Dave Hirata Richmond wrap up

HIRATA'S NEW LOOK, NEW CAR DEBUT POSITIVE AT VIRGINIA

Hirata Motorsports took their Torco Racing Fuels, Skull Shine, new a/fuel dragster, bugs and all, to the Torco Nationals at Virginia this past weekend. We feel we left most of the bugs out on the east coast. I have to admit the weekend started out pretty shakey, no pun intended. I was not super comfortable in the new car. This car is built around a carbon fibre tub and form fitted seat to me. I was really sitting to far forward in the car. But we made our first run anyway. For some reason, and we have not figured it out, the car SHOOK the whole run; from the hit of the throttle to when I took my foot off the gas. That first run of 5.47 was not too bad considering I was off the gas at 4.5 seconds cause I could not locate the finish line. We took apart everything checking for anything. I even took out my new seat. It is possible my helmet was touching the roll cage from the position of the seat. The second run it dropped a cylinder on the hit, but never shook. The third run I pedaled the car at 1.1 second for .2 of a second cause of tire shake and it still ran 5.47 @ 269.00. We just happened to run the wrong racer first round in Ken Perry. He strapped the quickest blown alky run ever on us. We still ran 5.32, which were a great performance improvement, but I could not run him down. Our car dropped a cylinder at 3.3 seconds. That lost us the race. The weekend was not an all loss as our car gathered the BEST APPEARING AWARD. That award goes to my resto and custom shop, HAMMER’D. The paintwork was done by my clutch man Zach Ingram who works at HAMMER’D and I have approximately 10 hours of pinstripe strokes. It is a beautiful car. Thanks again go to my great crew: Pete Brady, Chrystal & Zach Ingram, Carolyn & Dean Davies, Dale Bollerud, Byron Inouye, Jim Courson, my mom & dad, my girl Molly. They are the best. And of course, the support of Torco Racing Fuels www.torco.com , Skull Shine, NGK, Lowell Body Shop, Lowell Automotive & Radiator, HAMMER'D www.hiratamotorsports.com , NAPA Service Auto Parts, Full Bore, R&R Rods www.rrconnectingrods.com , Rose RV Sales www.roservsales.com MAKE IT HAPPEN. The driver cut the better light this time. I still got a driving job for Pomona.

Hirata Motorsports
Dave Hirata
9418 W.181st Avenue
P.O. Box 235
Lowell, IN 46356
219-696-8939