My Adventure on Drag Week 2011

[Dignlif]

Hello all, for my family and interested friends I tried to give a nightly update in email form of the DW activities. As the week wore on however we were getting in too late and up too early to keep it up. You'll see the result of my failed attempt in one of the posts. I did however go back and fill in the updates. I've posted them here to give anyone who wasn't able to attend, this guys glimpse into the 'life experience' that is Drag Week. If you read any of my cars updates, you know there was a thrash like so many others just to try and attend. The car wasn't even totally road worthy when I left but I had to try.

Here's what followed...or at least how I saw/ remember it:

[Dignlif]

Saturday morning update

After some good sleep and a couple showers I'm feeling halfway normal again! I made it to Topeka last night at close to 11 local time. When I got to the hotel I pulled in like normal and went all the way around the back only to find there was no room for my truck and trailer or a place to turn around. I had to back it all the way out...not fun, but I got it parked in another lot and checked in. Ellie figured out it was about 50 hrs solo on the road. I made the mistake of leaving at 8:30pm Wed night after being up all day so I'm guessing that led to me being more tired than I should have been. That's quite enough time with my own thoughts...I'm ready to talk to people again. :-) I went through some crazy lightening storms in New Mexico and a little more last night going through Oklahoma and into Kansas. I took some video on my phone but haven't had a chance to look at it and verify I even captured any lightening. I'm sure I got the gnarly looking clouds though. I'll try to go through that tonight and send at least one out with another update as to the cars status.
I gotta go finish prepping the car right now so will send further updates later.
Rich
-
HOTROD Magazine Drag Week 2009 Survivor

https://www.bangshift.com

[Dignlif]

Saturday evening update

I watched the videos of the 'lightning storm' and they were all lame other than showing how dark and cloudy it looked. No exciting lightning captured.

Though I believed I addressed the trans cooling issue before I left home, I still had an engine cooling problem that needed attention. Soooo before I left, I ordered a new slightly shorter carb spacer, a new radiator, and a new electric fan. They were all waiting for me when I got here so getting them installed was my mission today in order to fix my cooling issue. When I opened the radiator box it felt like the radiator had been moving/flopping around an awful lot in there. Well, as it turns out, the radiator had some damage from shipping...Crap. Sir Murphy can't seem to leave me alone on this thing.Trying to stay positive 1800 miles from home and fully committed to attending this event, I looked at the situation again. It stands to reason that if the current fan wasn't turning as fast as it should, like they believed to be true at BRG Racing, then the new fan by itself should be the fix...right.?. No new radiator needed. I can only hope as that's where I'm at. So I walked out to the car with my bright n shiny attitude, new fan, and carb spacer to see what I could do.

Easy one first, you need to keep the positive energy flowing. (who said that? I swear I keep hearing a hippy in my head saying stuff I never would.) Anyway, I started working on the carb spacer and I looked up to see my Uncle Joe pulling up. Day is getting brighter already. I put him right to work removing the old electric fan so we could get the new one in. I installed the spacer to lower the carb height a bit in order to clear the hood. Worked perfect, cool!

Joe got the the old fan shroud and fan. Hmmm, what's that funny noise coming from the old fan? Sounds kinda bad, actually sounds pretty jacked up. Upon closer inspection/ listening it sounds like either the bearings are shot or something in the motor winding's themselves is just wrong. Either way, that fan is bad and likely not running at speed. Hallelujah! we may have an answer to the cooling problem.

We went to install the new super mondo, triple throwdown, mega monster fan and then, oh yeah, the size of the fan was spec'd out for the NEW radiator, not my existing one. Well crap #2! Custom = Custom = fab. The only problem is that sitting in the hotel parking lot, I did not have access to my garage full of "make stuff easier" tools. Crap #3. Ok now, big smiles, rosy cheeks and positive thoughts mister. Huh? Whatever, time to get creative. We figured out that we needed to cut a corner off the new fan's shroud to get around my lower radiator hose and then we would figure out our mounting. (read custom) I started carving it out with my pocket knife and realized I was either gonna take forever or cut my leg open when I inevitably slipped with the 4" blade in my hand exerting all that force.

