem at 7 p.m. started the show. Well we had a few trucks break last night that didn’t get them fixed so the classes tonight where really light on trucks. The Open Stock Truck also had a pull in Denmark tonight so they loaded up and headed over they’re seeing the pull wasn’t starting on time here. So we were one class short for the night. I was standing at the end of the track when the Club President Lance Mertens a 10,500 Tractor Guy asked if maybe we could have a Grudge match after the pull with the top 3 10,500 tractors against the top 3 6200 Mod Truck.

Heck I’m always up for a challenge so we had a meeting with the Mod truck guys and we said ya what the heck as long as we get enough time to cool the trucks down after our class, We’ll go Truck, Tractor, Truck, Tractor, Truck, Tractor, then add the distance up and the winner will get to buy the losers Beer in the beer tent after the pull.

So Ok in Mod tonight we only have 6 trucks and I’m the last truck in the class.
Junk Yard Dog was first and pulled the sled 240.36 Next up was Poker Face and Bruce laid down a pull of 275.20 Kakuks where next with a pull of 250.22 Then came Cold Ethel and Craig had a great pull of 273.24 putting him in 2nd place and then came Dean and Burn n Desire he laid down a pull of 256.87, So now where up to ShaZam and I had a decide run everything I did was pretty much note book and I ran 8000 Rpm’s just where I’d like to run and the sled stopped me at the 265.51 and I finished 3rd for the night.
So with this Class done now comes the Grudge match. So we had a 10-minute inter mission and we talked to the sled operator as to how could we make this more closer then what we had seen during the pulls. Right now the tractors where pulling 320 during there class and with no adjustments the Mod Trucks where pulling 275 so we knew we where going to get our asses handed to us. Pat said he’d try to help with the setting to equal it out. So in the tractors it was Chad, Lance and Nate for the Trucks it’s was Bruce, Craig and Me.

So Bruce was first to hooked up and pulled the sled 292.22 Chad was up next and pulled the sled 309.16 so the writing was on the wall and then Craig was up next but there was a malfunction with the sled and the pan never raised up in the back the Craig was pulling with the grosser bars down the whole way so they scraped his pull and let him pull again at the end of the class, Next was Lance and he had a pull of 307.29 and it was time for ShaZam to hook to the sled and we pulled the sled 284.49 so now where sitting 39.84 behind the tractors Last tractor to pull was Nate and as he was leaving the line he snubbed his turbo and fell on his face but lucky for him he only pulled the sled 65 feet so they pulled him back to the starting line and he had another try at it, this time he got off the line and pulled the sled 300.40 so as they pulled Craig back to the line he only had to pull 340.23 to match the tractors So as Craig takes off he hooked the track the best he has all night and when the sled stopped him he pulled 307.24 just 32.99 feet short. So the pulls over and we headed to the trailers to get loaded up and ready for the trip home in the morning. By the time we got all loaded up and made it down to the beer tent all the tractors guys had vanished and we ended up having to buy are own beer. That Sucked.

So I went to bed seeing I know Craig will be up at 6 and I had to head to Fond du Lac for a P.I. Super Stock pull their at 10 a.m. which when I got there and the parking area we usually park in was flooded, so they had us park in the parking lot on the front side of the fair grounds which wasn’t that bad but we had to drive a good distance to get to the track and they had all these Demo cars cluttering the parking lots for the afternoon show there.
Well as it turned out I was first puller here in the class and at any other pull I’d probley had turned the pull down. But I told my self if I get 300 + feet I’d keep the pull.
So I tightened the chain and set the tach turned on all my switches and put ShaZam into 3rd and headed for the 300-foot mark. Well I was turning 8100 rpm’s and I had a good hold of the track and when the last stage hit I thought I passes the 300-foot mark and the flag guy ran up and asked if I was going to keep it. Well I said ya and headed back to my trailer well when I walked back and looked at my distance I was at 296.5 and the next truck to pull was at 301.6 already. I had guys asking me why I had kept my pull. I told them I thought I was over 300 foot. Well one thing I forgot about with Gary’s sled was he uses these dagger teeth under his pan that dig into the track to stop the trucks. And the first two classes where pulling in the 285 foot mark and the two wheel drives trucks never made it past 260 so the 300 foot mark was virgin track for the sled.
Well when I headed back to my trailer I was sitting in 6th place with 7 truck to go and each truck was going 6 inches more then the truck before them, so I kicked myself for not turning it down to be last puller and win the whole shebang. And headed home for the weekend seeing how West Bend was cancelled due to the track being flooded.
So my next pull will be Tuesday night at Seymour WI then off to Cedarburg WI on Wed. night and Grays lake IL on Thursday evening. Well keep you updated on how thing go next week.

Dan and ShaZam

Dan , great read as always ... you always paint a great picture with your stories for the weekend , i would love to one day get dirty in the mud/dirt with a BBF

I'll keep posting them until you guys get tried of reading them. Until then happy reading.


Dan

Cool write up again Dan!!!

You folks sure have a busy schedule this time of year!! It must take lots of vacation time to get to them all.

I noticed a big difference in the pull distance with the trucks, is this mostly HP/TQ or truck set-up?

Bill

NO the tractors have tons more tq then we do. And they weight 4300 pounds more then we do. Where going to try this again before the years end, but where going to even the playing field out more .


Dan

I meant between the trucks, some seem to get quite a few feet on others.

Bill

Oh Ya Both Craig and Bruce have 650 Cid injected Alcohol burners the rest of the trucks in that class are just 530 Cid Super Stock trucks with Bar tires.


As for time off I have 4 weeks vacation that I use during the pulling season to make sure I don't miss any pulls on working weekends. We work a 12 days on 2 day off Schedule at my Foundry. Gotta make car parts you know.
Next year I get 5 weeks vacation. I'll have to look for more pulls I guess after my normal Sept. end of season.



Dan

Sounds like a great way to spend your vacation time!!!

Bill