Debbie and I left home near Chicago on Thursday 8/7 in hopes of repeating our win in Atco, over the last 2 years. We had just come off wins in Milan, Michigan and Joliet, IL and were anticipating some great weather conditions for the race. I have learned over the years of racing at Atco that this is one of the fastest races we will race all year.
After a 15 hour drive from Chicago we arrived on Friday morning. Once in the track we started to get everything set up and getting through tech. During the Tech inspection the tech department proceeded to seal most of my engine and nitrous system. This is a sign for a potential tear down. As much of a pain a tear down can be, it comes with the territory of racing at the top. We got the car ready to make a test pass. When I was in the staging lanes there were many racers/crew people saying that the track was terrible. I proceeded to make 2 small adjustments to my suspension. On this test pass I left the starting line and she proceeded to wheel stand through all of first gear and part of second gear. I aborted the run 1.59 seconds into the run. My ET slip showed a 1.31 60ft on the back tires. That would be a 1.27-1.28 60ft. Track did not seem too bad!!!! LOL!!!! I took the data and made adjustments to control the wheel stand and I was ready for qualifying. In qualifying my goal was to give it everything I had and go after the record (9.62). I knew I had a good shot at it since the track was working well for me and the weather conditions were optimal. Not to mention we were making first round of qualifying at night!!!! My run awarded me a 9.587 @ 140.90 and was good enough to break the record. Now I have to back it up.
Saturday was as beautiful as Friday. Mid to low 80's, baro at about 29.7 and DA at about 2300-2700 all day. Second round of qualifying I made some changes and out came a 9.60 @ 140. The record was now backed up. Weather conditions were not as good as the night before and my changes showed no improvement to what I had thought they would do. After I scaled and fuel checked the tech dept. told me that I had to bring myself and my car after third round to the tech area no matter if I made a third round pass or not. I went back to the pits and put on a new top secret part. LOL!!! I was told by many other that it was worth 5 hp to the wheels. I was optimistic, but I see what it does. Third round I spun a little and ran 9.590 @
141.15. Yep the part works!!!! And was worth what others said. My EPEC data logger showed an increase in the area I was trying to improve. After scaling and fuel check I was told to remove the drivers side cylinder head. From there Cubic inch, bore, stroke, cylinder head combustion chamber cc, valve size, retainer material, valve spring pressure on the seat, Cylinder heat porting, intake manifold porting, Nitrous lines inspected and traced, and many more items and dimensions were inspected. I passed all areas and was deemed legal and the #1 qualifier.
Sunday did not looks so good for racing. With rain in the forecast for the entire day and rain going into monday. Racing was almost impossible. From my data from the passes on Saturday I realized that my clucth was starting to slip too much in the high gear change. When we arrived at the track the first thing that Debbie and I had to get done was to replace the clutch. Once the clutch was changed we were ready to go. Unfortunatley as the rain started to fall and some of the classes made it through the first round the race was called for the weekend and we would have to wait for further notice on the outcome of the race. Even with the rain I learned much this weekend and have made it into the 9.50's and hold the current NMRA Real Street class record
9.587 @ 140.90
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