Cody "Flash" Perkins Sonoma Wrap-up

Cody “Flash” Perkins Flies New Ride Into the Winner’s Circle at Sonoma

Photo Courtesy of Bob Johnson Photography

Sonoma Calif. - This past weekend was just the third race the Perkins family had attended of the 2009 race season which they made it count by leaving with the win. After a disappointing showing at the two events in Las Vegas early in the season, the team came out hoping to redeem themselves. “We tried too many new things at once in Vegas and that really bit us hard. We came into this race with only seven runs on the new injector design, but the performance we are already seeing out of it is very encouraging, remarked Cody.”

While the car did give the team some issues during qualifying, lessons were learned that they carried over to eliminations. The team chose to sit out the first round of qualifying because of a last minute problem with the engine found just before the session. The issue was resolved and the second session resulted in a respectable 5.408 second pass to put the team seventh on the qualifying list.

Third session of qualifying paid off with mixed dividends. The run had to be aborted because of a wheel-stand that lasted the first 400 feet. “It normally starts easing back down around 200 feet, but this time the shift light lit up, I shifted, and it never dropped, that’s when I gave it up since there was nothing to be gained or lost. The front end was still climbing due to a wheelie-bar failure. However, the early numbers indicated that the clutch and motor were doing their job to perfection.”

For the first round, Bob Perkins (Cody’s father and team owner) made the call to add weight to the front end in the only form available at the track, a trailer hitch. What resulted was an upset of the #2 qualifier, Randy Eakins, when “Flash” left first with a .015 reaction time backed up by a 5.376 elapsed time.

The second round paired the Perkins team against their long time rival, Jerry Maddern and driver Chris Demke. Cody made a few adjustments to the fuel system knowing the round would not be won easily. The car responded posting a career best 60’ time of .887 seconds to shoot the car into the lead by .047 seconds at that point. At the finish line, Cody needed every inch of that early lead because Demke was coming on strong but came up short by .0014 seconds. (less than 6 inches)

The final certainly lacked the drama of the prior rounds as Perkins’ would be opponent Johnny Ahten was unable to return due to extensive engine damage. Cody idled to the line and took the green light for the event win. Cody explained, “Now that we’ve gotten the car back to where we need it performing, we are hoping to move up in the Division 7 point standings. We will be headed to Montana in a couple weeks and can’t risk hurting parts that we need to get us through the end of the season.” Cody would like to thank, as always, Mom (Trudy), Dad (Bob), and Grandma (Elaine) for all their hard work and support. Additional thanks go to Lance Brown, Gary Mink, Meg-Evap Coolers, and Bagley Ice.

Courtesy of Blown Chances Productions