I looked around the area and saw a car stereo shop in the shopping center opposite of the hotel. I walked over to the shop, explained my situation, and showed them what I needed. They liked hearing about Drag Week and had seen my car on the trailer so the owner sent me to the back with access to all their tools. I made the first mod in about 10 minutes and headed back out to the car with one of the crew following to check out the car and see what he could help with. I wound up going back 3 more times to modify the brackets me and Joe were shaping and they were cool everytime. We finally finished installing the fan and tested it. At 3300 cfm, IT SUCKS BIGTIME! but in a good way, as it pulls air through the radiator. :-)

I finished putting all the tools away in their bags and was adjusting the hood to close/ sit better with Joe when the air began smelling differently and the drops started. Crap #4, it started sprinkling, we started putting stuff away and then it was raining, we started Throwing the bags back in the truck and trying to retarp the stuff in the bed of the truck and now it was POURING. We got everything in and covered and jumped in Joe's truck. Time for something different, time for dinner. I was kinda wet/ soaked but happy that the fan was done and ready for testing at the track.

Tomorrow is a test n tune at the track so I will first drive the car around the grounds of Heartland Park, which I'm told is a huge facility, to test the cooling system and further break in the engine a little before slowly making partial passes down the track until I'm comfortable making a full pass. Did I mention that the new engine and fuel system have roughly 40 minutes run time and about 20-25 minutes on the new transmission, new Gear Vendors overdrive, new drive shaft? Me and Joe will try to take a bunch of pictures tomorrow of the other cars and I'll try to also get some video to post. Unfortunately, I forgot my still camera at home so mine will likely be phone pictures.

It's been cool running into folks who were at the event in 2009 and talking,I look forward to seeing many more tomorrow. Until then...

Cya,
Rich

Oh for those who know of him. As I sit here in the lobby typing this, Freiburger is behind me cracking jokes and opening boxes with shirts.

[Dignlif]

Sunday update

As with every 9/11 now, we always have those affected directly and our affected nation by the significant events of that date. We do continue to move in forward motion as we can.

At least we try...I misset (pm vs am) my alarm which made us late going to track. As a result, I was late getting the car and little trailer unloaded putting us way in the back of the tech line. Sooo 6 1/2 hours later I finally made it through the line and had less than an hour to get the car ready for a pass before they closed the track for any more passes. In that time, my friends from DW 2009 (Steve n Bob) ran out to pick up some trans fluid for the car, we put the rear track wheels/ tires on, I adjusted the shifter, and we reset the front wheel alignment with a tool set that Steve brought knowing from previous conversations that I would need. I made it into the staging lanes, got strapped in and helmet on, worked through the jitters and did a nice feeling burnout, and then it happened. The guy who triggers the Christmas tree is the last person who basically approves your car to go down the track; he saw something wrong. There was some transmission fluid coming out from under my car so he sent me back to the pits. It looks like we put a bit too much fluid in and when I did the burnout, it came out the breather vent in the top of the trans housing.

I got back to the pits and I was met by Joe, Steve, and Bob to see what was going on. The super cool thing about this event though is that we were swarmed by guys coming over that I met in 2009, only knew from online conversations, or that I had just met earlier that day in the tech line They all came to offer their assistance and resources just in case I didn't have anyone else there to help me. Just too darn cool.

Anyway, Steve drained all the fluid we had just added plus some and put just 1/2 a quart back. The dipstick seems to be goofing with us somehow because before adding any earlier, it read empty, then it puked some on the track. Then after we drained it, read empty, added 1/2 quart and it read full...strange. And yes, we measured it with the engine running and trans temperature above 180. Oh well, we'll see what happens in the morning. Gates open at 8am and we have to have our towing rigs in lockdown by 9 when the drivers meeting starts.

I've attached a couple of pictures that I snapped with my phone in the tech line and one just before we left for the track Saturday to kinda show how everything was tarped from the rain sitting in the parking lot. I'm uploading a video right now of some of the cars in the tech line around me. I'll try to shoot a link to it early on Monday. I gotta go to bed tonight so I can get up bright n early.

Woohoo, come on hippies, I need some positive karma and flower power to help me with positive results tomorrow...it is just the beginning of a potentially brutal roadtrip in the Mustang and I need all the help I can get to make it past the first official day much less the rest of the week.

[Dignlif]

Monday update

Hey folks,

I thank you all for your support, especially my wife Ellie, but I am wiped out tonight so I will make this brief. Uncle Joe did get a couple videos of me going down the track and he also took some pictures of other cars as well as location shots along the way. I'll have to try and get them up tomorrow. I did get part of my video up but it cut it down to just 14 seconds or so. again, lame.

