Cool Rides Online member GTDHW drag racing recaps

[Cool Rides Online]

Bunker Hill Dragway Sportsman and Super-Pro Racer

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Morgan




Week 6 Recap

This was a good week all things considered, although there was a lot of love/hate going on with the way the night turned out. I won Dial-for-Dollars in the Vega with a dead on 8.053 on a 8.05 dial. I took the cash and opted for the meager cash prize instead of the bye run. I cut a decent light first round and so did the other guy. On the big end, it was close……….and I broke out by .0002 by running an 8.0498 on an 8.05 dial.

My points run for the night was ended by winding up just on the wrong side of a perfect ET. I bought back and although my lights were less than desirable, I was able to muster a runner up finish in the finals. In the Camaro, the car was running great and I was .oo on the tree all though practice. Come first round, the car ran dead on 6.553 on a 6.55 dial, but, even though I added a little time to the delay box in defense of going too soon, I went .0001 red. So a COMBINED, .0003 (three ten thousandths of a second!) ended my points racing for this week. On this particular day, I think this small amount of time meant more to me than NASA!




Week 7 Recap

This weekend I started off with a little Friday night Test’nTune in both cars. I was not happy with my lights in the Vega last week and wanted some shots at the tree. It was a warmer night than last weekend and I was expecting to be running in the low 8.teens, but to my surprise, my first pass netted me a nice 8.04 ET. I immediately had thoughts of “This is the night!�.
I’ve been chasing a 7 second pass ever since I built the car two years ago. I’ve flirted with it a couple times by running an 8.02 at Indy (twice), and running an 8.03 at Bunker Hill, but have been denied both times. After the first pass tonight though, I thought, if it’s going to happen, it will be now. So I let the car get real cool, adjusted my shift light rpm pill to the “sweet spot� for it’s power band, and up to the lanes I went. I knew immediately on the launch, when I felt tire spin, that it wasn’t going to happen on that pass.

The time ticket agreed with me with an 8.04 ET, with the spin costing me .04 in the 60ft.. It was an 8.00 pass without the spin. Sooo close. Not to be denied, I let the car cool off again, took out the floor mats, rear tray, emptied the glovebox, and removed the air breather. I even felt a little cocky and put a 7.99 on the dial board in the window. On this pass there was no spin, and I lit the track boards up with a 7.98 ET! Although it was just T&T and I was dialing just for the fun of it, it’s a weird feeling to put a number on your car that is faster than it’s ever been, and still wind up breaking out!
So finally, I can say the Vega has been in the 7′s. Now when someone asks why it doesn’t always run in the 7′s (it won’t since I short shift it for better accuracy) , I can pull out the ‘ol “Just because it can, doesn’t mean it has toâ€�line .lol The Camaro ran great putting down a 6.54-6.56 spread throughout the night with killer RT’s.

Come Saturday, I missed placing in the Dial-for-Dollars for the first time this year in the CoolRidesOline Vega, by running too quick with an 8.05 on an 8.06 dial. Same story of .01 too fast in the Camaro in S/P DfD’s. First round comes and I cut a .008 light to his .045, which gave me room to lift and cover him on the big end. Second round comes, and we both have decent RT’s with him having a slight advantage. I thought I had him covered and lifted just a little. Well, a little was a lille too much as I ran an 8.08 on an 8.06 dial, letting him back by me by .014 at the stripe. I ended up with 10 points for my effort for the weekend.




The NMC Camaro was a zerox machine this weekend printing off one 6.55 time slip after another. It ran 6.56 during the first two time trials and I put a 6.56 on it for Dial-for-Dollars when it broke out with it’s first 6.55 pass of the day. First round it ran 6.555. Combined with my .008 RT, I left little room for the other guy and took the win. Second round, it ran a dead on 6.553 to the other guy’s dead on 6.127, but with another good light, I turned the win light on again. Come third round, I appearantly forgot to pull the shifter back down into 1st gear after the burnout and when I went to stage and set the transbrake, the car rolled right through the starting beams when I let off the foot brake (the trans brake will only hod the when it’s in low gear). By the time I realized what had happened, it was too late and I was dealt a crushing 3rd round loss. I say crushing because the other guy had an. 07 RT. That was my race to win and more points should have been scored, but, it just leaves me even hungrier for next week!

As of Week 7, the Vega is in a battle in a very strong, veteran populated, Sportsman Class. The cold hard truth is that out of 11 current points racers, 7 very good racers are fighting for only 5 team spots. Right now, the CoolRidesOnline Vega is sitting in 6th place with a mere 2 rounds separating 6th from 2nd. In the Camaro, I made a nice jump from 8th place to 5th place in Super Pro points (20 competitors), and hope to improve on that this coming weekend with less driver error! With all that said, IS IT SATURDAY YET?

[Justa6]

Been lookin for a thread on how your doing. Congrat's bro.

[Gtdhw]

Thanks man! It's been a tough start so far, but seems to be getting better.