Blast from the Past

D. Sea August 27th 2009, 3:06 pm

I was digging through my automotive files while writing the introduction and ran across this from 2002. It was a GOOD day of racing! Notice that Chuck doesn't have his 70 Mustang yet and he's racing his F150 tongue

Well guys, The Old FE in the Fox Chassis car put a hurting on everyone Saturday night. The Memorial Classic at Mountain Park Dragway was great and a lot of cars there including some big names. I'll get to that later.

The weather wasn't that great, it was hot during the day and the air wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. Barometer was at 30.11 to 30.14 all day. Since I knew I wouldn’t run any record times Saturday I decided not to touch my car and run for the money instead. Using all my previous data, the car ran really consistent all day and night long (excluding my first time run, usually throw that one away).

I did some double dipping, racing in Modifies ET 1/8 and Super Street 1/4. I took two time runs in the Super Street field to get some 1/8 and 1/4 mile ET's. Well usually they run Modified first, then Top ET (Box class) but Saturday was Quick 8 door cars and dragsters, some low 4-second dragsters and high 4-second promod door cars. Man are they fast. So I had to run some back to back runs in Modified and Super Street during eliminations but I never got over 182°F and cooled down between runs with my fan and elec. pump drive. My first few rounds of Modified and SS were relatively easy considering my RT's were in the low .500's and my opponents had some horrendous Reactions. In SS I was running on a 10.38 dial in but always hit the breaks. But in the 4th round of Super Street I went red with a .480 Reaction Time and just ran it through the 1/8th to get a time for the next modified round. No biggie I was still in Modified, SS was only paying $300 to win and Modified was paying $1500 to win.

Now the fun part. Just a reminder that I am running Foot brake where as most of the modified guys are running Studderboxes and transbrakes. I would say approximately 50 to 60 Modified cars were racing. First two rounds were pretty easy. The weather had stabilized as well as cooled down into the 60’s at night and my Laptop was saying "dial in at 6.59" and my previous Super street run was a 6.603 in the 1/8th. So in the second round I’m racing a 68 Nova. He was dialed in at 7.13 and I was at 6.59. My .540 light beat his .553 light and I let out of it as I passed him to take the win with a 6.634 to his 7.17 ET. Next round I’m paired up with Paul Crowe, former (maybe current, I don't know) Modified world champion of IHRA!!! I wasn't nervous too much LOL, just another racer. So I get into my routine and concentrate on the race at hand. Paul’s dialed in at 6.93 and I'm dialed in at 6.59.......... Paul has an uncharacteristic .586 light to my .529 and again I let out of it as I passed him and went on to win with a 6.634 to his 6.953 I was really stoked now!! I had just put the Number 1 Modified racer in the country on the trailer!!!!! The next round I’m racing Robin Roe, wife of Ricky Roe who races in Top ET and extremely good. She has an awful light, a .663 I think (the rest of my time slips are still in my car so I’m going by memory) and I was still in the low to mid .500’s well that was a relatively easy win. Next round I’m racing Leon Darling who dials in at a 7.20 and runs right on his time with a 7.200 but my RT was again better than his and I get the win. Next round I'm in the semis and against a guy who was the 2000 Track champion of some track, Lincoln or something, according to his jacket. I was again dialed in at 6.59 and he was at 6.88, my worst reaction time of the night .581 to his .577 but I ran the numbers and he was off by .05 seconds, he says that he spun. But he was very nice and congratulated me, very sportsman like of him, can’t speak for the others. Now I’m in the finals of Modified ET and I’m racing Timmy Roe, brother of Ricky roe and Timmy is the current points leader in Modified at MP Dragway!! So I’m thinking to myself, I have just beaten some of the best racers in the country and I’m not going to settle for the First Loser’s spot and $500 for runner-up. I want the $1500 and the Loving Cup awarded to the class winners during the Memorial Classic. I’m again dialed in at 6.59 and Timmy is dialed in at 6.76. Well the lights come down, I’m concentrating on that last yellow bulb, Timmy takes off and a split second later BAM I hit the gas and cut a .539 to his .543 and we’re off, Looks like I’m going to catch him,,,,,,,, Maybe not………. At the finish I pass him just before we hit the finish line and the Margin of victory is .000 seconds according to the time slip and everyone I talked to later. I was running 103.5mph but this race it ran 101.5mph so I couldn’t have let out of the gas too far from the Finish line but I GOT THE WIN LIGHT!!!!! Man I was really pumped then. We entered the Winners Circle (It’s really a sign) and Dallas snapped our picture, then it started to rain. What a night. We left the track in some light rain at 2am and I didn’t get home until 3:30am. $1500 richer, with a loving cup and knowing that I just beat some of the best Modified racers in the country and the local area.

I just checked and it’s updated. My wife and I are the little ones and my friend Chuck is the big guy (my personal bodyguard too LOL) Chuck helps me with the loading and unloading of the car and all the misc. stuff, he’s great. Chuck wants a race car but has been racing this Truck until recently when the Warranty expired Ha Ha.