We started the morning with llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllll;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ok I was gonna delete this but it shows just how tired I am, I keep falling asleep on the keyboard. Anyway, we got up at 5:30 am and hit the track early. We unloaded the truck/ trailer of anything we needed and our trucks went into impound until Friday. We only had until 9 to get this done so we rushed it, then went to the Drivers meeting which took some time. lklllllllllllllllllllllkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjj shoot, sorry. uh I finally got in the lanes awhile later but eventually got up there. I launched the car and it felt good and Joe said it looked good from the gleacherskkrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww man I need to shorten this story up. ok so I made that pass, launch felt and looked good but when I hit 2nd gear the car got a little sideways so I let off the gas and slowly rolled back in the throttle and got it to the floor, shifted into third and started sliding again. It ran 12.95@104 or something like that...laughable for the package that is there. I got close to turning in that time slip because someone got Really loose and actually hit both walls. I just didn't want to take a chance of slipping again and introducing my yellow paint to the white paint of the walls. Thankfully a few of the guys talked me into running again. So I did and ran 11:62@114. Much better! I think it still has more in it since I actually short shifted it but I went ahead and sent that one in. That left us free to start packing all our junk into the trailer. That took more than an hour since it was the first. Anyway, we got it loaded and we took off. Although it was super hot outside, it felt even hotter inside the car...for hours. At one point I actually poured water from a bottle in the cooler and man did oooooooooooooooooooo333 it feel good. then we came across some super gnarly railroad tracks and it separated part of the exhaust on the passenger side. The car immediately running crummy and so I dealt with that for a couple hours. Also in question is my front end alignment. As I mentioned my friend tried to align it but turns out it wasn't too great. The brand new tires I had on the front are now bald slicks after just 240+ miles. So looks like I'll be trying to get it aligned tomorrow morning first thing, after I fix the exhaust issue. So we left the track around 140 and we got to the hotel at about 11 pm. As I mentioned earlier we are wiped out, as a matter of fact, someone fell completely asleep with the tv on while I'm typing this. Time for me to snooze so cya tomorrow

take care, no proof read tonight so please forgive the mistakes.gnite
Rich

[Dignlif]

Tuesday update

Topeka to Great Bend – 242 miles

This will have a partial repeat of the last - hazy sleepy update -

So the drive to Great Bend didn’t start out to be very eventful although the car seemed to steer a little funny and jumped at almost any bump. Then we hit the railroad tracks from hell! It was a solid hit and I could swear that the exhaust got louder. We kept going trying to beat the sun but naturally that was to be a losing battle. We rolled into the hotel at around 11 pm. Joe was feeling bad because he hadn’t eaten in a while so while he unloaded our bags from the trailer and tarped it, I went in search of food for him. Did I mention it was after 11pm on a Tuesday night… in Great Bend? I walked along the main drag and searched for any place with the lights still on. The only thing open was a Burger King drive-through down the block and I didn’t have a car. I walked toward the window to find a couple other DW guys there already ordering…on foot. The gal was really cool and knew all about DW so she accommodated us. I got us some food and headed back.

I had to look under the car to see what damage was done when we hit the railroad tracks. I looked under the driver’s side and saw nothing wrong but the passenger side looked funny. I moved over there and saw what happened. I have one slip joint in all of my exhaust system and we slammed the right spot to rip the exhaust back and bend the mount back far enough to open up the joint. Luckily it was a slip joint as I’m sure it would have done major damage had that spot not given up its grip.

Lying there in the parking lot exhausted, I was deciding to take care of it in the morning, but then I looked over at the front tire. It was bald! That was a brand new tire which, when I put the car on the trailer to leave California, had only the mileage of backing out of the garage and onto the trailer…and it was bald! So was the other side! The alignment had become so bad that it scrubbed both tires into oblivion.





I couldn’t deal with it right then but I needed to find a resource for the morning so I walked to the front parking area where lots of people had gathered to watch work being done on the Sick (Six) Seconds Camaro and asked for any locals. I wound up talking to the owner of a local Car Quest and he said that he would be in at 7 and he’d help me find a place. I now had a plan, fix the exhaust first thing in the morning and then go get the front end aligned. Another 5:30 am wakeup call, yay.

