Here is the second installment of the Michalek Brothers Racing team blog series called Behind The Ropes. This series follows the team’s first outing with their own equipment at the 2017 NHRA Carolina Nationals last fall. It is an honest and unflinching look into what it takes to run a nitro burning A/Fuel dragster at a high level in NHRA competition. These guys have scraped and saved and busted their humps to have the resources to buy their own car and equipment and take it racing. Now that they have all their own stuff, can they succeed? Here’s part two!
UP IN SMOKE
Before we get too deep into the details of what happened in Q2, let me say this: In my 13 years of racing, whether as a crew member or a driver, if there has ever been one consistent truth, it’s that if we make a planned early shut-off run, or if we sit out a qualifying session, our next run is almost guaranteed to be a throw away. It’s happened nearly every single time I’ve been a part of that situation.
Going into Q2, I was happy to get back into more of a normal routine. Although we only went to 330’ in Q1, we went faster than a handful of cars that smoked the tires at the hit allowing us to make a run later in the pack during Q2. We lined up against Mia Tedesco, who I made my first side-by-side run against in my Top Alcohol Dragster debut at this track back in 2014. Mia is a great competitor and we really enjoy being at the track with her team.
I drive with my chinstrap stupid tight. You can see in the video that I fully max out the available real estate on the strap. I prefer having a downward tilt to my helmet when the car is at idle that eventually gets leveled out from the force of the car under acceleration. With that said, though, it’s super uncomfortable and I wait until the last minute to pull it tight to minimize the amount of time that I have to sit that way in the car…..
