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- Sep 24, 2010
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DATELINE: January 5th, 2013
There are 5 or 6 Turbo Buick guys heading out to SpeedWorld this fine morning and my son and I had decided the evening before that we would like to join in on the fun.
Nick Micale, RJ Reynolds and the other guys got out there pretty early for the ADRA series, but life happened to me and I didn’t arrive until early afternoon. Crap.
By the time I got there all but one Buick were already on, or minutes away from being on, the trailer. The only good part about it was Nick gave me his sweet pit spot after some Rice Rocket dude whined that I had parked and started to unload in what he called “their reserved area”. Nick even drove my car over to the spot while I moved my truck.
Oh, in the meantime, Rice Rocket whiner dude was sent packing minutes later because he lost in the first round of eliminations for his event. He was slammin’ and bangin’ things around, yelling at his wife and generally throwing a hissy fit like a little beeotch. I must have disturbed his “groove”. Serves him right.
So I say goodbye to all the guys and head for tech.
I’m only there for Test ‘n Tune and Jeff, the race director, says “So how fast you gonna go today?”
I asked “How fast CAN I go today, I hear the track is pretty good?”
Jeff ponders for a minute and says “Eleven Five…..I’ll give you Eleven Two cuz the track IS good, but that’s it.” I thanked him and went about getting set to make a pass.
I pull into the lanes and an ’89 Fox body Moostang is in line in front of me. He checks me out with a stare and we nod at each other but don’t talk, mostly because I’m talking with my son, not because it’s unfriendly or anything.
When it comes time to stage, what’d’ya’know…it’s me and the pony car lined up next to one another, me in the left, him on the right.
So off we go, he tree’d me but my 60’ was better than his and at the 1/8 mile mark I was 6.91 @ 100.49 to his 7.66 @ 88.27. It was done. I stayed in it until the 1000ft mark and then jumped on the brakes to kill my ET and MPH.
I went 11.23 @ 90MPH to his 12.12 @ 110.38.
WHEW! Kept her above 11.2...barely. I don’t have to go home after the first pass of the day, woo hoo!
We gave each other the thumbs up and pitted. A few minutes later the Mustang guy comes up and says “Hey that was fun.” and compliments my car. So we chatted for a few minutes about being held back because of not having a roll bar in our cars. He said he knew the pain because he wants to keep his car as a real street car, too.
He said he had a 351 with quite a bit of work done to it and a 200hp shot of NOS he was thinking about using on the last pass of the day. I told him to let me know when he was gonna go for it and I would run it out the back door, too. We could get asked to leave together, it doesn’t sting as much that way.
While I waited for the car to cool down a little, I ran up to the stands to talk with my son and his friend who had come along and also with a co-worker of mine who had come out to watch. We had a Coke and a smile and I went back down to get in line again.
Lo and Behold I end up next to the Mustang again, same lanes, same everything....or so I thought
This is only pass number 2 so my plan is to work on building a little more boost before I leave and try to improve my 60ft times for the rest of the day AND keeping it above 11.2.
The Mustang was taking a while to stage and when he finally did he tree’ d me again but this time he also had a better 60ft time. Then I heard his motor start to scream and I knew he had just hit the NOS button.
I thought “Well this sumbish wants to race” and I knew this would be the last pass of the day for me.
Let me explain something here. Me and my T weren’t about to put up with any of these shenanigans, and by the 330ft mark only a hundredth separated us and at the 1/8 I had caught his sneaky butt and was pulling on him.
At the 1000ft mark I could still hear him and feel he was close but he was out of my peripheral now so I smiled to myself and said goodbye to Sneaky Pete and that Trailer Park Ferrari he was peddling.
Oh, I almost forgot. All of this was done while I’m running through the mufflers, on street DR’s and 20lbs of boost.
You would think this was the end of the story, but it gets better…..
I pitted and waited for a minute for Jeff to come over and say “What did I tell you?” as he has so many times before but I didn’t see him or the Mustang anywhere so I went back to the stands to see my peeps.
As I’m basking in the sun and re-living this oh-so-fun little race with my compatriots, I see Jeff at the starting line, speaking to the Mustang driver with very animated gestures. Thinking the kid was getting ripped for pulling that stuff I went down to shake his hand, tell him it was a blast and take my share of the lumps for going too fast again.
I get down there, walk up behind Jeff and say to the guy ”Hey, that was a blast!”
He looks at me and says ”OH hell yeah it was!”
Now Jeff turns around……….and says……… “I can’t believe you got the win light, I thought this guy really had something for you!”
I just kind of stood there, confused and thinking WTH?
Jeff goes on to say “I really thought he had you and then you just went around him like it was nothing, damn, I thought we had something for you today!”
Maybe it was the blank stare that gave me up……. He starts laughing and says “I put him up to it and for a race that good I’ll turn a blind eye now and again!”
You probably couldn’t have slapped the grin that came across my face off with a thick rubber glove. I sheepishly asked “So, we can go again?”
Jeff, looking at the other guy said “Sure if you want to, ya wanna go, Hoopdie?”
Hoopdie just said “Naw, I’m done for today.” and shook my hand.
Jeff just smiled and winked at me.
I decided my day couldn’t get any better and lovingly put my baby on the trailer.