Up in the morning, choke down a little hotel ‘Continental’ breakfast and head out to the car. I got under it and saw what needed to be done; I needed to bend a 90 degree mount, back to 90 degrees. Unfortunately I only had a couple small crescent wrenches where one large might do the trick. Joe showed me a trick using two of the small crescent wrenches where I grabbed the metal with one and then grabbed the first wrench with the second to twist. Wow compound bending tool, parking lot style. I got the bracket straightened out enough to reconnect the exhaust. Time to pack up and head to the Car Quest.

We got to the car quest around 8:15 and while the owner was already gone for the track, someone else started making calls for us and found a shop that could fit us in at 9:00. Great! We needed to be at the track and have made a run by noon so hopefully they can pull it off in less than two hours. I had taken my spare set of front skinny wheels and older street tires so we would just have them install those if nothing else. We get there and it’s a tire shop so naturally we start talking to one of the guys about replacement tires for those rims. After some research and pulling down one set of tires, it’s a no go. He has nothing that narrow. Next option is to order from one of the big mail houses like Summit Racing or Jegs and have them sent to tomorrows track, Amarillo. When I found that it was going to cost $700 shipping to overnight the pair of little tires I laughed, shook my head and a few expletives may have slipped as well. So old tires it was! I called the Amarillo track and they said they had a new set of street tires that would fit so I decided I’d pick those up instead tomorrow. Me and Joe were in the waiting room alternately falling asleep in their comfy chairs and snoring I’m sure. I kept waking up concerned about time. I went back there and heard them say for the fourth time, almost there. I can’t fault them, the guy was going for perfection and all I wanted was close enough to get me through the week and not waste another set of tires. As 11:00 got closer, I decided that it would save us some time if they swapped my track wheels/ tires onto the car there instead of us having to do it. I pulled them off the little trailer and pushed them back there. They finally got it done and while one of the guys swapped my rear tires, I went and settled the bill. They were really cool and got me in with super short notice so I’m grateful to Becker Tire in Great Bend for their service and hospitality.

We finally got the trailer re-attached and blasted outta there heading for the track at about 11:15. The track was only 10 miles away so not too bad. The car was running kinda rough and seemed to be surging but I needed to get the timeslip in by noon in order to stay in the game. We got there, found a pit spot way in the back, unhitched the trailer, I put my safety pants/ shoes on and filled out the Tech card while Joe uncorked the headers, and off we went for the staging lanes. I ran up with the Tech card and got back in my car to make my pass. I got up there and in my haste held the wrong button for the burnout so it didn’t work. The guy backed me into the water again and this time I did a correct burnout with the line lock engaged. I got up there, made my pass safely, albeit with a bit of sputtering. When I got the time slip however I was elated! 11:17!!! It had actually gone faster. I parked the car in our pit and headed toward the tower to turn in my official time slip since I only had time for one run. (or so I thought) As I approached the tower, one of the guys asked me what I ran and I said it got faster but this time when I looked down at the timeslip, I realized I was reading the 1000’ time. DOH!!! It had actually run 13.34. Ok I felt like a dork but at least that made sense since it was running kinda crappy. That would be the slowest run of the week but I never did make it back to my 11.62 from Monday. Anyway, I get up there and that crappy (for my new engine) time in and head out to look for Joe. Then I notice cars are still running. But, but, but, I thought they were shutting down the track. My timeslip said 11:47, I barely made it and it’s after 12 now, what’s the deal? Someone told me I had to be done by noon. Nope, they still had another hour.

The rules say that once you turn in your timeslip, you’re done. Crap! I talked to a friend and he suggested I try to fix my issues and make another pass if I can and then try to talk to them as they can be accommodating in the right situation and I appeared to have one of those situations. I went back to the pits and Joe was already checking the spark plugs and we had talked about replacing them. Well, he found that many were loose. Way loose. Ok, maybe that’s our problem. So after pulling a couple and seeing they were not fouled, we double checked each one and by that time the track had ‘officially’ shut down. We went to pick up some race gas to mix with the 91 octane on the road and headed out with our friends on the next leg of this journey…Amarillo here we come!

[Dignlif]

Wednesday update

Great Bend to Amarillo – 336 miles

Ok on to Amarillo. We left Great Bend following the 94 S10 Blazer that used to be an S10 SS pickup. It has its own cool story so if you’re ever interested, ask me over a beer. It’s 4400 pounds, picks the front tires off the ground about a foot, runs in the 9’s consistently and has dipped into the 8’s a couple times. It also still has AC and power windows. Anyway, after picking up 5 gallons of race gas to mix with the pump gas along the way, we followed Steve and Bob out the gate and headed out.

