After a long and tiring week in Las Vegas, we ended up in a pretty good spot for the 2012 year. The week started out with something totally different than anything I had ever done before. I had the pleasure of attending the Frank Hawley Drag racing school at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway the week previous to the race, and learned a great deal not just about drag racing, but about life in general. Although I never got to drive the race cars, I was able to hear and see everything that Frank teaches his students about the physical and mental aspects of driving a car. Because of this class, Richard and I were able to keep relatively calm and level headed during Sunday’s races.
The morning started with a couple of time trials in our two bracket classes, followed by my performance of the national anthem. After that was over, we had to focus solely on the upcoming round of eliminations. After several successful rounds and win lights, we were paired with fellow racer and Las Vegas teammate, Scott Parsons for the Semi final round. At this point, all three racers left in the competition, Kevin Houmard, Scott Parsons and me, were tied for the championship, which meant that whoever won the race was claiming the 2012 championship title. Parsons and I had a great race, and the win lights came on my side of the track and the end of the race. But after I received the time slip, it was easy to see something had gone wrong with the lights. Parson’s mile per hour at the stripe was apparently 210 mph, and only going 11 seconds made that quite unlikely. So the officials declared a rerun, and we were paired in the Semi final for the second time. After yet another close race, my win lights came on at the stripe, and I was going to the final round! I had to race Kevin Houmard in the final round in the April PSCA race, so it was the second time we faced each other in the final race in the Street Muscle class.
Because the eliminations were only 10 minutes apart, we did not have time to go over as much data and information about the runs as we would have liked. At the launch, I knew I had a good reaction time, and I assumed his was good also. It was very close at the top end, and we both ran it all the way out until the top end. Unfortunately our dial was a bit slow, as we broke out by 7 hundredths to his one hundredth break out. My .018 light to his .014 light made it a close race all the way until the finish line. It was an incredible race to top off an incredible day. We went home with a new trophy in our hands, and the satisfaction of knowing that in our second season of racing, we are the runners up in the 2012 Pacific Street Car Association’s Street Muscle Championship!
I’d like to give a huge thanks to my crew chief, Richard Kratz who gave me dials that got us through 7 rounds of racing. It was a difficult car to dial this weekend, but he did everything to make it work all the way until the final round. I am also very thankful to all my sponsors, including Elwin Luzon from Mickey Thompson Tires, who gave us great advice on our 60’s and getting better traction with our drag radials. Also LAT oil, whose transmission fluid and oil were rock solid in consistency all weekend, no matter the temperatures. Of course I want to recognize Mike and Joe and Westminster Performance Transmission, as well as Magnuson Superchargers, The DriveShaft Shop, Diablo Sport, and Hedman Hedders for their awesome exhaust Hedders that got us an extra 30 horsepower!
Our next stop is the Full Throttle race in Las Vegas at the end of October, followed by the SEMA show. As far as racing goes, there are no more points races for the season, but we will be racing in the Bracket-1 class at the Street Car Super Nationals race in November.
Check back for more updates and news!
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