..... No TNT for me today ... as the track announced that the registration window was open the sky just to the North West was black . The testers got about 35 minutes of track time before it started to sprinkle ... I might have signed up but it was $75 for TNT and this track does not give refunds .....

 

..... So far , so good ! ... the car stayed earth bound with the new shocks and ballast ... picked them up a couple of inches and for a short (3-4 feet) distance ... It is hard to tell how much ET the extra weight cost me because we were running into about 15-20mph headwinds all day ... the car did go 1.367 60' and 6.651 at the 1/8th but the air was terrible 2400' DA 58% humidity with over 100 grains of water ... the race is being live-streamed on SFG Promotions Facebook page ... my first round pass is at about 33:00 mark ... I didn't have time to look for others , had to get some shut-eye ... todays weather will interfere 100% chance of rain but it won't last long .....

 

Great pics of that vette and wheelies. Hope you get it figured out.

 

..... Saturday's race was cancelled due to the impending weather front approaching ... they didn't call it until around 8:30 am ... AFTER I drove an hour to the track ... the plan is to combine the purses from Sat & Sunday's races to make it 50K to win ... Friday's car count was about 260 ... Friday's high was in the 90's ... Sunday is starting out @ 39 with 60's projected for the high with gusting winds taking a toll on the "feels like" temps ... watch it live on Motor Mania TV .....

 

..... OK , Sunday's weather threw everyone for a loop trying to come up with a dial-in ... only new arrivals were allowed a time run ... the rest of us had to "wing" it ... the temperature for 1st round was about 30 degrees cooler than Friday ... 52 vs 86 , the wind was blowing about the same speed 15-20mph BUT it was a tailwind on Sunday vs headwind on Friday , and the DA was in negatives ... -553 vs +2438 on Friday ... I dialed a 6.52 and ran 6.476 , lucky for me , my opponent red lit ... 2nd round the temp was up to 68 and the DA was +658 ... I dialed 6.49 and ran a 6.52 but my Jack Roush sponsored Maverick opponent was a bit slower off the line and ran .003 under his dial to break out ... 3rd round weather was pretty close to 2nd round ... but it was my turn to go red ...
..... Through it all , I managed to keep the front wheels mostly on the ground , doing a short wheelie both in height and length ... the double adjustable shocks and ballast get all the credit .....

 

..... I'm going to try a slightly different approach on the ballast this weekend ... I have mounted a 35# battery in the fenderwell on the driver's side in front of the axle where the headlight and charcoal canister used to reside and removed the 65# "briefcase" ... I'm thinking that the double adjustable shocks and ballast battery (it is fully functional) will do the job of keeping the front end down ... We shall see ! .....

 

..... There is a double-header race in Immokkallee on Saturday ... its a 3hr drive and gates open at 8am ... Whew ! ... time runs start at 10 and they usually get 2 in before competition starts ... Bradenton (1hr drive) is hosting the NMCA race this weekend (3-17 thru 3-20) with an open bracket class on Sunday with 1 time run scheduled for 8:30am ... I'm seriously considering doing both but I'm not as resilient as I used to be when I wore a younger man's clothes .....

 

But it'll be a pretty good crowd for a Saturday, and the manager will give you a smile. He will know that it's you they are coming to view, to forget about life for a while.

 

Wow Robert. You're going to wear down that Chebby. Good luck.

 

Well ... as long as they put tips in my jar ! .....

 

..... Whew ! ... What a weekend ! ... The extra battery for ballast was more than enough to keep the front end near earth ... in fact , I'm sure that the double adjustable shocks alone would have been enough to calm down the wheelies , but the extra battery capacity came in handy to keep the radiator fan running in an effort to cool things down in the staging lanes in later rounds ...
..... Saturday at Immokkallee , I ran both races and got down to 7 cars in the 1st race and down to 4 in the 2nd race ... got my tech card money back ... I left Immokkallee around 10:30 and drove to Bradenton ... got there about 1am and talked my way through the gates ... it didn't hurt that I knew the guy that was pulling security duty ... found a decent parking place in the pits and attempted to get some shut-eye ... sleeping on a cot in my packed trailer ... by the time l laid down it was almost 2am ... about 6am my neighbor is packing up to head back to Chicago ... 7am I'm in line to get registered and then on to tech inspection ... 9:30 in the staging lanes for our only time run and l forget to arm the trans brake and roll right through the beams ... I didn't make a full pass until the 3rd round when I got the bye on a .003 in the 2nd ... 6pm .. made it down to 5 cars in the 5th and went .018 red and won $75 back on $100 tech money ... Overall it was a good weekend ... sunny and warm with a good breeze at 2 drag strips and l went rounds .....