Now I can’t remember if it was Tuesday or Wednesday but one of those days, we saw a road runner crossing the road in front of us. Yeah we were in the middle of nowhere a few times. Can you guess what my first reaction was? If you guessed floor it and try to play the part of Wile E. Coyote by running him over or pulling out a couple sticks of ACME dynamite to throw at him, you’d be wrong. Instead I reached over to the blue button that used to be my nitrous purge and hit it twice quickly. That button is now my horn, not a beep beep horn like some of the Mopars have, but I’m sure he got the idea as he dashed into the underbrush.

As I mentioned before, we have to follow the specific directions they give us and then take pictures of our cars in front of their chosen landmarks along the way. On our way to Amarillo, we were directed to Liberal Kansas where we took a picture in front of Dorothy’s house. The picture I attached shows the house on the right. Since we were having issues with the engine not running great, we had since lost touch with Steve and Bob and rushed outta there with the hasty pictures.

Overall the drive went pretty well other than the extreme heat. The cabin of the car was extremely hot; I really need to do something about the heat coming up from the floor boards. At night I wound up having to wear my safety glasses to keep the hot air from my drying out/ irritating my eyes. I know we weren’t’ the only ones with this issue. The two guys in the 90’s twin turbo Mustang each used a pizza box lid on their arm to get cooler air inside. We drove through more small towns and as happens, there were a few scary spots where we either couldn’t find fuel or we just couldn’t find Premium. We had the race gas to mix with but that only goes so far to raise the octane.

Anyway, we were making our way and getting closer to the city. It was dark and finally cooling down outside but I was still sporting my safety glasses to keep my eyes open and focused. Apparently not enough though, we missed a key turn trying to get us to the hotel and had to pull over and look at the map again. I pretty much figured we were in the wrong neighborhood when I started seeing hookers walking the street. We turned around and found the turn we had missed. Ok, that’s 1. Then we seem to be getting close and Joe sees the sign for Hollywood Rd which the hotel is supposed to be on. We turn around but I’m suspicious as it looks like a country road. We start down it and all of a sudden we’re on dirt and I stop. The edges drop off and very soft plus it’s too narrow to make a u-turn. Backing up with that little trailer is pretty much impossible. Aside from waking up a farmer who wanted to come out and see the car making that noise on his access road, we wound up disconnecting the trailer and then making an 8 point turn in the Mustang. The guy was really cool and said people made the same mistake all the time. We got outta there, found the hotel, and basically just locked up the car and headed to the room. After 11 again, and guess what, 5:30 wakeup call so we can get some ‘continental’ breakfast and change the plugs before leaving for the track while the engine is still cold.

We get up, change the plugs, get it all ready and head to the track. It feels good and seems to be running a bit better. Then all of a sudden, back to sputtering. Doh! Oh well, we get to the track weather isn’t looking good. There’s talk of rain and a few drizzly drops so we quickly switch out the rear wheels, do some other prep quickly, and I jump into the staging lanes to get a pass in before the weather gets worse. As I’m sitting there, I realize (1) I didn’t add more race gas to protect the engine at high rev and (2) I didn’t take the stuff out of the trunk. Guess if I’d added the fuel I would have remembered to pull out the 6 quarts of oil, oil filter, 5 quarts of transmission fluid, and funnel. The engine wasn’t running great so the extra weight won’t really matter but I still need to protect against the high compression so I pulled over to the fuel station (a guy in a small storage building with 6 drums) and got some race gas to add in the tank. I managed to get back in the lanes and made a pass of 12.45. Again, not what I am expecting this combination to do but I’m in survival mode at this point and just want to make it to the end of the week without breaking down. This next drive will be the longest leg to complete so I don’t want to beat on it anymore right now, especially still not knowing what its ailment is.

We got the wheels switched back and everything loaded back up and ready. Since this leg is 420 miles, they allowed us to leave as soon as we had a valid timeslip. I turned mine in and we were on our way to Tulsa.

Some more links to pictures
http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showt...9-My-pics-link!!

