What a trip!!
2013 Daytona 500 race was some of the finest racing I ever saw. It doesn't matter that the Chevy-Ford-Toyota cars are homogenized and I couldn't read the sponsor billboard logos and every team has a well-practiced efficient pit crew, so it was all about the drivers. Huge props to Danica Patrick for leading from the pole position and taking the most obvious neon-green racecar into the top 10 finshers. Of course experience rules: Jimmy Johnson and Junior Earnheardt did what they had to do to finish 1-2. But that finish was highlighted by a no-caution run across the line with the also-rans crashing in the attempt. Most impressive feature of NASCAR racing? 3-wide laps at 200 mph a body-length apart. That's a human body, not a car body. Did any one notice that the ads are top-drawer emotional family stories like the best Super Bowl ads? I enjoyed the 2013 Daytona 500 way more than the 2013 Super Bowl of football. Duh.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Friday, October 5, 2012
A change in plan --
 |
| Saturday September 29 2012 at Martin US131 Dragway |
After 15 years with the dependable 1971 Dodge Charger my drag racing plan has changed. The Charger is FOR SALE listed on eBay, Craigslist and RacingJunk.com since I scored a 2003 Chrysler GT Cruiser. The 3200-pound front-wheel-drive turbocharged 2.4-liter 4-cylinder 5-door Inferno Red mini-SUV leaves the starting line quietly and runs up to 90 miles-per-hour in 15 seconds and change.
No change in the plan to race in Street class against 12-second cars, no change in the plan to drive the car to the track, no change in the plan to roll off the starting line within 0.03 seconds after the green light and finish 0.02 seconds ahead of the opposing car. But I do have to practice staging to flicker the second light, foot-braking the start, watching the other car come from behind, and foot-braking the finish to avoid breaking out.
My first race this season was the last opportunity at Martin US131 Dragway in 2012. In 5 passes through 1320 feet my reaction times were between 0.333 and 0.133 with an average of 0.240, about two-tenths of a second slower than I want. The time to the 60-foot beam was between 2.350 and 2.370 seconds. Here is the average time for each increment going down the track:
60 - 330 feet = 4.20
330 - 660 feet = 3.47
660 - 1000 feet = 3.05
1000 - 1320 feet = 2.56
That is an average of 15.64 seconds.
Any questions?
Did I win?
1st round, 0.18 slower reaction and 0.05 slower than dialed, and I lost by 0.096 seconds.
2nd round buy back, opponent had a foul start (red light) so I won, at 0.15 seconds slower than dialed.
3rd round, 0.04 slower reaction and 0.08 faster than dialed, so I lost, although I was ahead by 0.074 seconds.
That's the story.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
weekend trip to race in Muncie, Indiana
I left Sunrise Drive in Holland at 1 PM on Friday, June 7, in Poppy's Van, pulling the Cookie Monster Charger on a trailer, going south on the M-40 highway. My objective was to get the Charger down a quarter-mile track in Muncie, Indiana that evening.
My racing season for 2009 is focused on Drag Week, a street-car racing-tour sponsored by Hot Rod Magazine in September. The Drag Week events will begin at Muncie Dragway in Indiana, more than 200 miles away from Holland, Michigan, and continue in Martin, MI - Norwalk, OH - Hebron, OH - Albany, IN, covering 1200 miles in a week, racing at a track in each town, driving only the racecar.
To get a feel for the roads between the tracks, I kept to county and state routes, so it took 5 hours driving through towns (Main Street) and around detours (bridge out and summer construction) with a gas & food stop before arriving at Muncie Dragway at 8 PM. Friday night featured a Fast & Furious Street Racing event that started at 7, and I had the Charger off the trailer, changed the oil and added gas, just after the first break in the action, practice time runs were done.
I pulled into the lane for a Trophy Race and dialed 12.50 as an uneducated guess, with no time run, this would be the first time down the quarter-mile in 2009. At the start line, my opponent in a Toyota Celica was dialed 15.20 so he left first, .605 seconds after the green light. A few seconds later I rolled across the line, .043 seconds after the green light. With more than half-a-second advantage, I caught the competition at the eighth-mile mark and let off the throttle, staying less than a foot ahead of the other car, finishing at 93 miles per hour (opponent was going 91 mph) and winning the round by .003 seconds. Although the Charger had slowed to an elapsed time of 13.2 seconds, the incremental times showed a possible 12.7 second E.T.
