one run short....

just an update from my a/fuel experience monday after topeka.

i came into the test session needing 2 complete runs to finish up my tad license upgrade from sc. i had already made a half track pass in dallas, a 6.32/164.

the real reason for me getting to drive is to allow tim to see the car go down the track during testing. not just for me to get my license. so we went into the session with ALOT of different stuff in the fuel system and loaded for bear.

the first run out i stepped on the pedal to do the burnout and it did one of the blubbery no tire spin get the clutch hot deals instead of smoking the tires. i've seen gallant haul doing burnouts like that a number of times, so i wasnt really worried. i did get to do a burnout, just that it was on the launch, not where it was supposed to be. it went about 10 ft and lit em up. i caught it within about half a second but not after it got a head and bent a rod.

we changed heads and the rod, calmed it down a bit and went back at it for the next run. tim gave me instructions that if i felt it nosing over from dropped cylinders to click it off. not having made a full run before, i didn't know how obvious it was going to be. this time i got a good burnout, everything was good to go. mashed the loud pedal, she hooked and we were rockin. saw the half track cones go by and everything was going great, but i could start to tell it just wasn't pulling like it was anymore. that got worse, and i knew it probably was dropping holes, so per the boss' instructions i clicked it off about 800'.... which resulted in a 6.13/184. sure enough it had about 4 holes out by then.

while servicing the car for the final run, during the leak down, no. 8 was a dead player. this time it wasn't the head. we have a new set of olsen headers we bought from alan bradshaw this weekend, but didn't have header covers big enough for them. come to find out a peice of gravel got in the pipe and got into the exaust seat, thus not leaking down. so we slapped another head on and hopped it back up. we barely made the time limit on the test session, but the hpt crew worked with us and stayed an extra 15 min to let us make the run.

we got it up there and i did the burnout. i had had decent lights in my first two runs .093 and .084, and i was ready to rip the bottom of the tree out this run. the car made a pretty hard pop when i let off of it in the burnout. when i got back to the line, tim noticed it had pushed a head gasket out around no. 1 and shut me off. as bad as i would have liked to finish my license, it just wasn't meant to be for that day. tim's going to let me do the driving during testing this year, so i know i'll get my license and then some. i gotta thank tim for giving me a shot at driving and alan lane and geoff hollis who busted their ass all day sunday and monday to give me a hot rod to drive on monday. also thanks to del worsham for taking time out of his day on monday to sign off on my runs.

yeah, i've crossed over to the dark side. when you get a shot at driving, what are ya going to do? i just never knew the power....