And my posting of pix

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dignlif/sets/72157627708652334/

[Dignlif]

Thursday update

Rain rain go away
Now we are Tulsa bound and it’s only around 11:15 am so we’re getting an early start. We stop and top off the gas at the corner Shell and I got a fresh made breakfast burrito. Joe got a couple fresh brisket burritos that wound up being, uh, not so good. Seems they over did it with a particular spice that overpowered the whole thing. Lucky for me, they didn’t screw up mine. We hit the road and aside from the occasional surging and what we think is vapor locking, we’re doing pretty good. Many others are likewise having the vapor locking issue because of the heat.

Do you remember the building that was Ramone’s House of Body Art in the animated movie Cars? Well the actual place is in Shamrock Texas and we visited it, bought the postcards, and continued down the road. Yeah, I really did buy a couple postcards, it’s a cool building so I figured ‘wall art’ for the garage. We started our way toward the next stop which was about 65 miles down the road in Elk City Oklahoma at the Route 66 Museum. We were on county/ country roads and got stuck behind a tractor and another time behind a hay truck.

We stopped at the Route 66 museum to get pictures with the car, but didn’t go in since we had such a long drive to go. We’re cruising along with new friends Doug and Mike in the blue Nova and soon we’re in search of gas. We stop at one station and one of their Premium pumps is covered while the other is locked down. No Premium! We wave everyone else on and jump in the back of the pack. Down the road a ways we stop at another but we likewise get the wave telling us no Premium. We’re not totally worried as we’re carrying a 5 gallon can of 91 on the trailer but Doug has already used his reserve can at this point. As we go a ways further and round a corner, we start seeing a bunch of arms waiving us down. Finally a gas station with Premium and they were very proud of it apparently. Their price was close to a dollar higher than anyone we’d run across in the last couple days; basically California prices. No choice so we fill up, add the 100 octane booster and get another bag of ice for the ice chest.

We pulled the cars aside so other could use the pumps and to let them cool down a bit while we talked with others doing the same. I talked with a guy that has a neat 64 Chevy II Nova with the 6 cylinder turbo motor setup out of a GNX. Too cool! 163 miles to the next checkpoint, Jalopy’s Drive In. We were doing pretty well but somewhere along the way we bottomed out on a raised area in the road again and it felt like a really solid hit. I held my breath and waited to hear the exhaust volume go up again. Nothing, or at least nothing two guys, each with a bad ear could hear; we kept going. Still hot inside the car but it’s getting really cool outside.

Now at some point we were driving through rain but to be honest I can’t remember. My wipers worked well after the first few swipes and we had the more street tire like Hoosier Pro Streets on the car so felt pretty safe.

We stopped at Jalopy’s for pictures and decided to sit and have dinner there with Doug and Mike. It was good to finally have a sit down meal but naturally in the back of our heads was the ticking clock so we finished and got back on the road. We made the final 70+ miles w/o incident other than a couple wrong turns that were quickly remedied. When we got there we disconnected the trailer and put it in a corner and then blocked it in with the car. It was still running pretty much the same so we didn’t mess with it. I hung out with some of the guys out front and had a couple beers and then went to bed to await that 5:30 wakeup call.

We had ‘continental’ breakfast and waited for the O’Reilly’s to open so we could buy a drain pan and some other supplies. We headed to the track. Again the weather was threatening rain so we wanted to get things ready and into the lanes as quickly as possible. I went straight to draining the oil and the filter pulled while Joe pulled the rear wheel lug nuts. Then we swapped and Joe worked on replacing the filter and putting in the new oil while I swapped the rear tires. I noticed while looking under the car that the exhaust had in fact been opened up again.
We had been uncorking the headers using bypass openings directly behind the header collectors so I didn’t worry about the opening right then. I figured that since the opening was on the backside of the X-Pipe, it wouldn’t affect things much if at all and I could fix it after the run. We got it ready, got the fuel in it and got into the staging lanes. As we sat there, it started raining.

The rain didn’t last more than 20 minutes or so. They prepped the track once they were sure it was stopped and started up again. (my memory is still hazy on this part too as far as how long it was) In any case, they ran a few pairs and then it started raining again, more than the last. I was about 6 pairs from getting my pass in but sat waiting with everyone else. After a long wait, the track was dried and prepped so we finally did get to go and the car ran another limping high 12 second pass.

The car went back on the jackstands for tire swap, especially important now with the chance of rain, and I went to work on the exhaust issue. I wound up dropping both the front and rear sections so I could access the bent mounting tab with a hammer. Yup, hammer definitely did the job quicker and maybe better than the crescent wrenches did previously. With that fixed, we were set to go and the departure time had been met so we headed out back toward Topeka on the last leg. Wooohooo! We only had one more leg and dragstrip pass to call it a successfully completed Drag Week.

