Summit Series Finals at Las Vegas

[Alky V6]

I entered a Summit Series race earlier this year knowing that I would most likely be eliminated early on. The car, at the time, was far from being tuned to competition trim. The plan was to at least qualify for the Summit Series Finals that would be held in Las Vegas this year. As I was sure would happen, I was taken out in the first round, but was now eligible to participate with the rest of the Barona team in the finals. The car is still not tuned, but went to the finals this past weekend anyway, without the car, to help cheer the rest of the team on. On the last day of time trials, as I was sitting with everyone in the pits, the team leader mentioned that I was still signed up to race in the event, why not race the truck? We had brought the GMC to the event and was not planning on racing it. I replied, "I'm not racing the truck. Are you kidding?". He prodded me for a few more minutes and, after doing some thinking, I decided to go for it. There was only one more session for time trials for the Sportsman class. They had just called them to the staging lanes, so I had to rush getting stickers and numbers on the truck and going through tech. I didn't even need a helmet. The tech looked over the truck real quick and waved me on. I think he just wanted to make sure I didn't have a bottle mounted somewhere.

The time trial run netted a 17.002 and a R/T of .253 so I dialed in with a 17.0.

The first elimination run netted me a 17.002. R/T was a dismall .317. Luckily, the other car redlighted.

The air was getting better so I changed my dial in to 16.98 for the second run. It produced a 17.109 after letting off the pedal. We had both redlighted, but luckily the other car, which had a dial in of 18.08 redlighted first, giving me the win. The other car fouled by .006. I fouled by .088 . Still searching the tree for the best reaction time with the truck.

I stayed with the 16.98 dial in for the third match up. This next line up was a little different than the first two. I noticed an early Ranchero truck in the tech area and one of the track officials, responsible for pairing and assigning lanes, walking over to my truck and I from where the Ranchero was. The official told me that I would be taking the left lane this time. In the previous runs, I had taken the right lane. You have to understand how they assigned lanes to realize that this situation smelled funny. When you come to the front of the staging lanes, one of the officials looks at you and signals for an indication from the driver as to which lane the driver prefers. I would signal right and if the other driver that the official randomly paired me with wanted the same lane, he would get the coin out and signal one of us to pick heads or tails. The winner of the toss got his lane pick. As you can see, when the official came to my window and told me what lane I would be in for the next pairing, I had to ask, "Why's that?" The official who was obviously not prepared to give me a logical answer started to ramble some crip that didn't make any sense to me. In my head, I realized I was being setup for an easy kill for a favored racer and I just said, "Ok, what ever." Heck, I didn't even expect to make it as far as I did. I was racing a truck that I had never raced before. I was still hunting the tree for the best R/T with this pig, and I figured I was exactly what everyone in the lanes was thinking. An easy kill. What made things worse was the fact that my team leader was announcing when I made my previous run and was telling everyone that had an ear to the loud speaker the story of how he had to talk me into running the truck and the fact that it was the first time running the truck and I had gotten in only one time trial run. Good grief!:frown: The results are below.

My R/T: .036. His R/T: .067. My ET: 17.02 on a 16.98. His ET: 14.007 on a 13.97 dial in.

I won! Wow!

I found out at the end of the event that I had taken out the track champion that was expected to win the Sportsman class that night. Woops. Sorry. I guess the dark horse took him down.

The fourth pairing was against another truck that was all stickered up as a diesel racing specialist. I changed my dial in to 17.0. Results below.

My R/T: .057. His R/T: .083. My ET: 16.991. His ET: 14.291 on a 14.31 dial in. Won by the skin of my a s again. It was turning out to be an absolutely amazing night.

I'll be back with the rest of the story. Dinner's on the table.

 

[nordy racer]

nice, congrats.. the best time racing sometimes, is NOT while your in a GN.. congrads again..

 

[Alky V6]

Thanks Nordy. You're right about that. What makes it even better is when you're the proclaimed underdog.

After a starting field of over 200 cars in the Sportsman class, we were now down to somewhere around 13. You should have seen the looks I was getting from the other racers as I pulled into the staging lanes. Who is this guy? I found out later that I had made it into the money round. Cool. Somebody pinch me. I've got to be dreaming.

I was paired with an SUV. A trailblazer or something. I went back to the 16.98 dial in. Lane picking was now back to normal after the run with the track champ. I knew that I was down to the cream of the crop. I had to cut a good light. The truck was proving to be pretty consistant, so I didn't worry about that part of the mix too much. The best reaction point was turning out to be a fraction after the second amber would light up. A hard one to get just right. The results below.

My R/T: -.003. His R/T: -.007. My ET: 17.041. His ET: 16.526 on a 16.45 dial in. Arrrg! So close to another upset victory. Oh well. It was time to wake up. It was a good showing anyway.

Our team started out with 54 cars out of an allowed 64 plus 4 high school entries. After the first round of eliminations for all classes, we lost 30. POW! Most do to redlights. More redlight starts followed throughout the rounds. Our team was devastated. It turns out the Vegas track has one of the shortest rollouts of all NHRA tracks while Barona has one of the longest. By the time I was in the staging lanes for my fifth and last round, I was the last man standing for my team.

 

[Silver 'T' Top]

DW, that ranchero, was it blue and silver in color?

 

[Alky V6]

I recall silver or a primer grey for sure. I'm not sure about the blue. We both gave each other a thumbs up before the round.

 

[cruzn57]

Way to go Donnie !!!!!!!!

i guess its in the blood, good showing, heck racing is racing, fast or not so fast! LOL
so are you gonna put away the buick? and race the truck ( hmmm isn't there a commercial about someone racing the truck??)

its all fun !!!!!!

 

[Alky V6]

I have to admit, it was a blast racing the truck. Listening to the track announcer on the radio as you're cruising down the track, electric windows again, simple seat belt, no helmet, setting the big towing mirrors so you get the best view of your competitor as he's gaining on you. No traction worries. Set the truck to 4X4 for the start and then switch to 2WD on the fly after the 60 ft. mark. I could easily get used to it.

But then, there is the show factor. It would have been cool if I could have taken the Buick for the weekend. There was only one other Buick Regal there. A 1984 with a big V8 in it, all tubbed out, naturally aspirated. Not one Turbo V6 Buick. What a shame. Next year, guaranteed, there will be at least one in the Barona camp.

The whole weekend was a blast. Racing or not. The band and parties in the pits. Way cool. You all should plan on qualifying next year so you can participate.