We’re back with part five of seven in the Michalek Brothers Racing team series called Behind The Ropes. We have seen the team struggle, we have seen them qualify and we have seen then rack up an impressive upset in the first round. We pick up this episode with the boys getting ready to take their shot at Brandon Greco in round two competition.
BY A NOSE
Sundays at National Events are always different as an alcohol team while you’re still racing. You go from being elated that you got out of first round on Saturday evening and looking forward to doing it again, to having to wait almost an entire day through what is probably the slowest downtime of the weekend until second round starts after the pros get the race kicked off Sunday morning. It’s too quiet in the alcohol pits during this time and I prefer to walk up to the grandstands to watch a couple pairs of Top Fuel cars to stay active. I’m still just as big of a fan of this sports as ever, and the pageantry of the national anthem leading into the opening round of eliminations will never get old.
Back in the pits, the team had a good amount of time in the morning to go over the car from front to back before E2 because the race started an hour later than usual at 12 p.m. We were able to be more methodical in our maintenance and assembly routines with this extra time. After watching the NHRA All Access replays of Q3 and E1 in the pits, it was the first time the rest of the team was able to see just how bad the wing was oscillating when the car was going through the traps. Chase Copeland spent some time analyzing the wing, the mounts, and the hardware. Upon further inspection, he noticed the front two mounting bolts were 5/16”, while the back four bolts were ⅜”. We switched out the smaller 5/16” bolts to the larger ⅜” bolts to help take up any wiggle room and more securely mount the wing. After replacing the bolts, the issue never occurred again for the remainder of the weekend. The smallest details can make the biggest difference on these cars.