More to come…

[Dignlif]

Friday update

Tulsa back to Topeka – 252 miles

With rain coming and having to extend the track time to get everyone a pass, the group picture was eventually cancelled and we were able to leave as soon as we’d turned in a time slip. Since we were done and ready, we did just that. I’d like to say that with it being the last drive and shorter than most of the others, it was smooth sailing. I’d also like to say that I won the lotto but that didn’t happen either. We got out of there and eventually came upon the heat again. Things were going pretty smoothly when the temperature crept up above 220 and seemed to be on a mission to keep moving up. Luckily we came across and mini-mart/ gas station and were able to borrow a pitcher. Filling the pitcher with a gallon of water we were actually able to fit all of it in the radiator. In the words of Adam Savage “Well there’s your problem”. Remember when I had ordered the new radiator but it was delivered smashed so we put all concentration on the fan modification to make it fit, then it rained on us. Well apparently the water was never checked/ rechecked.

It ran 165 the rest of day, until we were on a two lane road with no shoulder. We were testing it w/o the fan but then turned the fan back on. All of a sudden the water temperature sky rocketed so I found the first gravel driveway and bombed into it with the engine off. Within seconds I had someone behind me and two cars parked in the gravel driveway across from the one I was blocking. We got the hood up and determined that the fan wasn’t running. Out came a multi-meter from Ed Kelly in the Shadow directly behind us and he and Joe started measuring power at the plugs; nothing there. A few more cars motored up to see if they could help and we told them to go ahead since we already had 4 cars worth of folks there helping. ***And that folks is why I love this event. We were basically stranded on the side of the road but we were far from alone. I waved no one down, nor did I ask for any help. They just automatically stopped and started doing what they could. Anything from looking in their own stuff for water so we could refill the radiator after it spewed on the gravel, to getting me a replacement fuse (which I found to be the culprit inside the car) and recommending I put a larger one in since the new fan was much more powerful than the old. We got the cooling system started again and within minutes the temp was back down to 160. We all slowly pulled out and continued on. Me with Ed’s Shadow still following behind providing backup in case I needed it. We made it with no further problems to the hotel and it was actually fairly early as we were among the first to arrive at the hotel. As we shared celebratory beers in the parking lot with others who had made the round trip, it started to rain. We tarped the trailer and moved our bags and beer under the hotel canopy. We eventually ordered pizza as a group and sat around telling stories and just unwinding from the trip, as more and more folks kept arriving.

In all we started with 177 cars and I think 47 of them failed or broke as some point, for one reason or another. We were not done however, we still needed to make it back to the track in the morning and make at least one more pass.

We got up much later in the morning as we didn’t have to worry about showing up to the track until later. We walked over to Denny’s and had a nice sit down breakfast. We got done with breakfast and got the car loaded up and headed to the track early once we heard they had opened the gates early. We prepped the car one last time to make a run and then Joe picked up his truck from impound so he could take off. Somewhere between 2 or 3 Joe left so he could go home before having to go back to work and I basically waited around for the staging lanes to open to make my last pass. The car was still missing or doing whatever it was so I just wanted to make one easy pass and ‘officially’ finish. I did just that when I heard cars starting to run and pulled a 13.13 pass. At that point I was ‘not last’ but was just a few thousandths from being last. I turned in my slips and thanked the staff for a great event. In the staging lanes, I found Radar who has the huge purple 1970 Sport Fury and let him know that all he had to do to be ‘not last’ was probably run anywhere in the 12’s and we would swap places. He laughed and said thanks. I headed to the pits to start prepping for loading my rig up. As I was about to drive over the truck/ trailer impound area, I heard Radar making his pass and the announcer said he ran a 12.17…I was now last in class. I could still smile though because against the odds, we had finished the week successfully with a bunch of new parts that had no business being on a 1200 mile trip. They were now well broken in, aside from that damn miss or whatever is ailing it. I went over to start loading my car and all the stuff into the bed of the truck and it started raining. Bummer for the guys who still hadn’t run, plus the bracket race that was supposed to happen still. It was also a bummer because I was out there alone loading everything and getting drenched in the process. As it darkened and showed no sight of letting up, I slowly finished up the packing and eventually moved my rig out to be within walking distance of where I’d heard they were going to have the awards ceremony.