Yes, it was a very good day.
There are 5 or 6 Turbo Buick guys heading out to SpeedWorld this fine morning and my son and I had decided the evening before that we would like to join in on the fun.
Nick Micale, RJ Reynolds and the other guys got out there pretty early for the ADRA series, but life happened to me and I didn’t arrive until early afternoon. Crap.
By the time I got there all but one Buick were already on, or minutes away from being on, the trailer. The only good part about it was Nick gave me his sweet pit spot after some Rice Rocket dude whined that I had parked and started to unload in what he called “their reserved area”. Nick even drove my car over to the spot while I moved my truck.
Oh, in the meantime, Rice Rocket whiner dude was sent packing minutes later because he lost in the first round of eliminations for his event. He was slammin’ and bangin’ things around, yelling at his wife and generally throwing a hissy fit like a little beeotch. I must have disturbed his “groove”. Serves him right.
So I say goodbye to all the guys and head for tech.
I’m only there for Test ‘n Tune and Jeff, the race director, says “So how fast you gonna go today?”
I asked “How fast CAN I go today, I hear the track is pretty good?”
Jeff ponders for a minute and says “Eleven Five…..I’ll give you Eleven Two cuz the track IS good, but that’s it.” I thanked him and went about getting set to make a pass.
I pull into the lanes and an ’89 Fox body Moostang is in line in front of me. He checks me out with a stare and we nod at each other but don’t talk, mostly because I’m talking with my son, not because it’s unfriendly or anything.
When it comes time to stage, what’d’ya’know…it’s me and the pony car lined up next to one another, me in the left, him on the right.
So off we go, he tree’d me but my 60’ was better than his and at the 1/8 mile mark I was 6.91 @ 100.49 to his 7.66 @ 88.27. It was done. I stayed in it until the 1000ft mark and then jumped on the brakes to kill my ET and MPH.
I went 11.23 @ 90MPH to his 12.12 @ 110.38.
WHEW! Kept her above 11.2...barely. I don’t have to go home after the first pass of the day, woo hoo!
We gave each other the thumbs up and pitted. A few minutes later the Mustang guy comes up and says “Hey that was fun.” and compliments my car. So we chatted for a few minutes about being held back because of not having a roll bar in our cars. He said he knew the pain because he wants to keep his car as a real street car, too.
He said he had a 351 with quite a bit of work done to it and a 200hp shot of NOS he was thinking about using on the last pass of the day. I told him to let me know when he was gonna go for it and I would run it out the back door, too. We could get asked to leave together, it doesn’t sting as much that way.
While I waited for the car to cool down a little, I ran up to the stands to talk with my son and his friend who had come along and also with a co-worker of mine who had come out to watch. We had a Coke and a smile and I went back down to get in line again.
Lo and Behold I end up next to the Mustang again, same lanes, same everything....or so I thought
This is only pass number 2 so my plan is to work on building a little more boost before I leave and try to improve my 60ft times for the rest of the day AND keeping it above 11.2.
The Mustang was taking a while to stage and when he finally did he tree’ d me again but this time he also had a better 60ft time. Then I heard his motor start to scream and I knew he had just hit the NOS button.
I thought “Well this sumbish wants to race” and I knew this would be the last pass of the day for me.
Let me explain something here. Me and my T weren’t about to put up with any of these shenanigans, and by the 330ft mark only a hundredth separated us and at the 1/8 I had caught his sneaky butt and was pulling on him.
At the 1000ft mark I could still hear him and feel he was close but he was out of my peripheral now so I smiled to myself and said goodbye to Sneaky Pete and that Trailer Park Ferrari he was peddling.
Oh, I almost forgot. All of this was done while I’m running through the mufflers, on street DR’s and 20lbs of boost.
You would think this was the end of the story, but it gets better…..
I pitted and waited for a minute for Jeff to come over and say “What did I tell you?” as he has so many times before but I didn’t see him or the Mustang anywhere so I went back to the stands to see my peeps.
As I’m basking in the sun and re-living this oh-so-fun little race with my compatriots, I see Jeff at the starting line, speaking to the Mustang driver with very animated gestures. Thinking the kid was getting ripped for pulling that stuff I went down to shake his hand, tell him it was a blast and take my share of the lumps for going too fast again.
I get down there, walk up behind Jeff and say to the guy ”Hey, that was a blast!”
He looks at me and says ”OH hell yeah it was!”
Now Jeff turns around……….and says……… “I can’t believe you got the win light, I thought this guy really had something for you!”
I just kind of stood there, confused and thinking WTH?
Jeff goes on to say “I really thought he had you and then you just went around him like it was nothing, damn, I thought we had something for you today!”
Maybe it was the blank stare that gave me up……. He starts laughing and says “I put him up to it and for a race that good I’ll turn a blind eye now and again!”
You probably couldn’t have slapped the grin that came across my face off with a thick rubber glove. I sheepishly asked “So, we can go again?”
Jeff, looking at the other guy said “Sure if you want to, ya wanna go, Hoopdie?”
Hoopdie just said “Naw, I’m done for today.” and shook my hand.
Jeff just smiled and winked at me.
I decided my day couldn’t get any better and lovingly put my baby on the trailer.
Yes, it was a very good day.