Fun fact: In the summer I like to pretend like I don’t have any responsibilities. It’s not a great excuse for my lacking of blogging, but it’s all I’ve got. But never fear – EMDUB is here!

Two weeks ago Chris and I packed up and headed to Bremerton with high hopes for our first Pacific Northwest Super Comp Association race of 2009. I finished up school that Friday and drove 5 hours back to the Seattle area. I immediately headed to bed and was on the road with Chris for Bremerton at 6:30am.

We arrived in plenty of time, set up and felt good about our car (especially after all the Boise problems were solved). Our first two passes were time trial passes and they both turned out pretty well, although a little fast. We were up against John Young in first round and knew it was going to be a tough race. We dialed in what we thought was best and headed up to the staging lanes.

Watch Out...

However, when we got to the staging lanes there was a frenzy brewing on the track. Everyone hopped out of their cars and headed to the starting line to hear the news. Although it was clear weather, days of rain had left their mark.  In both lanes water had seeped up through and onto the track. They cleaned up as best they could and ordered us all to get into our cars. With many nerves less than calmed there was a bit of a discussion amongst the racers, and with the track owner, about the condition of the track. We came to the conclusion that it was safe and proceeded with round one. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we were the last pair up and were able to get a good look at the other drivers’ passes. Bob Woodruff was in the right lane in front of me and had quite a scare in his pass. His tailend swung out so far that he was almost in the grass.

With this on my mind, and last-second words of advice being whispered in my ear from the track owner through Chris on how to avoid the water (yes, I said AVOID the water – how does one do that in a race car?), I pulled up to stage. I had decided in my head that I was going to make this pass and had comes to terms with it. I let all other thoughts slide from my mind and focused on the task at hand. Fortunately that pass went just fine, except that I never saw that win light. John Young is a tough competitor, who later went to the finals in that race.

Once round one was over, the drama ensued. A number of drivers were livid about the track and nervous to continue. The association as a whole came to the decision that we would toss out the round, start this race over the next day, and attempt to do both races on Sunday. This seemed to be a fine decision and we all packed up our trailers. A group of us headed to Round Table Pizza for some dinner and then it was off to bed.

Sunday morning was another early one, but started off as slow as can be. The track sessions were moving slower than the day before and the Super Comp cars were barely getting any track time. We finally made it to the redo of yesterday’s round one at about 11. This pass was gorgeous, except for that itty-bitty red light I had. Too bad because I had John on a double breakout. Oh well.

Green Light

The first race took so long to finish that a number of the racers left before the end of the day. It wasn’t until almost 5pm that we were able to start the second race – way later than we had hoped. Since a few racers had left, including my opponent, I got a bye first round and a guaranteed entrance to second round. Woohoo! My excited was short-lived however, when I found out I had Rick Dearinger in second round.

Rick and I have had many a match up and this guy gets me every time. I was not going to let him win on a red light, so I put a good chunk of time in the box and crossed my fingers. Unfortunately, Rick is tough cookie and beat me fair and square. I promised him that one day I would kick his butt and he said he knew that day was coming so he was going to rub his win in as much as he could. I just figure that I appreciate my wins more when they actually do come!

Unfortunately third round ended up being rained out and that was the end of the weekend. It was a bit of an unconventional weekend, but a good one all in all. With a few races under our belt, Chris and I are looking forward to back to back weekends in Spokane. Hope to see you all out there!

EMDUB

Our first race of the year was in Boise, a few weeks ago, on the first weekend in May. I apologize for the long delay in posting, but things have been a little crazy.

Not only was Boise our first race of the year, it was our first entry into a major NHRA Divisional race, just adding to the butterflies. To top it all off, it was also Emily’s first time behind the wheel in eight months. To expect everything to go swimmingly would have been foolish. As such, we didn’t expect much. Good thing…

I drove the rig to Boise on Thursday, April 30th, tagging along with our good friend Ed Hauter. We met up before 6am at a nearby interstate exit and made the eight plus hour drive in a bit of a rush. Ed had a new engine in his car and was hoping to get there in time for an afternoon test session. Unfortunately, we missed the test session by a half-hour or so. But we got there without incident, set up our pits, and prepared for the next day.

Emily drove over from Pullman Thursday night and met me at the hotel (after a quick visit with her beau Mike, a Boise guy). We scurried to the track early on Friday, hoping to get in a couple of good test sessions in the books.

As you may have read from posts here, I had completely redone the car from the frame rails up. Not only did we have a completely rebuilt engine, now making about 890 horsepower (+90 over last year), but my serious case of “while we’re at it” meant we had all new electrical and electronics, a completely rebuilt transmission, new fuel pump, water pump and starter, all new plumbing, new tires, etc., etc. I even changed the way the car shifted gears. Basically everything that could make the combination different was changed. Sure, we have all new stuff, and some of the best stuff around, but it changed everything.

So we needed all the testing we could get. That was not to be. Our first pass was a bust because of a silly error. In warmup, we set the throttle stop in a kind of backward mode to test the “dead stall” (the RPMs when on the stop). We forgot to set it back. Funny thing about drag racing, going slower as you go down the track is not a good thing. So that pass, and any potential valuable info to be gained, was a bust.

Em Deep in Concentration

Our second pass was better, Em was on her game and cut a great light, and the car seemed to run well. Too well, in fact, we ran far too fast. Our target in Boise is slower than normal (9.20 seconds vs. the normal 8.90), but we still ran well into the 8.70s. Something was wrong, the car didn’t seem to want to stay “on the stop”, but just kept going faster and faster. It was just an animal dying to run fast. Hmmm… what’s up with that?

We were also having problems with the car stalling out. It just wouldn’t idle right, and died after Em’s burnout. This problem only got worse. On the third pass, it died twice before the launch, and we got pushed off the starting line. Ugh. Talk about embarrassing. And no data… Not a great way to end our first day at our first Divisional race.

Saturday dawned with threatening weather, and the track in a hurry to get runs in before the rain came. So instead of getting the two or three more test runs in that we had hoped for, we were headed into Round 1 of eliminations. Without a good run to our credit. Ugh.

Overnight, Em and I had decided to change the carburetor jets to compensate for the thin air, hoping that this would mitigate the stalling problem. Boise’s Firebird is an interesting track, with a silly, long staging area and a 180-degree turn right behind the water box. OK, if you’re in a little car, but in a dragster, it means a two (or three) point turn. Makes for some fun, especially when the car wants to stall. We hoped our last minute changes would fix it.

Ready, Set, Go! Wheels Up!

We scrambled, got ready, and got up there armed for round one. We were running a little roadster, and it all went well. No stalling, so that part seemed fixed.

Unfortunately, the “going too fast” part was not fixed. Despite slowing the car down a bunch, we ran an 8.91. Super if you’re in Seattle, way too fast in Boise (against the 9.20 index). So our weekend was done. As it turns out so was most of the racing for the day. They managed to get a few more cars in before the rain, but that was about it. Sunday was a “hurry up and wait” for most teams as they finished the racing between the rain showers. For us, it was mostly pack up and go.

We learned a lot in Boise: Emily’s still darn good on the tree, the car can easily run what we want, and we still love this whole racing thing. But we left with a lot to do, and fix. That’s part of the whole racing thing too. What we have going for us are some good friends, and great resources. We solved most of our issues the next weekend, with the help and advice from those friends. But that’s for another post. Stay tuned.