Obviously I expected nothing for my last place finish but I was only expecting to head back to the hotel and would be leaving until Saturday morning so I might as well support the winners and besides, there were always the drawings. As all the prizes went out and the gift certificates went out to all the individual winners I sat there clapping with the exhaustion of the week slowly creeping in.

The announced the Spirit of Drag Week winner. This is someone chosen by the staff not necessarily for performance but for how they help others along and otherwise living up to what they believe the spirit of the event is, helping each other and camaraderie. This year’s winner Rick Prospero had a few cool stories attached to him. One in particular was how he helped a guy rebuild his transmission in the middle of the night, on the side of the road, with parts from two broken transmissions, then he went on to fix his own after. He actually put another person’s car before his own. Way cool guy!

Finally it was time for the last two drawings as Larry Larson had donated the Gear Vendors unit he won to be given to a random drawing. And Holy Crap!!! The first name was Doug, the guy we’d met and been hanging out with the day before. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy! Then Tanya Turk started to call the second name with ‘ I’m gonna massacre this one, Richard and hesitantly Pedraza with the yellow 67 Mustang. WHAT? HOLY SHIT!!! I won something!!! I won a complete Gear Vendors setup. That will make Ellie really happy!! I staggered up there in shock and Freiburger thanked me for coming all the way out from California. I shook GV President Rick Johnson’s ever friendly hand and stood for the picture. Wow what a finish to the great adventure. I didn’t need that last bit to call it a successful or enjoyable trip or to make it worth it…but what a great bonus!

I received comments of ‘congratulations’, ‘you deserve it’, ‘good job not giving up’ and that made me happy. I signed a couple of the banners for the Hotrod offices and then I trudged out to the truck, loaded my new bounty, and headed out to the hotel. DW 2011 was officially over and I was exhausted. I walked over to the Denny’s to grab a bite to eat before heading to sleep and ran into Mike (Swede) and his son so we sat together and talked for some time before going our separate ways. I hung out with others in the lobby for a while and then collapsed in bed. I left the next morning around 9:30 and although I went through some heavy rain and narrowly missed an accident outside Denver, the trip thankfully, was pretty uneventful. I made it home Sunday evening around 10:30 and again collapsed into bed. I am glad to be home and now starts the thrash for Drag Week 2012! Queue ‘maniacal laugh’.

Thanks for following along and if you get tired of hearing me talk about it, just move away or change the subject because it is one of those life experiences that truly leaves an impression and high level of excitement.

Take care all,
Rich

[Dignlif]

Thanks!!!

Though I’m not sure they’ll even see this when I post it to Bangshift.com, I want to thank the folks that either helped/ encouraged me directly or were hanging out cruising with us and happened to be there just in case. Some are new friends and some from previous meetings, Randal (Silver Buick), Shawn with the cool Fairlane, Steve and Bob in the radical S10 Blazer, ksj2 for the visit, Neal (nesabo) for the zip tie suggestion, James in his Durango instead of the BBR Mustang, Edward and copilot in the ‘Unlimited’ Shadow, Doug (dougs67) and Mike in the Blue Nova, and Bamfster in the Chevelle for basically telling me not to be a puss on that first pass, forget about taking it easy, and just “Let It Eat!” You’re right, it is much more fun to just lay into it! The guys in the black Regal T-type and the blue Camaro that also stopped to help us out. Todd with the beautiful Chevy pickup for advice and cool conversation. Steve with the big red truck (we expect to see the Mustang next year). And to anyone else I spoke to and/or hung out with, thanks for helping make this another great event for me and a first for my Uncle Joe. I look forward to hanging out with you again next year! Rich

[ksj2]

Good to chat with you.Great diary of DW. Im glad to be back at work so I can relax.

[TheSilverBuick]

Dude, glad you made it and over came the transmission, cooling, exhaust, tires and sleep deprivation adversity and continued on to the end. It was great meeting you and hope to see you next year! And congrats again on the gear vendor unit!

[squirrel]

Wow Rich, I guess you really made the most of Drag Week Thanks for taking the time to post your story, your gumption is inspiring...and congrats on finishing the drive, and getting that OD too

[dougs67]

Great right up over the week! i was wondering what had happened to those tires in the pictures. now i know! makes my week sound very un-eventful.

[Orange65]

Awesome story. Memories for a lifetime...