The Fast & Furious Street Race event included practice runs or grudge matches, Trophy races for two-wheelers (motorcycles and scooters), street cars (registered & insured), and full-race-slick-tire cars as well as a burnout contest and a dancing girl (bikini) contest, so the second round of the Trophy Race started two hours later.
This round I dialed 12.70 and came to the start opposite a new Pontiac dialed at 11.40, obviously a serious racer. My reaction (.068) was better than the driver who followed me (.096) and I got to the finish line first by .05 seconds, but we both went quicker than the dial. My 12.59 finish was worse than his 11.32 so I lost the round. When I went back to the lane to congratulate the winner, I learned that he and his buddy were also practicing for Drag Week, so I expect to see him again in September.
Two hours later, after midnight, I made a final, fastest run at Muncie Dragway, 12.42 seconds at 109 mph.
I put the Charger back on the trailer and headed toward Kalamazoo, on Interstate highways going north, to meet Mia and Dan at the Epilepsy Foundation Stroll in the Park. I parked the van and trailer at 6 AM and manned a prize table for the event, after an hour nap at a rest stop, no bed for me that Friday night.
Saturday at 2 PM, I passed Martin Dragway on US-131 heading to Grand Rapids. I hope the tour in September goes this well.
My racing season for 2009 is focused on Drag Week, a street-car racing-tour sponsored by Hot Rod Magazine in September. The Drag Week events will begin at Muncie Dragway in Indiana, more than 200 miles away from Holland, Michigan, and continue in Martin, MI - Norwalk, OH - Hebron, OH - Albany, IN, covering 1200 miles in a week, racing at a track in each town, driving only the racecar.
To get a feel for the roads between the tracks, I kept to county and state routes, so it took 5 hours driving through towns (Main Street) and around detours (bridge out and summer construction) with a gas & food stop before arriving at Muncie Dragway at 8 PM. Friday night featured a Fast & Furious Street Racing event that started at 7, and I had the Charger off the trailer, changed the oil and added gas, just after the first break in the action, practice time runs were done.
I pulled into the lane for a Trophy Race and dialed 12.50 as an uneducated guess, with no time run, this would be the first time down the quarter-mile in 2009. At the start line, my opponent in a Toyota Celica was dialed 15.20 so he left first, .605 seconds after the green light. A few seconds later I rolled across the line, .043 seconds after the green light. With more than half-a-second advantage, I caught the competition at the eighth-mile mark and let off the throttle, staying less than a foot ahead of the other car, finishing at 93 miles per hour (opponent was going 91 mph) and winning the round by .003 seconds. Although the Charger had slowed to an elapsed time of 13.2 seconds, the incremental times showed a possible 12.7 second E.T.
The Fast & Furious Street Race event included practice runs or grudge matches, Trophy races for two-wheelers (motorcycles and scooters), street cars (registered & insured), and full-race-slick-tire cars as well as a burnout contest and a dancing girl (bikini) contest, so the second round of the Trophy Race started two hours later.
This round I dialed 12.70 and came to the start opposite a new Pontiac dialed at 11.40, obviously a serious racer. My reaction (.068) was better than the driver who followed me (.096) and I got to the finish line first by .05 seconds, but we both went quicker than the dial. My 12.59 finish was worse than his 11.32 so I lost the round. When I went back to the lane to congratulate the winner, I learned that he and his buddy were also practicing for Drag Week, so I expect to see him again in September.
Two hours later, after midnight, I made a final, fastest run at Muncie Dragway, 12.42 seconds at 109 mph.
I put the Charger back on the trailer and headed toward Kalamazoo, on Interstate highways going north, to meet Mia and Dan at the Epilepsy Foundation Stroll in the Park. I parked the van and trailer at 6 AM and manned a prize table for the event, after an hour nap at a rest stop, no bed for me that Friday night.
Saturday at 2 PM, I passed Martin Dragway on US-131 heading to Grand Rapids. I hope the tour in September goes this well.
Monday, June 1, 2009
getting ready for Hot Rod Magazine Drag Week 2009
This year my drag racing focus is on the week of September 13-19 when a group of racers drive from Indiana to Michigan to Ohio to race at 4 tracks.
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